Monkey love
Daniel MacArthur remains at the top of his game, whether the occasion is blogging mommies or April Fool’s Day:
During a four hour-long monologue that was often rambling and at times completely incoherent, pausing only for breath and to wipe the froth from around his mouth, Murphy described a complex 457-point takeover strategy involving regulatory and legal challenges, accusations of eugenics, the construction of an online social network based on knitting to compete with 23andMe’s Pregnancy Community, boycotting of the company by all doctors over the age of 35 and, “if absolutely necessary,” the physical storming of 23andMe’s Mountain View compound by hired Somali pirates.
Genetics and biotech industry experts expressed skepticism about the feasibility of Murphy’s plan. “Somali pirates are notoriously fierce,” acknowledged Duke University’s Misha Angrist, ”but the 23andMe compound is well-defended by a series of Google-designed bulletproof robotic monkeys. If it actually came to gunplay I’d back the monkeys any day.”
Wow. He even got my syntax right. Scary.
I work as an Assistant Professor in the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (although this site and its content are my own).
In 2007 I became the fourth subject in Harvard geneticist George Church's Personal Genome Project. As the PGP moves forward, I am chronicling the dawn of personal genomics, that is, people obtaining their genomic information for whatever reason(s) and figuring out what to do with it. I am interested in the relevant technologies and especially the attendant privacy and other ethical/legal/social issues.
This blog may also discuss some of my non-genome interests or, to paraphrase Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music, etc etc."
The header image comes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's multimedia performance piece, "Ferocious Beauty: Genome."