1. evolgen
  2. A Scientist in Time

A Scientist in Time

By evolgen on July 20, 2006.

If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?

That's what they are asking us this week. And, once again, I'm going to skirt the question. You see, it depends on whether the future counts as a "place throughout history." Currently, the future is not history, but it will be history once the future becomes the past. You'll probably need a few minutes to digest that, as I must have just blown your mind. Or not.

My chosen place in time (yeah, I abandoned the whole history thing): the day of the $1000 genome. This is the population geneticist's dream. All that data for next to nothing in costs. So many hypotheses to test. So many discoveries to make. We ain't post-genomics until genome sequencing is dirt cheap and accessible to everyone, regardless of their taxon of choice.

If I am restricted to only time periods that are currently considered history, then I'd have to go with Thomas Hunt Morgan's lab at Columbia in the 1910s. At that time, Alfred Sturtevant was constructing the first ever genetic map, and the lab was giving birth to the field of genetics.

Tags
Ask a ScienceBlogger
genetics
genomics

More like this

Why you CAN have your $1000 genome - so long as you learn what to do with it [Genetic Future]
As part of his Gene Week celebration over at Forbes, Matthew Herper has a provocative post titled "Why you can't have your $1000 genome". In this post I'll explain why, while Herper's pessimism is absolutely justified for genomes produced in a medical setting, I'm confident that I'll be obtaining…
$1000 Genomes for $2000
Getting an accurate genome sequence requires that you collect the data at least twice argue Robasky, Lewis, and Church in their recent opinion piece in Nat. Rev. Genetics [1]. The DNA sequencing world kicked off 2014 with an audacious start. Andrew Pollack ran an article in the New York Times…
There Is a Difference Between a Sequencing Revolution and a Genomics Revolution
Last week, Forbes had an article about the advances in genomics, which focused on the Ion Torrent sequencing platform. It's a good overview of genomics and the Ion Torrent technology, albeit a bit much on the cheerleading side. For instance, this: Audaciously named the Personal Genome Machine (…
The DNA Age?
These kinds of articles annoy me, especially when they appear on the front page of The New York Times. Where to begin? Well, there is the utterly banal thesis, neatly summarized by Steven Pinker (in case you didn't want to wade through The Blank Slate): "We now have real evidence that some of the…

I agree on both your choices. No more ascertainment bias issues! I would have been so cool to be in T.H. Morgan's lab.

I would want to be there at the beginning of social Dawinism (circa?) in Germany, and focus my research on illustrating the difference between population drift and evolution.

Amit, don't you guys have the Applera resequence data? You don't have ascertainment bias issues!

Yeah, I know. But I was just speaking in general. Some of my previous projects I worked on in the past have had ascertainment issues.