The Code Breakers by Walter Isaacson

On By Rick McIn books, good news, health & fitness, movies, science, things getting betterLeave a comment

Have you heard of CRISPR?

(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contributions in the development of a method for genome editing.

It’s called the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.

Based on how bacteria fights off virus attackers, in future CRISPR will be used to fight coronavirus variations.

Click PLAY or see how it works on YouTube.

Most people my age know about Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. But I certainly couldn’t explain anything about CRISPR before reading this book.

Once again, Walter Isaacson made a complex story entertaining with this 2021 biography:

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.

When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.

The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. …

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

simon and schuster

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The first half of the book is the story. Very entertaining.

Then it gets better.

A detailed look at the drama over WHO wins the awards. WHO gets the patents.

Of course there are many other scientists who could have and should be lauded for breakthroughs in this field. They are covered in the biography, as well.

Most worthy — perhaps — is Feng Zhang. But he and his boss Eric Lander come off as BAD GUYS in this book, unethical in their collaborations.

ONE bit of good news. When COVID-19 was announced early 2020, both Zhang’s and Doudna’s companies changed research priorities towards developing CRISPR-based coronavirus tests. Both were successful and both hope to make simple at-home tests ready for market in 2021: Sherlock and Mammoth.

The most entertaining of the CRISPR giants is geneticist George Church. When the movie is made, he’ll be the fan favourite.

Emmanuelle Charpentier is an intriguing personality, as well. I’d read her biography.

The Irregulars – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

In this adaptation, Sherlock is a pathetic, incompetent, egomaniac opium addict. A has-been.

Dr Watson might be a bad guy.

Sounded fantastic.

A group of street teenagers — the Baker Street Irregulars — working to save London from supernatural elements.

BUT … it’s not nearly as good as I hoped.

Still … Thaddea Graham as Bea almost made it worth watching. She has star charisma.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – Meet Thaddea Graham – the talented young star dominating Netflix fantasy

What Nations come out of COVID-19 Strongest?

On By Rick McIn education, ethics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

There’s an argument that governments should have let the pandemic run its course. Kept most things open as Sweden did at the beginning. More early deaths, more illness, more long long-haul side effects.

Leaders leaning this way include Trump, Nicaragua’s Ortega, Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Mexico’s Obrador, Belarus’s Lukashenko, Turkmenistan’s Berdimuhamedow, Cambodia’s Hun Sen, Tanzania’s Magufuli.

Populists pandering to their dumbest voters.

When the pandemic ends we’ll be able to calculate which nations survived best: economically, educationally, healthiest. It won’t be any of those nations. They will include New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, Senegal, Denmark, Saudi Arabia.

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Quite good.

This is a book about the women of Australia in the early 1840s.

I liked best the story line of Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who was adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison.

After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony established by Great Britain. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.

During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon.

Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel — a skilled midwife and herbalist – is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors. …

christinabakerkline.com

Kim’s Convenience – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

I finally got around to trying this show — and was pleasantly surprised.

Figuring it would be something similar to Corner Gas, it turned out to be much more than just another sitcom.

Season 1 episode 1 deals with Gay rights in a funny way.

Season 1 episode 2 deals with sexual harassment in the workplace … in a funny way.

Social commentary through comedy. I like it.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is clearly the star of the show. A modern day Korean Archie Bunker.

But I like Janet (Andrea Bang) and her TV brother Jung (Simu Liu) , as well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Mount Royal University pandemic LOCKDOWN

On By Rick McIn videoLeave a comment

Police brought me home when I was a kid. Brian and I were caught climbing the construction site of what’s now Mount Royal University in Calgary. We jumped from … 3 FLOORS DOWN, the cops told our parents.

Over the decades, Mount Royal’s been my coffee shop and office. Just 5 minutes walk from my brother’s place in Glamorgan, the neighbourhood where I grew up.

It’s bizarre and eerie to see the huge complex deserted. Unsettling. Like some dystopian science fiction movie.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Best for me is the audio.

I’m still studying and practicing video editing almost every day.

This one includes several (new to me) techniques:

  • colours: white & sterile, progresses to golds, and finishes with optimistic multi-colours
  • deliberately tilting videos 5-10 degrees to convey … something is wrong
  • rapid zoom introduction montage

Canadian Vaccine Passport?

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

Though Trudeau is worried about unintended side effects, vaccine passports are inevitable for some months and years to come. International airlines will require them, for example.

About 250k Canadians have already downloaded the most popular app — so far:

CANImmunize app

High privacy standards.

The app is available for free on iOS and Android devices and on the web at canimmunize.ca.

I manually added my 1st COVID vaccine. That can’t be in any way official.

But governments may eventually adopt this app for travel. I’ll be ready.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Another great Adrian McKinty book.

He’s one of my favourite authors.

#6 in the Sean Duffy series (2019).

Duffy is now a father. Less self-destructive than ever.

He’s cutting down on booze and cigarettes.

Belfast, 1988.

A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house.

This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave. …

Amazon

The audio version is best as reader Gerard Doyle is superb.

Click PLAY or listen it on YouTube.

The title comes from a Tom Waits song called Cold Water.

Staying Quiet helps the Oppressor

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, human rightsLeave a comment

Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. 

Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered.

Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be killed in the gas chambers.

Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. …

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Quote by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller