Word: biologists
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...anyone has benefitted from the Valdez, Alaska oil spill it has to be Procter & Gamble. Faced with the problem of cleaning oil-smeared wild-life, Dr. Randall W. Davis, a biologist on the scene there prefers the dishwashing liquid, Dawn. He told the New York Times: "Dawn is chemically quite sophisticated. We went over its composition with chemists at Procter & Gamble and concluded that Dawn had just the mix of properties we needed...
...solution is automation. "It will improve accuracy," says Stanford's Paul Berg. "It will remove boredom; it will accomplish what we want in the end." The drive for automation has already begun; a machine designed by Caltech biologist Leroy Hood can now sequence 16,000 base pairs a day. But Hood, a member of the Genome Advisory Committee, is hardly satisfied. "Before we can seriously take on the genome initiative," he says, "we will want to do 100,000 to a million a day." The cost, he hopes, will eventually drop to a penny per base pair...
Even before the Human Genome Project was begun by the NIH, others were deeply involved in probing the genome. Building on a long-standing program of research on DNA damage caused by radiation, biologist Charles DeLisi in 1987 persuaded the Energy Department to launch its own genome program. In addition to the sequencer and computer-hardware engineering projects, Energy Department scientists are focusing their attention on mapping seven complete chromosomes...
...their new environment, and they worry about unforeseen consequences if the gene is inserted in the wrong place in a chromosome. Should the gene be slipped into the middle of another vital gene, for example, it might disrupt the functioning of that gene, with disastrous consequences. Also, says M.I.T. biologist Richard Mulligan, there are limitations to the viral insertion of genes. "Most genes," he explains, "are too big to fit into a retrovirus...
...speak in terms of eliminating genetic defects is to tread on slippery scientific and ethical ground. As any biologist will testify, genetic variety is the spice of life, a necessary ingredient to the survival of a species. Genes that are detrimental under certain conditions may turn out to have hidden benefits. Sickle-cell anemia, for example, is a debilitating blood disease suffered by people of African descent who have two copies of an abnormal gene. A person who has only one copy of the gene, however, will not be stricken with anemia and will in fact have an unusual resistance...