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| Ancestral Genomes |
 Title text: SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: No further research is needed as it is frankly none of our business. |
Explanation
In this comic, Megan and Cueball researched for a certain genotype. However, upon finding the genotype is spread through sexual intercourse, they immediately discarded their research and left the project alone - Not for obvious reasons like the project being too risky, expensive or pointless to continue, but to 'give the people some privacy', and not intrude on their private life.
Currently in the United States, topics around sex are at least partially considered taboo. This taboo most strictly covers depictions of sex and nudity in media, which are usually the domain of pornography and less mainstream art forms (e.g. nude photography). In academic science however, such topics are generally part of regular scientific discussion, including depictions and descriptions that would be considered offensive in other circumstances. For example, Wikimedia Commons contains many depictions of sexual intercourse for scientific and educational purposes. While some researchers, like the ones depicted in the comic, might be offended by such “lewd” contents, most would regard them well as long as they further the research on the topic at hand. Real-world biologists or geneticists would most likely not be offended by these issues, as sexual reproduction is a common or even predominant topic in both fields. Furthermore, the obscenity of the topic (genetic distributions affected by sexual reproduction) is very low in comparison to fields that deal with intercourse directly.
What is more problematic, and also addressed by the researcher’s comments, is the privacy of the individuals in the population under examination. Namely, using such data, it might be possible to figure out who had intercourse with whom, possibly reducing the timeframe to within less than a year based on the offspring’s age. However, since the analysis depicted likely takes place over many generations within a population, and is done on historical data, it is likely that the vast majority of the people whose genomes were analyzed are no longer alive. This is supported by the description of the population as “ancestral”. Beyond a certain point, even private data pertaining to deceased people is no longer considered sensitive, as it becomes the subject of history. The only problematic part is the ancestral information for living individuals, which is indeed worthy of protection—but not for the reasons given.
The title text has more of their efforts, doing a proposal for 'future research' as to not bother, and not stick our nose in it.
Transcript
- [Cueball and Megan are shown, with Megan using a pointer stick to point to a diagram against a wall.]
- Megan: Our admixture analysis showed that these genotypes arose in the ancestral population almost entirely through sexual intercourse.
- Megan: Upon realizing this, we of course promptly deleted all our data.
- Off-screen voice: What? Why??
- Megan: We're not weirdos!
- Megan: Jeez, give these people some privacy!
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