This is a large opening in the occipital bone of the cranium through which the medulla oblongata (an extension of the spinal cord enters and exits the skull vault. in humans, it is farther underneath the head than in other great apes.

The human genome project is devoted to mapping the general dna sequence of our species. this could lead to the development of new medicines, as well as the possibility of using gene therapy to treat certain diseases. however, there are some ethical issues surrounding the mapping of individual genomes. one concern is a) that your genes may change over time, making the project useless. b) that insurance companies could discriminate based on genetic make-up. c) that since this has never been done before, we should probably not do it now. d) that sequencing our individual genomes is so expensive, it is a counter-productive strategy.