Tag: Spring 2025
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Frédéric Chopin: Poland’s greatest composer (1810–1849)
Frédéric Chopin was one of the greatest piano composers of the Romantic era. Born to a French father and a Polish mother, he grew up in a household that highly valued education and culture. By age six, he was already creating musical compositions, and at age seven, he wrote a polonaise. He received his formal…
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Robert Braidwood’s “Did Man Once Live by Beer Alone?”
In his 1953 essay “Did Man Once Live by Beer Alone?”, archaeologist Robert J. Braidwood raised a provocative question that hinted at deeper anthropological and historical truths about the origins of agriculture. Though framed with a certain tongue-in-cheek humor, the piece explored a serious and fascinating idea: that the cultivation of cereal grains might have…
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Ivan Čobal’s “Blue Wall” at the Maribor University Clinical Centre in Slovenia
Mojca RamšakLjubljana, Slovenia Patients, physicians, and staff at Maribor University Clinical Centre pass an extraordinary piece of artwork each day: a blue wall made of elongated ceramic tiles with welded iron metal reliefs. The “Blue Wall,” officially titled Times Were Better Once (Nekoč so bili boljši časi), is a 3.4 x 16-meter wall featuring two-dimensional…
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Separating the inseparable: Seeing and practice makes it possible
Alan Jay SchwartzPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Conjoined twins present a rare and challenging occurrence. With an incidence of 1 per 50,000–200,000 births,1 the successful separation of conjoined twins is a phenomenal medical-surgical challenge.2 Two reasons, among others, explain why such separation has become successful: a) detailed visualization of the pathologic anatomy and b) simulating and…
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The striking parallels between the assassinations of James Garfield and William McKinley
Kevin R. LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, United States For decades, historians have commented on the coincidences of the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations. They both suffered mortal head wounds and were shot on a Friday. It is speculated that conspiracies were involved in both assassinations. Both men were elected in a year ending in 60 and were succeeded…
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Elephant’s medical
Elephants, the largest living land mammals, possess several features that have long interested scientists and biologists. Their size, longevity, unique anatomy, and disease resistance offer valuable insights for broader biomedical research. Their resistance to cancer is remarkable, given their massive size and long lifespan, up to seventy years, they would be expected to have a…
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Gardens: Living pharmacies
The connection between medicine and gardens runs deep. Gardens have long served as places of beauty and serenity and also as living pharmacies where healing plants were cultivated with care. This relationship between horticulture and healing represents one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring partnerships. In ancient civilizations, medicinal gardens were often components of healthcare…
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Dingler’s Panama tragedy
Enrique Chaves-CarballoKansas City, Kansas, United States According to David McCullough, author of best-seller The Path Between the Seas, Jules Isidore Dingler “was not impressive-looking…he was short and bald…had small round shoulders, a soft, round face, soft blue eyes, and a drooping, mahogany-colored mustache….The appearance suggested neither initiative nor resolution and the appearance [sic] was deceiving.”1…
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Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples: Do they represent facial paralysis or not?
Peter De SmetNijmegen, Netherlands Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples have been interpreted time and again as representations of facial paralysis in the biomedical literature.1-8 Among the arguments in favor of this view is that otitis media once was a health concern in Alaska and could have been an important cause of facial paralysis there.3…
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Crocodiles in medicine
In ancient times Egyptian doctors used crocodile dung as contraceptive or remedy for skin diseases and prescribed crocodile fat to treat burns and prevent baldness. In China traditional physicians recommended eating crocodile meat and organs for respiratory ailments and fevers, and African tribal healers prescribed crocodile teeth, bile, and fat. The interest in using crocodiles…