One lump or two?

hSr Proceedings in intensive care and cardiovascular Anesthesia 2012, vol. 4 Corresponding author: Prof. Michael John Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele Via olgettina, 48 20132 Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected] personal level. of course, conversation is not necessarily focussed on limited areas of biomedical interest, but on the contrary can deal with such diverse topics as family, hobbies, holidays, sports, music, food, home town, and so on. Everything and anything! The very same doctors that have no difficulty whatsoever discussing mitral valve surgery or abdominal aneurysms might easily find themselves at a loss having to catch a bus in London or read a menu in a Manhattan diner. A reasonable command of informal English is needed, and this cannot always be taken for granted. naturally, as with anything else, the more you do something the better you get at doing it. Therefore, people that regularly attend congresses abroad are generally less prone to difficulty, and are able to deal with whatever is thrown at them, or whatever obstacle they might find in their path. Back to the coffee break, which is an important moment when you can meet people, also being an important parenthesis where you can make deals, organize eventual collaboration and exchange, and generally get all sorts of things sorted out. However, you need to break the ice and start the ball rolling. We all know that English is the esperanto of the biomedical world, and a decent command of the language, especially informal conversational language, is required in order to improvise any kind of dialogue, however simple and straightStardate 134548.7. Dr Krik is flying through the galaxy towards yet another interstellar biomedical congress. This time it’s about brain transplantation. Dr Krik has been invited to present a holographic poster that talks of his team’s most recent surgical procedure. of course, we are a very long way from Baron frankenstein. nowadays, brain transplantation is the norm and nobody even thinks for a moment that something might go wrong with the procedure. He gets to the congress, he sets up his poster, he stands and waits for an audience to arrive in dribs and drabs. The morning drags on slowly, with no more than ten fellow scientists (the word people would be out of place as there are aliens from all over the galaxy at this congress) stopping by to study his data. Coffee time! Let’s go back in time to the 21st century, and imagine our Dr Krik is attending an international congress in Los Angeles, rather than on the other side of the galaxy. As usually happens during the coffee break, or during any social activity that takes place during a biomedical congress, colleagues start chatting about this and that and begin to get to know each other on a more one lump or two?