Blog – My Name is Sydney Jo

Dolly

I don’t know why Dolly jumped into my head recently… but thinking about her made me consider a lot of other stuff as well.

Dolly was a Finnish Dorset sheep born in 1996 in Scotland, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. It was accomplished using cells originally destined for research on milk proteins in sheep. (For a fascinating description of the entire endeavour, check out this site.) Dolly actually had three mothers: her surrogate shown here, one that provided an egg with its nucleus removed, and one that provided a different nucleus with DNA inside – from a mammary gland. To honour the world of mammary glands, she was named after Dolly Parton.

“Dolly” was stunning worldwide news. I was 40 at the time and caught up in the many discussions about where science, and humanity, was headed. Recently, as I reviewed the story, my thoughts shifted to other significant scientific advances in the same realm, from DNA to stem cells.

Young Female Olympians: Are They Reaching for the Impossible?

In high school I competed in gymnastics, spending countless early-morning and after-school hours practicing and practicing and practicing. I never won anything but I loved everything about it. More importantly, I learned vast amounts about muscles and agility and the wondrous sensation of being supremely fit. I also learned about dedication. It gave me a different vantage point for watching other-worldly skills at the international level, where already unbelievable human achievements still get better and better.

A medal at the Olympics is the pinnacle of achievement. In 1976, at the age of 21, I watched 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci of Romania, with her tiny 4’11”, 83 lb frame, score several perfect “10”s in Montreal. I have since learned that she continued as a celebrity in her own country for years – but was never allowed to travel internationally (though others close to her could). There have also been written rumblings about poor treatment as a young athlete. Nadia defected in 1989 and made it to the USA where she has happily lived ever since.

Personal Computers

We’ve all seen photos of those monstrous computers taking up gymnasium-sized rooms in the early 1900s, constructed for the US Army using thousands of vacuum tubes. The name “computer” simply came from the “computing” that mathematicians, scientists, and engineers regularly performed during any complex calculations. Programming was by teams of specialists flipping switches in a neverending set-up of wires that were not connected to each other.

Knowledge progressed as it always does, and eventually the microprocessor (or CPU: Central Processing Unit) was developed – a miniature electronic device on a silicon chip, capable of holding everything needed to perform computer functions. It meant that a computer could be made small enough, cheap enough, and simple enough to meet the needs of an individual.

Is the End Nigh?

COVID-19

We usually drop the “19” these days: we are instead in 2022, with a fourth wave, rampant transmission, spiralling cases and a sense that we’ll never shake free.

It seems kind of “wrong” to be pondering topics from my past when I’m sitting here in the middle of a global crisis that no one alive has experienced before – living inside history one day at a time.

I’m Back

I see that my last entry here was 7 months ago, as Canada neared the end of the third wave of COVID-19. Summer had arrived, vaccinations were on the rise, and we were all feeling optimistic, cautiously socializing and enjoying a warm-weather modicum of normality. My summer got hectic and my writing time greatly curtailed. It became tough making space for it again.

Today we’re in the thick of a super-transmissible fourth wave that no one expected. Nevertheless, vaccinations are high and active illness low, so I feel confident that it’s the last gasp of this awful pandemic.

It is also nearly the two-year anniversary of when we met two of our sons and their families in Texas for a vacation. I clearly recall chatting about the news of the day which included the detection of a new coronavirus in China… and, well, the rest is history.