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In 1983, Dr. Kary Mullis (December 28, 1944 – August 7, 2019) developed a replication method for DNA sequencing called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) while working at Cletus Corporation. The Nobel Prize winning biochemist’s discovery changed the way biomedical research, criminal forensics laboratories, and all other fields of DNA study, process and explore DNA. Having the ability to rapidly create and expand millions of DNA sequence duplications using a very small master copy sample allowed a variety of genetic research scientists to access the exact same data, testing and analysing duplicated DNA sequences in their own laboratory settings. PCR was a significant game changer in the world of DNA processing, it is not just a helpful tool. Those outside of the world of DNA studies have grown familiar with the term, PCR, as it pertains to testing for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The inventor of PCR was a bit of a maverick, an eccentric genius – a real whack job according to some. Fiction writer, astrologist and one-time marketer of jewelry imbued with celebrity DNA, Mullis was a Carolina boy by birth, California surfer by choice. His higher education includes earning a BS in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and being awarded a PhD in Biochemistry by University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Mullis manufactured his own hallucinogenic drugs. He has openly admitted to using LSD and other psychoactive substances throughout the 60’s and 70’s, claiming he’d learned more by tripping than he was ever taught at Berkeley. Mullis has attributed the PCR method discovery to LSD, attributing part of the process as having come to him while he was under the influence.
After Mullis’ death from pneumonia in 2019, Coby McDonald penned an Opinion piece for the UC Alumni magazine entitled, Intolerable Genius: Berkeley’s Most Controversial Nobel Laureate. A talented, highly intelligent man who was also disruptive, strong-minded, challenging, determined, irreverent (other than ordaining a buddy to be a Minister of Life so he could officiate at his second wife’s wedding) and impossible to contain is the impression one gets of Kary Mullis from McDonald’s article. He most decidedly upset the Establishment apple cart.
As Mullis’ professional life moved away from managing a bakery during the post-grad years toward profound discovery into the role of respected consult scientist, Mullis found there was not a lot of data to support statements being presented as scientifically supported fact. He became skeptical about the ozone hole theory while developing a UV sensitive ink for Xytronyx. During a 1994 grant writing process necessary to appeal for research funds from NIH, Kary Mullis was surprised to see there were no peer-reviewed studies at the time showing HIV caused the disease, AIDS. Manmade driven climate change assertions were also relying on shaky footings while being presented as standing on solid, science-based foundation, he asserted.
Mullis mourned the loss of pure scientific discovery, publicly and often. Research had moved away from pure impersonal, empirical discovery and into a bureaucratic chasm of agenda support, according to Dr. Mullis. Rather than seeking truth, research studies had morphed into missions funded by a handful of underinformed, unqualified entities. Missions with clearly defined objectives, limited in scope to proving or disproving a pre-defined theory, only. Not all theories were deemed acceptable for research funding by those entities willing to pay the bills, Mullis noted. Mainstream Science professionals who had disliked opinions Kary Mullis expressed while in post-graduate work continued to turn their noses up to the upstart in their midst; labeling his discoveries and challenges to their stance, pseudoscience.
It is certainly a simple task, criticising the words and actions of a character like Kary Mullis. To dismiss his contributions due to eccentricity of conduct seems petty, limited and self-defeating. If we believe a man is deserved respect for the tangible product of his mind, would we be wise if we chose to wholly dismiss his other thoughts and opinions?
In May of 1996, Mullis was interviewed by Dr. Gary Null. (Null supports alternative healing methods, sells his own line of dietary supplements and is considered by the Establishment scientific community to be a pseudoscientist.) The interview is long, about two hours long. It is a fascinating dive into a fascinating mind – the number of nods outnumbered the times an eyebrow lifted while listening to the two “pseudoscientists” talk shop. In the following excerpt from the Null interview, Dr. Mullis, the Nobel Prize winning biochemist, makes it clear that he is no fan of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long time Director of NIH’s NIAID. Again, the interview was conducted 31 May1996; 25 years before the COVID Cooties “pandemic.”
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If interested, here is a link to the full video of Gary Null’s interview of Kary Mullis. Highly encouraged if not only for the breath of fresh, honest, unaffected person factor. Even if an eyebrow goes up and down a few times.
THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH GARY NULL
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