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Human Genome out on CD

Cool boffin gimmick

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Boffins. Where would we be without them?

Like this Dr. Tim Hubbard, head of human sequence analysis at the Wellcome Trust's Sanger centre in Cambridge. Presumably because he had nothing better to do, he has crammed the working draft of the human genome - the genetic instructions on how to make a human being - onto a CD.

Commenting on the strangely cool move, he said: "I'm sure it is a bit of a gimmick, but I had been thinking about how to fit the human genome onto a CD...so I was keen to do it."

Obviously the geezer* used a little compression technology to get the job done, and according to the FT the disc will be available on the front cover of Prospect, a monthy magazine for educated brainy types.

*One of the UK's favourite words according to a survey by the Daily Express. The winner was "serendipity", while "Jesus" had to share 10th place with "money".

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