Takaisin Ajatusvarikolle
-
Back to the Thought Deposit
Dinoglyyfit
-
Dinoglyfs
Acknowledgements
(full Monty)
I take the whole
responsibility for the substance, content and style of my thesis. One studies
details with a pipet and chessboard – but the
wider picture has to be explored by books and go-board. When I quote
experts, I do not pretend that they share my conclusions drawn from their area
of expertise. Jonathan Wells was attacked for hiding his motivation in
criticizing the indoctrination of the biology textbooks. I have been forced to
show my inclinations openly to avoid the accusation for dishonesty. By this I
wish to stop the whispering that has damaged my career already. Regarding the
preparation of my manuscript, I'm a solitary figure, don't shoot the piano
players.
…
I almost had the opportunity to ask the etymology behind the bird'n reptilian "tinshemet"
from Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) after his Yrjö
Reenpää lecture 24th of September 1999.
The historian invited me to a closed meeting after the happening, and I hope he
got my question at least in that piece of paper when a case from the
countryside didn't dare to struggle the way in for the initiated.
"Encyclopedia" came from the root of "circle", and I strongly
defend its reference to the substance itself, not the persons behind. Gould was
a historian of science and the death of the last scientist with a typewriter
and no proofreading was a great loss - mostly due to his courage.
The scanning of Finnish
textbooks of biology left me a lasting impression and an uneasy perspective on
human knowledge. The personnel of the library of the Blood Service,
The cross-scientific debates
with my trusted friends in our Evoluutio-klubi,
founded by Pekka Reinikainen
and Kimmo Pälikkö, has been
a crucial brainstorm. I thank the friends at sfnet,
other google-groups, MSN-groups, duuni.net, yle.fi, Skepsis ry, Vapaa-ajattelijat,
Tiede.fi, Kansalaiskeskustelu etc. for constructive
discussion and detailed debate, as well as the talk.origins
with its concerns. You have provided me with the fastest and cheapest way to
learn. I will publish a link in my homepages to correct the mistakes in my
thesis, when confronted with something later on.
Yes, Professor Matti Leisola is a cousin of my
father, indeed. But it all started with his evolutionary conviction and
argumentation against my father's newfound hope. (Besides, Asperger’s
syndrome is probably the best syndrome in the world). Matti
is forgiven for introducing dad to my mum but you don't thank godfathers, do
you? Teuvo Kanerva tried to
teach me discipline in the lab. Päiviö Latvus tried to teach me discipline with the books.
…
I want to thank all of my old
teachers in Forssa. I'm especially grateful for Jari Heikkilä for his encouraging
words after the higher school examination, when he raised my grade just like
that, on sending me to university to study some chemistry. I also remember the
hospitality of Matti & Riitta
Ilmén, who warmly invited me to continue our debate
on biology at their home.
...
One of
my first vocations to do research came from the fact that the ex nihilo
founder of the hometown of both my wife and myself,
Axel Wahren (1814-1885), was a chemist before
chemistry as a discipline existed. After the bankruptcy of his father, the
young dyer and journeyman had come to the remote Jokioinen-Forssa
region possessing only his skills, and did not dare to speak openly about his
Jewish heritage. He established an old Hi-Tec phenomenon among common farmers
at a time when nobody had done such a thing in our country before. I acknowledge the Father of Forssa as a symbol of the independence of
To be honest, there was a
croft in Jokioinen,
My grandfather was called "Kusiais-Kalle" in the nail factory of Jokioinen, where he and his brothers worked for 45 years,
because of his untypical and keen observations of nature. Weather forecasting
was the only science through centuries in the countryside. I think also my
determination and stubborness was solified
already at the time when my 15-year old grandfather had to dug
the frozen solid and fullpacked graveyard during the
Winter War for the young heroes killed in action. Pecunia non olet?
Let the experience of the melt smell of the spring and the lifelong nightmares
symbolize the persistance of the motivation. Besides,
the father of my father volunteered in the group of 30 men following the
departure of the last German troops out of the country in the landmark of three
nations at the end of the Lapland War. They replied to the last "Heil Hitler" of the last German officer accross the border. The platoon also had to go far to find
a tree tall enough to carry the Finnish flag, as the official photo is staged. My
grandfather was also another of the two men who delivered the message to the
commander after skiing down the no-man's-land. And so the country was emptied
from the grasp of the Third Reich and the wars ended. Also the generation
serving in arms had to to excape
executions. http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Lapin_sota_valokuvia.htm
I'm
concerned in working in the field ranging from Asimov and Weissman
to the golden domes of Oparin. (The
promised city of the evolutionary Tarzan-books from the era of white man's
burden.) We are at the culmination points to our postmodern
society in the origins-studies of biochemistry. It is difficult to meet the
challenge of Richard Dawkins and choose from the four options. If I have to be
ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked, I think I'll take sincere stupidity,
please. I'm grateful for the provocation of the Oxford Professor of Public
Understanding of Science. Let us measure the official gap between the micro-
and macro- by this PhD thesis.
Finally,
and most embarrassingly, at the first lectures of biochemistry we were told by
a professor emeritus of a saying that the subject was not practiced outside
Von Wasserman tested vaccines or antitoxins against
cholera, tuberculosis, syfilis, tetanus, typhoid, and
diphteria. Marmorek made
discoveries for multiple epidemics. Haffkine succesfully vaccinated against cholera. Schick developed diphteria-diagnostics and vaccines, Ehrlich salvarsan for syphilis. Neisser
& Co. found gonococks causing gonorrhea.
Digitalis found by Traube used to be the most used
medicine at the time, and also Levine alleviated heart attacks. Typhoid fever
was treated by the methods of Vidal and Weil, Woronan
and Waksman found streptomysin,
the most used chemotherapeutics of its day. Waksman
introduced the phrase ‘antibiotic’, and found also neomysin. Chain was one of the three awarded and knighted
for penicillin. Funk invented the concept of vitamins and made research until
D, whereas Hess concentrated on the C-letter and scurvy. Reichstein
extracted cortison, cocaine used to be one of the
first painkillers and tested by Koller to his friend
Sigmund Freud (who, consequently, had to go through 33 face surgeries in his
lifetime). Minkowski was involved in the story behind
diabetes and insulin, Landsteiner developed two
different blood categories, whence working transfusion began. Contributors to
DNA techniques include Lederberg, Kornberg,
Nirenberg etc. Salk
institute, the unofficial headquarters of the actin
biochemistry, recalls the heritage of Sabin and Salk.
Jonas Salk granted an inactivated polio vaccine to the mankind although he
became neither a Nobel laureate, nor a member of the National Academy of
Sciences in the
What’s the point? The ex-president
of
I can't
resist thinking that even the humanitarian endeavours with the most high
profile are being bought into a new, sophisticated, round of "Judenfrage". The UN Commission on Human Rights judged
Israel 40-5 for the ’massacre’ of Jenin
although the UN report later on in the 1st august 2002 concluded that there was
no such thing. The report referred to the military operation Defensive Shield
1.3.-7.5. 2002. During this period and according to my measurements, I
acknowledge Helsingin Sanomat
(with a print of ~500,000 in a country of 5,000,000 people) for spending on the
details of the fightings claiming a total of ~500 casualities at least the following space:
In the april 2002 there were five foreign
reporters in
Out of all
the cases handled by the UN Commission on Human Rights, 26% of the judgments
have been focused against the single democracy of
Let us
remember, that during 1967-1993 six universities were laid for the tragical Palestinian people who - according to the article
14 of the PLO Covenant - are commanded as a “vanguard” between the fronts in a
bigger struggle. Under the Israeli government, infrastructure was build in the
West Bank in the form of water conduits, wiring, streets, sewerage, and
establishment of welfare services, despite the ongoing wars. In 1970-1986 the
amount of Palestinian women having not gone to school decreased from 67 to 32%.
In 1967-1988 the number of comprehensive- and secondary schools for Palestinian
youth increased by one third.
William
Shakespeare wrote his Merchant of Venice near the end of the expulsion of Jews
from
A Gallup
poll released on 2/26/02 (www.gallup.com/poll/) covering 10 000 respondents and
9 countries showed the following statistics regarding the belief that the al-Qaida people were not responsible for the attack on the WTC
twin towers: Kuwait 89%; Pakistan 86%; Indonesia 74%; Iran 59%; Lebanon 58%;
Turkey 43%. When antisemitic rhetorics
and conspiracy theories run this wild, there is little doubt that they will
result in an action, sooner or later. One thing for sure:
I think, that as bioscientists we
are in a place of responsibility regarding the indifference towards the injust scapegoat role pushed on this minority in the
"War of the Worlds". The media war has a painful nature of lowering
the tresshold away from impartiality for countries
and people alike. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it –
and there is still culture beneath our own feet to be digged
out.
As a
biochemist, I acknowledge standing upon the shoulders of giants and upon boxes
of extraction kits, the surviving half (100) Israeli Nasdaq-companies
being acknowledged at the stock-bazaar. As a plain citizen, I acknowledge the
contribution of the Via Dolorosa of the Jews for the fact, that both me and my family have been healthy during this thesis.
Uncle
Albert once said, that "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the
rational mind is a faithful servant… It is a miracle
that curiosity survives formal education… Common sense is the collection of
prejudices acquired by age 18… you look what everyone has always looked and try
to see what nobody has seen before". This makes the attempt a re-view.
At the lab
the method is to reduce parameters to a single one and then to titrate. Despite
the frustration, one learns most from the experiments that fail, in the
tradition of Albert Michelson and ether. This makes the attempt re-search - and
the days long.
At the end
uncle Albert sighed: "If I would be a young man again and had to decide
how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or
teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find
that modest degree of independence still available under present
circumstances."
I owe one to my father and
mother. Many fine alleles went recessive in me, but the environment
compensated. Possession goes in two directions. I'm glad Antti
was not sent off because of the measles I transmitted, as was taken for granted
by the medical authorities in 1981. The boy is from the countryside, too, but Pro life
- and Pro forgiveness.
I thank my father-in-law Pentti Niinimäki and
mother-in-law AN for the better part of mine. I try to take heed of PN’s advice regarding the sphere of investigative
journalism, and Anneli’s advice regarding the
cultural expression of grass roots & anonymous concerns in the tradition of
Lauri Viita and Väinö Linna. (The fictional Koskelas lived near a parsonage, too.) I’m grateful
we went through it together, Pentti, and we cherish
your memory. When it comes to the motives, I said this is also an eulogia.
Add here the fact that I've
been priviledged to discuss with and befriend
teenagers both by counselling on the phone, and
face-to-face in camps and night-cafés - and you end up with my motivation. I
know my indirect responsibility for tragedies of self-violation and ideological
drug misuse. There's a postmodern chorus singing "we don't need no e-du-ca-tion", and its volume is increasing. There's
also a lack of resources, but no help of me if I don't dare to manage even a
moderate conflict on a factual basis with academics not physically addicted to
their habits.
Hard days nights necessitate perseverance, and what has been
flexible has often been the schedule of my wife Mirkka
and not the time resolved experiments. In the real biological enquiry our n is
now 2 by the results 100199-XX8X and 281000AXX7X. These variables have one of
the highest amplitudes in the life - hardly predictable, precious and gifts. Autism
means to be a happy person. And asperger
- Probably the best synrome in the world. I
hope Yours are the dominant ones - agapee with all the flavours.
Pauli Ojala