In 2000 the world saw the first working draft of the human genome, and that's in no small part thanks to Francis Collins. Under his directorship at the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Human Genome Project was finished, a complete mapping of all 20,500 genes in the human genome, with a high-quality, reference sequence published in April 2003.
In 2009 President Obama nominated Collins as the director of the National Institutes of Health, and later that year he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In March 2013, Collins helped Obama introduce the BRAIN Initiative, an ambitious, well-funded program to map the human brain. Read more about the BRAIN Initiative >>
Collins is also a self-described serious Christian and the author of several books on science and faith, including The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
“"A human brain contains almost 100 billion neurons making trillions of connections. So Dr. Collins says it’s like listening to the strings section and trying to figure out what the whole orchestra sounds like."” — US President Obama, Apri 2, 2013
Bill Nye the Science Guy (watch his TED-Ed lesson) will be joining the cast of “Dancing with the Stars.” New York Magazine says of Nye’s inclusion in the lineup — alongside Snooki, Valerie Harper and Jack Osbourne — that he is “the big get.” How long do we think it will be before he and […]
Continue readingWhen you pop a pill, do you know how it works? Most modern drugs target specific molecules, interacting with disease at the molecular level. But while we know the molecular causes of roughly 4,000 diseases, a very slim 6 percent of those diseases have a safe and effective drug to treat them. Why? Because of […]
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