Reading Genetics Journals Is Hard

Obviously nobody should expect a 2nd year undergraduate genetics student who's barely finished his pre-major requirements to be able to read genetics journal with near the amount of proficiency of somebody who's actually in the field. I did think I could handle it though. So I sat down today and looked up some of the more popular journals in genetics (Genetics, American Journal of Human Genetics, Nature) and tried to look for some interesting articles to acquaint myself with.

I found that, with just the basic amount of knowledge gleaned through introductory courses and general interest on the side, that I basically had no idea what I was reading. I'm not sure if this speaks to any inadequacies in the teaching environment in today's undergraduate colleges, or whether I'm just not prepared to be reading these with any proficiency yet. I suspect it might be both.

What I did manage to understand was fairly interesting, and was found in the December issue of Genetics. The article was about population bottlenecking when a single HIV virus is introduced to a new host through sexual contact, and how it is contributed to by an initially strong CD8+ helper T Cell response that strongly selects for those HIV viruses that exhibit escape mutations in their antibody proteins called epitopes resulting in less Helper T Cell fixation to infected cells after an initially strong response.

I'm not sure how novel this research is, how important it is at this point in time, or even if I understood it correctly (perhaps one of my readers can tell me I'm horrendously wrong). But despite the fact that I feel like a 8 year old reading Descartes when I read these journals I still get pretty excited when (I think) I understand what I'm reading. It makes me excited for a future career publishing and reading these every day.

But really, somebody tell me if what I read means what I think it does.

P.S. Previous readers will note that I've changed the name of this blog to Oh. My. Genes. instead of Oh. My. Geek., this is because as I further my schooling I find that my interest in technology is waning and I read more about biology than I do tech and social media and the like. Cheers.

[Science] Antimatter! Hurray!

A closeup of the Magnetic Jar used in the CERN experiment
N. MADSEN, ALPHA/SWANSEA via Nature

In the top story for today from Popular Science Magazine, CERN physicists have announced that they've trapped antimatter, specifically anti-hydrogen, for a whopping 17 minutes; a feat that they previously were only able to accomplish for a few hundred milliseconds.

This is a great leap forward for the study of antimatter, which could potentially be the greatest producer of energy in the universe due to its ability to create energy from matter at a 100% conversion rate, a rate about 100 times stronger than a normal hydrogen bomb.

Anti-hydrogen, when coming into contact with hydrogen, completely annihilates the former, producing a huge amount of energy in the process. This exact interaction is what makes antimatter so difficult to store or produce, as any contact with the gases naturally present in the air would cause the antimatter to destroy both itself and the gases it came into contact with. Scientists got around this problem by, obviously, trapping the antimatter in a vacuum, as well as a magnetic field.

Scientists still don't know much about antimatter, they don't even know how gravity affects it. Which makes the success of this experiment all the more valuable and exciting. We're still lightyears away from producing large quantities of antimatter to power engines or the like, but this is a giant step in the right direction! BE EXCITED. I AM.

Why I Comment on Everything I see on the Internet

As a self proclaimed geek it's important that I be up to date on all of the internet happenings. Naturally I do this by browsing Reddit and Twitter, as well as news aggregates like Yahoo! and Google News.

Never 4chan though, 4chan forums are the bowels of the internet. We never go there. EVER. In fact, here's a handy infographic of the life of an internet meme/picture/what have you. (courtesy of Tosh.0)

I usually begin my troll---er I mean purveying at around step 2: Reddit.

Naturally being such a purveyor and connoisseur of internet memes I like to express my opinion on the content I happen to be looking at, and I leave a lot of comments. However not everybody likes to leave comments, or not everybody cares enough to leave a comment, and this is a terrible, horrible thing. Everybody should leave comments, even if those comments are just poorly spelled half-sentences that make no sense to anybody but the poster. After all, it's the thought that counts right?

Why do I comment though? And why should other people comment? Why it's simple Mr. Hypothetical internet questioner! I enjoy making my opinion known. I have a right, nay a duty to make sure that every single person who reads an article or watches a video knows my opinion. This duty extends to everybody who uses the internet too, I should think.

Sometimes it's not even my opinion! Sometimes I just try and think of the most offensive thing to say to the crowd that happens to read this article. Preferably I choose to enter this offensive little morsel in ALL CAPS FOR MAXIMUM OFFENSIVENESS. I ALSO INSURT AS MENY SPELING ERORS AS I CAN, BECUS THAT MAKS IT MORE PERSONL N SHIT. SUMTIM3S R3V3R71NG TO CH47 5P3AK 1S B3S7. 

Hi, I'm a troll. (Only on weekends though)

No but seriously, why do people comment on the internet so vehemently? It's dumb. Just stop. kthx.

"This is Where Geeks Turn Into Rockstars..."

"...and that's the game changer." 

Is being a nerd cool now? Well this is news to me but Nancy Conrad, wife of late astronaut Peter Conrad, and founder of the Conrad Foundation which (go figure) hosts the Conrad Awards, seems to think that it's becoming this way.

The Conrad Awards, awards given to those students who complete the program, are a way for educators and students to get involved in solving tangible and real problems in today's society. Combining competition, fun, and good old fashioned nerdyness, this 3 year old program has quickly become an unintentional international project.

Founded on the ideals of Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, the program that Conrad and her team has come up with is based on the touching tale of her husband's rise from troubled child to Astronaut extraordinaire. 

Watch the video to found out more, and visit the Conrad Foundation's website for more information on how to get involved. I wish I was this enthusiastic about science when I was younger, or at least more involved.

[Cool Stuff] Airbnb? Why haven't I heard of this before?!

Airbnb, probably the best website ever.

I have no idea how old this website is, but it seems to be very popular, there are listings for my podunk little home town of Chico, CA.

Everybody knows what couch-surfing is right? You go and stay in a stranger's house and sleep on their couch, sometimes in exchange for doing a few chores or just because the person likes the company. Well this site offers users a more structured way of finding people to couch surf on (that sounds dirty), and it allows the renters to charge a (usually) small fee in exchange for their precious house/apartment space. Airbnb even offers to send a professional photographer to your apartment to take pictures for your room/couch/whatever you're renting, completely free of charge! Now that's service!

Airbnb quite possibly might be one of the coolest things that I've ever found on the internet to this date, besides doodoocaca. It's a simple idea that holds a lot of value for both the renter and the tenant, and it opens up the world of couch surfing to a bigger group of people than would normally be interested in this sort of thing.

If I didn't live in a dorm with no way of renting out my space then I would be extremely excited to try my hand at this. Obviously with the lower rates you have to charge this can't replace your normal job or whatever, or maybe it can I don't know your life. Airbnb could probably be one of the greatest sources of supplemental income ever. Except maybe owning a bunch of candy machines, but that's hard to get started...

All I know is that as soon as I'm done with college and I have a place of my own, if this website is still alive and kicking I will most definitely come back and be the biggest and bestest home/hotel/bnb in my city. I'm so excited.

[Gaming] Play Station Network/Qriocity Services Down

Photo From NYTimes Blog

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

 This short post is the only solace that PS3 gamers unable to access the Play Station Network got on Friday. At least Sony KNEW about the problem and they were trying to fix it.

It's interesting to note that this attack on the Sony network comes days after this story came out concerning the lawsuit against George Hotz and he hacked the PS3 hardware and programming. Obviously I am absolutely not saying that Hotz had anything to do with it, and he probably didn't.

But it is possible and it shouldn't be ruled out that those who support him and PS3 hacking in general have made this attack to show their support, or just stick it to the man.

In any case, thousands (millions?) of players being unable to access the PS3 network because of this attack is kind of a large price to pay just to stick it to the man.

Some of the gamers unable to log on to the PS network might actually resort to going outside, or doing homework, or actually doing their jobs (!!) and that would just be awful.

[Video] Russell Brand Is the Most Eloquent Person Ever.

"Blimey"

Jeremy Vine ends his interview with Russell Brand on the BBC show Newsnight with an appropriate exclamation. Especially considering that his interview with Brand was probably one of the most existential and well thought out, and yet completely genuine interviews I have ever witnessed coming from a celebrity of Brand's caliber.

Absolutely nowhere in this video did Brand exhibit any of the tell-tale insincerity and hubris that we usually find in the upper echelons of the popular elite. And although an American audience might be slightly confused around the middle of the video, as they begin talking about an offensive message that Brand left on Andrew Sachs' answering machine that got him in hot water with some BBC news outlets. Nonetheless this interview can be thoroughly enjoyed even by somebody who knows next to nothing about Russell Brand or British popular culture. I suggest giving it a watch, you might learn something.

[Tech] The future of human-computer interaction

Inspired by an article I read today on Big Think I took a good hard look at the way that I want humans to interact with machines in the future. And then I forgot most of that and decided to write about it anyway.

If you're anything like me then you're desperately awaiting the day that computers are embedded in our eyeballs and microchip processors enhance our brain function. Or maybe you're just waiting for the day that you can close your eyes and be playing an online video game with the information beaming into your brain through those same microchips. I'm probably waiting for that one too.

Things like the iPad and iPhone and the touch media craze that have come with them are a good sign that these kinds of technologies are on the way which is the good news. the bad news is that optically embedded computers are probably a ways off.

We might not quite be at level of Minority Report. But we're getting there.

Things like an internet connected camera implanted into your skull though, yeah that's real. This story might be a few months old, but it's still relevant to this conversation. Basically some guy decided it would be really artsy to put a camera in the back of his skull and have it take pictures 24/7. Now, personally I really don't see the art behind this, and it really just looks like some sort of popularity/publicity stunt.

 However it is interesting to look at this guy's attempts at art/being popular in terms of human-computer relationships. Who knows, maybe this guy will set the precedent and we'll all be wearing cameras in our foreheads in the future. Which might be lame actually.

[Science] Genetic Warfare - Sayonara Malaria

This is awesome and definitely for a good cause.

Scientists at University of Washington and the Imperial College in London (Via PopSci) have developed a gene sequence that when inserted into a population of mosquitoes suppresses the malaria virus and could be an effective form of mass prevention for malaria.

During testing it was revealed that the malaria suppressing gene spreads very quickly and very effectively though populations of mosquitoes, obviously this is the point. The only problem with this is that pesky law of unintended consequences that always seems to get in the way when man tries to manipulate his environment.

Annually 881,000 people die from malaria related illness, 85% of whom where children under the age of 5 years old. In addition $12 Billion are lost every year directly from malaria deaths. (More Malaria Facts)

There are dozens of ways to combat malaria and mosquito population, and that's one of the reasons you don't see malaria in much of the developed world, however poorer countries generally located on the equator don't have the money to invest in malaria treatments and preventions. What's more the complete eradication of malaria is likely impossible, considering that the only way to do that would be to decimate the entire mosquito population which in turn would severely harm ecosystems. (there's that law of unintended consequences again).

Obviously we don't want that, so the only way to make sure that those 748,850 children survive is to provide them with the preventative measures they need to combat malaria.

[Gaming] Superbrothers' Sword and Sworcery EP Micro Comes to iPhone

The action-adventure indie game "Sword and Sworcery EP" that has been blowing up the iPad gaming sphere with its exquisite and unique graphics and self purported focus on audio-visual style has (finally) come to the iPhone.

The game sells on the iTunes app store for only $2.99 and just browsing the comments section of the plentiful videos of this game, it seems that people are very excited for this game. Especially considering the amount of people that have the iPhone, but not the iPad. 

Personally, I just downloaded this gem and I'm very much looking forward to playing it. 

[Gaming] Is the Kiip model the future of gaming? Or just a advertising gimmick?

One of the hot topics in the mobile gaming circuit right now is a new startup company called Kiip ("K-ee-p") that is offering real life rewards for players who earn achievements in the games they're already playing.

So far the company has only made contracts with a few companies (Sephora, Carl's Jr. and 1-800 Flowers are among them) but it would only make sense that they have plans to expand these contracts. Still though, how cool would it be to get a free Easter basket from 1-800Flowers for clearing the final level on Angry Birds?

It's interesting to think that this is the direction that advertising might be headed, especially considering that in the gaming market PC games, probably the best and most reliable target for companies like Kiip, are among the most popular.

 Imagine this scenario: you're playing Fallout 3 on your PC and you gain an achievement or complete a hard mission, you're notified of an offer that you can redeem when you're done playing by a small popup on the HUD, afterwards the popup goes away (possibly being saved on a list with an expiration date/time) and that's that, you continue to play the game like normal, later redeeming your coupon for a free Soda at Carl's Jr.

The incentive for the companies participating is that every time a player earns an achievement with a reward attached to it they are essentially being advertised to, and this is what has got gamers fired up on comment boards all across the internet. Even though the advertisement will only come once the player has earned the achievement, gamers simply do not want to see advertisements anywhere near their beloved games, PC or otherwise. Even the most casual of gamers can't abide by intrusive ads that infringe upon their enjoyable game time.

There are those, however, that see little problem with this form of advertisement, myself included. Would anybody REALLY be opposed to getting a free soda for doing the things they were already doing in the game for fun (and no real reward otherwise)? It's doubtful.

Is this the future of gaming and advertising? Certainly Kiip has come up with a novel idea, and who knows, maybe they'll be the industry leaders in the immensely popular world of in-game advertising in the future. One thing is for certain though, the way that they implement their features and the reaction by the gaming community will determine whether or not this turns out to be just a novel idea, or the next big thing in gaming and advertising.

Alternative Voting Explained

You guys remember the video explaining the differences between the UK, Great Britain, and England?

Well this is by the same guy, and continuing this apparent trend, it's a very good  and pleasantly explained video.

I love videos like this. Explaining things to people in a simple and easily understandable way is (duh) preferable to having to go through a textbook to understand something.

Of course, like everything, there are flaws. At one point in the video the narrator neglects to explain one of the problems with the Alternative Voting method, passing it off as something only math geeks worry about and moving on.

It's clear that this video is in support of different forms of voting beyond the "FPTP" voting method, but it does seem to come off as a little propaganda-y. That being said, it's still a wonderfully informative video that many people should be privy to.

 It seems as though many people are unaware that there are alternative ways for democracy to function, certainly scanning the comments of the YouTube video one can see arguments arising over how "democratic" the AV method is, or how it would be "unamerican" to change the way that voting was done. People do, however, seem to understand that there is some inherent problem in the way that voting works in this country, perhaps that's enough to get them to change their thinking. Perhaps not.

I encourage everybody to share this video with friends, family, neighbors, facebook friends, twitter followers, whatever. The more people that are exposed to alternative ways of doing things, the more debate there can be over them, the better off everything will be. After all, democracy is built upon choice isn't it?

Probably the best song on the internet.

Stumbled upon this creative song on Reddit today and I couldn't resist making a blog post about this.

I think this song is probably one of the truest geek litmus tests. The more references you understand in this song, the geekier you are.

I'm fairly curtain that I understood at least 3/4ths of the references.

Leave me a comment telling me how many you understood! If you didn't understand any of them then...well...get out.

This Is Absolutely What Being A Geek Is All About!

I can't exactly remember how I came across this TED video of Adam Savage, one of the co-hosts for MythBusters, describing his quest to create a near perfect replica from the Maltese Falcon movie. I do, however, remember not remembering how 15 minutes went by so quickly after I watched this.

There's definitely an art to being a geek, as I've said before, but Savage takes this to a whole new level with the level of detail and the amount of effort he puts into this "Creative Project" of his. 

I'm sure many of you have already seen this TED video, but I encourage you to watch it again. Savage's sincerity is absolutely infectious, and it's inspiring to see be so humble about his fantastic (fanatic?) work and to care about nothing more than the fantastic journey it took to get there.

Not to mention he's a great speaker! 

Photon Torpedos, Solar Cells, Spaceships and Flashlights.

Oh Michio Kaku, you both crush my childhood dreams and create new, more adult ones at the same time.

I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.

Michio Kaku is a science-show staple. You can't have a show on the science channel without having an expert testimony from Dr. Kaku. A lot of his "testimonies" have to do with either validating or debunking (or both) sci-fi "impossibilities", and one of my favorite books by him is called "Physics of the Impossible". 

Picked up in an Airport book shop and devoured by the time the plane touched down several hours later. This book provided much entertainment and scientific fun facts. Now whenever a friend or acquaintance (sometimes even just random passers by) are talking about things like time travel and human cloning and they refer to them as "impossible", I like to pipe up and say something to the tune of :

"NAH UHH!!! YOU'RE WRONG AND HERE'S WHY..."

I make lots of friends.

If you don't already know who Michio Kaku is (you heathen) you need to head over to his blog and check out all of the awesomesauce things he has to say all the time. You won't be sorry.

Google Facing Copyright Infringement for eBooks (for the last 6 years)

You know, I have been wondering how Google has gotten away with digitizing books and offering full access to them for a price like they do on Google Books without facing copyright infringement lawsuits or something of the sort.

Turns out they are facing copyright infringement suites and they have been for the last 6 years. Who knew.

Now, 6 years into this litigation, a proposal drafted by has been rejected by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin.

Google has proposed to pay royalties to the owners of the copyrights for each of the books it scanned. But, apparently, the problem is that for quite a few of the books, the owners of the copyrights can't be accurately determined, and so much of the money they'd be offering to pay wouldn't be able to go to anybody. Quite a conundrum.

Furthermore the deal would allow the internet giant to continue to digitize books while paying said royalties, potentially leading to a "universal library" of books on the internet. While this seems like a great idea, apparently Judge Denny Chin thinks this deal is "going too far" even despite the benefits that having such a large digital library would bring.

The proposal would clearly give Google a market advantage in terms of selling eBooks. Whereas other companies would be required to get permission of the copyright holder to digitize and sell eBooks, Google could go on digitizing and selling without seeking the appropriate permission.

Fair? No. And Judge Chin doesn't think so either.

I can definitely see the benefit of having such a huge library of books available online. I've used Google Books many many times to finish that last minute school paper without having to go all the way to the library. But I can certainly see the issues, and it definitely wouldn't be cool to see other eBook publishers shoved out of the market due to a near monopoly (that we all know Google could accomplish) on eBooks.

See the story on BBC News, or for more in-depth coverage check out this article on ComputerWorld

Japan Earthquake: Robots and Rescues

 It's not surprising that after the devastating 8.9 earthquake experienced in Japan this past week that the Geek-o-sphere (I made that up) is overflowing with news pertaining to both the relief efforts and the efforts to fend of the potential nuclear meltdown happining in the Fukushima district of Japan in the wake of the earthquake.

On top of these two things, it seems as if every Arab nation has decided that the old ways have got to go. Again, the geek-o-sphere has got this covered in terms of news, and not just normal news either, there are some truly “geeky” things going on in Japan in relation to this crisis.

At the risk of seeming like a news recycling blog (I like to think I put a personal spin on things) and taking a page from Phillip DeFranco, let's take a look at some of the things that interested me in the news this past week.

Robots. Real. Live. Robots. Well, you know, without the "living" part.

Now, OK, you might be saying “Luc, Robots aren't that special, bomb squads have been using them for years to deactivate bombs 'n stuff.”

Well you know what I say to you, smart ass?

I say that these aren't just regular Wall-E like robots that have extendable arms and are remote controlled. Although there are those too. These are robots of an entirely different sort. Snake Robots, for example. As well as underwater robots, which are probably going to be some of the most helpful considering this disaster was caused by a tsunami, although information on the underwater robots is apparently scant according to an article on the IEEE Spectrum blog.

Here's a video of that snake robot I mentioned earlier in action. 

Now, I don't know about anybody else, but if I was stuck in a situation where this snake was required to find me, and I saw it trying to find me, I might actively try to avoid being seen by this thing, because it's f'king terrifying and I've seen War of the Worlds a few too many times.

It's like being saved by the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, except without the hookah and rude sarcasm.

At the time of writing this post, Japanese power has been restored to the nuclear reactors that were near meltdown, and the Japanese have avoided another tragic situation, but the tragedies in Japan are still unfolding, with thousands without homes due to the tsunami, and thousands more "nuclear refugees" evacuated. It's important now to think of the Japanese people, keep them in your hearts, and if possible, donate to the Red Cross relief fund. You can donate Here.

It's Elementary my Dear WATSON.

WATSON, A question answering program/machine developed by IBM, is now the new Jeopardy champion.

Last week WATSON went up against Jeopardy's two well known champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, who hold the records for longest consecutive winning streak and highest earning respectively. 

Not surprisingly considering that it's a machine, WATSON kicked both of the champions' butts in the competition, winning itself the $1 Million prize. 

More importantly, however, WATSON has shown us that the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development is rapidly expanding, we're making great leaps and bounds towards a machine that we could potentially, have a conversation with in very natural language. Gone would be the days of typing things into Google to find an answer to, lets say, a computer problem. 

The IBM website for WATSON has a ton of interesting 2-minute videos about the various applications of WATSON and how it came to be developed, it's all very interesting. 

Particularly interesting would be this technology's use in the medical field, doctors would be able to use WATSON (Or some variation thereof) to assist them in diagnosing a patient, and the results would be able to be highly personalized, as you'd be able to enter all the parameters surrounding the patient's condition, hight, weight, age, medical history, etc. 

Not just plain medicine either, biomedical research, business, sociology, anthropology, customer service, and everyday things like fixing a computer problem or a car problem could be significantly aided with this technology. It sounds optimistic but there's really no end to the industries that would be drastically altered (probably for the better) by this technology. WATSON is a huge leap in the field of AI, and it's only going to keep getting better. The future is upon us.

If you'd like to learn more about WATSON check out their website, there's tons of information there about it, and make sure you watch Jeopardy every single day. Because it's the best show ever. (In my opinion).

(By the way, Sherlock Holmes never actually says "Elementary my dear Watson" in any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, just a fun fact.)

Genetic Nutrition? What the future might hold.

Recently I read an article in Nature concerning the future of nutrition in the world. The article proposed a world in which our diets are personally tailored to us using personal genetic testing techniques that would tell you exactly what your body needs and at what time, suggesting foods for consumption based on certain "Health Markers". I'll let you read the article if you're interested. It's incredibly interesting, so you SHOULD be interested, but it might be a little confusing if you don't have at least a basic understanding of genetics.

There's nothing I love more than thinking about what advances we'll have come to in the future, and on top of that I love thinking about all of the things we didn't have 50 years ago when my parents were children, it's profoundly powerful evidence of the power of science and technology and the glorious times we live in.

Computer processor speed doubles every 18 months, smart phones allow us to do almost everything we used to have to do on a clunky PC or Mac that took up lots of room. Netbooks pack the same amount of power that my old laptop has in small book sized packages that weigh less than 2 pounds. The field of genetics saves lives in ways that we could never have imagined. It's simply incredible how far we've come as a species. 

This post has almost no purpose other than to showcase my awe, and that's OK, because you should be in awe as well, because science is amazing.

Image Attribution: m_bartosch | FreeDigitalPhotos

How Genetics Should Be But Isn't Viewed

This isn't a post about religion.

This isn't a post about the morality of genetic engineering.

This isn't a post about nature vs. nurture (well, maybe a little).

Although I'll probably post about all of these things in the future...

This is a post about the fact that people seem to think that our genetics are the absolute end all be all about everything that ails society. From disease to maladaptive personality traits, people are want to believe that everything can be explained or solved through genetics. This simply isn't the case, and I'll explain why in a moment.

This post is about those people who like to play the "genetics card" and blame every problem they have, like drug addiction, commitment problems, tendency to abuse their kids, and anything else that they might not have an explanation for, or they're too lazy to fix or both. Large news aggregators like CNN or MSNBC or NPR have decided it would be a good idea to link genetics with things like child abuse and heart attacks, and even the inability to recognize faces. I'm not saying it's not true that our genes might affect our ability to recognize faces, but we are all products of our environments and our genes, you can't blame everything on one factor.

 The truth of the matter is that genetics can only play part of the role in determining somebody's propensity for a certain trait or a certain disease or a certain something or other. The way the media portrays genetic studies makes it seem like we're all slaves to our genetics.

What people need to understand is that genetics plays a ROLE in determining somebody's personality or propensity towards heart attack or inability to recognize faces.

There is no "heart attack" gene that we can remove to ensure that you'll never have a heart attack. You might have a gene (or lack of a gene) that gives you less of a chance of having a heart attack, but if you eat a double cheeseburger with bacon every day you're still going to have a heart attack eventually(probably).

There are definitely genes that are set in stone though, like hair color, eye color, how much hair you have, etc. These things might be set in stone, and they might be governed solely by genes, but that DOESN'T mean that they're controlled solely by ONE gene. Often times many genes working in tandem with each other determine somebody's hair color, or skin color.

This is also true for the less "set in stone" genes like a propensity for heart attack, there are dozens of factors, dozens of genes, that will determine whether or not you have a heart attack, and painting one gene as the enemy of anybody who's ever had a heart attack diminishes the seriousness and the size of the problem that scientists face when they're looking for cures for diseases.

  PROOF! (You're Welcome)

 

Image Attribution: jscreationzs | FreeDigitalPhotos.net