At the Jackson Laboratory, mouse genetics is everything. That's what they're built on, the premise of non-profit research doubling as the nation's "interesting mice" repository. And for a week or two here, I've had the privelege to sit in on a course while they invite the top mouse geneticists of the day to come and give little 90-minute lectures to instruct us, the mouse geneticists of tomorrow. So I got to see what could be a revolutionary breakthrough in technology, though others might heartily disagree. Recombineering is a technique that makes large-scale DNA manipulations a little bit easier, but a whole lot more interesting. If some of its promising areas work out right -- and it is a big if -- recombineering could become a standard set in genetics labs for the next generation.

But it's been around for a year or more, and the kits have already been sent out to labs across the world. Things don't catch on so easily in biology. True, one year isn't that much in the research world. So why do I call it revolutionary? Perhaps it's the elegance of the design, or the wide range of possible applications, or the attractive placement of human mutations in the mouse. Or, perhaps, I'm naive. It remains, however, my prediction that this will be a watershed event in biology; not as much as, say, PCR, but a major step towards saving time and resources. It'll be slow in acceptance because the idea sounds a little crazy and the old way seems to work fine. I'm just happy to watch it from the ground level as it cranks through the mysterious beaurocracy that is the biology community. It could go either way.  ¶ 10:19 PM

  I added a disclaimer to my essay on the MEG device. A reader kindly pointed out to me that I didn't do enough research, and he was right. I certainly don't have time to do any more research, hence the disclaimer rather than a rewrite.  ¶ 4:52 PM

  Turns out there are other skeptical blogs out there. Here's one, someone who found my blog and exchanged links: www.nakedwriting.com. He's got some interesting stuff on there, as well as links to other skeptical blogs. I didn't know there were so many of us... Maybe it'll inspire me to write some more. Or not, who knows?  ¶ 10:48 AM