Inspired by this funny satire of mouse genomics research
(“Tedious scientists hail uninspiring mouse genome
breakthrough“), I dug up this funny article in a newsletter from
the genome center at which I work: 30x sequencing of Unicornos
Typically the stuff of legends, the [sequencing center] will
sequence DNA from the genus Unicornos to high coverage. Tracing
the origin of the unicorn points to a 4th century B.C. Greek
doctor named Ctesias who most likely fused details of multiple
creatures to create the unicorn from the many tales he heard
from Indian travelers in Persia. During that era it was common
for stories to travel great distances by word of mouth, and as
Artistotle argued, when the tale made its way to him, the
single-horned, silvery being was no more absurd to imagine than
a giraffe or an elephant. Medieval knowledge of the beast
stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, and the creature was
variously represented as a kind of wild ass, goat or horse. Some
medieval Europeans believed narwhal tusks t