Orange Bowl

I normally do not watch college football; I might have missed many good games.  I watched Orange Bowl (Michigan vs Florida State) last night and they were no less exciting or scary (if you’re rooting for either one) than the Steelers-Ravins game last Sunday.

The lead changed twice the last 5 minutes of 4Q.  One couldn’t tell who was going to win until the last 36 seconds. Michigan fell behind (12 points at one time) until 1:57 left in 4Q when it took the lead (30:27) for the first time.

The Florida State threw a final touch-down with 36 seconds left in 4Q. Then there was some confusion that I couldn’t follow, apparently Michigan blocked the extra points and returned it for two points, but the final drive was intercepted and lost the game 33:32.

I was rooting for Michigan as their hospital in Ann Arbor was treating our son-in-law so nicely with all their expertise and kindness. But, for a game like this, there was no loser, both teams won.  As I often said, no one can script a good game like this; it took two good teams to make it happen.

Holiday greetings: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1980 and 2016

A very nice patient of mine gave me the copy of a whole page write up of our family in the Waynesburg newspaper, Democrat Messenger that was published on December 24, 1980.  She kept it all these 36 years and gave me the best Christmas gift last week.

The fond memory of 36 years ago calls for a re-enactment.  Joy is the photographer for the version of 2016 Christmas celebration.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1980 & 2016.

“Daughter of Empire” (Lady Pamela Hicks): Living through history

On August 25, 1942 Churchill sent a condolence on the death of Duke of Kent (brother of Edward VIII and George VI) who died of airplane crash on official mission.

“It is with the deepest sorrow that I learnt the news of your irreparable loss.  The Duke of Kent had endeared himself to all by charming nature and willingness to help & serve. . . In this hard war such stroke of fate fall upon many homes; and all dwell under the shadow.  From all these homes there flows to you today a tide of human sympathy & affection to which—though I know the useless of words—I wish to add my own feeling.  May you be granted the strength to bear the sorrow is the only prayer that we can utter.”

Duke of Kent

In “Daughter of Empire”, Lady Pamela Ducks mentioned this (as Duke of Kent was her godfather).  She didn’t mention the exact date of air crash; but it was one paragraph after we read,

“Every prisoner could work if he so wished.  Most helped on local farms. . . That August, 1943, it was all hands to the pump as grandmamma and I worked with them to bring in the harvest.” (You’ll be surprised at how extended royal families did for the war effort.)

But, Duke of Kent was killed on 8/25/1942.  Year mixed up notwithstanding, what we read as history was happening in her daily life.

“The war showed no sign of abating and tragedy struck when my godfather, the Duke of Kent, was killed in an air accident.  He had been on his way—in thick fog—to Iceland on an RAF mission, when the Sunderland flying boat in which he was being flown crashed into a Scottish hillside in Caithness.  I was very shocked by this news—he and his ADC, Michael Strutt, had stayed with us only two weeks earlier and now both men had been killed.  This was what was meant by the fragility of life, I thought, and I prayed that such a fate would not befall my father.”

Right after that she wrote,

When the British and American forces invaded French North Africa, I recorded optimistically in my diary, “The war news is wonderful—about Libya and Egypt.  Our forces have driven the German back over the Egyptian border.  We hope that the war over there is almost over.”  This hope was echoed by Winston Churchill in his dramatic speech the following day, words I turned over and over in my mind: “This is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Erwin Rommel in 1942

11/9/1942 Rommel was defending Sidi Barrani, 200 miles west of El Alamein, “now this is not the end,” Churchill declared in London at the annual Lord Mayor's Lunches on Nov. 10, “it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.” (Thus defeating Rommel in North Africa was the ‘end of the beginning’ of WWII.  I personally divid the WWII—European Theater—into three parts: Part I is North African Campaign; June 6 1944 D-Day is the beginning of Part III, anything between Part I and Part III is Part II, chiefly Italian Campaign.)

The Battle of Alamein (in Egypt) began on Oct. 23, 1942, Axis forces retreated from El Alamein on Nov. 4, turning the tide. The American Sherman tanks arrived in September 1942 and that made a great difference.

Of the numerous letters Rommel wrote to his wife, the one he wrote (10/28/42) during this Battle was particularly touching, in which he expressed the sad sentiment about whether he can survive this defeat, “Whether I would survive a defeat lies in God's hands.  The lot of the vanquished is heavy . . . My last thought is of you. . . After I am gone, you must bear the mourning proudly.”

Daughter of Empire: Tell the tales of ones who made the history

About three years ago I read a book review [Bookshelf] of “Daughter of Empire” in the Wall Street Journal, being an anglophile, I was naturally attracted to it as the author, Lady Pamela Hicks (now 87 years of age), is not only a British aristocrat, but also a Mountbatten. 

Battenberg was originally a German aristocrat.  During WWI, when King George V decreed that the royal family should anglicize their name, choosing Windsor, her grandfather changed his from Battenberg to Mountbatten.

Her father is Admiral Louis Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Philip (husband of Queen Elizabeth II) and a second cousin once removed of Elizabeth II. Reading WWII over the years, I paid attention to this Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command.  He was also the last Viceroy of India; so we’ll also read the stories happened in India.

She was the bridesmaid to then Princess Elizabeth at her 1947 wedding to Prince Philip (the great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria), her first cousin.  She was with this future Queen and Prince Philip in Kenya when King George VI died on Feb. 6, 1952.

Recently I checked out this ebook from Carnegie Library and immediately fell in love with it.  It tells the stories of those who made history in a lighthearted way; it is witty, amusing or at times brutally honest.

This is how her parents met. Ladies, pay attention to how to pose to get the image of beau monde chic.

“Tall, with the good looks of a Hollywood film star, my father was very much in demand. He was also in demand from the royal household, accompanying the Prince of Wales—the future King Edward VIII—as his personal aide-de-camp, on tours including Australia and, later, India and Japan. Grace Kelly once confided that she had always kept a photograph of my father before she met Prince Rainier. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, a fiercely rich American society hostess, nicknamed “the Kingfisher” for her relentless cultivation of European royalty, singled my father out as the perfect suitor for her only daughter. When she invited him to a tea party on her yacht off Cowes, my father was immediately smitten, falling helplessly in love at first sight. Only it wasn’t quite as Mrs. Vanderbilt had intended, for on board that afternoon was a gathering of young ladies, including Edwina Ashley, an effortlessly glamorous heiress, who had recently learned to stand with her hips pushed slightly forward, the very image of beau monde chic. With one hand on her slender hip, the charms of her gold bracelet glinting off the other in the sun, my father was at once dazzled and delighted. Although they had met a couple of times previously, they began to court in earnest, and when my father went to India with the prince, Edwina followed him, staying at the Viceregal Lodge. It became obvious to all that they were very much in love, so much so that the Prince of Wales lent them his sitting room so that my father could propose.”

Her parents got married at St. Margaret Church, sitting between Westminster Abbey and the House of Commons; it is the parish church of the House of Common.  In the Victory Prayer here on May 8, 1945, Churchill said, “That this House do now attend at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from threat of German domination.” Same scene was seen here at the end of WWI.

When you visited Westminster Abbey you will not miss St. Margaret.

St. Margaret's Church

“On 18 July 1922, they were married in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, tucked in the shadow of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square. It was the most talked-about society wedding of the year, and when my mother walked out on the arm of her dashing husband, beneath a naval arch of swords, they were congratulated by a host of royals, including King George V, Queen Mary, and the Queen Mother, Alexandra. At the sumptuous reception, the Prince of Wales gave the best man’s speech, where they stayed as guests of the very game Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who bore no grudges”

Su Tungpo: an incorrigible and hopeless optimist

Su Tungpo was an incorrigible and hopeless optimist.

Su Tungpo statue at Huichow

He was once convicted of disrespect of the Emperor through his poems, for which he was jailed for nearly five months.  There were many exiles in his life time. He was once exiled to Huichow; Chaoyun went with him.  He was contented and used all his saving to build a new house ready to settle down, then Chaoyun died before the house was completed.

Two months after the completion of the new house, “he had written two lines describing his beautiful nap in the spring wind, listening to the temple bells at the back of the house.”  When Chang Chun [the chief persecutor] read the verse, he remarked, ‘So! Tungpo is having a good time!’ Thereupon the order for the new exile was issued.”  This is how Su ended up exiling to the island of Hainan, outside the mainland of China.

“Bless are those who are deprived of the good things of this earth!  It was this type of humor that enabled Su Tungpo to be happy and contented wherever he was.  Later, when he was exiled outside China where no medicine and doctor was available, he told his friends, “When I think how many people at the capital are annually killed by doctors I must congratulate myself.”

Thomas Jefferson also didn’t have the confidence of the medical practice in his days.  While designing the curriculum for the University of Virginia he founded, he confined medical studies to theory only.  He called the medical practice “the charlatanism of the body,” as he called religion “the charlatanism of the mind.”

Voltaire also didn’t have kind words for the medical doctors, “Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.”

Chaoyun (朝雲) Wang: The other woman in Su Tungpo’s (蘇東坡, 蘇轍) life

Chaoyun (朝雲, morning cloud) Wang was a very important woman in Su Tungpo’s life, inspiring many exquisite poems even after her untimely death.

Chaoyun Wang died young presumably of malaria according to Lin Yutang.  “A devout Buddhist, she said a Buddhist gatha (verse) from the Diamond Sutra (金剛經) before she drew her last breath.”

A good friend sent me a Youtube of 蔣勳 talking about Su Tungpo (寂寞沙洲冷) in which he said Su Tungpo recited Diamond Sutra (金剛經) for Chaoyun as she was dying.  It doesn’t matter who read the Diamond Sutra; I guessed both read.

Su Tungpo statue in Hangchow

This reminds me of the scene when William Pitt (one of the greatest statesmen the British Empire ever produced) was dying; his son was reading to him from Homer the solemn scene of Hector’s funeral and the deep despair of Troy.

蔣勳’s talk about Su Tungpo (寂寞沙洲冷) is an excellent complement to the reading of Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius; it is a bit over two hours; but it will be worth your while.

蔣勳：寂寞沙洲冷   https://youtu.be/XcE9_Q50FXE

Su Tungpo wrote three exquisite poems in praise of the two plum trees in the yard.  The plum flower blossomed a few months after Chaoyun died.  Seeing the white plum flowers in the glamor of the moonlight, dim and hazy in appearance, the other worldly beauty is that of Chaoyun, now lying in the grave, Su Tungpo was inspired to write the following poem in praise of the plum flower and Chaoyun.

玉骨那愁瘴霧，        Bones of jade, flesh of snow,

冰姿自有仙風。        May thy ethereal spirit stand unafraid,

海仙時遣探芳叢。    Though the dark mist and the swamp wind blow. May the sea sprites attend thee,

倒掛綠毛麼鳳。        The paroquets and cockatoos befriend thee.

素面翻嫌粉，            Thy white face doth powder spurn;

洗妝不褪唇紅。        Vermilion must yet from thy lips learn. (Flesh of snow, bones of jade,)

高情已逐曉雲空。    Dream thy dreams, peerless one.

不與梨花同夢。        Not for this world thou art made.

In his Youtube talk about Su Tungpo, 蔣勳 said Su Tungpo brought a courtesan home, saying she was an intelligent, gifted and accomplished courtesan, but that was not the case, according to Lin Yutang.  We read in The Gay Genius,

The Gay Genius

“There is no record that Su Tungpo became enamored of any of the courtesans [官妓].  He enjoyed the gay parties and ‘fooled around’ with women enough to be a ‘good fellow,’ not enough to take a mistress.”

“When Su Tungpo moved from Hungchow to Michow, his wife had bought a very intelligent maid of twelve, by the name of Chaoyun, who was to become most important in the life of Su Tungpo.

It was about this time that the poet took Chaoyun as his concubine.  Chaoyun, as we remember, was a maid of twelve when Mrs.Su bought her at Hangchow, and in the terminology of the Sung period, one could speak of her as “Mrs. Su’s concubine (chieh, 妾), although this would not make sense in English.  It was quite usual in ancient China for a wife’s maid to be promoted to the position of “concubine.”  Such a concubine was the wife’s assistant in every sense of the word, and for a wife who attended to her husband’s personal comforts, such as preparing him a bath, a conbubine had certain advantages over a maid in not having to avoid the husband’s presence.  Chaoyun had grown up now.  She was a remarkably intelligent girl, and admirers of the poet are inclined to glamorize her.  Some even write about her as if she had been an accomplished courtesan in Hangchow when Su Tungpo brought her into the family.  Careful research proves that this was not the case.  On the poet’s own testimony, Chaoyun learned to read and write only after coming into his house. Her popularity with Chinese admirers of the poet is deserved because it was she who followed him to his exile in his old age.”

Gene editing (CRISPR): Thing to watch and thing to come !?

The other day I talked to our daughter, Janice, about my reading of the development of monoclonal antibody (from historical perspective) and its impact on current clinical medicine.  She alerted me the CRISPR, which is basically a gene editing.

There are two components of gene editing: One is Cas9 enzyme which cuts DNA and the other is a snippet of RNA that guides the molecular scissor to where the researcher wants to cut, using the complementary DNA-RNA sequences.  As the RNA sequences can be custom made, so the scientists can cut the DNA as he/she pleases.

While reading gene editing, my mind went right to sickle cell anemia.  In 1957 (at Cambridge U Cavendish Lab, supported by Max Perutz and Francis Crick) Vernon Ingram discovered the replacement of Glutamic acid by Valine at 6th position of β-globin chain of sickle cell HbS as predicted by Linus Pauling.

In an article published in Science (11/25/1949), Linus Pauling demonstrated the hemoglobin from ones with sickle cell anemia has a different electrophoretic mobility from that of a healthy individual.  Pauling’s quick mind led him to suggest that the difference was the result of different ionizable amino acids sequence.

Pauling was indeed correct.  A replacement of a single amino acids in hemoglobin can wreak such havoc.  The life as we know it is so precise.  This is why medicine has to be exact and precise that science calls for.

This is how sickle cell anemia was the first disease confirmed to be the molecular disease.  Vernon Ingram (born in Germany, left for England, repulsed by Hitler Nazi, spent some years in Rockefeller Institute and Yale U.) was touted as the father of molecular medicine; I would call Pauling the grandfather of molecular medicine.

I initially got excited that gene editing would be the ideal way to “cure” sickle cell anemia by re-replacing the Glutamine back to the position 6 of β-globin chain.  Then I read the news of a gene-editing (CRISPR) summit in December 2015, convened by U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, Chinese Academy of Science and Royal Society of London.   The summit statement calls for cautious development of medical applications such as correction of the mutation that cause sickle cell anemia or modification of immune cells to target cancer.

This is almost tantamount to a moratorium to ban the gene editing research.  You may be interested in reading the story of “Sidney Brenner and the lift of the ban on recombinant DNA research” that I posted in 2011.  Brenner is about 90 now, this may stir this “lion in winter” again.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/04/sydney-brenner-and-lift-of-ban-on.html

It is still difficult to predict the use of gene editing in clinical medicine, not only when, but also “if” (can be used).  Scientific progress is inexorable; the research must go on, although caution indeed has to be exercised as we’re tinkering with the “Language of God”.

CRISP (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a prokaryotic immune system, a way how bacteria acquire “acquired immunity”.  Cas9 was the first nuclease discovered. The scientists got the idea of gene editing by studying how bacteria work to confer resistance to foreign genetic elements.