Timelines
Today’s post concerns timelines. Most people don’t understand time lines. They see clocks and they see calendars daily. Time passes them by without them really thinking about what happens over time. In my courses in statistics, many statistics have a measurement in time. I found most corporate types were actually clueless about time. In this post, I will illustrate time with examples of technology advancement. Due to my ADHD, I have hyperfocus. Hyperfocus has the definition as follows, “the capacity for a person to engage in a task or an activity to the exclusion of everything else.” For us time flies by when you’re engaged in something we find captivating. I call it passion!
It does not fly by when I write. In psychology we have two types of attention.
Automatic attention and directed attention defined
There are two different kinds of attention. They are automatic and directed attention.
With automatic attention you can’t control, like noticing somebody walking past you in the hallway. Hyperfocus happens by doing something we find interesting. Automatic attention draws you to your favorite television show or a craft project. An example, you may stay hyperfocused, until it’s interrupted by something more engaging happenings or the show is over.
Directed attention requires effort, you actively exert effort to do a tasks or tasks. Examples are paying attention in a boring meeting, to setting aside the reading a science fiction book to do the dishes. For me writing takes directed attention.
Now to the purpose of this post – about Timelines
Technology advances and people are clueless about it and don’t compare progress well. Edison did many experiments to produce the light bulb. Especially, he had passion and hyperfocus. Consequently, the following three examples will help people compare technology developments over time. Corporate executives I found don’t do this well nor do anti science types. These are all concrete provable examples of how we discover, image and invent things.
Example #1 – advancement in aircraft
Wright Brother first powered flight December 1903
Heinkel He 178 First Flight 27 August 1939
This example goes from a wood and cloth cover airplane to an all metal jet engine one. Time 35.8 years. First jet passenger plane de Havilland Comet 1949 – 46 years.
Example #2 – Advancement in Genetic Research
The Discovery of the Double Helix 1953.
Human genome fully decoded 2003.
Time Line – 50 years to develop the technology.
Example #3 – mRNA Vaccine development compared with polio vaccine.
mRNA Discovered 13 May 1961
First, research idea to use it as a new type of vaccine 1984
Time Line 23 Years
Next, many researchers mucked around until 2007. Then Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman and Ungr Şahin and Özlem Türeci got funding to develop mRNA vaccines as they had breakthroughs.
Time line from mRNA discovery 46 years – from idea to develop a workable vaccine 23 years.
First mRNA vaccine produced and tested mRNA vaccine produced and tested mRNA vaccine against an infectious agent (rabies) began in 2013. Time from start to testing 6 years with positive results.
Time Line – 6 years and 52 years since mRNA was discovered.
Full production for COVID 2020 mRNA – 13 years to rabies and 59 Years to widespread use as vaccine for COVID-19 viruses! Success rate 94-95%.
Verses
Polio Vaccine development time line till use 1948-1955 – 7 years. Success rate 95%.
The summary
Then I hear antivaccers say the COVID mRNA vaccine was not tested! I compare the Polio vaccine at (7) seven years with one year of testing with mRNA vaccine development at 52 years with 13 years of testing. Next, when compared with the airplane to the jet to a passenger plane. Therefore, I can give a logical time line to these people. I wrote this to illustrate the utter silliness of anti science, anti technology people. Please use the past time line to look to the future.
About time
Because of my ADHD and dyslexia, I am very aware of time. Tomorrow, I go to get my next COVID shot, because they don’t last long. So when I talk with my brain washed MAGA neighbors that in a few years we will treat cancer with mRNA vaccines. I actual want to hear them say, “I can’t wait”! Instead they say “it is not going to happen”. They fall into being nice little brain washed minions of nasty little authoritarians.
Post dedication
Dedicated of this for the following people who studied and over came problems to develop a better world. They are Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, Ungr Şahin, Özlem Türeci, the Wright Brothers, George Gamow, François Jacob and Jacques Monod (who found mRNA).