Bleached Genes

By The Editors and Utne Reader
Published on November 27, 2007

The monumental work of the Human Genome Project, a 10-year struggle to identify and map all 50,000 to 100,000 human genes, detail the chemical sequencing of our DNA, and file all the information in gigantic databases, is finally winding up. But, oops! It seems researchers have been using primarily “North Atlantic European” genes to establish the human genetic norm, says biological anthropologist Fatimah Jackson in New Age (Jan./Feb. 2000). It’s an approach that “significantly limits our genetic ‘tool kit,'” she says. Unless, of course, you’re a North Atlantic European.

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