Genes, Environment, and Loss of Lung Function in Premature Infants.

In the fourth verse of the 1978 best-selling song entitled "The Gambler," Kenny Rogers sings, "Every gambler knows that … every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser…." To some extent this gambler's knowledge is a close analogy to the play of chance that all of us experience at the moment of meiosis when "crossing over" occurs and we are given our somatic chromosomal makeup. At that point, Mother Nature has dealt us our hand; from that moment forward, it is environmental exposures that shape our destiny.