首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In Britain, those who live to be 100 years old receive a birthday card from the queen. In the future, centenarians everywhere ma
In Britain, those who live to be 100 years old receive a birthday card from the queen. In the future, centenarians everywhere ma
admin
2013-06-12
16
问题
In Britain, those who live to be 100 years old receive a birthday card from the queen. In the future, centenarians everywhere may also receive a call from a geneticist. If they do, he or she will be seeking a sample of DNA that might, eventually, help to reveal the genetic components of extreme longevity. The more immediate use, however, will be in a competition. For on October 26th the X Prize Foundation, based in Playa Vista, California, unveiled its latest carrot to the world’s scientists.
The foundation has already put up prizes in areas as diverse as cleaning up oil spills and landing a robot on the moon. The idea of a genomics X prize is not new. It has been around since 2006. But the latest announcement, in the pages of Nature Genetics, has a particular goal in mind.
The foundation is offering $10m to the first team to sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians. The winners will have to do it accurately, making no more than one mistake per million base pairs (the chemical letters in which genomic information is encoded). They will have to do it cheaply, spending less than $1,000 per genome. And they will have to do it quickly, within 30 days of starting.
The goal of the project is twofold. First, to discover what, genetically speaking, makes centenarians different from other people. And second, to try to establish an industry standard for sequencing. This is something the field sorely needs. The cost of sequencing has plummeted over the past decade, and several technologies have emerged, each backed by different firms which will, for a suitable consideration, happily sequence your genome. No two firms, however, are likely to produce the same result. The full genome has 6 billion base pairs (3 billion from each parent, though many are duplicates), which means even the prize winner will be allowed 6,000 mistakes. And some parts, particularly those where the same short pattern of base pairs is repeated over and over again, remain difficult to sequence well. Moreover, several techniques are inherently unreliable, having traded speed and simplicity for accuracy.
The new X prize is designed to winnow the genetic wheat from the chaff. The scientific standards for victory have been set by a team led by Larry Kedes. Dr. Kedes, who founded the Institute for Genetic Medicine at the University of Southern California, is the foundation’s main adviser on matters genomic. Besides the low error rate, Dr. Kedes requires that the sequence be complete-meaning that it includes at least 98% of the genome’s base pairs. That is taxing because some parts of a chromosome, such as those near the centromere (the place where the two arms of a chromosome meet) are not easy to get at. He also requires that it be sorted by haplotype. A haplotype is a group of genes that tend to travel through the generations as a block. Dr. Kedes wants it to be clear which haplotypes came from which parent.
The contest will begin in January 2013 and last 30 days. The first team to score their century of genomes — at the new standards, price and speed — will win the prize. But the wider prize, an understanding of how to stay healthy into a ripe old age, with all that may bring to medical science, will ultimately be shared by everybody.
According to the first paragraph, we know centenarians will probably
选项
A、receive a birthday card from the British queen.
B、be called to donate a sample of their DNA for study.
C、be asked to reveal the secret of their longevity.
D、participate in a competition to win big money.
答案
B
解析
事实细节题。根据文章首句,“英国的”百岁老人会收到女王寄出的生日贺卡,[A]以偏概全。第二、三句谈到,将来遗传学家可能会给百岁老人打电话,目的是寻找DNA样本,以便求得长寿的基因秘密,因此百岁老人可能会被要求捐献DNA样本以供研究用,[B]为答案。百岁老人可能会捐赠.DNA样本以便遗传学家研究他们长寿的秘诀,而不是他们自己解开长寿的秘诀,排除[C]。根据文章内容,不是百岁老人参加竞赛,而是the world’s scientists,排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Fg4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
WhichofthefollowingdoesNOTbelongtothecategoriesofInternetaddiction?
Leadingstockmarketshavebeenweigheddowninthepastfewweeks,becauseof
Languagecomprehensionisgenerallyviewedincognitivetheoryasconsistingofactiveandcomplexprocessesinwhichindividual
ThefollowingpeoplemetMexicanPresidentEXCEPT
SimilaritiesandDifferencesbetweenPublicSpeakingandConversationⅠBothPublicSpeakingandConversationneedyouto
InNewZealand,______playstheroleoftherepresentativeofthemonarch.
WhatwerethethingsinBritainthatDr.Mathewfoundmoststrangewhenhefirstarrived?
Thepairofwords"wide/narrow"arecalled______.
People’sattitudetowarddrugsvariesfrompersontoperson.Someregarditas(1)_____miraculous;othersthinkofthemasdang
Attheturnofthe18thand19thcenturies______appearedinEnglandasanewtrendinliterature.
随机试题
以下哪条不符合猫眼疮的皮损:
下列有关药物制剂稳定性的意义叙述不正确的是
本案的撤销权()。B公司有权申请法院撤销的A公司的行为是()。
依据《医疗废物管理条例》,关于医疗废物集中贮存、处置设施,下列说法正确的是()。
统计资料管理,按照我国统计工作的管理体制,实行统一领导,分级管理的原则。()
信用风险对基础金融产品造成的损失最多是()。
B公司为增值税一般纳税人,适用的增值税税率为17%。2012年5月,A公司与B公司进行资产交换,A公司将持有的一台设备与B公司的一项交易性金融资产交换。该设备的账面价值为450万元,不含增值税的公允价值为500万元,累计折旧80万元,尚未计提跌价准备。该项
(2011深圳17)如果很难向一侧游出,可以漂浮在水面_______,直到流势明显减缓后,再向一侧努力游出。如果已经________,应不失时机地大声疾呼或发出其他有效的求救信号。依次填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是:
设f(x)在x=a处连续,且=2,则f(x)在x=a处
Partofthefundswillbeusedto______thatoldlibrarytoitsoriginalsplendor.
最新回复
(
0
)