Years Of Human Genome Data Lost In UCSC Fire

dsavitsk links to a New York Times article which reports that several years of data related to the human genome project have been lost in a fire at the University of California at Santa Cruz, seemingly with no backup.

Sprinkler...

[Iamthefallen]

Chief Hernandez said the building did not have a sprinkler system because it was built in 1987, before fire codes required one.

Well if it wasn't required, then it wasn't needed really right? Besides, I hear lab equipment and 14 years of research is very cheap these days, much cheaper than decent fire-prevention measures...

I've got the missing data...

[ConceptJunkie]

...and I'll sell it to them for $10 million.

int main( ) {
for int i = 0 to MAX_BASES_NEEDED do
switch ( rand( 4 ) ) do
case 0
print A
break
case 1
print C
break
case 2
print T
break
case 3
print G
break
end
end

return 0
}

Let me just rattle on a bit to try to get past the lameness filter. It seems to me, if the lameness filter really worked, Slashdot might be pretty hungry for comments. I'm not saying I don't make a lot of lameness myself, but calling something like this a "lameness" filter would be like checking if someone is breathing and calling it an intelligence test.

Furthermore, how could a site for "nerds" be set up to filter out a small snippet of source code. Hello! Earth to /.

Anyhow, I'm hoping that if I spew enough lame but not-lame-looking text I can actually post, what I thought was an amusing joke, but /. might thwart my budding comedy career.

In desperation I have now changed my nicely formatted C++ code to pseudo-code.

Re:Read the damn art, data NOT lost!!!

[Lars T.]

So people, don't forgett to backup your genes.

Re:Question- has foul play been ruled out?

[AnalogBoy]

Don't rule out:

1) Republicans, who fear we may end up finding the "Liberal Democrat" gene.

2) Fundimentalist Christians, who believe we shouldn't learn anything which may give us insight into the workings of God.

3) Democrats, who fear we may find the "can see right through your lies" gene

4) Hardcore, 14 year old Linux Advocates, for fear they may find a gene which will make everyone as 133t as said advocates.

Re:Question- has foul play been ruled out?

[Spackler]

Who stands to gain the most by a setback in the Human Genome Project?

God. He get's to keep the insipid sourcecode for these pesky humans closed for a few more years.

Didn't his patent expire yet?

Re:Celera has the backup

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes, the private sector. Kind of like how Arthur Andersen has backups of all those Enron documents.

Re:Lost data, don't think so.

[mbstone]

They DID back up the data. Hey, think Santa Cruz, you naturally think RELIABILITY. But the 8" hard sector floppy was hidden in a VW microbus where it was inadvertently resectored by a dog named Fang; the 9-track mag tape was cut into strips to decorate the maypole; and someone is still staring at the CD-ROM looking at all the pretty colors.