First Words … Editorial Introduction: The war on poverty: 50 years later

The War on Poverty 50 Years Later: a Progress Report

Electrocyte physiology: 50 years later.

Weakly electric gymnotiform and mormyrid fish generate and detect weak electric fields to image their worlds and communicate. These multi-purpose electric signals are generated by electrocytes, the specialized electric organ (EO) cells that produce the electric organ discharge (EOD). Just over 50 years ago the first experimental analyses of electrocyte physiology demonstrated that the EOD is pr...

Dialysis at a crossroads: 50 years later.

The ability to offer repetitive hemodialysis for treatment of chronic kidney failure has now reached its half-century anniversary. Although millions of patients have benefited from this life-extending procedure, current results in the United States have now stagnated with only small annual improvements in survival and continued high hospitalization rates. Recognition that this stagnation may be...

Infant growth and income 50 years later.

Among 4630 boys, irrespective of the social class into which they were born, those who grew slowly during infancy had poor educational achievements and had lower incomes than those who grew more rapidly. One interpretation of this is that biological processes linked to slow infant growth may lead to lifelong impairment of cognitive function.

A personal reflection on rural service 50 years later.

Those of us who worked in Cuba's countryside-even for a short time-still carry "rural doctor" as a badge of honor and pride. A little more than 50 years ago, in 1960, I was one of the founders of Cuba's Rural Medical Service (RMS). It was the first of several public health programs implemented under the new revolutionary government and grew out of an initiative by our class of medical graduates...