We talk about molecular population and evolutionary GENETICS and GENOMICS. You know, the caliper measurement of a gene's evolvability in moles.Nicholas Wade is up to his old antics, blabbering about a contest to award $10 million to the first person to decode 100 genomes in 10 days. Only he means 'sequencing' rather than 'decoding'. But he still thinks they're synonyms:
"The announcement of the prize brought together two former rivals, Drs. J. Craig Venter of the Venter Institute and Francis S. Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which financed the government project to sequence, or decode, the genome."
The 100 genomes in 10 days contest is brought to you buy the people who gave away $10 million to the first privately built space craft. Venter is giving away a half a million dollars to the first person to sequence a human genome for $1000. Of course, 454 is in on the game. With all of these prizes floating around, it makes one wonder . . . well, it makes one wish they could come up with something clever to say.
Comments
For what it's worth, I deconstruct the challenge and offer my predictions over at my blog. (including what I hope is a slightly better explanation of 'decoding').
http://www.chrisamiller.com/blog/001190.html
Though it's pretty infeasible today, I'm willing to bet that someone will claim the prize in 5 years.
Posted by: Chris | October 5, 2006 1:14 PM