I PERSONALISED GOOGLE (google.com/ig) when I spotted 10 or 12 daily referrers from that URL who visited my blog. After using it for a while, I discovered I was like Ari Patrinos, the scientist portrayed in The Google Story who turns to Google an estimated 50 to 100 times daily. By providing helpful responses to searches, Google helps Patrinos develop clean, renewable power. As David Vines explains in The Google Story, Google is well on its way to facilitating electronic search in genetics. I have Googled for info on my family's history of cancer and have often wondered what I would find if I could add DNA info to my search string. Apparently, that kind of search is an active Google project, one allied with the Washington-based Genetic Alliance.
I expect to use Google as an information source that enables me to converse at a higher level with my physician, knowing more about medical conditions than my father and grandfather ever did. I would like to survive to my 80s, something no other male in my bloodline has ever done. I am concerned about the maladies that killed by father and granfathers and I've Googled them enough to know that I am at risk. Perhaps I will be able to Google my own genes from my workstation before I retire. That would be an interesting adjunct to primary health care and it wouldn't cost the government anything.
Frequent medical examinations provide the best bills of health. Google says so.
David Vise with Mark Malseed -- The Google Story ISBN 9780553804577
