"Have you ever passed a nail salon gasping from the chemicals
seeping through the open door, while a dozen women patrons and
their handlers are breathing in those same chemicals without a
trace of discomfort?" There was a time shortly before the human
genome was sequenced that many believed genetic science was on
the cusp of a medical revolution. Our sequenced DNA was thought
to hold the key to understanding the onset of disease. Why are
some children afflicted with autism? Why do some adults stop
producing enough insulin? Why do some otherwise healthy
individuals who reach their senior years lose mental functions
and memory? Ten years after the human genome was sequenced,
biomedical scientists have become more cautious in their
optimism about how DNA sequencing will change medicine by
revealing the existence of a disease years before its onset or
by introducing new therapies with the tools of molecular
medicine and stem cells. The terms "gene-environment
interaction" and "epigenetics" are now recognized as t