It’s just genetics
Alert Janeite Ben spotted a Jane Austen reference in last week’s Nature.
Mr Woodhouse, the comical hypochondriac of Jane Austen’s Emma, takes great comfort in blaming his various ailments on the rain, the cold and an unfortunate piece of wedding cake. He would, no doubt, have been greatly surprised to learn that even his most rudimentary ailments resulted, at least in part, from genetic factors. Reporting on page 661 of this issue, a consortium of more than 50 British groups, known collectively as the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), asserts just that. In the largest study of its type so far, the WTCCC has examined the genetic underpinnings of seven common human diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, Crohn’s disease (the most common form of inflammatory bowel disease), coronary artery disease, bipolar disorder — also known as manic depression — and type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
But of course it can all be cured by a nice bowl of really thin gruel.
June 13th, 2007 at 3:28 am
Made by Serle, of course - nit too thin
June 13th, 2007 at 3:29 am
I mean ‘not’ not ‘nit’