100,000 Californians To Be Gene Sequenced

eldavojohn writes "A hundred thousand elderly Californians (average age 65) will be gene sequenced by the state using samples of their saliva. This will be the first time such a large group has had their genes sequenced, and it is hoped to be a goldmine for genetic maladies — from cardiovascular diseases to diabetes to even the diseases associated with aging. Kaiser Permanente patients will be involved, and they are aiming to have half a million samples ready by 2013. Let's hope that they got permission from the patients' doctors first."

Comments

Re:The Good, the Bad, the Ugly...

[icebrain]

I don't propose that we put and end to reproduction in an effort to reduce populations to hunter-gatherer levels... but I would like to see a culture of reproductive responsibility encouraged. I did my part, my wife and I stopped after 2 children so we conformed to a zero population growth ideal. I wish everyone could share these ideals.

Or, we could actually make a serious effort to expand beyond earth and allow the species to grow, instead of huddling down here and making an evolutionary dead end due to a self-imposed limit, a decidedly anti-Darwinian desire to limit or even harm ourselves from fear that we might get too dominant, or a collective agoraphobia. Get out and expand into the universe like any other living species would do. Make something of our existence. Doing otherwise is just succumbing to the same old riduculous superstitious notions that gave us the stories of Babel and Prometheus.

*Note: This is expressly not a "just trash earth and just find somewhere else to live" proposal. The idea is to go somewhere else and expand precisely so you don't have to trash earth. Rather than cram everyone into one basket with a large impact, spread out to many baskets (thereby making a smaller impact on each).