03 March 2008

Really Googling the Genome

When I wrote a piece for the Guardian four years ago called "Googling the Genome", it was more of a metaphor than a specific warning about Google rummaging through your DNA. But it's a metaphor no more:

A Harvard University scientist backed by Google Inc. and OrbiMed Advisors LLC plans to unlock the secrets of common diseases by decoding the DNA of 100,000 people in the world's biggest gene sequencing project.

The *first* 100,000 people, I think they mean....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Glyn, enjoyed your original Googling the Genome article back in 2004. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute borrowed the phrase for a press release back in 2006, but then backtracked with the title, see Searching among the Sequences. Lincoln Stein calls it Genome Voyeurism, which sums it up nicely!

Glyn Moody said...

Thanks for the information - and apologies for the delay in post: Google is eating most comments as spam...