\u3ci\u3ePrince Caspian\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eChild Christopher and Goldilind the Fair\u3c/i\u3e

A look at the roots of Lewis’s Prince Caspian in William Morris’s Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair (and in turn Morris’s source in Havelok the Dane) investigating the “imaginatively redemptive” changes Lewis made to this source material

The Drums of Doom: H.G. Wells\u27 \u3ci\u3eFirst Men in the Moon\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eThe Lord of the Rings\u3c/i\u3e

Suggests that certain scenes from Wells’s First Men in the Moon inspired the Khazad-dûm episode in Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien and Old Germanic Ethics

Claims the “idea that a warrior must die with his lord in battle is one of the most important moral injunctions among the various Germanic peoples.” Uses this theme to examine Tolkien’s work for his reworking of the Old Germanic ethic into a Christian perspective

The Face of the Materialist Magician: Lewis, Tolkien, and the Art of Crossing Perilous Streets

Plenary address, Mythcon 47. Concerns the character of the “Materialist Magician” (Screwtape’s term) in Tolkien and Lewis—the Janus-like figure who looks backward to magic and forward to scientism, without the moral core to reconcile his liminality. Tolkien’s Saruman and Lewis’s Uncle Andrew and Devine are key specimens of this trope, with Merlin standing as a counter-example

Lewis’ Time Machine and His Trip to the Moon

Explores Lewis’s (acknowledged) debt to H.G. Wells’s First Men in the Moon for Out of the Silent Planet. Suggests that “we can only understand Lewis’ fragmentary The Dark Tower by noticing a similar debt to Wells’ The Time Machine.

20 Years and 50 Issues

Comments of members/readers on what the Society and Mythlore have meant to them

A Directed Molecular Evolution Approach to Improved Immunogenicity of the HIV-1 Envelope Glycoprotein

A prophylactic vaccine is needed to slow the spread of HIV-1 infection. Optimization of the wild-type envelope glycoproteins to create immunogens that can elicit effective neutralizing antibodies is a high priority. Starting with ten genes encoding subtype B HIV-1 gp120 envelope glycoproteins and using in vitro homologous DNA recombination, we created chimeric gp120 variants that were screened for their ability to bind neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. Hundreds of variants were identified with novel antigenic phenotypes that exhibit considerable sequence diversity. Immunization of rabbits with these gp120 variants demonstrated that the majority can induce neutralizing antibodies to HIV-1. One novel variant, called ST-008, induced significantly improved neutralizing antibody responses when assayed against a large panel of primary HIV-1 isolates. Further study of various deletion constructs of ST-008 showed that the enhanced immunogenicity results from a combination of effective DNA priming, an enhanced V3-based response, and an improved response to the constant backbone sequences