TGISa

Today I worked longer than I normally would on a weekday and there was no let-up, but that was OK. Made some extra money. Though I didn't ask for it, they bought me a veggie wrap with a field green salad, hummus and toasted pita bread wedges for dipping. I had brought my own food but ended up eating the thing anyway--I got hungry and it was sitting right there in front of me. Not impressed with the wrap but the hummus was excellent and the salad tasty. (I'd have ordered a burger or anything but a veggie wrap if they'd have asked me what I wanted.) They got the food from the Hotel Intercontinental, which is part of the complex. (BTW, I was working for, let's call him, Mr. Fiordiligi.) I get along well with him, he likes my work, and I was there pretty much at his request, even though I'd balked at arriving at 9. He was OK with my showing up at 10. I had to take the bus since I don't much trust the truck these days, and the express bus doesn't run on the weekends. (I plan on having the truck serviced this Friday, which I'm taking off.) Fiordiligi was very gracious today.

Here's a fascinating article ("Darwin's Surprise" by Michael Specter) in the Dec. 3 New Yorker about retroviruses in our genetic make-up and the role they could play in eradicating AIDS:

It takes less than two per cent of our genome to create all the proteins necessary for us to live. Eight per cent, however, is composed of broken and disabled retroviruses, which, millions of years ago, managed to embed themselves in the DNA of our ancestors. They are called endogenous retroviruses, because once they infect the DNA of a species they become part of that species. . . .

[N]othing provides more convincing evidence for the “theory” of evolution than the viruses contained within our DNA. Until recently, the earliest available information about the history and the course of human diseases, like smallpox and typhus, came from mummies no more than four thousand years old. Evolution cannot be measured in a time span that short. Endogenous retroviruses provide a trail of molecular bread crumbs leading millions of years into the past. . . .

There are several possible ways to interpret the data, but the one favored by the researchers is that because humans developed an effective defense against one virus, PtERV, at about the time we split off from the chimps, five million years ago, we were left vulnerable to a new one, H.I.V. “If we can develop a drug that acts the same way the monkey version of this protein acts—so that it recognizes H.I.V. and neutralizes it—we could have a very effective therapy,’’ Malik said. Both he and Emerman stressed that this day will not come soon. “First, we have to establish what part of TRIM5a is actually responsible for protecting monkeys against H.I.V.,” Malik said. “Then we would have to try and make it as a drug”—and one that the human body won’t reject. “The challenge is to find out how little you can change the human version and still make it effective against H.I.V." . . .