Tag: Fall 2014
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A difficult diagnosis: Humor—how we laugh at doctors
Kate BaggottSt. Catharines, Ontario, Canada “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it,”1 silent film star Charlie Chaplin wrote in his autobiography. Chaplin’s words do not exactly connect the funny bone to the humerus, and the anatomy of comedy has never been easy to chart, especially when it…
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The truth of the imagination
John Graham-PoleAntigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances.” Life as performance art The bard got it right: we are all actors, whether stars or bit players. Our metaphors bespeak it: we make our entry onto life’s stage;…
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Mind the translation gap
Debi RobersonUnited Kingdom The author is grateful for funding from the ESRC (grant R000238310) and from the Royal Society (grant IE121122)which made this research and the report possible. Between 1996 and 1998, I made three research trips to the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea to do field studies for my PhD. On my first…
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Smallpox inoculation: prelude to vaccination
Art BoylstonHeadington, Oxford, United Kingdom Inoculation for smallpox, now known as variolation, consisted of placing a small amount of fluid from a smallpox pustule into the skin. It was introduced into England and colonial Boston in 1721 following reports from Constantinople that the practice was safe and produced lifelong immunity to smallpox.1 Not surprisingly the…
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The illusion of rainbows
Bryant PhanPalo Alto, California, United States The street lamps in my neighborhood flicker in Technicolor before shutting off. A glimmer of orange surrounding the houses outside the window catches my eye. The outline of each house turns grey before imprinting a series of geometrical shapes in the back of my mind. My father obsessively keeps…
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The interrupted concerto: Jacqueline du Pré and MS
Lea C. DacyMoses RodriguezRochester, Minnesota, United States Although promoted as a “comeback,” it was almost her last public performance. In February 1973, the late Jacqueline du Pré performed the Elgar Cello Concerto in London with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. The concerto had been closely associated with du Pré since her landmark…
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A legacy of pain: Heredity and migraines
Terri SinnottChicago, Illinois, United States A reporter doing a story on migraines asked me about my family’s tendencies toward them.1 With a bit of dark humor, I pointed to a family picture and said, instead of identifying them by name, that I would identify them by the treatments they use at a migraine’s onset. Left…
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Joseph Bell, supreme diagnostician
The professor produced a vial filled with a bitter amber-colored liquid and asked the medical students to dip a finger in it and taste it, so he could determine how many of them had developed their powers of observation. The students grimaced but did as they were told, and the professor likewise dipped his finger…
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Those golden years
Richard SobelKibbutz Revivim, Israel “I’ve only ever had one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.” Jeanne Clement was one hundred ten years old but cheerful and lucid when she made that remark during an interview. She may still have been smoking: she stopped only when her vision became too poor to see the cigarette well…