Speaking of celebrity genes…. Remember the hubbub over the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt clan’s genes when baby Shiloh was born?

* An in-depth analysis of their beauty from Razib at ScienceBlogs’ Gene Expression as well as a discussion of Shiloh’s mutational load.
* Angelina’s father, Jon Voight, commends Brad Pitt on his highly qualified genes.
* A comment at A Socialite’s Life claims that nobody knows what Shiloh’s going to look like because “Its (sic) the way the genes mesh…unfortunate looking people have good looking kids and Vice versa.”
* Another commenter at Us Weekly is feeling sorry for the genetic hand Shiloh’s brother and sister, Maddox and Zahara, have been dealt.
* Defamer thinks that Brad and Angelina have “maddeningly perfect genes.”

Hey, great to see others using Bob MacCallum’s compare-stuff tool. I first came across it in 2001 having met Bob socially and reviewed it for the fledgling Reactive Reports magazine. The old version of the site had a special PubMed feature that could search across the biomed literature and pull out some rather amazing comparisons. But, that’s work, the all-new compare-stuff is much more fun, try the random filter it brings up some quite astounding comparisons. More examples and meta-analysis on Sciencebase too.

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[...] reading a post comparing the DNA and Genes over at EyeonDNA I decided to give it a try. Take a look at the [...]

Google Trends May 2006

Green: DNA; Blue: genetics, Red: genes, Yellow: genome
Click to see a larger image.*

This chart from Google Trends comparing the search and news reference volumes for the terms genetics, genes, genome, and DNA surprises me somewhat.

In the last couple of years, there doesn’t appear to have been an increase in the number of searches for terms related to genetics. In fact, there appears to be a slight decrease in searches. Does that signal a growing complacency about genetics in everyday life, a belief that it’s no longer anything special?

In contrast, the news reference volume for the term DNA has increased (while the others have stayed about the same). This is clearly a reflection of the growing use of DNA testing for solving crime.

And what countries search for these terms the most?

1. India
2. Philippines
3. Ireland
4. United States
5. New Zealand
6. Australia
7. Canada
8. United Kingdom
9. Israel
10. Switzerland

Why do two developing countries top the list for searches on genetics terms? Could it signal an up-and-coming genome revolution there? In five years, we may begin to see an explosion of genetics research and diagnostic tests coming out of these and other developing countries. It bears watching.

~~~~~
*A: DNA scientist Francis Crick dies at 88
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jul 29 2004
B: CA Modifies Desktop DNA
InternetNews.com - Jan 17 2005
C: DNA Tests Free Man After 25 Years (Completely unrelated to biological DNA)
WSBtv.com - Dec 8 2005
D: Va. Governor Pardons Two Men Cleared By DNA
WRAL.com - Dec 23 2005
E: DNA Test Confirms Guilt in 1992 Execution
North County Times - Jan 13 2006
F: Attorneys: No DNA Match in Duke Scandal
CBS News - Apr 11 2006

India and the Phillipines are incredibly active on the internet, there are literally hundreds of thousands of users and bloggers there. Their being at the top could simply reflect user numbers. That said, a lot of the received wisdom concerning the “state” of the developing world, in particular Asia is very distorted in the West - this makes interesting viewing in that regard. The animation showing geography and changing life expectancy versus family size over the last fifty years is incredible.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92

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[...] at My Biotech Life compares “DNA” and “Genes” using Google Trends. I played around with Compare [...]