jurassic park

I say this again and again: it could be my motto! The phrase comes from a moment in the movie Jurassic Park, in which Jeff Goldblum’s character Dr. Ian Malcolm derides the idea that life can be controlled just by breeding lysine-dependent animals. (Later when they find the dinosaur eggs hatched in the wild, he’s proved right) The awful truth is that Life (with a capital L) will always find a way round Man’s attempts to thwart and control it. That’s very Nature of life. It’s what it means to be alive. That alone should tell these dumb scientists that cold, chemical molecules are NOT the source of life. Neo-Darwinism is dead, not vitalism. Life is just very clever and cunning. Scientists suffer a surfeit of arrogance and stupidity when they begin to believe they understand ANYTHING.

I say this again and again: it could be my motto! The phrase comes from a moment in the movie Jurassic Park, in which Jeff Goldblum’s character Dr. Ian Malcolm derides the idea that life can be controlled just by breeding lysine-dependent animals. (Later when they find the dinosaur eggs hatched in the wild, he’s proved right) The awful truth is that Life (with a capital L) will always find a way round Man’s attempts to thwart and control it. That’s very Nature of life. It’s what it means to be alive. That alone should tell these dumb scientists that cold, chemical molecules are NOT the source of life. Neo-Darwinism is dead, not vitalism. Life is just very clever and cunning. Scientists suffer a surfeit of arrogance and stupidity when they begin to believe they understand ANYTHING.

We shouldn’t be concerned about a lethal virus that jumped species, we are told. Why ever not? It’s a terrifying thought. A virus that can do that poses no real threat, said a spokesperson. Well, that guy is a fool or a liar. If a virus can jump from one species to another (we’ll come to the details in a moment), then nobody is safe and the idea that there is “no threat” is stupid beyond measure. In fact it’s deliberate disinformation. Presumably the authorities or boffins think that people are too stupid to be told the truth. Or the authorities are too stupid to TELL the truth? What got me started on this is a new report on a 2009 outbreak of lethal monkey virus that took place at the University of California, Davis. The virus jumped to a new species—the New World titi monkey—and wiped out over 80% of them. This particular virus did also happen to infect humans but was actually non-fatal. So “no cause to worry”? Only if you like the idea of jumping out of an aeroplane at 10,000 feet without using a parachute!

We shouldn’t be concerned about a lethal virus that jumped species, we are told. Why ever not? It’s a terrifying thought. A virus that can do that poses no real threat, said a spokesperson. Well, that guy is a fool or a liar. If a virus can jump from one species to another (we’ll come to the details in a moment), then nobody is safe and the idea that there is “no threat” is stupid beyond measure. In fact it’s deliberate disinformation. Presumably the authorities or boffins think that people are too stupid to be told the truth. Or the authorities are too stupid to TELL the truth? What got me started on this is a new report on a 2009 outbreak of lethal monkey virus that took place at the University of California, Davis. The virus jumped to a new species—the New World titi monkey—and wiped out over 80% of them. This particular virus did also happen to infect humans but was actually non-fatal. So “no cause to worry”? Only if you like the idea of jumping out of an aeroplane at 10,000 feet without using a parachute!