{"id":981,"date":"2007-11-22T00:03:15","date_gmt":"2007-11-22T07:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/wp\/?p=981"},"modified":"2007-11-22T00:03:15","modified_gmt":"2007-11-22T07:03:15","slug":"23andme_and_goo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/?p=981","title":{"rendered":"23andMe wants your DNA"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my column in today’s Guardian, I take a look at the new gene-mapping service from the Google-backed startup 23andMe. Here’s a snippet:<\/p>\n

\n

To provide 23andMe with a DNA sample, you have to send the firm a small test tube filled with saliva. That requirement at first struck me as distasteful, maybe even demeaning. To have one’s earthly origin and destiny reduced to a vial of spit seems like an affront to human dignity. But maybe I’m being too fussy. After all, primitive cultures have long viewed bodily fluids, and saliva in particular, as carriers of secrets about personal identity and vitality. The Cherokee tribe of what is now the southeastern United States considered saliva “a vital element,” according to the anthropologist Charles Hudson. Spittle “was to the individual as water in creeks and rivers was to the world. If one’s saliva were spoiled, it was a serious matter.”<\/p>\n

All that 23andMe is doing is giving an information-age twist to this mystical tradition. It’s using automated laboratories, supercomputers and the internet to translate ancient symbolism into a practical digital service. Once a spiritual totem, spit is now just another informational medium.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my column in today’s Guardian, I take a look at the new gene-mapping service from the Google-backed startup 23andMe. Here’s a snippet: To provide 23andMe with a DNA sample, you have to send the firm a small test tube filled with saliva. That requirement at first struck me as distasteful, maybe even demeaning. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.roughtype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}