The Competition for Immortality

[Octavia]

Belatedly, I caught up with LL for a few weeks and wanted to say I really liked the short story by Pippa Goldschmidt. I liked the smart-arsed tone of the protagonist and how she got her come-uppance. Very effortless use of language.

Couldn''t help noticing, more metaphors about neurons. It seems to be a popular choice. I guess it is a very evocative idea for non-biologists to play with.

[The Prof]

I liked the story, but wonder if she really could have introduced all those samples without causing bacterial contamination to a lot of them. But this is me being pedantic scientist bore!

[pippag]

hi Prof
yesss - this is due to my lack of understanding of biology. Jenny pointed this out to me and I tried to tweak the story to make it less of a problem.
Did it interfere with your reading of the story? When does a desire for accuracy become pedantry? I've actually blogged about this - see http://pippagoldschmidt.blogspot.com/20 ... chive.html

cheers
Pippa G.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Hi Pippa!

Great to see you here. We've talked about this here before, when Curry decided that a Lagrange point was a hill rather than a well (with which I agree, but the poetry required a well).

I think, your story as a case study, that certain things aren't pedantry. A tissue scrape as in the story would bring off more bacteria than human cells, and bacteria are a *big* problem for cell biologists. But if you'd said, say, that you used penicillin to treat a staph infection then someone who pointed out that you'd be better off using ampicillin would be a pedant.

That's what I think, anyway

[Octavia]

Welcome Pippa! Well done on the story.

Well, the narrator did 'rinse' the samples, and any way all cell lines start from the body, so it must be possible if you are careful and you use antibiotics.

It didn't interfere at all with my enjoyment.

[tideliar]

Hi Pippa, personally I let it slide. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all. In fact last night I was trying to encourage people to come visit Lablit and I was telling them about your story. I loved it.

[Joao]

I didn't notice it until the Prof brought it up! That is what Profs are for, after all.
Does it change anything? Only as much as realizing some twist a movie director did to make the story work better after I had enjoyed the movie. There is suspension of desbelief it ALL fiction, after all.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

Hi Pippa, personally I let it slide. It didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all.

That's 'cos you're not a scientist any more.

[tideliar]

Ooh! SNAP!

[Beatrice]

FWIW it didn't bother me at all. The narrator knows what she's doing - I imagined her just doing things properly without worrying about exactly how, because it was just a throwaway line.

I loved the thing about the eye simulation and it not blinking. It was - somehow just terribly creepy, and felt like a wonderful symbol, but of something inscrutable that I couldn't put my finger on exactly. Which for me is better than something more explicit.

[tideliar]

Ditto! Very cool metaphor...thingy...