Forensic scientists are discovering that DNA and "genetic markers" can predict who will–or will–turn to a life of crime. If this is true, it portends a frightening future where we give infants DNA swabs, then decide whether to watch them (or even incarcerate them) for the rest of their lives. Since more black men are jailed in the US than men of any other race, this is especially troubling for African-Americans.
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Our minds may be modern but our genes are prehistoric, which is the reason we have so much trouble losing weight! In addition to fast food, desk jobs, and inertia, there is one more thing to blame for unwanted pounds-our genome, which has apparently not caught up with the fact that we no longer live in the Stone Age: A gene known as CRTC3 decreases energy expenditure by fat cells.
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In the future, you may be able to forgo exercise and still stay healthy, by having your genes tweaked instead. By tweaking a single gene, scientists have mimicked in sedentary mice the heart-strengthening effects of two weeks of endurance training.
The genetic manipulation spurred the animals’ heart muscle cells to proliferate and grow larger by an amount comparable to normal mice that swam for up to three hours a day. Alas, this type of gene manipulation can’t be done in humans, but these findings may suggest a future strategy for repairing injured hearts through muscle regeneration.
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