Those of you who haven't seen it, should pick up the October, 1999 issue of Popular Science. Its the one with the cute martian covered in aluminium foil on the cover.
I've read the entire collection of articles and they are mostly right on. There is an interesting piece about somatic gene therapy (pgs 82-86). Interesting quotes:
"Oddly enough, I'm concerned about our success."
(because big-pharma may not want to fund something you only need to take once in a decade)
"Gene therapy's battle cry used to be 'delviery, delivery, delivery, ... Now, the key is efficacy. People want to see that this can work."
Of course, there was an interesting mention of different delivery methods -- naked DNA, artificial chromosomes, lentivirus (HIV-like), and of course Adeno-Associated Virus (which persons who shall remain nameless seemed uninformed about at the Extro4 conference).
Also a very brief mention about Cryonics for people who are waiting for new-tech to become available.
Jeesh, at this rate, I'm not going to have anything interesting to talk about at cocktail parties.
R.