Medical hypotheses
-
Neurogenic pulmonary edema is an acute life-threatening complication following central nervous system injury. The exact pathogenic mechanism leading to its development is still unclear. We introduce a new hypothesis that high levels of anesthesia might protect the organism against the development of neurogenic pulmonary edema due to a more pronounced inhibition of the hypothalamic, brainstem and spinal vasoactive sympathetic centers. ⋯ During experiments with central nervous system injury, low-anesthesia-induced neurogenic pulmonary edema might negatively influence the overall recovery of the animal. More importantly, during a neurosurgical intervention, insufficient anesthesia might similarly lead to neurogenic pulmonary edema development in operated patients. Our hypothesis indicates the necessity of precisely monitoring of the level anesthesia during experimental manipulations of the central nervous system in animals or neurosurgical interventions in humans.
-
Editorial Biography Historical Article
First a hero of science and now a martyr to science: the James Watson Affair - political correctness crushes free scientific communication.
In 2007 James D. Watson, perhaps the most famous living scientist, was forced to retire from his position and retreat from public life in the face of international mass media condemnation following remarks concerning genetically-caused racial differences in intelligence. Watson was punished for stating forthright views on topics that elite opinion has determined should be discussed only with elaborate caution, frequent disclaimers, and solemn deference to the currently-prevailing pieties. ⋯ This needs to change. My hope is that truth will prevail over political correctness and James Watson will not just be exonerated but vindicated as an exemplar of the true morality of science: that scientific communication needs to be allowed to be clear, direct - even crass - in the pursuit of truth. James Watson has been a hero of science for the achievements of his career, and also a martyr for science at the end of his career.
-
A new collection of ideas from Medical Hypotheses by Roger Dobson is entitled Death can be cured and 99 other Medical Hypotheses. It consists of humorous summaries of Medical Hypotheses articles from the past 30 years. The book's humour derives mainly from the subject matter, although sometimes also from the 'unconventional' approach of the authors with respect to matters such as evidence, argument or inference. ⋯ False positives are more obvious, since the paper will be ignored, refuted, or fail to be replicated--and often attracts criticism and controversy. Editors may therefore take the more cautious path of avoiding false positives more assiduously than false negatives; however, this policy progressively favours less-ambitious science. Consequently, in Medical Hypotheses the 'set point' of risk is nearer to the false positive end of the spectrum than for most journals - and the publication of many apparently-bizarre papers is a natural consequence of this policy.
-
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a cancer of the hematopoietic system that is initiated by a single genetic alteration (the BCR-ABL fusion gene or Philadelphia chromosome) and progresses in several phases: during the chronic phase the number of cells grows slowly and the fraction of immature cells is low. During the accelerated phase and blast crisis, the population of CML cells and the fraction of immature cells rises sharply. The mechanisms that drive the transition from the chronic phase to blast crisis are not understood, and the requirement of genetic instability and further mutations has been suggested. ⋯ The model also has implications for the outcome of Imatinib treatment. According to the model, treatment can lead to the low level persistence of CML stem cells without assuming that these cells are less susceptible to drug-mediated activity, and this might explain why disease tends to relapse after treatment discontinuation even in the absence of acquired drug resistance. Further, the model defines conditions when Imatinib treatment might lead to the eradication of CML, which is relevant in the context of recent data that show absence of relapse as long as two years after treatment cessation.
-
We argue that the most ambitious science is intrinsically riskier science, more likely to fail. It is almost always a safer career strategy for the best scientists to seek to extend knowledge more modestly and to build incrementally on existing ideas and methods. Therefore, higher rewards for success are a necessary incentive to encourage top scientists to work on the most important scientific problems, ones where the solution has potentially revolutionary implications. We suggest that mega-cash prizes (measured in tens of millions of dollars) are a suitable reward for those individuals (or institutions) whose work has triggered radically new directions in science.