Biotechnology

Also, if you’re not in on the theme yet, and are scratching your head over certain entries that you cannot make heads or tails of, peek at the next section because the theme is widespread, is well concealed and creates several entries that look positively dysfunctional, until you get it.It’s possible that the theme led Mr. Barocas to throw in a lot of kind of couply entries — you know, like REFI and REPO, or STOAT and STOLES — terms that would recall each other a bit while solving. Can’t always undo those DELETES!The theme for this “Biotechnology” puzzle takes a bit of unraveling, but that’s completely suitable.First of all, you will notice four sets of four bubbles in today’s grid, one in each corner, running diagonally — an unusual configuration. For each pair, you’ve got a real clue to work with, and a dash (which indicates, I believe, a continuation).First we have 24A: “Wildflower with spiky, purplish blooms.” With crosses, you can see that this short entry, four letters, reads H-E-D-G. I’m a plant buff, and this entry was new to me (and it’s a debut), but it’s a compound of two common words, so it seems fair enough.Second, let’s look at 4D: “As a rule,” given only three letters (and knowing the last one is G). The other entry is also relevant to my profession, but only in hindsight, as it took me a while to put “Big story” together.98A and 117A; 57D and 117DREGENERATION; FRONT PAGE NEWSFinally, half of the southeast corner might be accessible if you’re a car person, and the other half is a term we all probably know, more basic science.101A and 120A; 84D and 120DHOMOGENEITY; DODGE NEONOccasionally, I’m sorry for the people solving electronically, because they don’t end up with a forensic record of their struggles (erasures and scribbles) and because they don’t get a grid to further scribble on when there is an interesting visual effect present. After I read Mr. Barocas’s notes, I ran a highlighter through each theme answer and was delighted to find what clearly resembles a chromosome to me — with that diagonal G-E-N-E the shared middle region (the centromere, don’t ya know), which is perfectly fitting, and the tail ends of each theme entry trailing off in four directions.