"Only 10% of our life span is determined by our genes." Dan Buettner makes a fascinating--and pretty convincing--case for adopting a healthy lifestyle. If you haven't got time to watch a twenty-minute video full of examples, you can read a summary at Presentation Zen. But you'll be better off for watching the video.
Sometime this year, ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom--where, we might recall, CT-scanners, MRI-scanners, and monoclonal antibodies were 'invented'--will inject human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into the retina of a patient suffering macular degeneration, a leading cause of near-blindness in the elderly. Currently, there are nearly 2 million people in the US with the disease, expected to grow to 3 million in just 10 years....
Also this year, in the United States, patients with spinal cord injuries that would destine them for lives in wheelchairs will receive an injection of hESCs into their injured spinal cords. Studies of hESCs in animal models of spinal cord injury have shown remarkable recovery of function. When the first of these human patients wiggles his toes, the prospect of fulfilling Christopher Reeve's vision of walking again will become closer to reality--unfortunately, the hypocritical radical religio-politics of the "naughts" helped delay it so that Christopher himself could not live to experience it.
Wow! Via Paul Abrams at The Huffington Post.
Think you need a pizza stone to make some great homemade pizza? Megan from DIY home weblog Not Martha suggests trying your trusty cast-iron skillet before shelling out for a uni-tasking pizza stone.
Last night we made pizza and since I really, really wanted to make sure the dough cooked all the way through (this time) I decided to cook it in our large cast iron skillet that I had heated in the oven and slid the pizza into to cook, around 450 degrees.A commenter on the site had also tried the pizza-in-skillet experiment for Chicago-style pizza with impressive results. We love a well seasoned cast-iron skillet for all kinds of kitchen duties, and it's great to see one more use for the versatile kitchen equipment.
Almost as soon as I get done kicking myself for not thinking of this, I'm gonna try it. (Tonight it's a new borscht recipe from the New York Times. Just made about 60 mushroom-filled dumplings. Anxious to see whether they stay sealed when we cook them)
“I like virtuosity, although not for the sake of virtuosity but because it’s dangerous,” was Mr. Boulez’s description of “Répons” when we sat down to talk for a few hours after the rehearsal. By danger he meant that music, to be worth anything — which is to say to be new — can’t stick to safe ground but must entail some risk and effort.
“If you want to have a more interesting life, you will make some effort,” is how he put it. “It’s about the organization of one’s life. I am still shocked that so many people are not more creative, by which I mean more demanding of themselves.
“The main question we need to ask ourselves is: Do I try to be necessary to the evolution of language? Do I try to be original? And being original means using the tools necessary to be original, not just having the desire to be original.”
From a long profile of Pierre Boulez in the New York Times today. I saw/heard Boulez conduct Stravinsky in Cleveland something like 30 years ago. He impressed me then, and continues to impress me today.
Through literature, she learned how stories are built and told, and translated that to listening to, and better understanding, patients. She could let them tell their own stories without interruptions and see how people described their symptoms as part of the larger story of their life.
Dr. Charon was not the first to connect literature and medicine, but she has become the leading advocate of the emerging discipline known as narrative medicine, which aims to treat the whole person, not just the illness. The British Medical Journal and other professional publications have run articles on the approach, and medical schools have added writing seminars and reading groups.
Compelling reading. Will follow if I can and learn more