A QUEST Begins

Tough climate roadmap begins

It was undoubtedly one of the most complex and global conferences: the meeting last month in Bali to tackle greenhouse gas emissions lived up to its billing with moments of high drama. Representatives of 190 countries had gathered to map out future plans to tackle global warming, with the US delegation finally agreeing to join in the process at the thirteenth hour (see Hard bargaining, this iss...

Equity begins with children

measure of income poverty and the more directly observable – and more reliable – indicators of human well-being. The former frequently yields a distorted view of reality. After examining the role of social services in human development, Anand and Ravallion (1993) conclude ‘that certain components of public

Internet Computing Begins

Nuclear medicine begins with a boa constrictor.

In the beginning, a boa constrictor defecated in London and the subsequent development of nuclear medicine was inevitable. It took a little time, but the 139-yr chain of cause and effect that followed was inexorable ( 1 ). One June week in 1815 an exotic animal exhibition was held on the Strand in London. A young "animal chemist" named William Prout (we would now call him a clinical pathologist...

Elastography--the movement begins.

The advent of real-time ultrasound in the 1970s, together with a growing interest in tissue characterization, led to a number of investigators using the nature of tissue motion to distinguish healthy from diseased tissue. Our group at the (then) Ultrasonics Institute demonstrated the use of phase methods for detecting very small tissue motions, using natural stimuli. The method could also be ap...