Posts Tagged ‘science book’

A story of genomic proportion

 :: Posted by avi_wener on 11-29-2010

Earlier this month, Harper Collins published a book by Misha Angrist titled “Here is a Human Being” which is described on the publisher’s website as:

The first in-depth look at personal genomics: its larger-than-life research subjects; its entrepreneurs and do-it-yourselfers; its technology developers; the bewildered and overwhelmed physicians and regulators who must negotiate it; and what it means to be a “public genome” in a world where privacy is already under siege.

Misha’s story is quite interesting. According to his biography, Misha has a PhD in genomics from Case Western University and currently is on faculty at Duke University. In 2009 Misha became the fourth person to have his entire genome sequenced in George Church’s lab at Harvard.

Misha blogs under the moniker genomeboy on PLoS Blogs.

Below is a Hollywood style trailer for “Here is a Human Being.” As an aside, I found it interesting that the narrator mentions that there may be good reasons to be scared of genetics just as a picture of a woman cutting bands from an agarose gel appears on the screen. I can’t imagine anything scarier! Can you?