DNA Nation

DNA Nation PDF

Author: Sergio Pistoi

Publisher: Crux Publishing Ltd

Published: 2019-10-20

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1909979899

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"An indispensable resource for understanding the complex world of over-the-counter genetic testing ... the impressive book explores territory that is both easy to understand and enlightening." --Kirkus Review "Highly important, life-changing and delightfully written...[Pistoi] is pulling the rug out from under many of our preconceptions...with continuous wit and humor. A book which indeed demands to be savored." --Paul Levinson, author of The Silk Code and The Plot to Save Socrates “DNA Nation is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, guide to the brave new world of consumer genetic testing. A must for anyone intrigued by ancestry, health, and the grand variety of humankind”. --Ricki Lewis, author of Human Genetics and The Forever Fix “An enjoyable foray into the medical, legal and ethical aspects of the ongoing genetic revolution…a fun and important read guided by one of the nation's most gifted science writers.” --Jacob M. Appel, author of Who Says You're Dead Millions of people have done it: with a few clicks and some spit, and at less than the cost of a fancy dinner, you can buy a reading of your DNA online. With this in hand, you can find out where you came from, trace relatives around the world and find new friends on a genetic social network. You can learn about your predisposition to disease, get a genetically tailored diet, understand the sports to which you or your children might be more suited, and even find a date. It’s the dawn of consumer genomics, where the progress of biology meets the power of the Internet and big data. But do these applications work? Can we really prevent diseases based on what we read in our DNA? What do scientists say? And do we really understand the implications? What happens if things go wrong and the data is misused or the trust abused? Sergio Pistoi, a journalist and a DNA scientist, investigated this brave new world first-hand by interrogating his own genes, and has provided a practical, informative and thought-provoking survival guide to home genetic testing. From medicine to food, from social networking to genealogy and advertising, this book will show you how the DNA revolution is beginning to have such a profound impact on our daily lives and privacy and why it will influence the choices we make. If you are interested in how social media meets cutting-edge science, and what it means for your life, or if you are considering buying a DNA test, then this is the book for you.

DNA

DNA PDF

Author: Linda L. McCabe

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2008-03-04

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0520933931

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The genetic revolution has provided incredibly valuable information about our DNA, information that can be used to benefit and inform—but also to judge, discriminate, and abuse. An essential reference for living in today's world, this book gives the background information critical to understanding how genetics is now affecting our everyday lives. Written in clear, lively language, it gives a comprehensive view of exciting recent discoveries and explores the ethical, legal, and social issues that have arisen with each new development.

DNA Nation

DNA Nation PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Who are we? And where do we come from? Australia's greatest Olympian Ian Thorpe, iconic Indigenous actor Ernie Dingo, and TV presenter and Queen of Eurovision Julia Zemiro set off on an epic journey of genetic time travel to find out. DNA is the instruction manual that helps build and run our bodies. But scientific breakthroughs have discovered another remarkable use for it. DNA contains a series of genetic route maps. It means we can trace our mother's mother's mother and our father's father's father, and so on, back through tens of millennia, revealing how our ancestors migrated out of Africa and went on to populate the rest of the world. DNA alone cannot tell the whole story. It is a hypothesis that needs to be corroborated with other evidence. As the three travellers follow in the footsteps of their ancient ancestors, they are guided on their way by some of the world?s leading experts in genetics, anthropology and archaeology. As they experience life as hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, dig for fossils in the Arabian desert, ride horseback in Kyrgyzstan, and take to the high seas in Timor Leste, Ian, Ernie and Julia discover the remarkable journey their ancestors made from Africa to Australia across 200,000 years. As the three continue their globetrotting adventure, a unique genetic census is also underway in Australia. Everyday Australians across the nation are donating their DNA. It's the first survey of its kind, and the results will help reveal the hidden story of our identity. DNA is collected from Australians from six distinct ethnic groups - Greek, Chinese, Anglo-Celtic, Indian, Lebanese and Aboriginal. The census represents more than 90% of the Australian population, and will deliver a snapshot of the nation's genetic ancestry. DNA Nation is a ground breaking documentary series that will change the way we think about Australia, the world and ourselves. Could it be that we're not who we think we are?

Inside the Cell

Inside the Cell PDF

Author: Erin E Murphy

Publisher: Bold Type Books

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1568584709

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Josiah Sutton was convicted of rape. He was five inches shorter and 65 pounds lighter than the suspect described by the victim, but at trial a lab analyst testified that his DNA was found at the crime scene. His case looked like many others -- arrest, swab, match, conviction. But there was just one problem -- Sutton was innocent. We think of DNA forensics as an infallible science that catches the bad guys and exonerates the innocent. But when the science goes rogue, it can lead to a gross miscarriage of justice. Erin Murphy exposes the dark side of forensic DNA testing: crime labs that receive little oversight and produce inconsistent results; prosecutors who push to test smaller and poorer-quality samples, inviting error and bias; law-enforcement officers who compile massive, unregulated, and racially skewed DNA databases; and industry lobbyists who push policies of "stop and spit." DNA testing is rightly seen as a transformative technological breakthrough, but we should be wary of placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of the same broken criminal justice system that has produced mass incarceration, privileged government interests over personal privacy, and all too often enforced the law in a biased or unjust manner. Inside the Cell exposes the truth about forensic DNA, and shows us what it will take to harness the power of genetic identification in service of accuracy and fairness.

Bringing the Nation Back In

Bringing the Nation Back In PDF

Author: Mark Luccarelli

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2020-03-01

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1438477740

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Bringing the Nation Back In takes as its starting point a series of developments that shaped politics in the United States and Europe over the past thirty years: the end of the Cold War, the rise of financial and economic globalization, the creation of the European Union, and the development of the postnational. This book contends we are now witnessing a break with the post-1945 world order and with modern politics. Two competing ideas have arisen—global cosmopolitanism and populist nationalism. Contributors argue this polarization of social ethos between cosmopolitanism and nationalism is a sign of a deeper political crisis, which they explore from different perspectives. Rather than taking sides, the aim is to diagnose the origins of the current impasse and to "bring the nation back in" by expanding what we mean by "nation" and national identity and by respecting the localizing processes that have led to national traditions and struggles.

A Nation of Descendants

A Nation of Descendants PDF

Author: Francesca Morgan

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2021-09-15

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1469664798

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From family trees written in early American bibles to birther conspiracy theories, genealogy has always mattered in the United States, whether for taking stock of kin when organizing a family reunion or drawing on membership—by blood or other means—to claim rights to land, inheritances, and more. And since the advent of DNA kits that purportedly trace genealogical relations through genetics, millions of people have used them to learn about their medical histories, biological parentage, and ethnic background. A Nation of Descendants traces Americans' fascination with tracking family lineage through three centuries. Francesca Morgan examines how specific groups throughout history grappled with finding and recording their forebears, focusing on Anglo-American white, Mormon, African American, Jewish, and Native American people. Morgan also describes how individuals and researchers use genealogy for personal and scholarly purposes, and she explores how local businesspeople, companies like Ancestry.com, and Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots series powered the commercialization and commodification of genealogy.

Native American DNA

Native American DNA PDF

Author: Kim TallBear

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2013-09-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0816685797

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Who is a Native American? And who gets to decide? From genealogists searching online for their ancestors to fortune hunters hoping for a slice of casino profits from wealthy tribes, the answers to these seemingly straightforward questions have profound ramifications. The rise of DNA testing has further complicated the issues and raised the stakes. In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how DNA testing is a powerful—and problematic—scientific process that is useful in determining close biological relatives. But tribal membership is a legal category that has developed in dependence on certain social understandings and historical contexts, a set of concepts that entangles genetic information in a web of family relations, reservation histories, tribal rules, and government regulations. At a larger level, TallBear asserts, the “markers” that are identified and applied to specific groups such as Native American tribes bear the imprints of the cultural, racial, ethnic, national, and even tribal misinterpretations of the humans who study them. TallBear notes that ideas about racial science, which informed white definitions of tribes in the nineteenth century, are unfortunately being revived in twenty-first-century laboratories. Because today’s science seems so compelling, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” This rhetorical drift, she argues, has significant consequences, and ultimately she shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined.