a snip here, a snip there

You are looking at someone's thumb. The SNPs -better known as snips- on the genome derived from a person's thumb, to be precise. SNPs are sites on the phenotypic data where a single unit of DNA is changed.

Breakthroughs in scientific exploration are never more fascinating than when they cull wonders from the basic, fairy-dust substance of the human genome. There's even a website at the center of the genome revolution that is free to the public and definitely worth checking out. It is unobtrusive and wonky, but also it provides us the chance to put our own thumbs on the pulse of human endeavor the ramifications of which -positive or negative, I am optimistic- will not be fully understood for decades to come.