Slate has an interesting piece up that highlights the controversy with patenting aspects of the BRCA2 gene. Of course the article focuses on the specific case of Jews, but as far as the ultimate issues of intellectual rights relating to genetic sequences and the methods to ascertain their identity, this is the tip of the iceberg. Today we are squabbling over music and film, but in the near future I suspect that we are going to focus less on such trivialities.