Tag: Summer 2023
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Look what they’ve done to my brain: Einstein’s last wish ignored
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “…his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.”– Bob Dylan, “License to Kill” Albert Einstein (1879–1955) is considered to be one of the most influential scientists of all time. His childhood, though, was not very promising. He did not speak until he was three years old. There is also reason to believe…
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Milk in medicine
The mammary glands are believed to have originated as glands in the skin of synapsids. These were the predecessors of mammals some 300 million years ago, and the function of their skin glands was to provide moisture for the eggs they were laying. When mammals came on to the scene, the function of the mammary…
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Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588)
To the twentieth century tourist, the name Zwinger brings to mind the beautiful palace built in Dresden in 1709 by King Augustus the Strong of Saxony. In German, Zwinger means an open area between two surrounding walls built to defend a city. But none of these have anything to do with Theodor Zwinger. He was…
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Historical and modern diagnoses of Darwin’s chronic illness
Stephen KentWarrington, United Kingdom Introduction Charles Darwin has been the subject of intense study over the last 140 years, not only because of his publication of The Origin of Species through Natural Selection, but also because his extensive correspondence gives a clear insight into the character of the man himself. One of his preoccupations in…
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Quinine and global health
Diego AndradeStalin Santiago CeliQuito, Ecuador Quinine is considered to be one of the most important medical discoveries historically, as it marked the first successful use of a chemical compound to treat malaria. Malaria is an acute febrile disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted through the bites of female Anopheles mosquitoes.1 Without treatment, the…
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Thomas Dover, physician and entrepreneur (1660–1742)
Oh, Dover was a pirate and he sailed the Spanish Main A hacking cough convulsed him and he had agonizing pain. So he mixed himself a powder, which he liked more and more. Ipecac and opium and K2SO4 1 Dover Powder, U.S.P., 1920. Produced by and gift of Parke, Davis and Company. National Museum…
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Down’s syndrome
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. A patient at Earlswood photographed by Langdon Down. Via Alchetron. Amongst the residents he attended at Earlswood Asylum for Idiots in Redhill, Surrey, John Langdon Down in 1865 began to use an anthropological classification. He identified a group of patients who were mentally delayed and showed a remarkably similar,…
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Book review: Life Unseen: A Story of Blindness
Arpan K. Banerjee Solihull, United Kingdom Cover of Life Unseen: A Story of Blindness by Selina Mills In her new book, Selina Mills, an award-winning journalist who is legally blind, takes us on a journey through the cultural history of visual impairment and blindness. It is both informative and empowering, weaving together research and the…
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What can the candiru (Vandellia cirrhosa) do?
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Lateral view of the candiru Paracanthopoma sp. in field aquarium. From Jansen Zuanon and Ivan Sazima, “Free meals on long-distance cruisers: the vampire fish rides giant catfishes in the Amazon,” Biota Neotropica 5, no. 1 (2005), via ResearchGate. CC BY-NC 4.0. “[N]o one has stepped forward to observe the candiru’s life…
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Piero della Francesca and Paul Klee (and cancer)
Scott SikkemaChicago, Illinois, United States “Man’s ability to measure the spiritual, earthbound and cosmic, set against his physical helplessness; this is his fundamental tragedy. The tragedy of spirituality. The consequence of this simultaneous helplessness of the body and mobility of the spirit is the dichotomy of human existence.”– Paul Klee (The Notebooks of Paul Klee)…