Flame Skimmer Dragonfly

John was outside wrangling hoses when he came in to tell me he had found a blip. This dragonfly was clinging to the wall near the faucet. It's not a beautiful blue or orange like most of the dragonflies around here, but it is much larger and more willing to be photographed.  It's quite hot today and perhaps it was feeling the heat.

I got a phone call from Arcata (far northern) California yesterday. I don't know anybody in Arcata, so I didn't answer it, but it turns out it was the dermatology clinic and they left a message. They have my biopsy results which is extraordinarily fast and also highly unusual to call on a weekend. They suggested that I call tomorrow to get the results. I intend to do that and also to see if there is any way somebody can do the surgery on this thing sooner. I'm afraid that if I wait until the scheduled date they might have to amputate my arm! Not really, but the doctor  wasn't kidding when  she said it was fast growing....

I tracked down my mis-delivered package and stopped by the neighbor's on the way home from our power walk to see if they had it. She did, and said they had been gone all week picking up their daughter from college in Arizona. She apologized for opening it but she didn't look at the address on the  package either. I'm not sure we should be responsible for re-delivering packages but it probably is the most efficient solution

At last this morning, a good story in the national news about a 9 1/2 month old baby with a very rare and always fatal genetic disease which was successfully treated with the custom gene editing technique called CRISPR. Dozens of researchers from the University of California put all research aside for months to deliver a clinical grade custom infusion in record time to save the life of the child, born in Philadelphia.  I've been reading about this technique, developed at Harvard, which can search DNA for the single defective gene among billions of others and destroy it. Here's a description of the first infusion.

On the morning of Feb. 25th the baby received the first infusion, a very low dose because no one knew how the baby would respond. He was in his crib (at the hospital) where he had lived his entire life. He was six months old and in the 7th percentile for his weight.


Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a gene editing researcher at the University of Pennsylvania monitored the two hour infusion, feeling , he said, both excited and terrified.


The baby slept through it. 

A wonderful story of a promising medical treatment, dedicated people all over the country burning the midnight oil to deliver it in time to save a very sick child. There are still trials ahead for him but the team of doctors is now planning his discharge home from the hospital.