Subject: REVIEW: "The Miracle Strain", Michael Cordy

From: "Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan and Trevor" <[email-masked]>
Date: 04 Jun 1998 12:31:25 -0400

"The Miracle Strain" by Michael Cordy
	Review copyright 1998 Robert M. Slade

We got the old standard science versus religion schtick here, with a
search for a genetic basis for you-know-what two thousand year old healer,
plus a loony band of religious fanatics, and a thoroughly nasty assassin.

First in the technical lineup, we have genetic research.  Now, this is not
my field, but I do know enough to know that the Genescope, as proposed,
would not render the Human Genome Project obsolete.  The point of getting
a database of the genome is not simply to get a big long list of amino
acids, but also to know what they mean.  What happens when you replace
these ones?  What happens when you eliminate them?  The Genescope sounds
like it would make a first rate automated sequencer (de-sequencer?) and
would thus be a great help in the human Genome Project, but it would never
replace the project itself.

By the same token, this business of genes outside of the normal sequence
is difficult.  A great deal of genetic material appears to have no
particular purpose.  There is the standard joke that has geneticists
finally decode some of this material, only to find that some great long
string of codons reads "This space intentionally left blank."

The Gene Genie sounds reasonable, given a completed genome database.  It
could tell you hair and eye colour, height, bone structure, and genetic
diseases.  Wouldn't be able to give you much in the way of weight or hair
style, although I suppose it could tell you whether someone had a natural
wave.  Of course, this is assuming that you are trying to find an image of
a man.  If you've got a female set of genes, you *might* be able to
determine the height.

In terms of the data security stuff, there is no relation whatsoever to
reality.  None.  Zip.  Zero.  I'm sorry, you're wrong, but thanks for
playing and feel free to try again sometime when our topic is "viruses."
No, on second thought, don't.

This is someone who has seen too many movies or episodes of Tekwar or has
read too many books by William Gibson.  We have graphical interfaces at
the system level, security programs that helpfully identify themselves, no
audit trails, reprogramming of system security without bringing the system
down and imposed while the cracker is yet without the gates, security
software that helpfully gives you sixty seconds to rifle the vault before
kicking in, and security traps that lock you into the system and
presumably cause big claws to rise out of you keyboard and grab you so
that you can't pull the plug on the modem.  What we *don't* have is
companies in the same line of work being able to call each other and say
"Bonjour, Francois, how much for a query on your database for a sequence
we are looking for?"  "For you, a thousand francs."  "Thanks, I'll send
you an email with the string in fifteen minutes."

But what really struck me was a little problem of logic.  Let's say we
have an atheist trying to find genetic material from Jesus of Nazareth.
We don't have any particular problem with relics since an atheist would
not believe that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and
therefore would not have left bits behind.  Of course, fragments of the
"true cross" could be used to repopulate the Sahara Forest, but that is
only a problem in sampling size.  But since an atheist does not, pretty
much by definition, believe in miracles, then why go looking for genetic
material in transubstantiated wafers and the bleeding from stigmata?

This problem of religious topics really weakens the book severely.  Cordy
appears to be on the non-religious side, and gives us a reasonable, non-
supernatural, if somewhat facile, explanation.  (Good juju, kid.  How do
you get a protein to penetrate the skin and stimulate the body to repair a
massive trauma within less than a minute?  Never mind.)  Good denouement,
especially since it hoists the bad guys very much on their own petard, not
to mention hubris.  Then he gives us a real wimp out mystical anticlimax.

%A   Michael Cordy
%C   1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY   10019
%D   1997
%G   0-688-15508-1
%I   William Morrow & Co
%O   U$24.00/C$31.75 800-843-9389 [email-masked]
%P   367 p.
%T   "The Miracle Strain"