Word: successful
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...genetic gibberish, STRs yield remarkably accurate results. If three of the ministrands match a suspect's, the likelihood is 2,000 to 1 that police have the right person. Nine matches boost the odds to 1 billion to 1. FBI sampling rules require no fewer than 13 matches. "Its success as a crime-fighting tool is incredible," says Christopher Asplen, director of a national DNA-study commission...
...problem for Bereano and other detractors is that DNA technology works. In England as many as 500 matches are made a week between database entries and samples taken from crime scenes. When mass sweeps are conducted, the police claim a 70% success rate in cracking the crime they're investigating. In the U.S., where the months-old national database has barely got on its feet, the FBI claims that 200 outstanding cases have already been solved. What's more, on occasion, DNA sampling benefits not only the people investigating crimes but also the people convicted of them. Since...
...happens, Y chromosomes have slightly less DNA than Xs. So by staining the sperm's DNA with a nontoxic light-sensitive dye, the Virginia scientists were able to sort sperm by gender--with a high rate of success--before using them in artificial insemination. The first couple to use the technique was looking to escape a deadly disease known as X-linked hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, which almost always affects boys...
...interests. But because personality is only partly the result of genetic inheritance, conflict would be sure to arise if the cloned child failed to develop the same interests as the original. What if the copy of Einstein shows no interest in science? Or the football player turns to acting? Success also depends upon fortune. What of the child who does not live up to the hopes and dreams of the parent simply because of bad luck...
Finding a likely target, of course, doesn't guarantee success. Consider colon cancer: scientists believe at least three things have to go wrong for colon cancers to form. They liken the situation to a car accident. One of the genes that tells cells to divide (the accelerator) must get stuck in the "on" position. Another gene that tells cells to slow down (the brake) must be disabled. And the molecules that fix any mistakes in the DNA code (the repair crew) have to go on strike. In half of all colon cancers, the accelerator is a gene called ras, which...