Although the applications for biological warfare are currently America's most pressing genetics-related national security concern, the broader set of genetic challenges are clearly not far behind.
By Malcolm Gladwell Élite sports is a contest among athletes with an uneven set of genetic endowments and natural advantages.
After one week a human embryo consists of 128 cells, each with its own set of genetic material.
The pattern reflects the fact that once humans dispersed from Africa, the populations on each continent started breeding in isolation and developing their own set of genetic variations.
The scientists surveyed genetic markers in more than 35,000 people in Europe, Canada and the United States, zeroing in on the same set of genetic differences.
Just days earlier, two rival scientific teams had unveiled their first interpretations of the human genome, the set of genetic instructions that specify how humans are made.
Genomics, study of the structure, function, and inheritance of the genome (entire set of genetic material) of an organism.
This does not mean that the set of genetic information varies among the cells of the body.
As a comprehensive review in Nature put it: "The functional lifespan of human ovaries is determined by a complex and yet largely unidentified set of genetic, hormonal and environmental factors".
Under the conservancy's definition, turkeys can be called heritage only if they show a specific set of genetic traits, which include natural mating, a long lifespan and slow growth rates.
What we are watching when we watch élite sports, then, is a contest among wildly disparate groups of people, who approach the starting line with an uneven set of genetic endowments and natural advantages.
