You'd think genetic research would be the stuff of the future, but some trace it back to an Austrian monk in the 1860s, who established hereditary traits being passed between generations of pea plants. The discovery of the double helix in 1953 and the progress of the human genome project at the cusp of the 21st century moved things along, but really, people are still mostly doing the same thing. What traits get passed down, how, and why?
Some of these questions are heavy and world-shaking. Establishing hereditary paths for genetic defects and diseases might allow them to be fixed ahead of time by new tech, like 2012's CRISPR, but not every question needs the weight of "Is Alzheimer's genetic?" Here are a few questions that will also teach humans a lot about themselves.
1. Why Do Some People Need More Sleep Than Others?
You'll come up with this question easily if you're not a morning person or if you're the morning person trying to understand why the not-a-morning person in your life can't get up before ten. They might just have a bad habit of drinking coffee after dinner, but there might be a genetic component, too. Genetic research has suggested that certain genetic variations can affect the circadian rhythm, influencing sleep patterns. Learning more about these effects can do more than give heavy sleepers a great excuse to stay in bed: it can help them better meet their sleep needs, identify any sleep disorders they might be missing, and just generally improve their overall health.
2. Can Your Genes Tell You if You're More Likely to Be a Morning or Evening Person?
"But, wait, this is the same as number one, isn't it? Did you just sleep through your own article?"
This isn't a question of sleep, though, is it? Whether they're sleeping five hours or ten, some people just prefer to be awake at night, while others pass out as soon as sunset begins. This is a question of chronotype, and some of the world's most active people struggle with it. For most of the world, the workday starts between six and nine in the morning, even if some people would rather begin work at eight in the evening. Isolating any genetic predispositions around this could help people better understand themselves, giving them a better chance to plan a healthy lifestyle.
3. What Makes Some People More Athletic Than Others?
The gym addicts in your life might say you just need to get with the program and find your thirst (or whatever), but your genetics might reply, "This body literally does not have the muscular composition and predisposition for oxygen utilization you're looking for." This is not to say you can't achieve your ripped, muscular dreams—sadly, some of you might be fighting an uphill battle against your genetic disposition. A better understanding of the genetic variations at play in how you approach exercise and how your body responds to it could lead to more effective training regimens that you are more motivated to take on and see more benefit from.
4. Why Do Some People Seem to Never Get Sick?
You know that one friend who never seems to understand that you can't do things when you're sick? "What do you mean you can't come? It's just a cold/migraine/fever!" It's possible they don't understand because they've never had to deal with it. Some people don't get sick very often, and if scientists could just find that person and get them under a microscope...
Well, genetic research is more complicated than that. The point is that by better understanding what makes the immune systems of these healthy legends so strong, it might just be possible to share that trait with everyone else—or at least give scientists a better idea of how a good immune system works.
Answers for Questions Light and Heavy
So, that last question might actually have some pretty heavy implications if it could be answered with enough insight, but that's kind of the case for all of these. Whether it's big questions or little questions, every answer about how the human body works—and how it determines who a person is and how they live—can lead to all kinds of valuable insights and implications. It's difficult to predict the next big answer and what innovative thinkers will do with the information, but it's exciting to think that plenty of big changes are coming.
