Commonly, gene transfer is thought of as a vertical line from parent to offspring, along which all evolutionary traits are passed. However, as we began delving into genomic sequences, we found that this may not be true and that the lines between "species," especially on the microbial level, are quite fuzzy.

Produce borne diseases have recently been gracing the front pages of our media. Our spinach has E. coli, our onions have Hepatitis A virus and E. coli, our strawberries have Listeria, and our tomatoes and peanut butter have Salmonella. Not to mention the countless tons of ground beef tainted with pathogenic E. coli.

In order to make sense of our surroundings, we, as humans, constantly group things into discrete catagories--states of matter, times of day, types of clothes, etc.

More than half a million individuals in the US died in 2004 from cancer and more than 10.8 million Americans are living with the disease.(CDC 2008) The number of cancer deaths each year continues to decline, due to advances in medical technologies. With the advent of a cervical cancer vaccine,Gardasil this number promises to continue to drop dramatically.