Reply to Chang and Yew

Formative vs. Reflective Measurement: A Reply to Hardin, Chang, and Fuller

For yew and me

Endophytic fungi live within the tissues of their host plants but, even for fungi, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Some of them pay the rent by producing compounds that protect the host against invading pathogenic microbes. These scanning electron micrographs show three species of endophytic fungus that have mutually beneficial relationships with plants of the family Taxaceae (yews and t...

Cephalotaxus: The Plum Yew

sent Cephalotaxus to Europe where it was received with interest and appreciation.2 Siebold grew five different Cephalotaxus in his own garden in Japan, along with many other plants he had discovered, cultivating them for their beauty and for evaluation as garden plants. Today, although plum yews are widely considered some of the most beautiful and useful of evergreen conifers, their potential a...

Pity the stinking yew

image indicating the health of normal (top) and diseased (bottom) leaves of Torreya taxifolia (the Florida torreya or stinking yew), an endangered conifer endemic to Florida and Georgia. A close relative of the torreya, the Pacific yew Taxus brevifolia, produces the potent anti-cancer drug taxol — so the torreya's rapid decline to the scant 1 500 trees alive today is of even greater concern tha...

Tribute to Alfred E. Chang.

It has been my distinct honor to co-edit this special issue of the Journal of Surgical Oncology about gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) with Dr. Alfred E. Chang. This issue is dedicated to him in recognition of longstanding contributions to surgical oncology and tumor immunology. Dr. Chang is the Hugh Cabot Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Universi...