While there are risks and dangers and certain moral questions raised by genetic biotechnology, here’s a sample of some potentially positive developments and discoveries in genetic research:

A gene may have been found for obsessive-compulsive disorders. Two genes greatly heighten cancer risk; and researchers have identified the gene for triggering puberty. One study suggests dad’s genes may be to blame for causing cancer, and a UK-German project has mapped gene switchesbehind cancer, while British doctors discover why a particular kind of gene therapy gave boys cancer. Another study suggests that gene mutation is linked to long life. Researchers also believe a gene may help explain SARS distribution.

All of this work is being done on a genome that has now been made to fit on dime-size chip.