With Linda Dennis
Park Place Market, 2010
It certainly is obvious that users of Facebook are searching
for entertainment, not enlightenment.
Recently I posted a short essay to my blog ("Fun Facts about Biology") in
which I suggested that I planned to accumulate a list of articles that are
interesting from a scientific viewpoint
but lacked “specificity” regarding ovarian cancer and hence did not
merit a blog of their own. Almost
immediately upon reposting to Facebook it accumulated 60 hits – and the number
continues to rise. Certainly the word
“Fun” did the trick. I may post
something of the order of “Fun
observations of our dismal, expensive, tragic failure to cure cancer of the
earlobe” and see if the Fun phenomenon reasserts itself.
On a more serious note, it appears that the Moonshot people
are making progress. A central
repository for genomic data is coming into existence at the University of
Chicago. A vast and expensive array of
computers will receive, categorize, organize – and share – DNA data bases from
around the world. This should allow quick
and efficient access to vital data for researchers everywhere.
As noted recently, there is some discouragement about the
practical value of cancer genomes and associated mutations:
However, more knowledge must surely help, at least a bit.
Here is the link: http://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/genomic-data-commons-launch?cid=eb_govdel
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