Feeling Old

I'm still a few months shy of my 40th birthday, but I've already started to feel very old. I've been involved in technology for most of my life, so the new gadgets don't usually phase me. I try not to be too closed-minded about music, and am wary of making snap judgments about people based on the number of piercings and tattoos that they have. So, I thought I was doing pretty well.

But then, culture shock: literally. I read last month that genetics experiments that won scientists Nobel prizes twenty years ago are now routinely performed by high school students. I was shocked, I had no idea that such sophisticated work could be done in high-school labs. I was jealous. I mean I want to play with DNA too.

And then, while wandering the aisles at Toys-'R'-Us, I found that, for $70, one can buy the CSI: DNA Laboratory. That's right. Your own little lab for doing 10 different DNA experiments. Comes with a working centrifuge and electrophoresis chamber. Electro-what? Eh? In my day we mixed stinky chemicals together to make something fizz, or combined a red liquid and a blue liquid to make a clear liquid. What's next? Build your own Space Elevator?