Best Invention in 2008: 23andMe or Hype?
TIME magazine published the complete list of the top 50 best inventions of 2008. The winner is 23andMe, the Google sponsored genetic company that provides SNP genotyping. Spittoon, the official blog of 23andme also covered the subject. While I think their service is important, Medgadget shared some major points with us and I must say they were right. These are the truest words I’ve ever read about direct-to-consumer genetic testing.
We say, TIME was probably sucking up to people whose lives have become a never ending effort to hype things onto the common man. You see, whether you take 23andme’s Anne Wojcicki and her husband Sergei Brin (co-founder of a website Google.com, an advertising agency with no customer service), or 23andme’s investor movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, or Navigenic’s venture capitalist John Doerr, they feel that they are changing the world. But really, considering the hype, aren’t they more interested in making money and elevating themselves to the level of revolutionaries, than furthering medicine and its technology?
Other interesting inventions:
Berci,
I am so glad that medgadget, who was one of the first to blast me, is now aware of the hype…
-Steve
http://www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com
Time certainly blew that one. There are so many more inventions that rank as more useful. Want to know how that happenned? 3 words…..follow the money…. Ann Moore and Linda Avey spoke at a conference together sponsored by Time, INC. http://www.timeinc.net/fortune/conferences/women07/women_program.pdf
My guess is that the link is way deeper, but it never hurts to be friends with the CEO of the magazine who ranks you number one……
Wonder why Navi didn’t make it?
-Steve
http://www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com
You always find the right point, Steve. Just like in the case of Google’s world domination plans.
albertine is doing an artistic experiment, called 200gr
she need your click to buy her dna kit.
with all your contribution she will be able to discover if her dna weight is 200gr as science says
so just click on the google ads on this page :
http://www.albertinemeunier.net/200grammes/
23ANDME: ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SPIT?
Psst, you want eternal life?
On Sale Now: from Sergey and his wife.
All you need to do is pay
For them to own your DNA.
In return they’ll give you back
Information that you lack
Genetic risk for this and that:
You won’t know what you’re looking at.
Some of it will be plain wrong
Or else you knew it all along:
But you can bet they’ll make it pay
Now they have your DNA.
If you’re at risk of getting fat
You’ll soon be clicking on an ad:
There’s always something you can buy
To treat you so you will not die.
It’s personalised marketing:
The latest trend, the hottest thing.
If what they tell you isn’t true
Read the disclaimer: more fool you.
Then, when you spend your precious time
Searching journals, all online
The more you look, the more you’ll learn
How long you live depends on what you earn.
Suddenly you’ll understand
The science behind the business plan,
The secret of a longer life:
Oh yes, they have it, Sergey and his wife.
Remind me now, why did you pay
For them to own your DNA?
When you start to think it through,
Shouldn’t they be paying you?
You always find the right point, Steve. Just like in the case of Google’s world domination plans.
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