Monday, April 30, 2007

History repeating? Bongso as Langley?

Further to the article in the San Diego Union Tribune by Somers concerning the work of Bongso in human embryonic stem cells, let's flash back nearly one hundred years to the time of Glenn Curtiss challenging the patent of the Wright Brothers.

On May 20, 1914, the Buffalo Express wrote of efforts by Glenn Curtiss to resurrect, and to fly, the pre-Wright Langley aerodrome: If the Langley aerodrome flies, several chapters of aviation history will have to be rewritten.

The journal Aeronautics ran an article by a patent attorney which claimed the Wright case was overblown. There was discussion of "parsimonious concern for an old patent."

On the other side of the coin, a man named Brewer lambasted the restoration of Langley's aircraft as a premeditated hoax. [As an aside, the so-called "Piltdown Man" consists of fragments of a skull and jawbone collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, although the "hoax" aspect of Piltdown man was not established for many years. In contrast, problems quickly enveloped Curtiss, arising from many things, including his trimming of the propellor blades of the aerodrome.]

Flash forward to the San Diego Union Tribune article of 2007, with the role of Curtiss played by Loring and the role of Langley played by Bongso, with Thomson filling in for Orville Wright.

*** See also

More on the bad coverage by Union-Tribune on stem cell matters

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-on-loringsomers-embryonic-stem.html

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