Health Sightings

Excerpt

'He was sure it was to be his last trip. The philosopher René Descartes had been summoned by Queen Christina of Sweden, who wanted to know his views on love, hatred, and the passions of the soul; but although he was happy to correspond with the Queen, Descartes was loath to become part of her court. He felt, he said, that "thoughts as well as waters" would freeze over in Sweden and, since that winter was particularly harsh, he believed he would not survive the season. He even feared, he wrote to a friend, "a shipwreck which will cost me my life." But Christina's whim was his command. Filled with foreboding, he packed his bags, taking all of his manuscripts with him.'

"He was travelling, he told his companions, with his young daughter Francine; but the sailors had never seen her, and, thinking this strange, they decided to seek her out one day, in the midst of a terrible storm. Everything was out of place; they could find neither the philosopher nor the girl. Overcome with curiosity, they crept into Descartes's quarters. There was no one there, but on leaving the room, they stopped in front of a mysterious box. As soon as they had opened it, they jumped back in horror: inside the box was a doll-a living doll, they thought, which moved and behaved exactly like a human being. Descartes, it transpired, had constructed the android himself, out of pieces of metal and clockwork. It was indeed his progeny, but not the kind the sailors had imagined: Francine was a machine. When the ship's captain was shown the moving marvel, he was convinced, in his shock, that it was some instrument of dark magic, responsible for the weather that had hampered their journey. On the captain's orders, Descartes's "daughter" was thrown overboard."

Read the rest of the excerpt from Chapter One - The Blood of an Android, Edison's Eve, A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life by Gaby Wood

New Link

UC Davis - The Medical Center of this branch of the California university system for the last ten years has presented Pulse, an Emmy award-winning health magazine show appearing in 90 television markets. The show specializes in news about health and medicine and shows viewers the most recent advances in medical diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The site carries the scripts of its shows so if it's not carried in your area, or you've missed the last five years of Pulse, the scripts are available. There are even recipes listed to try, presumably all health oriented. Beyond the Pulse programming, the UC Davis site also carries a Health Tips feature and the HealthJournal, a bimonthly publication for health care consumers.

Studies

Read the entire study at the Journal of the American Medical Association, Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction

Articles

Read the article, Totally In Control - The rise of pro-ana/ pro-mia websites, at SIRC

Health Sightings Continued

Science—National Academy of Sciences: Searching for an alien haven in the heavens, Why Is Pain a New Frontier of Science?, Vaccines Against Drugs of Addiction & Framework for Evaluating the Safety of Dietary Supplements

A new study (New York Times article: Study Uses Math Model to Determine Effects of a Smallpox Attack) will be released from proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences regarding vaccines that theoretically might be used in a smallpox attack. The academy conducts ongoing research projects lasting many years.

While trying to locate this study (still not released, we've realized) we stumbled upon an older report that, truth to tell, is more interesting than the above noted research:

"Surely one of the most marvelous feats of 20th-century science would be the firm proof that life exists on another planet. In that case, the thesis that life develops spontaneously when the conditions are favorable would be far more firmly established, and our whole view of the problem of the origin of life would be confirmed." Stanley Miller and Harold Urey wrote that in 1959. Unfortunately, their dream has not been realized, and as we begin this new millennium the question of whether life exists beyond the Earth remains unanswered. However, there are reasons for optimism that in the not-too-distant future we may have an answer."

Read on, dear viewer: State-of-the-art instruments for detecting extraterrestrial life and another article, Searching for an alien haven in the heavens, predicts: At the summer of 1999 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Goldin optimistically declared that in the next century "scientists will debate the structure of continents and oceans, weather patterns, climates, storms, and the nature of seasons on dozens of new worlds."