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I recall one of Heinlein's books addressing this problem by a different means: a genetic comparison to determine whether a bad genetic reinforcement might occur
by saidajigumi 14y ago
I recall one of Heinlein's books addressing this problem by a different means: a genetic comparison to determine whether a bad genetic reinforcement might occur, rather than relying on the proxy of relatedness.
For Iceland's case as addressed in TFA, that's perhaps a more relevant metric -- that you might end up "crossing" with someone outside of known family, yet who is still closely related enough to present a genetic risk.
I sense a market for a Square-style "DNA chip on a headphone jack" to augment this app. ;-)
- StavrosK 14y ago> yet who is still closely related enough to present a genetic risk. Isn't that basically just siblings, and maybe first cousins?
- Turing_Machine 14y agoNot necessarily. The closer the relation, the greater the probability of bad genes pairing up, but it is, in fact, a probability. Your fourth cousin might have a copy of the same bad gene as you while your first cousin doesn't.
- StavrosK 14y agoAh, I see, thanks. It makes sense now.