Servants and masters

Psychologist Robin Abrahams sends in this behavioral observation: A change in one part of your life — in my case, adopting a dog — can lead you to see all sorts of things in new ways. Watching the news coverage of Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court, I was struck by the fact that […]

Chewing Gum / Surgery press release

"Study at West Penn Hospital Shows Chewing Gum after Laparoscopic Surgery Shortens Hospital Stay" is the headline on an October 17, 2005 press release issued by Western Pennsylvania Hospital, in Pittsburgh. Here are further details: For patients undergoing laparoscopic colon resection, chewing gum routinely administered in the immediate postoperative period results in an earlier discharge […]

Waiting for Perch

Investigator Earle E. Spamer writes: In the "AIR Vents" section of the July-August 2002 issue of AIR , Ronald Perch, D.M.D. of Sebastopol, CA, complained that he suspected his semi-annual patient, "Stefan," of pilfering the latest issues of  AIR from the doctor’s waiting room. Dr. Perch stood his ground, reporting, "I am going to try […]

Precision circumcisions

Bryan B Fuller is the world’s top expert on skin colour in human foreskins. Professor Fuller’s foreskin research is based at the University of Oklahoma, where he is an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. A research paper he co-authored with four colleagues in 1990 is the most-cited study on the topic. … So […]