There are some very rare diseases that happen when people's DNA contain a mistake. An example of this is a disease that causes people to have blue skin. Could this be where the vampire legend came from? It is calculated that under 1,300 people have this disease worldwide. Another strange and terrible disease is Progeria. That is a genetic disease that causes premature aging. Children age so fast that on the average they are dead within 13 years, from old age. This disease is among the rarest of the rare and there is an estimate that states that under 50 people in the whole world have the disease and even stranger, there is one family where 5 are affected. Braschko's lines is an extremely rare condition that comes from DNA. While it is not agreed that this is a disease it is very unusual. Lines are produced over a humans body. They are brought out when a disease triggers them and they look like stripes.

Platypus
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Can things go wrong with genetics and can this produce what some might call a freak of nature? Not only could it, it may have happened already and the freak it produced is familiar to all of us, it is called a platypus. Scientists recently deciphered the DNA code of this animal and were startled to see the results. What they found was that the platypus had DNA from mammalians, reptiles and avians. In other words it is part mammal, reptile and bird. What could be odder than that? The animal has strange capabilities and one of this is the ability to supply snake venom which is stored in its legs. One scientist stated, "As we learn more about things like platypuses, we also learn more about ourselves and where we came from and how we work."

In 2009 it was reported that an artificial DNA had been produced in a laboratory in Florida. It was primitive and not yet capable of reproduction, but the scientist who developed it claimed that in a few years it should be able to reproduce. It was created using chemicals and contained 4 molecules that are basic building blocks of life along with 8 synthetic modifications of the same molecules. The idea was to explore what newly discovered types of life might look like and to be able to expand our own DNA and develop what he calls an, "Artificially Expanded Genetic Information System," There is a certain way that the nucleotides pair up to create our genetic code and when they make mistakes this is referred to as evolution by some. A human has 3 billion base pairs in their genetic code. The artificial base pairs that were created only reach 81 base pairs, woefully short of ours, but a start. It would be interesting to see what types of life would be created, if any are.

Scientists have discovered that our genetic code contains sub-codes. It seems that the sub-codes are used by a cell to react quickly to things like injury, so the cell can be rebuilt quickly. A scientist working on the problem stated this, “A cell must respond very quickly to injuries such as DNA damage and to potent poisons such as arsenic. The new sub-code enables us to know which genes are turned on quickly after these insults and which are best expressed slowly. One benefit of this study is that we now can get this information using only analysis of the coding sequence,”

There are those that feel that there is a sense of urgency to decipher our genetic code. They claim that there is something going on that we are totally unaware of. Is this just another conspiracy theory? Is there a reason that the human genetic code must be broken before a certain date? Decoding the human genome has been called the New Gold Rush. Every company wants to patent some of the results found from the research and some of the methods used to conduct the research. This points out a fundamental weakness in our system. As more and more aspects of the human DNA decoding produce results, more and more different companies will patent things. When later research is required these patent holders will demand large amounts of cash to allow others to do this, making products produced extremely pricey and delaying or preventing some discoveries.

First Printout Of DNA. Human Genome Project
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Attribution: Russ London at en.wikipedia

This is another theory held by some about our genetic code. I guess it was formulated after it was found that there were some gaps in the sequences where there was nothing, or we just didn't understand what we found. The theory states that we were created by aliens and they left some sort of message in our DNA and when we are advanced enough we will discover it and be able to decipher it. The problem with this idea is that it has absolutely no basis. It is more of a guess based upon UFO sightings and such. Any reputable scientist would laugh at this suggestion, yet anything is possible I suppose. The possibility of a DNA conspiracy does exist according to some and here is what they base this on. The Texas Department of State Health Services was found to be collecting the blood from new born babies and putting it into a DNA database. This was done without the right to do so as no permissions were said to have been obtained. The state was sued after documents turned up showing that about 800,000 samples per year were being collected. The people won the suit. It was said that this was to become part of a national project.