The following is a letter to SCIENCE: I enjoyed the paleontological ditty written by Alexa

The following is a letter to SCIENCE:

    I enjoyed the paleontological ditty written by Alexander Volokh.  It
reminded me of a similar composition, "These Are a Few of Our Favorite Genes,"
written by two of our field personnel, Sarah Bliven and Steve Robinson, after a
recent molecular genetics training class.  Interestingly, it is also sung to
the tune of "My Favorite Things" from _The Sound of Music_.

Plasmids and cosmids and phages and vectors,
Introns and exons that split into sectors
Phenotype changes in Mendel's green beans--
These are a few of our favorite genes!

Northerns and southerns and chromosome walking
Clone our dead grandma (she's no longer talking),
Store her forever in just one test tube,
Primer extension is what we will do!

Oh we'll splice her,
And we'll screen her,
Amplify her too.
So if you want grandma
(Your very own grandma),
Then we will clone one
For you!

Probin for DNA polymorphisms,
DNA ligase to fill in those schisms,
Plotting a cot curve to see what it means,
This is called fun with mammalian genes!

                                            Edward F. Hawkins
                                            Beckman Instruments, Inc.
                                            2500 Harbor Boulevard,
                                            Fullerton, CA 92634-3100