Completely off-topic, but I believe the contained article is still interesting for every developer, including of course Xojo coders. The parallels of parsing and creating files, analysing structures of JSONs and the like and the source code of modern mRNA vaccines is really fascinating.
Xojo Android isn’t the next big thing, we need Xojo RNA ;-).
Nice article but I cringed when I read “RNA is the volatile ‘working memory’ version of DNA.”. That makes it sound like it is explosive.
No, it isn’t. It is the “less stable ‘working memory’ version of DNA that is quickly produced and destroyed in the cell. This high turnover rate allows a cell to quickly respond to any change that it senses.”
Another bit that annoys the heck out of me is “A slightly mysterious poly-A tail with an unexplained ‘linker’ in there”. Just above the paragraph is the explanation for the linker by an actual expert. Anyone wants to bet anti-vaxers will claim it as “nobody really knows what it is doing” and conspiracy theorists take this as ‘proof’ of “biological chipping by Bill Gates”
I always have to think of two episodes with my aunt and uncle when I try to explain Science and/or computing to the public:
My aunt always heard that Oranges are full of Vitamin C, so she assumed that when she cuts one open that the orange “stuff” you see is the Vitamin C. Makes perfect sense from her point of view (and is not completely wrong), but that is the level of understanding that you can expect from most people.
My uncle is fanatic about racing pigeons, and he saw a breeding app at a colleague’s home that he absolutely had to have too. So he bought it and called me to install it - which I did (it’s a simply database app). So when he sat down to use it the first question was a rather puzzled “And where are my pigeons?”. When I told him that this is a database app and he needs to enter the data himself he exploded: “YOU MEAN I PAID 300 DOLLAR FOR THIS AND MY PIGEONS AREN’T IN THERE?” - “Sorry, no.” - “CAN’T YOU DONWLOAD THEM FROM THE INTERNET? EVERYTHING IS ON THE INTERNET!"
So Bert needs to take more care with what he is writing (which is a lesson to all of us as well). The intentions are good, the facts are correct, but HOW it is written in parts will feed conspiracy theorists.