Letter from the Editor
Body of Evidence If you haven’t read Bill Bryson’s “The Body,” I heartily recommend it to you. Bryson started out as a travel writer – a very entertaining one – but then went on to explore various areas of knowledge he had previously known nothing about. His first in this series, “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” was a major best-seller about many areas of scientific inquiry, from biology to geology. Similarly, “The Body” takes us through a clear, layman’s language tour of the bloodstream, skeleton, brain and other physical parts to explain what we know and don’t know NEIL GREENBERG about each. It turns out that the latter category is much larger than you might imagine. For instance, the moment of birth is an amazing transformation, when the fetus stops getting nutrition from its mother and suddenly takes its first breath. “With exquisite timing…the fluid drains away, the lungs inflate, and blood from the tiny, freshly-beating heart is sent on its first circuit around the body.” And, he notes, “We don’t know what triggers birth.” He similarly points out that we don’t know why we sleep, or how much sleep is necessary, or what it specifically does for us. It may be unsettling to know that we get various diseases, including cancer, numerous times during our lives. How does the immune system fight them off, and why does it sometimes succeed and occasionally fail? We don’t know. And the history of medicine is filled with inexplicable discoveries, often by people who had little or no background that would predict their success. In 1920, a general practitioner named Frederick Banting – who misspelled “diabetes” in his notes – somehow came up with the insulin treatment for diabetes, in experiments that were “wrongly conceived, wrongly conducted, and wrongly interpreted.” Yet his discoveries led to our modern treatments. Medical progress is not all accidental. But it has taken a great deal of testing, failing, and re-grouping to come up with many of the cures and treatments we enjoy today. In short, what Bryson points out is that there’s a lot left to discover, and a history that suggests we will continue to do so. We try to keep up with all this, and bring you the people who have a grasp on change. We hope that it will be informative, and assist you in furthering the work you do every day. Let us know what topics will be most useful to you!
Neil Greenberg, Editor To become an HS&M contributing author or provide feedback, please email me at ngreenberg@hsandm.com.
5 | HS&M JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
