According to a story at LiveScience, a 16-year-old Canadian 11th grade student has discovered a possible treatment for cystic fibrosis. The treatment is a combination of two drugs which, in a computer simulation on the Canadian SCINET supercomputing network, did not interfere with each other while interacting with the defective protein responsible for the disorder. He has also tested the drug combination on living cells with results that 'exceeded his expectations.'" SlashDot.
Have seen the news about this kid and his work all weekend. How does this happen? What is he doing that the rest of those working on CF, aren't? Once again, the cure didn't come from where we imagined, it literally came, out of nowhere.
The old country song may have had it right after all. We tend to poo poo theories that seem to not have come through the proper channels. Look at all the medicines that have been recalled that went through the right channels and have found to be, fatally flawed? The point is we need to keep our eyes open, constantly searching the countryside and not fixed on just the road ahead.
Perhaps, we should stop having big telethons and start having bigger bake sales...
