Health NewsNational Geographic’s Genographic Project
My usual habit when I get the National Geographic magazine is to flip through and look at all the pictures. Then I go back and read the letters where I find out what I should have read two months ago. Not this month however! As I was flipping through the pages of the September 2009 issue, I came across the “Big Idea”. And the big idea was a quick look at their Genographic Project. I anxiously read the article immediately. My mind raced back to memories of one of my favourite books based on the work of Bryan Sykes at Oxford Ancestors which I blogged in an earlier posting. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts is a book about the peopling of Britain which compares written and anecdotal history with markers found on the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA. On a much larger scale, the National Geographic Society has been looking at similar DNA markers and “retracing the ancient history of human migrations” since humans moved out of Africa around 200,000 years ago. You can learn a great deal more about National Geographic’s Genographic Project on their website. I can see where I will be spending some time reading in the near future.
Sharing Ourselves One: Gene at a Time
'The time has come' , the Walrus said,
'To speak of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings'
A 21st century Walrus might add as he talked to the oysters:
'And why our genes may work or not,
Or why our hair is red
Will our kith and kin stay well
Or is it better left unsaid'
Journalists work hard to get people to to tell their stories and for much of my career I found the ways and mean to pass on those stories. Now that I work in the PR field I find myself once again telling stories. This time ones about the drivers and people behind the genomics revolution.
Not that many years ago there were relatively few media outlets to get stories and news to people. Now with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other similar tools, people can share by simply spending a few minutes at a keyboard.
But it still amazes me how people will speak of so many things.
Next Up - Navigenics
It was almost a perfect genetic testing storm.
- Approval of an article I co-authored with Dr. Shane Green (Ontario Genomics Institute) for the American Medical Association online Journal of Ethics, the Virtual Mentor
- A media release about a a new collaboration between Medcan and Navigenics.
- A note forwarded to me to add a genetic counsellor to the mailing list for our GE3LS Digest.
My old journalistic senses saw an opportunity in there and today I found myself in the MedCan clinic in Toronto talking to genetic counsellor Jill Davies.
Science and Culture: from a Chautauqua to Metagenomics
This summer, I have had the opportunity to introduce the speakers at a series of modern Chautauquas put on by the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. These events are part of the “100 years of Discovery” celebrating the finding of the world’s most important animal fossils by George Doolittle Walcott in 1909. I was intrigued by this opportunity as I remembered the term Chautauqua from watching a show on TV many years ago called Chautauqua Girl. I have since learned that a Chautauqua is an informal education gathering of people and an exchange of ideas. A Chautauqua is considered an inspirational gathering for lifelong learning.
Copyright and the Mountain Pine beetle
As I read the newspaper today, I was reminded by a couple of stories that Genome Alberta provides a variety of items for the classroom. We have power point presentations and blogs, and we have genetic data available for teachers and students for core and enhanced biology curriculum.