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Article: Polymerase chain reaction. (includes related article on chemist Kary Mullis. and on the working of polymerase chain reaction)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- May 1, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 marked a turning point in American history. According to some researchers, however, a genetic disease called Marfan's syndrome may already have been quietly killing the 16th president of the United States. People afflicted with the disease grow abnormally tall and gangly and often suffer from depression.
Lincoln was 56 when he met his death, an age when, in the 1860s, three-quarters of those with Marfan's syndrome would have already succumbed. If, in fact, Lincoln was afflicted with the disease and modern historians could rely on that diagnosis, a whole new light might be cast on his record as a president ...