¶This is the paper that lead directly to the mRNA technology underlying both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines. Talk of a Nobel Prize has started.

¶“This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants....”

¶This paper is, quite possibly, the best argument of all time for supporting federal spending on basic scientific research. The entire world is aware of the benefit the research produced.

¶Whatever we’re spending on basic research isn’t enough. Figure out how to pay for it…and triple it.

¶Oh, and applications of the mRNA technology in the Kariko paper were patented in 2012. The patents describe the process for practicing the technology in painstaking detail, as the law requires. And they expire in five years - in 2026, opening up incredible opportunities for new applications of the technology.

¶There’s the Defense Production Act, and then there’s the “implicit” Defense Production Act.

¶Flotsam or jetsam? I never knew the difference until today. Turns out, it’s a legal distinction based on intent.

¶”…[I]f it ended up in the water on purpose, it’s jetsam. Everything else floating around the site of the incident is flotsam.”