Like most good cities, Madison sponsors an annual book festival. Last year’s program included fiction and non-fiction from local, national, and international authors, and my favorite event was the presentation by Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite.
Back in May, it would have been easy to believe I was reading science fiction when I saw the Wall Street Journal report about a newborn whose life was saved by a bespoke gene-editing therapy. It wasn’t science fiction; it was applied science of the CRISPR technology that corrected a genetic mutation that left the baby unable to produce enzymes necessary to properly digest proteins.
If you are younger than 80, it is likely that much of your work and personal communications experience has been shaped by the products of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). It may have started with early versions of MS-DOS, transitioned to Windows, limited exposure to the recently demised Skype, carries on with LinkedIn, and now ChatGPT. Microsoft is the air we breathe.
It seems I am one of the legions of readers who devour anything Michael Lewis writes the moment it is published. He started with Liar’s Poker back in 1989 but really gained a following with the publication of the soon-to-be-hit movies Moneyball and The Blind Side.