Tag Archives: science

in english

23andme and the power of information

For a few months now I have been using a genetic testing service called 23andme (Wikipedia).  Their promise is quite simple:

Gain insight into your traits, from baldness to muscle performance. Discover risk factors for 97 diseases. Know your predicted response to drugs, from blood thinners to coffee.  And uncover your ancestral origins.

The process is very straightforward.  After sign up and paying a fee (+ shipping and handling) you get a small plastic tube.  Spit on it, send it via DHL back to their labs in the US and wait to get your results.

You do have to agree to a pretty hefty disclaimer, and there’s a reason for it.  23andme only provide genetic testing and related services and are not a medical services provider.  Furthermore, the information you can gather from this procedure can have profound consequences for you and your family: maybe there’s an inheritable disease doing the rounds in your folks (Alzheimer or Parkison have been thoroughly researched, e.g.), or you discover relatives you didn’t know you have (or indeed, find out you’re not related to who you thought you were).

Once you register you are granted access to their website to familiarize yourself with their interface and the possible results you could get.  Their service is divided into four parts: My Health (genetic disease carriers and drug response), My Ancestry (analysis of X-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA for genetic genealogy), Sharing and Community (“social genetics” features), and 23 and We (voluntary participation in genetic research through surveys).

The most interesting sections for me were the first two.  Regarding health I was able to confirm what I already knew from my family history plus a couple of things that I suspected but I had no certainty about such as the fact that I metabolize caffeine relatively slowly, which explains why I don’t need many cups of coffee to get my “latte high”.

The ancestry bit was also very interesting.  I know a fair amount regarding my ancestry up to my great-grandparents and there are a couple of things I can gather given the areas of Mexico where they come from, but unfortunately doing a full genealogical research European style is out of the question since records in Mexico have been destroyed or lost in the Independence War, the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero War.  What I found was that my mitochondrial DNA (basically my mom’s mom’s almost ad infinitum line) is Mexican Indian from the Pacific Ocean from the Ice Age migrations through the Bering Strait when the Americas was being first populated (phenotype doesn’t equal genotype, my mom looks more Caucasian than I do), while my X chromosome shows Middle Eastern (possibly Jewish or Lebanese) ancestry, which is also consistent with the recently documented migration of Spanish Jews to Northern Mexico to avoid the Spanish Inquisition.  Furthermore, while the majority of my genetic markers are European, I do have a third of Asian/Native American (back to the Bering Strait bit) ancestry plus a smattering of African inheritance.  It all makes relative sense based of what I know of my family’s history.

Basically what I learned in my lessons of Mexican History through high school is not only correct, it shows in me.

Unfortunately 23andme’s reference database is not perfect, but thankfully the Mexican Genomics Institute is doing a very good job in analyzing what people from the Bravo to the Usumacinta Rivers carry in their genes.  All hail Saint Google :).

Through their community features the service calculates other possible genealogical matches (basically people who could be related to you who have also used the service). I’ve found mostly Mexican-Americans (obvious as their service is based in the US and they do not ship to Mexico due to our awesome customs officials) plus a smattering of people with Spanish ancestry and a lone Colombian with (I suppose) Amerindian ancestry.

Then there’s the research bit.  It’s basically a bunch of surveys they use to help in correlating the presence of certain genetic markers with physical or medical traits.  It’s interesting but I haven’t used the service long enough to have my answers help in any medical discoveries.

The only blemish to the whole thing is that we could get test results for my son.  He’s so young that his drool is too diluted (after all the little man is teething), which means they cannot extract enough genetic material for analysis. With the way things are developing, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re able to do it in a year or two.

All in all, a very interesting experience even if I’m just really getting started.  If you want to know more about factors that could affect your health plus your ancestry and are not afraid of the power of information I truly recommend it. Other services only do one or the other.

in english

Astronomy

I’ve been interested in astronomy since I was a little kid. Became a member of the Planetary Society around the age of 9 and begged and cajoled my parents into getting a telescope (which wouldn’t have been very useful given the amount of light pollution in Mexico City). The interest remained as I attended observation nights in high school and university but life went on.  When I moved to Finland I found out there was an astronomical society, but unfortunately for me back then all its literature was in Finnish.

My parents remembered my interest, so when I graduated from my first degree I was given a Meade DS-2060AT telescope.  It is not one of the fanciest out there, but it gets the job done.  I’ve been able to watch the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and some deep space objects in the darkest nights Finland has to offer.  The pictures below don’t do justice to how things look with your own eyes, but hey, it can probably give you an idea.

Jupiter from my balcony
Jupiter from my balcony
Jupiter with Galilean moons
Jupiter with Galilean moons. The planet is currently the closest it has been to Earth in almost 50 years.
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Cosmos

Have been watching the classic series lately and am convinced that the world needs somebody like Carl Sagan more than ever.  Not to speak for us, but to remind us why we have to find our own voice. In science, in society, in business and in life free inquiry (“the only sacred truth is that there are no sacred truths”) shouldn’t be overlooked or mocked as often as it is.  We enjoy the fruits of science every day, but do not value its methods enough.

As a bonus in this blog post I share with you my favourite Sagan speech: Pale Blue Dot 😉

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Singular singularity thoughts

After a very interesting presentation by Dr. José Luis Cordeiro of Singularity University, I was left with a few interesting ideas about the coming accelerating technological and social progress.

  • Genetic testing is becoming faster and cheaper.  In 3 years full sequencing will only cost 100 bucks and take 5 days, with a huge impact in ancestry and medicine (think about genetically-tailored preventive medicine). Imagine 23andme going mass market.
  • We will go back to the moon, especially now that it is found that there’s water.
  • World relationships are changing. For thousands of years the important body of water was the Mediterranean, and until recently the Atlantic.  We are now entering the age of the Pacific.
  • Robot rights are already under discussion in Korea and Europe.
  • Economic, telecommunications and energy source evolution is accelerating.
  • The death of death: The Methuselah Foundation.
  • Nano, bio, info and cognitive sciences are converging. Everything is information.
  • Marvin Minsky (MIT): “Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be us!”
  • Transhumanism as a possibility, not only a science fiction conjecture.

in english

And the swine flu was gone

Swine flu information

After the huge media coverage surrounding the A H1N1 situation in Mexico in April, it was a relief to see how calm everything on that front was when we were there in June & July.

The only signs I saw during our trip that anything like that had happened were info posters like the one above in some stores and the availability of hand disinfectant in many public places.  The only people wearing handmasks I saw in my whole trip were Asian tourists arriving to Mexico City airport.  Needless to say, neither I nor anybody I know was affected.

Since it’s summer, the situation in Mexico has calmed down, unlike what is happening in the South American winter season.  I find it funny that hasn’t made the news as much.

One of my friends was working at the National Institute for Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City in the middle of the crisis.  Funnily enough, he says he was not busiest  during the outbreak but afterwards, to return the hospital back to normal.

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Swine flu… epilogue?

After a week and a half of having declared the emergency, everything is slowly going back to normal in Mexico City now that the government has declared that the worst has passed (at least in Mexico itself, as the virus is still being reported in the U.S.). Tomorrow people will go back to work and in a few days schools will reopen.  There are a couple of diplomatic incidents still ongoing, and I for one am not planning to go to China nor Argentina anytime soon (both suspended flights, and Mexicans without symptoms are .

I really hope that the Mexican tourism industry recovers once this emergency is over, as the economic cost of this emergency runs in the billions.  At least it’s not the main news item in international media anymore at the time of writing.

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Continuing with the story

The WHO has raised its alert status to level 4. There have been over 2,300 cases in Mexico now, 700 still in hospital, 150 deceased.  There are confirmed cases in Spain and Scotland, and closer to home suspected cases in Belgium, Sweden, Norway & Denmark.  To make matters even worse, there was an earthquake in Mexico City today, although there is no reports of damages.

Although Mexicans are now starting to sound worried, some still cope by joking.  Some people commented that the earthquake was basically another way of sneezing, and the influenza song now has a video.  People are still staying home, following the instructions of the government, and the school shutdown has been expanded nationwide.  If you speak Spanish, the Mexican Presidency has live video coverage of the situation here.