When the Rockettes stood
They did so as if on stage
One by one in turn
Others followed suit
Around “the House that Ruth Built”
And they raised their arms
The teams stood in awe
As they were thus encircled
By the new sports Wave
Inventors of the Wave, Yankee Stadium, New York City, July 4, 1947
Patience, It Turns Out, Is More Than a Virtue
We’ve all said it—“I’m running out of patience” or “I’m losing my patience.” Well, it has been determined that those and similar expressions have a basis in genetics.
Professor Lesnik van den Boom of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands has been awarded the Nobel Prize in science for his discovery of a “patience” gene.
Van den Boom’s research in this area began more than fifteen years ago, prompted by a question from one his students who asked, “Professor, is there a scientific explanation for various degrees of patience in people?”
His efforts progressed exponentially five years ago when van den Boom shifted the focus of his research from right brain/left brain analysis to genetics. And earlier this year, he identified the gene that is responsible for stimulating the patience response in humans. He named the gene Lil5, after his youngest daughter who, he says, “tests my patience every waking moment!”
Van den Boom told the International Herald Tribune, “We’re born with a finite amount of patience. Every time we exercise patience—that is, lose some—Lil5 produces replacement patience genetically. But those with a malfunctioning gene begin at a very young age to operate with a patience deficit and eventually are completely depleted.”
In accepting the Nobel Prize, van den Boom predicted that his discovery “has the potential to impact our understanding of virtually every area of human interaction. I expect Lil5 will be crucial in a re-examination of everything from temper tantrums to ADD, from road rage to football hooliganism. My hope is that this work will help to restore the loss of civility that has reached pandemic proportions.”
