Gnomes, bulldozers and why we shouldn’t hold our breath for new health legislation

Efaproxiral: should we hold our breath?

Suh et al breathe a bit of new life into two long-standing endeavors with their report in this issue of a phase III study of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) and efaproxiral (RSR13), a hemoglobin modifier meant to increase tissue oxygenation. For decades, radiation oncologists have sought to enhance tumor control and patient survival by addressing the problem of hypoxia and, separately, to impro...

Why predominantly neurological decompression sickness in breath-hold divers?

It has been widely believed that human free divers were immune to decompression sickness because the only inert gas added during a breath-hold dive is the nitrogen (N2) that remains in the lungs from the inhalation before submerging. However, there has been anecdotal evidence from case reports of divers suffering neurological symptoms after repeated free dives. In breath-hold divers of the Tuam...

Reply to Martin ( 2015 ) : Why our conclusions hold

We (Heintz and Ruch 2015, An examination of the convergence between the conceptualization and the measurement of humor styles: A study of the construct validity of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 28. 611–633) pointed to a lack of convergence between the conceptualization of humor styles and how they are measured with the HSQ (i. e. the Humor Styles...

Hold your breath!

R egeneration, the process by which an animal restores lost cells or body parts, occurs throughout the animal kingdom, including vertebrates, planarians and cnidarians such as hydra (Tanaka & Reddien, 2011). However, the ability to regenerate varies between species, and within a species it can be different for different body parts. Salamanders, such as axolotls and newts, possess the most impre...

Complementary Strategies : Why we use our hands when we think