• DNA breakthrough; Housing market warning DNA breakthrough; Housing market warning The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Sept. 6 With the nation riveted on Hurricane Katrina last week, a discovery involving DNA of humans and chimpanzees likely didn’t get the attention
• DNA breakthrough; Housing market warning
DNA breakthrough; Housing market warning
The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Sept. 6
With the nation riveted on Hurricane Katrina last week, a discovery involving DNA of humans and chimpanzees likely didn’t get the attention worthy a significant scientific development with huge potential for mankind.
Scientists have deciphered the DNA of chimps, the closest relative of human beings, and are now able to make comprehensive comparisons with human blueprint.
This holds great promise for practical application in medicine since chimps have demonstrated a resistance to such human diseases as AIDS, hepatitis, malaria and Alzheimer’s.
Beyond that, the findings of a $25-million study funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute are particularly exciting to scientists by perhaps someday offering clues as to what makes humans, well, human.
By studying these changes — and scientists have already identified 250,000 believed to be most responsible for differences between chimps and humans — it may be possible to also pinpoint reasons for diseases.
Much work remains to be done, but cracking the chimpanzee’s DNA code — done through the blood of a chimp named “Clint” at an Atlanta research center — provides the necessary roadmap.
Times Union, Albany, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 6
Remember when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Wall Street against “irrational exuberance”? That was nine years ago, when the tech stock boom was driving up stock prices seemingly by the minute. And few investors paid much attention to Mr. Greenspan then, especially the young millionaires who had become rich overnight by proposing yet another use of the Internet without providing even a smidgen of evidence that the venture would turn a profit.
Fast forward. It took about four years, but time proved Mr. Greenspan right. The tech stock bubble burst and millions of Americans found their paper wealth had greatly diminished, or in many cases, disappeared. Now comes Mr. Greenspan with another warning that ought to be heeded — an alarm about the overheated housing market. It’s a warning that homeowners, prospective buyers and state banking regulators can’t afford to ignore. …
And that day may be coming soon. Given the steady rise in fuel prices, the Fed will likely try to keep inflation in check by raising interest rates yet again. The higher they go, the less liquidity homeowners will have. The days of froth and speculation will be over.
