genomics
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What Made The Y Chromosome So Tiny?
The Y chromosome, a chunk of genetic code that is unique to male animals, isn’t just physically smaller than the X. It also contains far fewer genes. The X has more than 1000 genes, while the Y has fewer than 200 — and most of them don’t even work. Why do men have this odd,…
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23andMe Wants To Make Drugs — Here’s What That Could Mean In 10 Years
23andMe made a name for itself selling DNA test kits, but today it announced a radical new direction: The company will start mining its huge database of DNA sequences to create new drugs. The science of how they could do that is fascinating — but it raises a lot of futuristic ethical questions too.
