Never have I found a game that simultaneously stirred such nostalgia and disgust as Monopoly. Something so timeless, so simple, so polarizing.  I guess it’s understandable when the game usually plays out something like this:

Six.  One, two, three, four….five.  Boardwalk, are you *%#$ing kidding me?!?  All I’ve got is a hundred bucks.  Fine!  You win – I quit anyway.

And that’s only if you’re lucky.  Half the time it seems like it drags on forever until someone inevitably throws their beige benjamins skywards in frustration.  Personally, I quite enjoy the game when I can actually find someone to join me.

I enjoy it, that is, until it manifests itself in my daily life.  In a stunning recent turn of events, a federal appeals court has overturned a previous court ruling that declared the patenting of genes illegal.  The landmark case involving Myriad Genetics, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. United States Patent and Trademark Office, has kept the attention of eyes and ears in my field for the past few years.  Can you imagine someone snatching up ownership of your genes just like Monopoly properties?  Just hope you hold the deed to Boardwalk when the times comes you need it. Continue reading →