So I've been looking at www.23andme.com's DNA analysis service for a while now and I think I may finally treat myself as I find myself getting old and gray (26)... and wondering what I'm going to eventually die from.
Of course, I'm half kidding. As I am from a divorced family tree (broken limbs everywhere), I'm also interested in things such as heritage. But the main interest in my attempt to use this service is to know what I'm likely to die from. It's sad that although I know fear is so widely used to sell things, this company does not seem to push that factor, but I still feel drawn to it. For anyone who doesn't know, I believe Google bought that company a few years ago and it has since lowered the price. Although the price still stands at $399 for a test.
Does anyone know of a coupon or special offer for the test? I saw that if you have a medical problem you might be able to get a discount, but I'd rather not wait for IBS or some other BS medical condition like ADD to allow me to get a discount. Should I wait? Should I do it at all? I await your comments and thoughts on the subject.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Pew Science Knowledge Quiz
Just took a science quiz that says I'm "better" than 90% of the public :). Its always gratifying to have someone else tell you what you already know :P.
Seriously though, the twelve questions on the quiz should be easy to anyone that has even a remotely passing interest to anything science related, i.e. everything.
After you get your score you can also look at the results broken down by age, education, and gender demographics, which not surprisingly show college graduates as having the highest average score. Not to say that college is required to understand the questions, the next highest average score was the age group 30-49.
Take the quiz and see how well you do.
Seriously though, the twelve questions on the quiz should be easy to anyone that has even a remotely passing interest to anything science related, i.e. everything.
After you get your score you can also look at the results broken down by age, education, and gender demographics, which not surprisingly show college graduates as having the highest average score. Not to say that college is required to understand the questions, the next highest average score was the age group 30-49.
Take the quiz and see how well you do.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Space Exploration
For the past several week I've been watching a show called Defying Gravity on Hulu. Its on ABC Sundays at 10 but I keep forgetting to set the Tivo. Its set in the future, 2050 I think, and its about a crew flying around the Solar System in a state of the art space ship complete with faux gravity. I read somewhere someone compared Defying Gravity to being like Grey's Anatomy in space and I could see that with the character development, but its also similar to LOST. Throughout all of the episodes so far there has been some underlying alien influence pushing the crew to it's hidden purpose.
The aspect that I want to talk about though isn't the technology or to review the show, its to talk about the organization that is running everything. ISO. International Space Organization. Its an ambitious flight around the solar system where the crew is mainly seemingly American with a Latina, a Russian, and an Israeli so people might be excused for thinking its a NASA mission if they didn't pay close attention. I don't know exactly how its International in the show but I think that its a good idea. With the recent problems NASA is having with its budget and future programs I don't think anybody could be hurt by having a more international space exploration cooperation. There are quite a few countries with experience sending satellites into orbit, but only three that have been capable of sending humans into space; US, Russia, and now China. I know the ISS is international, but the US has had to pay for a good chunk of it. Thats not to say that we shouldn't have because we could. But if there were a true international space body (organization, cooperation, something) maybe it could have been built faster and/or cheaper.
What I'm thinking of wouldn't need to necessarily replace NASA, ESA, JAXA or the others but could be a kind of behind the scenes money/mission allotment group. If somebody has an idea for a new kind of satellite the group could see which space agency has the most experience with the type of technology as well as the ability to launch it into space and the money to accomplish the mission. The money issue though I would think would be the biggest hurdle. I was thinking that the member countries could pay the international body a percentage of their GDP (or whatever measure is used for something like this). Then after the payment, all member countries could have access to any data collected from missions under the body. That would leave more developed countries like the US paying more because they are able, but it would also help less developed countries gain access to science and technology that they may not have been able to otherwise.
An international body of this kind, along with the private companies now attempting space flight, could bring the cost of space missions down to the point where agencies wouldn't have to cut corners or stop funding missions while they are still capable of producing good science. As far as I can tell this would be beneficial to many, if not everyone, while harming no one.
As an aside, last week was the last episode of Defying Gravity on ABC Sundays at 10 because they want to move it. A lot of times for a genre series this signals the shows imminent demise. However, the show is developed or produced or paid for by a group of international sources. So even if ABC decides to stop showing it, Defying Gravity might be picked up and continue to air somewhere else. Which for my sake I hope happens, at the very least I would love find out what Beta is and what it wants.
The aspect that I want to talk about though isn't the technology or to review the show, its to talk about the organization that is running everything. ISO. International Space Organization. Its an ambitious flight around the solar system where the crew is mainly seemingly American with a Latina, a Russian, and an Israeli so people might be excused for thinking its a NASA mission if they didn't pay close attention. I don't know exactly how its International in the show but I think that its a good idea. With the recent problems NASA is having with its budget and future programs I don't think anybody could be hurt by having a more international space exploration cooperation. There are quite a few countries with experience sending satellites into orbit, but only three that have been capable of sending humans into space; US, Russia, and now China. I know the ISS is international, but the US has had to pay for a good chunk of it. Thats not to say that we shouldn't have because we could. But if there were a true international space body (organization, cooperation, something) maybe it could have been built faster and/or cheaper.
What I'm thinking of wouldn't need to necessarily replace NASA, ESA, JAXA or the others but could be a kind of behind the scenes money/mission allotment group. If somebody has an idea for a new kind of satellite the group could see which space agency has the most experience with the type of technology as well as the ability to launch it into space and the money to accomplish the mission. The money issue though I would think would be the biggest hurdle. I was thinking that the member countries could pay the international body a percentage of their GDP (or whatever measure is used for something like this). Then after the payment, all member countries could have access to any data collected from missions under the body. That would leave more developed countries like the US paying more because they are able, but it would also help less developed countries gain access to science and technology that they may not have been able to otherwise.
An international body of this kind, along with the private companies now attempting space flight, could bring the cost of space missions down to the point where agencies wouldn't have to cut corners or stop funding missions while they are still capable of producing good science. As far as I can tell this would be beneficial to many, if not everyone, while harming no one.
As an aside, last week was the last episode of Defying Gravity on ABC Sundays at 10 because they want to move it. A lot of times for a genre series this signals the shows imminent demise. However, the show is developed or produced or paid for by a group of international sources. So even if ABC decides to stop showing it, Defying Gravity might be picked up and continue to air somewhere else. Which for my sake I hope happens, at the very least I would love find out what Beta is and what it wants.
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