Scalpel tales

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.

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 ...

Scalpel and Sword

The Harmonic Scalpel.

Any laparoscopic surgery demands appropriate surgical instruments. Most surgeons nowadays have adapted to this different form of surgery and have particular preferences for certain types of graspers, dissectors and cutting instruments. The general component of laparoscopic instrument includes the hand grip, shaft, jaw and the tip. The harmonic scalpel is a surgical instrument used to simultaneo...