Just in case no one has pointed this out already, but there was no use of electricity to animate Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's novel. That idea came solely from Hollywood's bad adaptations of the novel. There's mention of electricity, lightening, and galvanism in chapter 2, but those just serve as motivating factors that lead Victor Frankenstein to attend college to study science. In fact, there is scarcely anything mentioned about what Frankenstein specifically did to bring his creation to life.
The paper is a modelling paper. The values are all based off of in vitro and in vivo studies of viral biodynamics as found in the scientific literature. The techniques described are all well-understood, and the model is based off of a consensus model of HIV biodynamics. Leor's work was an extension of that consensus model.
Perhaps they 'write it off' in the Wired article, but many of these exceptions are referred to and handled in the article. It's a good read; I recommend going over it at length.
Leor is actively pursuing in vitro studies, which are promising. I'd expect a paper on his experimental work soon.
Leor S. Weinberger, David V. Schaffer, Adam P. Arkin. "Theoretical Design of a Gene Therapy To Prevent AIDS but Not Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection". 2003. Journal of Virology. 77(18). 10028-10036.
Slashdot Mirror
Just in case no one has pointed this out already, but there was no use of electricity to animate Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's novel. That idea came solely from Hollywood's bad adaptations of the novel. There's mention of electricity, lightening, and galvanism in chapter 2, but those just serve as motivating factors that lead Victor Frankenstein to attend college to study science. In fact, there is scarcely anything mentioned about what Frankenstein specifically did to bring his creation to life.
Searchable full text of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"~taltman
Check out:9 /article111.html
http://linuxfocus.open.ac.uk/English/September199
http://jones.tc/htm4l/htm4l/index.html
taltman@NOSHPAM.gmail.commerce
The paper is a modelling paper. The values are all based off of in vitro and in vivo studies of viral biodynamics as found in the scientific literature. The techniques described are all well-understood, and the model is based off of a consensus model of HIV biodynamics. Leor's work was an extension of that consensus model.
Perhaps they 'write it off' in the Wired article, but many of these exceptions are referred to and handled in the article. It's a good read; I recommend going over it at length.
Leor is actively pursuing in vitro studies, which are promising. I'd expect a paper on his experimental work soon.
taltman
I work in the Arkin group, and Leor is a friend of mine.
Here is the reference and the PDF of the actual article that the research featured in the Wired report is based off of:
PDF: http://tinyurl.com/yu5ur
Leor S. Weinberger, David V. Schaffer, Adam P. Arkin. "Theoretical Design of a Gene Therapy To Prevent AIDS but Not Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection". 2003. Journal of Virology. 77(18). 10028-10036.
---
~taltman