mementomori | July 12, 2006Is every species of living thing on the planet equally deserving of protection?
By protection dost thou mean protection from the human species, or from other species, or from certain other somewhat psychologically unstable members of the same species?
Whosoever asketh this question must be hinting around that Homo sapiens is a highly embarrassing example of a creature that ravages less intelligent species without any regard to the value that other unique living organisms bring to Mother Earth.
Giveth me a break. Long after the human race has become extinct there will still be acrobatic…
mementomori | July 12, 2006"Housework Activity Helps Elderly Live Longer"
Doing household chores such as washing dishes and climbing stairs can help older adults to live longer, a new study shows.
Every now and then a study is released that just makes so much sense one feels incredibly guilty in ignoring the life-saving advice contained within it. Fortunately the feeling soon passes, allowing one to return to one's normal activities.
Researchers in the U.S. studied a group of 302 adults aged 70 to 82 who lived independently. Participants were followed for an average of six years. About 12 per cent of those who were…
mementomori | July 11, 2006Did you ever have one of those months where it seems that every time you finish up for the day another pile of work suddenly appears before you? That's what my July has been like. I can't seem to get my patients taken care of before another voice in the wilderness cries out for help. It reminds me of raking leaves on a Saturday in October when a sudden gust of wind scatters the pile across the yard and shakes the tree limbs, raining a thousand more golden stars down on one's head. Sometimes one needs the élan of a pontiff in order to make it through a typical day tending to the ailments…
mementomori | July 7, 2006Here are some of the latest headlines from the blue and white orb majestically do-si-doing in some obscure galaxy so remote not even a Klingon war fleet could find it if they flew right under its nose. Your attention please:
Hunting Norwegian whalers shock tourists
I'd be shocked too if, while following a docent around a narrow Oslo street I happened to come upon a team of thugs harpooning a covey of cowering fishermen.
Monkeys are hard-wired for facial recognition
Which will undoubtedly lead to the demise of that classic simian one-liner "Eeeh! Ooo-oo-Yeeeh!" (translation: I never…
mementomori | July 6, 2006On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned mammal. Ten years on, has cloning developed the way you expected it to?
For what it's worth, my answer is yes; cloning has progressed exactly the way I expected it to - agonizingly slow, marred with controversy and eliciting knee-jerk reactions of horror from the general populace as if maggot-infested revenants were just beyond the front gate, waiting for the all-clear sign to attack.
I suppose it didn't help that Ira Levin flooded our popular culture with the worst possible example of human cloning years before Dolly the…
mementomori | July 5, 2006"Enron Founder Kenneth Lay Dies at 64"
Upon reading this headline one cannot help but wildly speculate as to the cause of Lay's surprising death. Did he commit suicide? Was his body found in a Washington D.C. park? What on earth happened?
Pastor Steve Wende of First United Methodist Church of Houston, said in a statement that church member Lay died unexpectedly of a "massive coronary."
With this news all the doctors of the world gave out a collective "Oh, now I get it." Why do we understand? The clue is in the pastor's statement that Lay died "unexpectedly."
Unexpectedly? Who are they…
mementomori | July 2, 2006For some people Fourth of July weekend in the country is a respite from cancer, a chance to stroll around the hot fields and lean over the green swirl of the river as it pushes itself downstream like Sisyphus straining against his rock, never stopping to rest against the shore.
What is it about standing beneath shady leaves, or watching miniature frogs leap into the water that erases memories of suffering?
I find myself almost trying to answer this question when suddenly I see the towering oak tree next to my cottage and am reminded once again of the fight against the pestilence of cancer.…
mementomori | June 28, 2006What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?
Are you kidding me? Can you imagine what life would be like in America if our government had ignored the cries of scientists begging us to use new discoveries to "guide policy"? How about this for an example:
Warum nicht sind wir aller sprechende Deutsche?
or alternatively,
Почему не все мы говорение по-русски?
Or perhaps a panhandler accosted you today and you barked at him:
Ittai nani ga hoshitenda, Chikushome!
For more enlightenment I suggest perusing this little dandy of a story.
Domo…
mementomori | June 28, 2006Secondhand smoke dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmokers and can only be controlled by making indoor spaces smoke-free, according to a comprehensive report issued yesterday by US Surgeon General Richard Carmona.
Uh oh...Humphrey Bogart call your office. It looks like this is the end for the 48 million smokers in this country who love to light up a Luckie in the neighborhood saloon or beanery. I wonder if our airports will be able to accommodate the mass number of citizens emigrating to Parisian apartments? How long will it be before the Zippo lighter…
mementomori | June 27, 2006Last week my partners and I met with a health care system executive charged with designing a brand new hospital to be built over the next two years, right here in suburban St. Louis. Mirabile dictu, the new place will include a new cancer center. For those not familiar with the art and science of medical oncology, to find out that your hospital is being replaced with shining new multi-million dollar building is like being promoted from running a hot dog stand to the kitchens of Alain Ducasse.
As we looked over the plans I was struck with a sudden epiphany that tore me away from the banausic…
mementomori | June 26, 2006"Jason's heart was strong within him, and he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around and with the help of those who would come to him at the word of the voyage, he would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and make famous for all time his own name."
All across the world researchers are continuously conducting experiments in an attempt to get cancerous tumors to do one or more of the following:
a. commit suicide (by the process known as apoptosis, although a vicious six-foot drop from a wooden scaffold wouldn't bring any tears to my eyes).
b. wound themselves, if not to…
mementomori | June 21, 2006What makes a good science teacher?...
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." -Albert Einstein
This is a fascinating and germane question for physicians, who must suffer through the following courses (all taught by science teachers, of course) in order to earn their degree:
1 year each of Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physics
Comparative Anatomy
Quantitative Analysis
Genetics
Physiology (Bless me Lord, for I have sinned - I didn't take this in college)
[I'm sure there are other courses out there for the obsessive-compulsive pre-med…
mementomori | June 21, 2006Gee, it seems that the gurus in charge of writing wire service headlines seem to have fallen under the spell of Banality, The Fairie Queen of Cliches. Here are some recent examples culled from the "Health" section, which your narrator enjoys browsing, if only to come up with new ideas on how to improve his looks.
"Healthy diet and lifestyle vital for healthy heart: AHA"
(Who knew? I just hope they allow a certain degree of latitude when defining the word "healthy," otherwise I'm in big trouble.)
"Melanoma Often Spotted Later Among Blacks, Hispanics"
(Actually this headline is misleading -…
mementomori | June 20, 2006"Science is all metaphor." -Timothy Leary
I like to use analogies when counseling my patients. By phrasing medical situations or goals in language that creates a vivid picture I believe it helps patients to understand what exactly is happening to them, or what is the goal of treatment. Picturesque metaphors in my opinion are excellent teaching tools that leave a lasting impression whether it be on patients, family members or students.
Lately for some reason I've been handing out analogies like a slot machine with three 7s showing on it. Divine afflatus seems to have temporarily left the…
mementomori | June 18, 2006"Fentanyl-laced Heroin Kills Hundreds Of Addicts In USA"
"Amid Fentanyl Deaths, Investigation, Addicts Keep Using"
"Police Hope Heroin Bust Stops Tainted Drugs"
These disturbing headlines have been making the news lately as illicit laboratories improve their ability to produce and ship the narcotic fentanyl to heroin suppliers in this country, who then either sell it to addicts in pure form or add it to the heroin. In either case the possibility of fatal overdose is high:
Fentanyl-laced herion has killed hundreds of addicts from Chicago to Philadelphia. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic drug…
mementomori | June 16, 2006Flash! What new ScienceBlogs blogger just might have figured out how to show comments from his gentle readers?
I do apologize for the delay in figuring this incredibly complex aspect of the enigmatic Movable Type program.
Please feel free to bombs away in the Comments section, and I'll try to maintain a little higher degree of vigilance than Captain Edward John Smith did on the night of April 14, 1912.
mementomori | June 15, 2006How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
In my case I have learned the art of working at twice the speed of the average doctor, not unlike The Flash, who upon overhearing his wife express a velleity for a bowl of peanut-butter-and-chocolate ice cream magically produced it from within the folds of his cape before she even had time to change her mind to Rocky Road.
Also, I love to write, that helps. Even when the finished product is riddled with comma splices…
mementomori | June 14, 2006Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone…
mementomori | June 13, 2006In 1994 researchers from Denmark studied the faces of 13,186 men and women between the ages of 30 and 80 and recorded the severity of wrinkling in the right lateral part of the orbit where "crow's feet" appear. They then checked their lung capacity using a standard measurement found in pulmonary function testing and, after stratifying the subjects according to age, noticed a curious finding among current and previous smokers:
...subjects with highest wrinkle scores had on average FEV1/FVC% that was 1.2-1.9% lower than in subjects with lower wrinkle scores. No association between facial…
mementomori | June 12, 2006"Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?"
I don't have to even think twice about this one - if I wasn't spending my time stalking the beast Cancer I would have my head in the stars, pursuing the answers to questions no one has ever been able to answer. For me, Cosmology (as compared to Cosmetology) is the most exciting field outside of medicine that exists, if it does truly exist. The universe, that is. Not that I think it doesn't exist - I'm just a masochist for ontological…