TOPIC: Critical Care TYPE: Medical Student/Resident Case Reports INTRODUCTION: Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) is the presence of gas within wall small or large intestine. While pathogenesis poorly understood, etiology often secondary to ischemia, obstruction, on occasion, an endoscopic procedure. CASE PRESENTATION: 50-year-old male with past medical history chronic kidney disease stage 4 and unc...

So wrote Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who was born around 965 in Basra (now Iraq, but then part of Persia), lived most of his life in Egypt, and is credited with being an early developer of the scientific method. His road to truth took a wrong turn that almost cost him his life. After claiming that he could use mathematical principles to regulate the flooding of the Nile—and later realizing that t...