Harry Ostrer: “To the public and the geneticist alike, the Jewish people are something more than an ethnic group that has maintained its social and genetic cohesiveness over 2,500 years despite geographic dispersion to all regions of the globe. A century ago, popular wisdom held that Jews were a race with a distinctive build and physiognomy”!

In the way, discovering the genes linked with disease will dramatically help the search for better treatment. “It’s very hard to develop treatments without actually having a clue what’s causing disease”, Altshuler said. “One of the most effective ways to determine that is to focus on groups of people with genetic similarities. Even though the percentage of the genome that varies from person to person is mere 0.1%, that still leaves 2 to 3 million nucleotides for researchers to sift through. The vast majority of those will be totally irrelevant to the disease in question.

So geneticists often study families, comparing family members who do have a disease, like cancer, with those who do not. Because family members share more genes than strangers do, some of the background noise is reduced, allowing scientists to narrow their search on the variations that might actually matter (it’s a lot easier to find one blue marble in a jar of red marbles than it is to find it in a jar of red, green and yellow marbles).

The result is that ethnic groups are useful to geneticists for two reasons. The first is that some diseases have become more concentrated in certain ethnic groups, making it easier to study sometimes rare diseases. Second, like studying families, studying ethnic groups minimizes the background genetic variation, allowing researchers to more easily identify genetic mutations relevant to disease.

Chicken soup brings one in close proximity with family members during meal times, and that’s a good thing, at least in the long term.

Also, chicken soup allows for lengthy conversations comparing grandmothers and mothers, and develops the amusing hyperchodria of eostrogen-hating, chicken-soup loving Jews.

Social benefits aside, key ingedient: Salt.

• Indeed most unequivocally, nutritious chicken soup found to be therapeutic. Particularly after recovery from childhood illnesses (as a rule contributing to the natural immunisation process). Convalescence from which, always started with the chicken bouillon in our home in Poland. Where in my recollection live chickens were bought at the local market. Unless home delivered by the farmers who didn’t use chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

Luckily organic, free range variety, didn’t ingest growth promoting hormones at the time, artificial yolk-colouring or antibiotics. Which makes kids to mature earlier, often ridden with allergies and resistant to the common antibiotics. While the eating raw eggs popularity, may pose a health risk these days. Hence the vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the sick, babies and pregnant women — should consume only eggs that have been cooked until the white and yolks are solid.

Many people believe that chicken, especially its white meat (breast of the chicken) is healthier to eat than dark meat. Consumption of which, risen dramatically over the last several decades, as more and more people made the switch. Yet birds raised for meat are often a product of the insatiable genetic manipulation. Which has drastically increased the most popular parts, poultry breast and thigh. Produced in a very rapid growth rate, that outstriped the development of their legs and organs.

p.s. Congratulations!