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DNA Blueprints Guide The Construction Of Specific Human Structures
Chad Mirkin discusses using DNA to build a three-dimensional structure out of gold, likening the process to building a house. Starting with basic materials such as bricks, wood, siding, stone and shingles, a construction team can build many different types of houses out of the same building blocks.
The article includes an audio recording of the full interview. Photo courtesy of the UCSD School of Medicine.
| The Arising Of My Life: In The Beginning … (Part 1 of 6) |
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| Opinion - Private Matters | |||
| Bernadette Rogers | |||
| Wednesday, 26 March 2008 17:00 | |||
 Daventry, Northamptonshire, UK. We are the creatures of our families. For us their influence and reaction to our condition is life long, ours and theirs. Sometimes this is burdensome, sometimes very positive. Born in the late 1920s, of 19th century parents, I can now understand and forgive them all the pain and damage I suffered in my early years. My grandparents were very special for me. My paternal grandfather’s business card was inscribed Consultant Magician. That is what he was, inventing and manufacturing vast theatrical stage illusions. His workshops, still remembered in that London district were truly magic for me. My mother’s father was a senior lay church official. I loved them both and they both accepted and supported me until their death.
 Bernadette Jeanne Rogers
Guest Columnist
 The Arising Of My Life
This column is just one part of an extraordinary series.
Part 1: In the beginning … We are the creatures of our families. For us their influence and reaction to our condition is life long, ours and theirs. Sometimes this is burdensome, sometimes very positive. …
Part 2: The Best Made Plans … I had now reached seventeen and concluded that my condition was unique. There could be no one else like me, so resolution was impossible. My certainty that I was a woman was total …
Part 3: Now For Change … I had achieved some of my ambitions in technology and academia, had married Joyce, and acquired two step children. But professionally, I was asking myself, “What next?” …
Part 4: The River Runs By … I said that I was a church organist and a hymn came to mind, “All things bright and beautiful.” They all said “Ahhhh.” I said no, I mean the second verse “The purple headed mountain, the river running by! …
Part 5: A Play of Passion … I now had the life, of which I had been dreaming since childhood. I changed my name formally to Bernadette Jeanne …
Part 6: The Challenge … I function in every way, physically, mentally as a very happy contented woman, now an old woman. So do I have I any regrets? …
The honeymoon was a great disappointment, since mother clearly had no idea what that first night would entail. “All that bouncing up and down” she complained to a friend. When a few weeks a usual event did not occur, that same friend had to explain how this had come about. Two weeks after the expected time, a ‘son’ was born. But what a son, he howled night and day and was a perpetual source of concern. The GP is said to have informed the parents that, “He has an irritable brain!” Mother being unable to deal with this infant, engaged her stepmother as full time nanny. My Nana instinctively understood and supported me when I first realised that how I felt did not match how I looked.
Time passed and at four, this child was enrolled at a local nursery school run by a terrifying Miss Grieves. Trouble started within days, as that child, having made the comparison, announced “I’m a girl”. He also had several other attributes destined to cause trouble. The first of these was that he was totally ambidextrous. In those days, being left handed was bad enough but using either hand at random looked like satanic influence.
Another cause for alarm was an obsession with circles and squares. With the aid of pieces of string and bottle tops, he had worked out that pi was equal to 3 and root 2 was one and one half. When a well meaning smart arse demonstrated this was not so panic and paddy was the result.
The continued and ever more emphatic assertion of being a girl, led to a consultation with a paediatrician being arranged. I was totally terrified by the vast hospital and this fearsome individual who glared over thick spectacles and muttered asides to my mother. I was then sent out of the room for her to receive his advice. It was later revealed by my mother that this advice was “Make a man of him, or he will grow up to be a queer.” My parents took this advice totally literally, removing every female influence. Nana had taught me to knit so this had to go and there were embarrassing discussions with teaching staff.
Showing mathematical and musical promise, junior school progressed academically very well. Problems certainly arose when I demanded to know how the teacher was sure that two plus two was exactly four when it wasn’t things like match sticks which were being counted but numbers themselves. The teachers were completely at a loss when trying to cope with this lad who continued to assert he was a girl. Most of the children did not seem at all fazed but a small group perceived that here was a victim awaiting their special treatment. At this time, about 7 years old, I first began to believe that my situation was hopeless. I did not understand it and neither did anyone else.
The one person who I could trust and to whom I could expose my dilemma was my maternal grandfather. I once went into his grand parochial office and poured out all my troubles. He just said, “Sit with me and let’s tell Jesus all about it”. So we did. If he had not died three months later from a cerebral tumour, he might have made my following years very different.
Endeavours were made to force me into male activities such as boxing and I was sent to a tough public school (the UK meaning of public school). As before, the masters were totally mystified by my insistence that I was female. Like the paediatrician, they also seemed to confuse this with the inevitable homosexuality among teenage boys in a boarding school.
As a result talks were given to groups of boys from which I was excluded. Most remarkable was that the boys did not seem to have any problems with me. I did not get the usual obligatory nickname, but was addressed as “she”. This may have been aided by my skill in producing near lethal technical pranks. I was still directed towards a musical career, with the organ as the instrument but already my doubts were beginning to arise. My sole but great supporter was the musical director, who accepted me and watched over me; he was more than a parent at a time when my first attempt at suicide
occurred.
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  Béla Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle (1911, rev. '12 & '17). The castle of the blue-bearded prince is a one-act opera by Béla Bartók, with a libretto by his friend and poet, Béla Balázs. The hour-long opera has two singing characters onstage: Bluebeard (Kékszakállú) and his new wife Judith (Judit). The two have just eloped and Judith is coming home to Bluebeard's castle for the first time, only to be enveloped by mysteries and the price to be paid for becoming Bluebeard's wife.
Video: Bluebeard's Castle (Door1) by Béla Bartók. The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by: Sir George Solti. Judith: Sylvia Sass. Bluebeard: Kolos Kováts. Directed by Miklós Szinetár. Time 04:03 As was usual at that time, my future in music had been decided without consulting me. I now had serious problems not only with my identity as female but had concluded that I loved music so much, making it my career would damage that love. Having always been fascinated by mathematics and that which we now call electronics, I knew that my future was in area. The focus was television and television in colour. I was told that if that was what I intended, I was on my own.
This early to mid teenage time was among my most damaged years. The combination of my certainty that I female and male puberty with its physical development which was very late, brought further suicide attempts. In spite of the trauma, a balance began to be achieved. Now my music was no longer pressure I could enjoy it so much, becoming fascinated with the contemporary compositions of the day. Hearing Bela Bartok’s [N1] Blue Beard’s Magic Castle [N2] and his Concerto for Orchestra [N3] had a profound effect.
I now consciously planned my future, which was combining electronics as a profession with music as my emotional life and hoped that this would help with the still mounting certainty that I was growing into a woman.
My life plan worked out exactly and it did provide some measure of protection where my gender trauma was concerned. But for the next thirty five years, there were many periods when, in spite of growing academic and professional success, my world collapsed. Some local friends were crucial in helping me to progress and cope with life. Without them I would not be writing these words.
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115! Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (1942-43, rev. '45) is a five-movement musical work for orchestra. It is one of his best-known, most popular and accessible works. The title is in contrast to the conventional concerto form, which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.
Video: Conductor David Alexander Rahbee leads the Savaria (Szombathely, Hungary) Symphony Orchestra in the Concerto for Orchestra, fourth movement (mvt 4) Intermezzo Interrotto. Time 04:12 Given the rise of the German Nazis and similar developments in Hungary, Bartók sent his manuscripts out of the country in 1940. He then emigrated to the US, settling in New York City. Bartók never felt quite comfortable leaving his native land and planned on a return after the WWII. However, Bartók died in New York from leukemia (secondary polycythemia) on September 26, 1945 at age 64. [N2] Bluebeard's Castle (1911, rev. '12 & '17), the castle of the blue-bearded prince, is a one-act opera by Béla Bartók, with a libretto by his friend and poet, Béla Balázs. [Sidebar] The hour-long opera has two singing characters onstage: Bluebeard (Kékszakállú), and his new wife Judith (Judit); the two have just eloped and Judith is coming home to Bluebeard's castle for the first time, only to be enveloped by mysteries and the price to be paid for becoming Bluebeard's wife. [N3] The Concerto for Orchestra (1942-43, rev. '45) is a five-movement musical work for orchestra by Béla Bartók. [Sidebar] The Concerto is one of Bartók's best-known, most popular and accessible works. The title is in contrast to the conventional concerto form, which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.  Ms. Bernadette Rogers is a retired science advisor, technology professional, and a pioneer of colour television. She is an avid musician who continues as a church organist. Bernadette's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Bernadette welcomes your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.  The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. The sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
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