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[Three by Five] #9 | Dragon: Norbert the Norwegian Notchback

Posted on March 15, 2018 Leave a Comment

Hagrid, Hogwarts’ groundskeeper, always wanted a pet dragon.

[Alert: Spoilers ahead.]

He mentions it in passing early in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.

Later, he goes on to win a huge black dragon egg from “some stranger during a game of cards.”

He reads Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit and heats his prize egg in the heart of his hut’s fire.

When it hatches, the dragon looks like a “crumpled black umbrella… skinny jet body, long snout, wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging orange eyes.”

“It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

The dragon is a Norwegian Ridgeback (“…them’s rare, those…”).

Hagrid names it Norbert and feeds it chicken blood and brandy.

Thing is: Dragons are illegal.

They also grow fast.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron worry for Hagrid.

J.K. Rowling’s genius shines in this chapter (the 14th) of the first Harry Potter Book. Harry, Hermione and Ron are in the throes of exams.

The dragon arrives as the book’s main mystery nears its climax.

Hagrid reveals both his stubborn character and tenderness.

As Norbert grows bigger, tensions rise.

The kids have to figure out how to help Hagrid get rid of Norbert without getting in trouble. This involves Ron’s brother, Charlie. “The one studying dragons in Romania.”

It involves midnight wanderings under the cloak of invisibility.

And it involves dodging Malfoy and Hogwarts teachers.

I wish I could give away the rest. For that, you’ll have to read the book yourself.

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Posted in: 3x5, Dragons, Influences, Marketing, Movie Reviews, Observations, Science Fiction | Tagged: dragons, harry potter, kidlit, kids and biotech, next nature, our biotech future, writing

How To Clone a Dragon 1 | Can We Ever Bioengineer Dragons?

Posted on August 18, 2015 Leave a Comment
Game of Thrones Doesn't Show How to Clone Dragons. They Just Are.
The Great Game of Thrones Dragons. There are no clones in fantasy stories.

So you want to clone a dragon?

Before you can clone anything you have to have a copy to work from and because dragons do not yet exist, you’re going to have to bio-engineer one first.

But before you start the biological design process that will result in your dragon, you need to remember this complex living organism does not exist in nature. And we’re just at the very beginning of accurately engineering microorganisms. We’re not yet experienced enough to engineer a reptile though I suspect the genome editing tool CRISPR will get us closer, UBER for cross-species genetic engineering even closer.

You’ll need to decide what traits you want: big or small? Wild or docile? Winged? Then there’s the whole fire-breathing thing.

Nothing in nature breathes fire and fire destroys. Your Dragon Clone will need to be fire resistant.

Living organisms that are fire-resistant don’t exist. The most extreme extremophiles, half-millimeter-long nematodes that live beneath the mines of South Africa, are only heat and pressure tolerant.  The most heat-tolerant complex animal known to man, the four-inch long Pompeii worm clings around the smokers of the hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Ocean mountain ranges. It can tolerate hot waters at a temperature of 80°C.

To create a creature that not only breathes fire without damaging itself will take some substantial-bioengineering. Surprisingly though, DNA itself is a natural flame retardant and suppressant. Maybe there are lessons from the Pompeii worm and DNA’s flame retardant abilities that you can use to line the throat and nostrils, coat the tongue of your little bio-engineered dragon.

What about creating a flame? Again, nothing in nature breathes fire.

(15.100)

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Posted in: 100 Days of Writing, 50-Word Epics, biotech in kids books, biotechnology | Tagged: biotech, biotechnology, dragons, extremophiles, how to clone a dragon, methanotropes, synthetic biology

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