Just Sit Still and Pay Attention?—A Commentary

Commentary: Epidemiology still ascendant.

briefly for several decades is now nearly gone, leaving behind some knowledge of disease prevention, a few controversial alarms, and a collection of techniques for assessing the health consequences of people’s actions. Among the legacies is the demise of major 20th-century epidemics attributable to tobacco, dietary fats and some carcinogens in the workplace and environment. For many, however, e...

Merit Pay: Just or Unjust Desserts

Commentary Why are doctors still prescribing neuroleptics?

There are two main pharmacological methods of suppressing undesired behaviour: sedation or neuroleptics. Traditionally, the invention of neuroleptics has been hailed as one of the major clinical breakthroughs of the twentieth century, since they calmed agitation without (necessarily) causing sedation. The specifically neuroleptic form of behavioural control is achieved by making patients psycho...

Commentary Superantigens : Just Like Peptides Only Different

T he exotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes are prototype molecules for the larger family of superantigens (SAGs). This family now includes many structurally unrelated molecules of disparate origins reflecting a wide evolutionary convergence towards the common goal of subverting T cell antigen recognition. SAGs bind simultaneously to MHC class II molecules and TC...

Commentary: a thesis that still warrants defence and promotion.

I replied, ‘‘you have been teaching students at least for twenty-five years?’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ said he. Then I asked him: ‘‘Can you tell me the symptoms of which the majority of people complain when they fall sick?’’ After some consideration he said, ‘‘No.’’ I said, ‘‘The most common complaint is exhaustion. Can you tell me what is exhaustion?’’ He again, after a little consideration, said ‘‘No.’’ ‘‘S...