March, 2022 - Hektoen International

Battle of six feet

March 24, 2022

Mark Mosley Wichita, Kansas, United States Sleep (w/CPAP). Artwork by Howard J on Flickr, October 19, 2020. CC BY-NC 2.0. They die alone now; jet pilots soaring solo upward muffled voices sucked into machines speaking a language we recognize but too distant to quite understand until their plastic faces harden and eyes glaze over […]

What makes a polymath, a genius, or a man who knows everything?

March 22, 2022

JMS Pearce Hull, England, United Kingdom Fig 1. Einstein playing his violin. From CMUSE via Quora. Public domain. The question posed in this title is of course imponderable and ridiculous, but nevertheless fascinating. Until the Enlightenment (c. 1750–1800), an intellectual “Renaissance man” could have read most of the important books printed. He might well […]

Scotland’s Anthrax Island

March 18, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Cutaneous anthrax lesion on the neck, May 25, 1953. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. “They make a desolation and call it peace.” — Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001) During World War Two, the British government purchased from its owners the Gruinard […]

AIDS: Thru a glass darkly

March 17, 2022

S.E.S. Medina Benbrook, Texas, United States AIDS Cases by Exposure Category and Year of Report 1985-1996, United States. CDC/NCHSTP/DHAP/Jean G. Smith. Courtesy of Public Health Image Library. Via Public Domain Files. Public domain. I sat in the deep, cool shade of a stout, leafy Texas cedar escaping the torrid summer heat, idle thoughts meandering. […]

Qualis artifex pereo

March 16, 2022

Henri Colt Laguna Beach, California, United States Man sitting. Photo by Gadiel Lazcano on Unsplash. This short story is a work of fiction. Translation: “What an artist the world is losing with me!” — cited by Suctonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero 49; Loeb ed., 2:177 Michael had jet black hair and sorrowful brown […]

Louis Braille: wondrous gift, punishing recipe

March 16, 2022

Lauren Hill Walnut Cove, North Carolina, United States Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States Louis Braille (1809–1852), blinded and ultimately dying by “opportunity” … but not before inventing a wondrous gift to humanity. From De Tampon, 1925. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. “… as need, the mother of all inventions, taught […]

The wounds of Christ and Prometheus – two of a kind?

March 15, 2022

Julia van Rosmalen Thomas van Gulik Amsterdam, Netherlands Fig. 1. Peter Paul Rubens, Prometheus Bound, 1611-1612. The eagle has buried its claws into the face and leg of Prometheus and uses its beak to tear out part of his liver that it has extracted through the right side of his chest. In the lower […]

“Killed By Vaccination”: the enduring currency of a nineteenth century illogic

March 15, 2022

Saty Satya-Murti Santa Maria, California, United States Fig. 1. William Young’s 1886 pamphlet alleging that smallpox vaccinations slaughter and kill. Source: Wellcome Collection. In Public Domain. Vaccine misinformation and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories are not new but have acquired a combative energy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly all the arguments now raised against vaccination were […]

An avalanche of white tissues

March 15, 2022

Gail Ghai Sarasota, Florida, United States Avalanche by Robert Qualters. Mixed media painting and drawing, 2022. Courtesy of artist. He gives me a golden pearl to vanquish the sputtering sputum cough. A red tablet to quell the scarlet flushing, and an ivory capsule to squash the bronchial terrorists that have invaded the walls of […]

Book review: Female innovators who changed our world: how women shaped STEM

March 15, 2022

Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, England, United Kingdom Cover of Female innovators who changed our world: how women shaped STEM by Emma Shimizu. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) play an important part in our lives. The march of scientific and technological progress continues unabated and is responsible for revolutionizing life in the modern world. […]