A person's DNA is a recipe book for making the proteins essential for life, such as myosin in muscles and hemoglobin that transports oxygen in the blood. An international consortium of scientists announced this Wednesday that they have finally managed to read the last blurry page of that recipe book: the until now illegible Y chromosome, involved in the determination of male sex or in the production of sperm; but also, when there are failures, in serious diseases such as cancer. The progress, which has required more than 30 years of work, is published this Wednesday in the magazine Nature, showcase of the best world science.
