T he new American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society classification of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias [1] has redefined entities previously grouped as ‘‘idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis’’ (IPF), but carrying a much better prognosis than that disorder. As a result, the core entity of IPF is now diagnosed with greater precision than ever before. The outcome has worsened correspond...

and ion channels must be functionally described in order to obtain a full understanding of a CPG, we will not have a detailed, mechanistic explanation for some considerable length of time. A complete compilation of the detailed molecular biophysics of neurons will long remain the "quark" of cellular and integrative neurobiology. The most disturbing feature of the Selverston paper is its pessimi...

Much of postmodern philosophy questions the assumptions of Modernity, that period in the history of the Western world since the Enlightment. These assumptions are that truth is discoverable through human reason; that certain knowledge is possible; and furthermore, that such knowledge will provide a basis for the ineluctable progress of Mankind. The Enlightenment project is underwritten by the c...

This article is based on the conviction that the major problems nowadays are not technical, but ethical, and are incumbent on homo qua homo. The origin of these problems is the advancement of economicism as a supreme interpretation of human and social reality, which means the primacy of the “market” and considering human beings in terms of what they have rather than what they are. Economicism e...

For almost 90 years following the original description of Alois Alzheimer’s patient and the identification of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Alzheimer, 1907), physicians faced the bleak prospect of observing the inexorable and relentless decline in cognition, function, and behavior with little or no opportunity for therapeutic intervention. In the last 5 years clinicians have finally been provided w...

With the development of effective therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS), therapeutic nihilism, which was so prevalent just 10 years ago, has given way to exuberance and optimism. The current mood is understandable because MS is such a devastating disease. Within 10 years of symptom onset, 50% of patients with MS are unable to carry out household and employment responsibilities; within 15 to 20 ...

This paper traces the historical roots of the “mad scientist,” a concept that has powerfully shaped the public image of science up to today, by investigating the representations of chemists in nineteenth-century Western literature. I argue that the creation of this literary figure was the strongest of four critical literary responses to the emergence of modern science in general and of chemistr...

absolute-was called into doubt, the more difficult it was for the human being to embrace a cosmic meaning system. But meaning systems cannot be relinquished without some substitute. Perhaps we can forgo the answer to the question, Why do we live? but it is not easy to postpone the question, How shall we live? Modern secular humans face the task of finding some direction to life without an exter...