Next by Michael Crichton - A Review
a quite exhausting read on how geneticists and biotechnology companies function both in the past and present. exhausting because of too many characters and incidences (or it could be that i have lost the taste and patience to read fiction anymore).
'Next' is an eye opener to the non-biology herd. Crichton has painted a picture of the real life events...how biotech companies steal data, report results that are totally made up and what goes behind the screen in the case of banned research. till now, i was not even aware that genes could be patented!!! it came as a shock to me. how can this be true??? totally unreasonable and absurd. imagine Newton patenting Gravity or Einstein patenting Time and Space !!!!! gene, that forms the fundamental constituent of every life form has been patented and still being patented by companies that discover an attribute of a gene(something like this). hence, no research could be carried out by anyone else on that gene without paying heavy royalties, thus blocking a cure for some cancer, etc !!!! chilling to think what NEXT.
another shocking illustration was the usage of our human tissues, blood samples and other such stuff by clinics, hospitals and research foundations. we don't know entirely what we are signing up for in those bunch of consent papers every time a blood sample is taken from us in a clinic. even if we manage to read the pile, we still won't know how it can be twisted and turned by lawyers and allow the clinic to do whatever they are bent to do with our samples.
ultimately, tax payers are exploited and cheated with the Govt hand in glove with the research institutions, universities, companies and hospitals.
the initial few pages of the novel had an absolutely anti-science build-up. it surprised me since it comes from the Harvard guy Crichton. but, after reading, I realized it was after all realistic.
Crichton indeed conveys what he wants to clearly but with much digression. I had to push myself hard to complete the novel though. Author's note at the end of the novel conveys everything Crichton had tried to articulate in those 400 pages. for those who want to read the novel, first go through the crispier Author's note and then decide.
'Next' is an eye opener to the non-biology herd. Crichton has painted a picture of the real life events...how biotech companies steal data, report results that are totally made up and what goes behind the screen in the case of banned research. till now, i was not even aware that genes could be patented!!! it came as a shock to me. how can this be true??? totally unreasonable and absurd. imagine Newton patenting Gravity or Einstein patenting Time and Space !!!!! gene, that forms the fundamental constituent of every life form has been patented and still being patented by companies that discover an attribute of a gene(something like this). hence, no research could be carried out by anyone else on that gene without paying heavy royalties, thus blocking a cure for some cancer, etc !!!! chilling to think what NEXT.
another shocking illustration was the usage of our human tissues, blood samples and other such stuff by clinics, hospitals and research foundations. we don't know entirely what we are signing up for in those bunch of consent papers every time a blood sample is taken from us in a clinic. even if we manage to read the pile, we still won't know how it can be twisted and turned by lawyers and allow the clinic to do whatever they are bent to do with our samples.
ultimately, tax payers are exploited and cheated with the Govt hand in glove with the research institutions, universities, companies and hospitals.
the initial few pages of the novel had an absolutely anti-science build-up. it surprised me since it comes from the Harvard guy Crichton. but, after reading, I realized it was after all realistic.
Crichton indeed conveys what he wants to clearly but with much digression. I had to push myself hard to complete the novel though. Author's note at the end of the novel conveys everything Crichton had tried to articulate in those 400 pages. for those who want to read the novel, first go through the crispier Author's note and then decide.
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