{"id":426,"date":"2014-04-25T14:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=426"},"modified":"2014-04-25T14:34:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T14:34:21","slug":"426","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Day Hype"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Happy DNA Day everyone. On this date in 1953, <em>Nature<\/em> published four articles on the structure of DNA, including the 800-word, data-free masterpiece by Watson and Crick\u2014but also the work of Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, and Maurice Wilkins that did actually have data, and without which the first Watson and Crick paper would have been handwaving fluff. The Watson-Crick paper is a rightful classic of the scientific literature, but it\u2019s too easy to forget those who provided the evidence to back them up.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 890px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\" alt=\"MRC Biophysics Unit from PaulingBlog.\" width=\"900\" height=\"475\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The MRC Biophysics Unit in 1951, from Paulingblog. Wilkins is scrunched up at the far left. Gosling is on his feet straining his lower back at the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To celebrate, the genetic testing company 23andMe posted a <a href=\"http:\/\/visual.ly\/what-can-you-learn-your-dna\">DNA Day infographic <\/a>that is a marvelous inadvertent evidence of genetic oversell. That\u2019s the best kind, because it unself-consciously undermines its own claims.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-N5tO6Lg4UFk\/UVGeetqM9HI\/AAAAAAAAAFQ\/oWi-quI2A90\/s1600\/rosalind-franklin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-N5tO6Lg4UFk\/UVGeetqM9HI\/AAAAAAAAAFQ\/oWi-quI2A90\/s1600\/rosalind-franklin.jpg\" alt=\"Rosalind Franklin\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unusual image of Franklin at the microscope, and the familiar portrait, from fantagabriele.blogspot.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>These claims are about health. Last year, the company was ordered to stop marketing their genomic testing service as a health service and it agreed to stop selling it altogether. It would henceforth focus on the genealogy side of their service. They are evidently sneaking back in, though, with ads\u2014sorry, \u201cinfographics\u201d; so much more documentary-like than \u201cadvertisements\u201d\u2014 like this one.<\/p>\n<p>Ninety-one percent of Americans, it trumpets in giant type at the top of the ad, \u201ccorrectly believe that knowing their genetic information can be helpful in managing their health.\u201d On one level, Well, duh. Everyone knows that some diseases run in families: you don\u2019t have to have a high level of genetic literacy to be aware that knowing whether your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and aunts have had breast cancer is a pretty useful little medical tidbit. The statement is worded so vaguely as to be meaningless. The remaining nine percent probably <em>have <\/em>some strongly hereditary learning disability that keeps them from correctly knowing how to feed themselves.<\/p>\n<p>On a second level, though, I\u2019d like to know what percentage of Americans <em>incorrectly<\/em> believe that knowing their genetic information can be helpful in managing their health. What percentage, for example, think that having one of the BRCA risk-factor alleles means they are <em>going<\/em> to get breast cancer unless they have a mastectomy? What percentage believe that a 300% increase in risk for an extremely rare disease\u2014from one in 3 million, say, to one in a million\u2014is cause for alarm? What percentage think that the association of a single nucleotide polymorphism with a genetic disease means that biomedicine has the cause\u2014let alone a cure\u2014for that disease? What percentage of Americans, in short, have no understanding of probability, pleiotropy, penetrance, or gene\u2013environment interaction, and yet read ads from companies such as 23andMe and think, \u201cYee-haw! I can learn what diseases I\u2019m going to get, and which ones not, just by spitting in a cup!\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 559px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_DZH2cmCoois\/RqUnb0V8Q9I\/AAAAAAAACng\/edUIyxHyKqE\/s1600\/Watson_Crick_in_office.jpg\" alt=\"Watson and Crick\" width=\"569\" height=\"441\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dynamic duo. From The Sandwalk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The infomercial continues downward, with more statistics: smaller numbers in smaller type. Thirty-one percent know that genetic testing can \u201cshow their body\u2019s ability\u201d to metabolize caffeine, etc. At the bottom, though, the numbers get large again. \u201cPeople still need a refresher on the basics of genetics,\u201d they say. Forty-nine percent of women \u201cbelieve their sex chromosome is XY.\u201d Their sex chromosome is XY? What percentage of genetic testing companies employ staffers who can write simply and accurately about genetics? Another statistic: forty-one percent don\u2019t realize DNA is organized into chromosomes.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in tiny print at the very bottom, they tell us that the survey was conducted on 1000 \u201cnationally representative Americans\u201d by an \u201cindependent research firm, Kelton.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/keltonglobal.com\/#methods\">Kelton Global is a <em>marketing<\/em> firm<\/a> that specializes in repositioning companies that have lost market share or want to break into new markets. Their motto is \u201chelping brands navigate change.\u201d They take surveys, track metrics, re-brand companies, and so forth. Their niche is using numbers to persuade and making statistics say what their clients want them to say.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s make a few postulates for the sake of argument. Let\u2019s say that this is a real sample, designed seriously by people who understand statistics. Let\u2019s say the questions were worded better than this and that those questioned understood what they were being asked. Let\u2019s assume the ad was just badly written. It may be that these are totally unjustified, but we\u2019ll give them the benefit of the doubt for just a moment.<\/p>\n<p>If their numbers are in fact meaningful, what they show is that people are buying the hype about genetic testing without understanding it. How happy should we be that people who don\u2019t know what a chromosome is nevertheless believe that genetic testing can tell them about their health? We\u2019re not talking about informed decision making about subtle and complex data; we\u2019re talking drinking the Kool-Aid. What this ad says, most of all, is that even though officially 23andMe is out of the health-claim game, they are still very interested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy DNA Day everyone. On this date in 1953, Nature published four articles on the structure of DNA, including the 800-word, data-free masterpiece by Watson and Crick\u2014but also the work of Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, and Maurice Wilkins that did actually have data, and without which the first Watson and Crick paper would have been &#8230; <a title=\"DNA Day Hype\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about DNA Day Hype\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[343,315,20,39,373],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-23andme","tag-calling-bullshit","tag-dna","tag-genetic-diagnosis","tag-it-has-not-escaped-our-notice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DNA Day Hype - Genotopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA Day Hype\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy DNA Day everyone. On this date in 1953, Nature published four articles on the structure of DNA, including the 800-word, data-free masterpiece by Watson and Crick\u2014but also the work of Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, and Maurice Wilkins that did actually have data, and without which the first Watson and Crick paper would have been ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Genotopia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\"},\"headline\":\"DNA Day Hype\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":860,\"commentCount\":6,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"23andMe\",\"calling bullshit\",\"DNA\",\"genetic diagnosis\",\"It has not escaped our notice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/\",\"name\":\"DNA Day Hype - Genotopia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\\\/2009\\\/04\\\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/426\\\/426\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DNA Day Hype\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/\",\"name\":\"Genotopia\",\"description\":\"Here Lies Truth\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\",\"name\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\"},\"description\":\"Nathaniel Comfort is a professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/author\\\/genotopia\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DNA Day Hype - Genotopia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DNA Day Hype","og_description":"Happy DNA Day everyone. On this date in 1953, Nature published four articles on the structure of DNA, including the 800-word, data-free masterpiece by Watson and Crick\u2014but also the work of Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, and Maurice Wilkins that did actually have data, and without which the first Watson and Crick paper would have been ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/","og_site_name":"Genotopia","article_published_time":"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Nathaniel Comfort","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nathaniel Comfort","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/"},"author":{"name":"Nathaniel Comfort","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/#\/schema\/person\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41"},"headline":"DNA Day Hype","datePublished":"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/"},"wordCount":860,"commentCount":6,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg","keywords":["23andMe","calling bullshit","DNA","genetic diagnosis","It has not escaped our notice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2014","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/","url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/","name":"DNA Day Hype - Genotopia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-25T14:30:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-25T14:34:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/#\/schema\/person\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/paulingblog.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/portrait-mrc-900w.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/426\/426\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DNA Day Hype"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/","name":"Genotopia","description":"Here Lies Truth","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/#\/schema\/person\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41","name":"Nathaniel Comfort","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nathaniel Comfort"},"description":"Nathaniel Comfort is a professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.","sameAs":["http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com"],"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/author\/genotopia\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sgtNP1-426","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}