Category: Uncategorized
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Each year, 130,000 Americans are hospitalized and 3,000 die of contaminated food. That’s an annual 9/11. Where is the public outcry? Where are the federal dollars to fight these microbial terrorists? For the first time since the Reagan era of deregulation, when meat inspectors were cut back to walk-through level, and cattle were allowed to…
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I must note that my imaginative take on Rita Levi-Montalcini was based on details from her remarkable autobiography, In Praise of Imperfection. For instance, she really did set up a lab in a country cottage and hid her Zeiss microscope downstairs during the air raid. In her autobiography she makes frequent mention of her family,…
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The formidable Italian neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini died today at the age of 103. Below is an abridged scene from The Highest Frontier where Jenny and Anouk visit her in a gameworld. Ahead, a patch of light poked through the trees. A path led to a small wooden cottage. Jenny and Anouk approached cautiously. A broken…
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For an advanced assignment, my Bio Sci Fi students had to plot the rate of change of this alien population (above) and tell a story of the population. Here are some examples. (1) “An organism experiencing step-wise growth: The Higleybite. First discovered at Kenyon College, the Higleybite lives in the intestinal tract of Kenyon students…
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The first time the Knox County Gay-Straight Alliance was approved to march in Mount Vernon’s traditional holiday parade, the one where red and green dressed Rotarians and farmers toss candy to the children lining the streets (and their parents let them pick it up from the muddy pavement), we asked the parade organizers: What is…
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If you’re tired of electronic jingles and Darth Vader Santas (no kidding, the centerpiece of our local Hallmark store) why not enjoy some natural holiday decorations? For instance, this party-colored lobster, Galathea pilosa, courtesy of The Featured Creature. Or what could be more ornamental than this nudibranch, Chromodoris sphoni. I can’t even guess which end…
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Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis are easy to culture, and they look pretty, but there’s a reason why I cannot own them as a private citizen and keep them in my home. Similarly, there is a reason why some kinds of weapons must not be owned and kept at home.
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The news is out that HIV-derived lentiviruses are saving lives. Like the Human Improvement Vector in The Highest Frontier we see lentiviruses (now called lentivectors) carry life-saving genes into human genomes. A decade before, the intelligent AZ-loving micros in Brain Plague prefigured this possibility. What makes lentivectors so promising is precisely the property that makes HIV so…
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During our final week of BIOL 103 Biology in Science Fiction, we are considering when biology intersects with our awareness in ways that may shock us. Where do we draw the line? Some students pointed to Damien Hirst‘s latest biological artwork, which consumed 9,000 butterflies. Is this beyond the pale? Or are we hypocritical to…
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This classic New Yorker cartoon by Paul Noth sums up what a lot of us feel about the so-called Fiscal Cliff. Most people know by now (as my students point out indignantly) that even lemmings don’t actually jump off the cliff to destroy themselves–they just think they can swim across. And, being strong swimmers, they…
Joan Slonczewski 