Self Interest Blog 5

The chapter starts with the statement, " genes [are] far more complicated than it needs to be." It also says that chromosome 8 is the relatively neglected and least mapped chromosome. "Reverse transcriptase is a gene that serves no purpose at all "in that if it were removed from a human at the point of conception, it is more likely that it will not be damaged but will benefit. It also brings the idea that people are made up of viruses in which, " viral genome drop .. the virus's genes and keep just the reverse transcriptase gene." In that the reverse transcriptase is responsible for the replication of many genes, which then causes mutations in proper genes. Methlyation is the process that helps to freeze these mutations but is the first in the development of cancer. It also talks about DNA finger printing which has helped in the field of forensic science as well as others such as paternity.