Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

"Gênero" para um dicionário marxista: a política sexual de uma palavra "Gender" for a marxist dictionary: the sexual politics of a word

A autora conta suas desventuras teóricas após aceitar escrever um verbete sobre "gênero" para um dicionário marxista reputado. Em suas próprias palavras: "Além disso, mesmo se Marx e Engels - ou até Gayle Rubin - não se aventuraram pela sexologia, medicina ou biologia em suas discussões sobre sexo/gênero, ou sobre a questão da mulher, eu sabia que teria de fazê-lo. Ao mesmo tempo, estava claro que outras GRANDES correntes dos escritos feministas modernos sobre sexo, sexualidade e gênero se entrelaçavam constantemente mesmo com as mais modestas interpretações de minha encomenda. A maioria delas, talvez especialmente as correntes psicanalítica e literária do feminismo francês e inglês, não aparece em meu verbete sobre Geschlecht. De modo geral, o verbete abaixo focaliza os escritos das feministas norte-americanas. Este não é um escândalo trivial."<br>The misadventures of the Author in writing about a "key-word" for a famous marxist dictionary are recounted here. In her own words: "Also, even if Marx and Engels - or Gayle Rubin, for that matter - had not ventured into sexology, medicine, or biology for their discussions of sex/gender or the woman question, I knew I would have to do so. At the same time, it was clear that other BIG currents of modern feminist writing on sex, sexuality, and gender interlaced constantly with even the most modest interpretation of my assignment. Most of those, perhaps especially the French and British feminist psychoanalytic and literary currents, do not appear in my entry on Geschlecht. In general, the entry below focuses on writing by US feminists. This is not a trivial scandal.