BIOMEDICINE: Tales of Survival

Repeated TALEs

Three recent papers, published just weeks apart, describe the use of fluorescent TALEs to tag specific DNA sequences in live cells and, in one case, also in fixed cells, the latter with potential clinical applications.

The Role of Ethics in Cognition and Sociological Analysis of Traditional Oral Tales (Folk Tales) of Isfahan Province Popular Culture

Background: Isfahan, with a history of several thousand years, is a unique treasure of folklore and culture, and oral stories among its people are one of the oldest examples of thinking and imagination of the people of this province, which shows their quality and mental issues and sorrow. It is a valid and useful document of the social history of these people. This study aims to investigate the...

Bacteriophage tales

A correspondent has asked me about the origins of a legend which has become known as 'The phage in the letter'. Common to all variants of this story is the following: one scientist, called X, sends a request to another, Z, for a particular bacteriophage strain which Z has discovered. Z replies saying he is not sending it out. X thereupon plates out the letter and retrieves the phage from it. So...

Pathogenetic tales

A little over twenty years ago, a group of scientists assembled in Asilomar, California, to consider the consequences of the newly invented techniques of genetic engineering, or recombinant DNA, as it later came to be called. There was in place a moratorium recommended by scientists and which we, working for the UK's Medical Research Council, had been instructed to heed by the Secretary of the ...

Tropical Biomedicine