May 2006
Beginner
288 pages
2h 32m
English
Content preview from How Personal & Internet Security Work
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Chapter 26. How DNA Matching Works
What can be more private than our genes, the basic biological blueprint that makes each of use unique and human?
Genes are composed of DNA, and in them, you can read not just whether our eyes are blue or brown or our hair is red or blonde, but things less subtle than the obviously physical. For example, scientists have found that in certain people, there is a genetic disposition to shyness.
Our genes also predispose some of us to genetic diseases, such as Huntington’s disease, which killed the folk singer Woody Guthrie. And they can also make it more likely that some of us will contract cancer or will be prone to ...