Universality, costliness and genetic control all suggest that music has a clear function in survival or reproduction, and Dr Miller plumps for reproduction.

ECONOMIST: Human evolution

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.

FORBES: Commentary

Vertex already sells a drug called Kalydeco, which causes unprecedented improvements in the lung function of patients with cystic fibrosis if it is caused by a genetic mutation called G551D.

FORBES: Personalized Cystic Fibrosis Drugs Get A Booster Shot

Children with the disease have a genetic mutation that causes them to produce the protein progerin, which blocks normal cell function.

CNN: Advances in kids' early aging disease

The technique found genetic mutations known to cause intellectual disability in 16 patients, and genes of unknown function that appear to be the cause in another 22 patients.

FORBES: DNA Sequencing: Is Science Fiction Becoming Medical Fact?