John’s Blog

I’ve been getting more interested in biotech lately — realized that there are lots of things happening in the world that have a high potential to affect my life (and my wife’s & son’s) that I know pretty close to nothing about. I almost didn’t read this book because the title was so lousy — but that would have been a shame, because it was a really interesting read.

The beginning is a basic overview of biotech, then the author launches into a series of profiles of the most important people in biotech to date — he likens each to an archetypal figure:

• Douglas Melton — Prometheus
• Cynthia Kenyon — Eve
• Francis Collins — Paul
• Craig Venter — Faustus
• James Watson — Zeus
• Sydney Brenner — Puck
• Paul Berg — Moses

Additionally, he talks throughout the book about the ethical questions of particular types of biotech.

Very intersting & provocative book, and used short words for biology that a software nerd like me can understand.

This is a book about the rise of American wine to world class status. Sort of a boring read, honestly. But learned a few tidbits. Like this: in the 19th century, (bad) American wine was marketed as a temperance solution — less alcoholic & insidious than the hard stuff. And I never really thought about it, but the 18th Amendment, establishing Prohibition, meant that America’s alcohol-related industries didn’t really start until the 1930s, and didn’t gain a ton of momentum until the 50s. Fortified wine was a big deal; Thunderbird was a huge seller, and the world didn’t really think much of American wine until the 70s, at the earliest. I guess  the other thing that it made me think about is that the global wine industry is a living, changing thing — looks different now than it did even 5 years ago, prior to 9/11.

Not a fantastic book, but not bad if you’re interested in this type of thing.