Back in the 1970s, an unknown writer said that most of the people who had ever lived were alive then [1]. The idea persists, even though it’s not true. From what I can find, estimates of the number of people ever born range from 50 to 120 billion, with 6 billion now living. The number…
Genome Quilts
Turn your DNA sequence into a quilt pattern? I was skeptical, but now I get it. Beverly St. Clair at Genome Quilts had the idea of turning the repeating bases in a DNA molecule into a quilt pattern. She created four different quilt blocks, representing adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). By…
Personal Genetics
The big news in the genetic world this month is personal genomic testing. With an infusion of cash from Google, a Silicon Valley company, 23andMe, has launched a genetic testing service. Customers pay $999 and give a DNA sample in the form of saliva. The company genotypes 580,000 SNPs across the 46 human chromosomes. After…
Genetic Strand: Exploring a Family History through DNA
In the Victorian era it was common to save a lock of hair when someone died. Edward Ball, author of Slaves in the Family, inherited an old desk, in which he found a cache of those locks. Genetic testing helped confirm that the family has a mixed race heritage. His new book tells the story…
County Seals
Do a Google image search on “county seals” and you’ll see that they (and state seals) are usually poorly designed. I would venture to guess that most were thrown together over lunch by some of the folks in the back office. Every now and then one stands out, either because it uses legitimate heraldry or…