Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Easter Island

  • Rapamycin: The “fountain of youth” from Easter Island?

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “We know more about the movement of the celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.”—Leonardo DaVinci In November 1964, the Canadian naval vessel HMCS Cape Scott left Halifax, Nova Scotia, to make a medical evaluation of Easter Island. The expedition was led by surgeon Stanley Skoryna and medical microbiologist Georges Nógrády,1,2 and…

  • The navel of the world: Belly buttons, innies and outies

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States In 1999, I traveled from Panama to Easter Island, via the Galapagos, as a passenger/deckhand/ship’s surgeon on an old square-rigged sailing ship. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s history and description of the island had captured my imagination. Easter Island, the most remote, isolated place on earth, was originally settled…

  • Conjoined twins: Art, ethics, and the media

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States Conjoined twins have fascinated humans since earliest times. Artists illustrated twins in clay, stone statues, wood carvings, and portraits. They were exhibited on stage, in freak shows, and the circus. The worldwide news media, especially the intrusive television camera, has now replaced the circus as a means of exhibiting…