Jumping in- chapter 11 from the Code breaker

Taking notes during reading books is a good habit to cultivate. I am initiating myself. It is a great idea to get along with.

I finished reading chapter 11 of this book and as I reflected back to the idea of this section , I realised that the author had used the section to describe three central ideas or person - Blake Wiedenheft, Martin Jinek and Cas 1. Appreciating the authorship for his beautiful discription of the characters may become unnecessary and repetitive. 

Blakes youth with his adventures and world wide experience reminded me of Charles Darwin. It reconfirms the role of an attentive mind in wild persuit of ideas and nature's magic. The visits to hotsprings in search for thermophilic organisms was familiar but I had never taken interest in the idea. Today read reminded me to search for more and I was thrilled to both see the organisms and how they have been applied in industry. I checked out from a young engineer friend of mine and was excited to know more. 

The authors note how Prof Doudua was struck by Blakes enthusiasm about the work ON Cas 1. - supposedly suggesting the need to keep updated with ideas as it exists today to be ready for a research proposal of tomorrow. There is a significant difference between a person who enjoys science and one who reveals science. The later is a person who is updated and hence thrives on the edge of the known and yet to be known. And I realised that I'd the crucial difference. In my personal experience, the burden of information is a difficult deterrent as is the feeling of comfort after a thrilling idea understood. I have stopped too many time on the way. Young minds should keep abreast in their area of interest and keep brewing the idea till the opportunity comes to work on. 

It was interesting to see how Blake chose to approach the top notch lab in the field and start work. It must have been quite an effort and hubris to go ahead and ask a senior faculty of the field ' ...any idea what is CRISPR?'

The notes on the young Martin Jinek was equally thrilling. Crystallography has too many stories to be mentioned here- from Breg , Rosalind and many others , Martin was another of them. I am excited to read further about his contributions as the story evolves. Martin was the star of this chapter because he was able to determine the crystal structure of one particular enzyme thus showing how it was able to cut the messenger RNA.

Interestingly, the author notes, Jinek and Blake with different backgrounds and personalities became complimentary particles. The attribution the ' particle ' must be very specific and probably revealed later, but the idea of complimentary capabilities appears to repeat it self in the progress of scientific discovery too often to be ignored.

The chapter end with a beautiful discription of Cas 1. It was a fold in the molecule that became so important. I wonder how the team must have interpreted the discovery since the mechanisms must have followed later. Proteins structure definition and later configurations of DNA and RNA has been described since long. Further reading appears to be necessary.

It was wonderful to read and write on this article.

Pratyush Chaudhuri