Tag: Winter 2015
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Taste buds
Pinky TripathiVaranasi, Uttar Pradesh, India The sense of taste evolved in the earliest vertebrates, subject to different interpretation by organisms. Taste is mediated through taste buds, each supported by a narrow connective tissue papilla from the underlying tissues through which the taste buds get their nerve and blood supply. Each taste bud has a small…
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Imaging in medicine: Fine art to medical art
Arabella ProfferCleveland, Ohio, United States Studying anatomy was something I had never taken seriously or practiced much in art school. Frankly, I was mediocre at it. As a result, I developed into a mannerist painter and on occasion distorted anatomy to add an artificial quality. I find this strange, considering my new fascination the last…
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Art and the myth of the “wandering womb”
Laurinda DixonNew York, United States Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings bearing modern titles such as “The Doctor’s Visit” or “The Lovesick Maiden” are common.1 They were once produced in great numbers and, with some variations, illustrate the same thing. The example by Jan Steen in the Taft Museum in Cincinnati (Fig. 1) is typical. Here a pretty young…
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Abbott Handerson Thayer’s art and fin de siècle American culture
Gregory RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921) straddled the fin de siècle, and with his brush preserved an American counterculture for posterity. His variegated oeuvre reflects substantive reflections of his period’s medical and religious culture, as well as the earliest American naturalism. His was a momentous time as science unfolded the implications of…
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The blade
Kevin LoughlinBoston, Massachusetts, USA The blade slashes through the skinNot in violenceBut in cureIt is held not by an assailantBut by a surgeon The same instrumentBut with such cross purposesAs a surgeon, I know the fear and anticipationThat proceeds the strikeAssailants must feel the same Ironic, violence and healingBoth take training and skillMysteries both, which…
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Enhanced creativity in later life
Melissa Castora-BinkleyElizabeth HandingSouth Florida The increased capacity for creativity in later life is not a new concept. Both professional and amateur artists alike have created some of their best works in later life. Galenson1 described some well-known lifetime artists such as, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Virginia Woolf, and Robert Frost who were arguably past their “prime” when…
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Darwin’s ideas: Supported by science
Daniel NebertCincinnati, Ohio, United States This year we celebrate the 156th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s book, On the origin of species by means of natural selection, one of the greatest landmark scientific advances of all time. As the ship’s only “naturalist biologist”, Darwin sailed around the world from England (1831–1836) on the HMS Beagle. His…
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The discovery of oxygen
David PooleMichael WhiteKansas, United StatesBrian WhippPowys, Wales We live submerged in a sea of life-preserving oxygen. As I sit at my desk, my diaphragm contracts rhythmically, powering a breath every four seconds or so. Each breath is barely perceptible – but for the dust particles – tiny whirling dervishes emblazoned by the low winter’s sun.…
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EKG
Miriam Ancis MIRIAM ANCIS has an MFA in sculpture from the Parsons School of Design, received rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College, and a BA from UC Berkeley. Individuals and corporations have purchased her work. She has had solo and group shows in NYC, Los Angeles, and France. In addition to participation in the…