And a brand new kind of software allowed him to use information about the family and their genetic material to find the defective gene.

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The test literally untwists the virus' genetic material, allowing researchers to create a gene-by-gene sequence of it.

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At the time scientists inside and outside the EPA unanimously agreed that the test posed negligible risk. (I wrote the analysis submitted by the Food and Drug Administration.) No new genetic material had been added--only a single gene whose function was well known had been removed--and the organism was obviously harmless.

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First, when a new copy of copia inserts itself into a fly's genetic material, it may cause a deleterious mutation to a previously healthy gene (hence all the copia-related mutations detected by geneticists).

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Their 70, 000-gene chromosomes have been manipulated to include a gene from the orb weaver, a palm-size spider that spins the world's toughest natural material.

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