Life on the Edge question

“Life on the Edge” -The Fabric and Integrity of Science : Political correctness would expect that what I have to say here be self-censored……My enjoyment of an otherwise well written book by Al-Khalili and McFadden was dulled by their failure to cite pioneering scientists who broke the very ground on which they are preparing to build. I point out the following: …A. The first articulation that the “living organism is quantum coherent” was outlined in a most remarkable and original book by Dr Mai-Wan Ho first published in 1993 - “ The Rainbow and the Worm- The Physics of Organisms”. This book went through multiple print runs, and editions, and is a science best seller . It is amongst the most original I have ever read. It should have been cited in many places in "Life on the Edge". Indeed I am not alone in this judgement - Mai–Wan was awarded the Ilya Prigogine Prize in 2014 for her work in the “ The Rainbow and the Worm”. …B. The second error involves my own work on Lamarckian modes of inheritance in both somatic and germ line cells. There is a modern literature, prior to John Cairn’s work in the immune system on Lamarckian Inheritance based on RNA intermediates, reverse transcription and, the direct penetration of Weismann’s Barrier in particular . John Cairns failed to cite our prior work despite the clear evidence he was aware of the priority. Following mediation between Frank Fenner and Howard Temin, the editor of Nature , John Maddox, published the Steele & Cairns Letter. Howard Temin found it necessary to correct the scientific record at that time with his Nature article. My colleagues in Canberra and Sydney also jointly signed a letter published in "Immunology & Cell Biology". …..It is beholden on scientists that follow to maintain the integrity of the literature - and to correct the record when it is pointed out to them. I trust Al-Khlili and McFadden will find a way of dealing with these issues of priority and the historical scientific record in future editions of “Life on the Edge"…..I sign off illustrating the importance of understanding prior work Thus our detailed work on strand-biased somatic mutation and related signatures led to break throughs in understanding cancer and diagnosis. The non-randomness of somatic hypermutation displays targeted codon-context of rogue deamination of DNA at transcription bubbles (Lindley , 2013). This moves the field into an entirely new ball game ie. there exists in-frame DNA reader exists in the nucleus coupled to the transcription apparatus that monitors the in-frame integrity of the DNA as it is being transcribed . This discovery will lead to a complete revision of the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology that DNA gives RNA give protein.-…. Edward J Steele PhD….. Refs: Steele, E.J. Somatic Selection and Adaptive Evolution: On the Inheritance of Acquired Characters Williams-Wallace, Toronto, 1979: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1981. Steele, E.J., Lindley, R.A. & Blanden, R.V. LAMARCK'S SIGNATURE : How retrogenes are changing Darwin's natural selection paradigm Allen & Unwin, Addison-Wesley-Longman 1998; Steele, EJ and J. Cairns (1989) Nature vol 340: 336.; Steele , E. J. ( 1989) Molec. Reprod. Develop. 1 : 231-232; Steele, E. J. ( 1989) Immunol. Cell Biol. 67 : 151-152; Steele, E.J. (2009) J Roy Soc Western Australia Special Issue "Evolutionary Biology Symposium 2009" Vol 92 (4) ; 437-446; Steele, E.J. and J.W. Pollard (1987). Molec. Immunol. 24 : 667-673.; Temin HM (1989)Nature vol 339:254-255.; Gorczynski, R.M. and E.J. Steele (1980). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 77: 2871-2875.; Gorczynski, R.M. and E.J. Steele (1981). Nature. 289 : 678-681.; Blanden, R.V., et al (1998 ) Immunological Reviews 162 : 117; Steele, E.J. and Blanden, R.V. (2000) Science 288 : 2318 ; Steele, E.J. (2009) Molec. Immunol 46 : 305; Lindley, R.A. and Steele, E.J. (2013) ISRN Genomics. Vol 2013 Article ID 921418, 18 pages.; Lindley, R.A. (2013) Cancer Genetics. 206:222.