The Human Race Machine

Artist Nancy Burson has created a machine, called the Human Race Machine, which takes a photograph and shows the person in each different race. This is from an interesting article in Scientific American from December 2003, discussing how few genetic differences we all have from one another. One of the very interesting things from the article is the assertion that: "the mutations that result in sickle cell disease and some cases of cystic fibrosis result from genetic chanages that appear to have risen in frequency because they were protective against diseases prevalent in Africa and Europe, respectively. If you have one copy of the sickle cell polymorphism, you show some resistance to malaria,; those with one copy of the cystic fibrosis trait may be less prone to the dehydration resulting from cholera." See? this is what happens when you clean out the bathroom cabinets! (going very SLOWLY, I might add.)