No 12890, Monday 23 Mar 2020, Arden

ACROSS
1   Eleanor Cortez shot — no concession to lawbreakers (4,9) ZERO TOLERANCE*
10 Cover both sides of fish basket (5) CREEL {CoveR}{EEL}
11 Tom writes novel, cheats (3-6) TWO-TIMERS*
12 Five were part of a gig beforehand (2,7) IN ADVANCE {V} {IN A DANCE}
13 Light direction in actual review (5) LASER {RE{S}AL<=}
14 Work interrupts participation, energy wasted (7) ENTROPY {ENTR{OP}Y}
16 Hormone evens out — snugly wrapped up inside homes (7) INSULIN {IN}{SnUgLy}{IN}
18 Right of ship to go through — it’s Germany bound (7) TRUSSED {TRU{SS}E}{D}
20 A wave able to take on a sea creature (7) ABALONE {A}{BAL{ON}E*}

22 River and mountain range in the countryside (5) RURAL {R}{URAL}
24 Can feel as free and unbound (9) LOOSELEAF {LOO}{FEEL+AS}*
26 Nocturnal creature gets thing moved by crane, perhaps (5,4) NIGHT BIRD {THING}*{BIRD}
27 Worked mostly in army unit on Sonar (5) ASDIC {DId} in {ASC}
28 Opposed to American lumberjack featuring in the advertisements (2,11) AT LOGGERHEADS {A}{T{LOGGER}HE}{ADS}

DOWN
2   A gentle representation, artistic (7) ELEGANT*
3   Slip contents in plain cover, being forgetful (9) OBLIVIOUS {OB{sLIp}VIOUS}
4   Frequently soothes when naked (5) OFTEN sOFTENs
5   Recondite matters as coterie is formed (9) ESOTERICA*
6   Mostly everyone follows a team along the centre (5) AXIAL {A}{XI}{ALl}
7   Coolers used to make phenol (7) CREOSOL*
8   Strange pair — connected but always getting hurt (8-5) ACCIDENT-PRONE*
9   Design nicer features as part of software (4,9) USER INTERFACE*
15 Shouting about work piling up, it's music to some (9) YODELLING {Y{DO<=}ELLING}
17 Status quo on Spooner’s sex, say (9) STALEMATE (~ male state to stalemate)
19 By changing vertical direction absolutely becomes erect (7) UPRIGHT {UP}{RIGHT}
21 Old composer died — it’s exaggerated (7) OVERDID {O}{VERDI}{D}
23 Free time to check building blocks (3,2) LET GO {LE{T}GO}
25 For derivatives there is domestic demand (5) ORDER [T]

Reference List
Direction = S, Work = OP, Germany = D, River = R, Can = LOO, Army Unit = ASC(Army Service Corps), American = A, Team = XI, Old = O, Died = D, Time = T

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Frederick Banting and Charles Best were working in the early 1920s at Toronto in ORDER to find a cure for diabetes. Being NIGHT BIRDs, they sought and obtained permission from Prof. MacLeod to use the laboratory OFTEN after office hours. They noted down the findings of their ELEGANT experiments on dog pancreas in a LOOSE LEAF notebook. Banting was the brain behind the study but the slogging was done by Best, who had ZERO TOLERANCE for error. They tried making pancreatic extract with CREOSOL and later, at MacLeod's suggestion, with saline. When they managed to cure a dog with experimental diabetes using their extract, Banting presented the findings in a conference at Yale University but he OVERDID the ESOTERIC details so much so that the audience were OBLIVIOUS to the message. This caused a STALEMATE between Banting and MacLeod. Being AT LOGGERHEADS with the chief investigators (Banting and Best), MacLeod, roped in a biochemist, James Collip, to purify the extract. He used ethanol and got a pure anti-diabetic substance. It was MacLeod who made the announcement IN ADVANCE to the world about the discovery of INSULIN, although he did little actual work. The flighty but UPRIGHT Banting could not take it when the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine was conferred in 1923 on MacLeod and Banting, ignoring the work of Best. He accused MacLeod of being a TWO TIMER and even of stealing the loose leaf notebook from him.   Charles Best, who was just 25 years old then, with a RURAL upbringing that had taught him magnanimity, prevailed on Banting to LET GO of his acrimonious battle with MacLeod. Thus, Best was able to stem the ENTROPY in the scientific circles. In spite of their personality clashes, what they all achieved in those days, without modern inventions like LASER, AXIAL scans or medical software with easy USER INTERFACE, was remarkable indeed.