Toxic pulmonary disease from beryllium exposure first came to light in the 1930s, soon after the emergence of industrial uses of beryllium alloys. An early manufacturing application for beryllium compounds, as phosphors in fluorescent tubes, was the cause of some of the first known cases of chronic beryllium disease (CBD) (first termed “pulmonary granulomatosis of beryllium workers”). However, ...

The anatomical atrioventricular node was first described by Tawara in 1906.1 Although some surmised the node to be the region responsible for delay between contraction of atria and ventricles, Erlanger in 1912 localized the major portion of delay to a latency at the transition between atrial and nodal fibers.2 Nearly a century of research on properties of the atrioventricular (AV) node has subs...

Embedded in the genomes of all vertebrates are the proviral remnants of previous retroviral infections. Although the overwhelming majority has suffered inactivating mutations, current research suggests that members of one family of human retroelements may still be capable of movement.

Twenty-five years ago, in a commentary published in Pediatrics, Drs Needleman and Jackson1 asked whether we would still be treating lead poisoning in the 21st century. Unfortunately, despite considerable progress, our public health system is still failing to prevent children from being lead poisoned and the specter of lead poisoning continues to cast a shadow over the country: over 500 000 Amer...

In 1997, Margaret Brazier was asked by the then Government to chair a review of the laws regulating surrogacy. The subsequent Brazier Report made a number of recommendations, including the need for greater regulation and the tightening of 'expenses' payments. Fifteen years on, the limitations in the legal regulation of surrogacy have become increasingly clear. Yet, none of Brazier's recommendat...

Jerry Fodor has argued that the multiple realizability argument, as discussed in his original “Special Sciences” article, “refutes psychophysical reductionism once and for all.” I argue that his argument in “Special Sciences” does no such thing. Furthermore, if one endorses the physicalism that most supporters of the “Special Sciences” view endorse, special science laws must be reducible, in pr...