Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

were matched with the genome of thousands of people around the world, who had also had their genes analyzed. Then, the locations of the individuals who had a perfect match with my four genes were placed on a map of the earth. By analyzing the dots on the map ofthe earth, I could see a long trail of dots, originating near Tibet and then stretching through China and to Japan. It was amazing that this trail of dots traced the ancient migration patterns of my mother’s ancestors, going back thousands of years. My ancestors left no written records of their ancient migration, but the telltale map of their travels was etched into my blood and DNA. (You can also trace the ancestry of your father. The mitochondrial genes are passed down unchanged from mother to daughter, while the Y chromosome is passed down from father to son. Hence, by analyzing these genes, one can trace the ancestry of your mother or your father’s line.)
    I imagine in the near future, many people will have the same strange feeling I did, holding the blueprint of their bodies in their hands and reading the intimate secrets, including dangerous diseases, lurking in the genome and the ancient migration patterns of their ancestors.
    But for scientists, this is opening an entirely new branch of science, called bioinformatics, or using computers to rapidly scan and analyze the genome of thousands of organisms. For example, by inserting the genomes of several hundred individuals suffering from a certain disease into a computer, one might be able to calculate the precise location of the damaged DNA. In fact, some of the world’s most powerful computers are involved in bioinformatics, analyzing millions of genes found in plants and animals for certain key genes.
    This could even revolutionize TV detective shows like
CSI.
Given tiny scraps of DNA (found in hair follicles, saliva, or bloodstains), one might be able to determine not just the person’s hair color, eye color, ethnicity, height, and medical history, but perhaps also his face. Today, police artists can mold an approximate sculpture of a victim’s face using only the skull. In the future, a computer might be able to reconstruct a person’s facial features given just some dandruff or blood from that person. (The fact that identical twins have remarkably similar faces means that genetics alone, even in the presence of environmental factors, can determine much of a person’s face.)
    VISIT TO THE DOCTOR
    As we mentioned in the previous chapters, your visit to the doctor’s office will be radically changed. When you talk to the doctor in your wall screen,you will probably be talking to a software program. Your bathroom will have more sensors than a modern hospital, silently detecting cancer cells years before a tumor forms. For example, about 50 percent of all common cancers involve a mutation in the gene p53 that can be easily detected using these sensors.
    If there is evidence of cancer, then nanoparticles will be injected directly into your bloodstream, which will, like smart bombs, deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to the cancer cells. We will view chemotherapy today like we view leeches of the past century. (We will discuss the details of nanotechnology, DNA chips, nanoparticles, and nanobots in more detail in the next chapter.)
    And if the “doctor” in your wall screen cannot cure a disease or injury to an organ, you will simply grow another. In the United States alone, there are 91,000 people awaiting an organ transplant. Eighteen die every day, waiting for an organ that never comes.
    If your virtual doctor finds something wrong, such as a diseased organ, then he might order a new one to be grown directly from your own cells.“Tissue engineering” is one of the hottest fields in medicine, making possible a “human body shop.” So far, scientists can grow skin, blood, blood vessels, heart valves, cartilage, bone, noses, and ears in the lab from your own cells. The first major organ, the bladder, was grown in 2007, the first windpipe in 2009. So far, the only organs that have been grown are relatively simple, involving only a few types of tissues and few structures. Within five years, the first liver and pancreas might be grown, with enormous implications for public health. Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert told me that he foresees a time, just a few decades into the future, when practically every organ of the body will be grown from your own cells.
    In the future, we will have