Fact and fantasy

Borna disease virus - fact and fantasy.

The occasion of Brian Mahy's retirement as editor of Virus Research provides an opportunity to reflect on the work that led one of the authors (Lipkin) to meet him shortly after the molecular discovery and characterization of Borna disease virus in the late 1980s, and work with authors Briese and Hornig to investigate mechanisms of pathogenesis and its potential role in human disease. This arti...

Fact and Fantasy in Index Investing

Fact and Fantasy Regarding Resistance to Microbicides

Resistance to animal and human therapeutic antibiotics is well known and understood among both the scientific and lay community. Performance failures with industrial microbicides are commonly discussed as if the same phenomenon occurs here also. Much of this is indeed fantasy, as the mode of action of most, but not all, industrial microbicides are based on a fundamentally different principle th...

Femoroacetabular impingement: fact, fiction, or fantasy?

OBJECTIVE Proponents of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) now claim that FAI is an important risk factor for hip osteoarthritis and argue that early, aggressive treatment is indicated to stave off long-term complications. The result is more young patients undergoing corrective surgery; does the literature support these claims or has hype trumped reality? This article critically reviews these a...

Climate Policy: Separating Fact from Fantasy

There is widespread agreement that climate change is a serious problem. If nations fail to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, or use alternative strategies for addressing the problem, the damages could be significant, and perhaps catastrophic. In this Essay, I argue that the range of effective options to address this problem is likely to be quite limited for the forese...