Expenditure in older populations is an investment, not a cost, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) With relatively little fanfare, the World Report on Ageing and Health—one of the most […]
Columnists
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Black fire, spiders, and dogs
Most of the dozen words with medical connections that I found in the Old English dictionary called the Epinal glossary are obsolete, with modern equivalents. For example, átr or atter. […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Low hanging cherries
To cherry pick is to choose selectively. It’s supposed to originate from the way cherry pickers select the ripest, unblemished cherries to pick; why cherries rather than apples, oranges, or […]
Richard Smith: Memory—the view from the humanities
To a neuroscientist, said Hugo Spiers, a psychologist from UCL chairing a meeting at LSE last week, memory is just a physical and chemical arrangement of synapses. That’s a supremely […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Adam’s navel
Zeus one day, having nothing better to do, released two eagles from the easternmost and westernmost edges of the world. Flying at the same speed, they met over Delphi, where […]
Tracey Koehlmoos on working as a policy adviser in the US Marines
And so…after two years and seven months at the Pentagon as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Commandant and Senior Program Liaison for Community Health Integration in the United States […]
Richard Smith: If Volkswagen staff can be criminally charged so should fraudulent scientists
A man who steals a milk bottle may face a criminal charge. In contrast, a scientist who invents data, defrauds funders, and publishes fabricated data that may lead to patient […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Adam’s apple
The Hebrew name of the first man, Adam (אדם), was also used to mean “man” itself, although the more usual word is “ish” (איש). The origin of the name is unknown, […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Blind alleys and wrong trees
Research is difficult. Long hours in the laboratory, or tedious hours in the clinic, guarantee nothing. There are lots of blind alleys, dead ends, cul-de-sacs, false trails, wild goose chases, […]
Richard Smith: Reading for a long life
At 63 I’m preparing for my capacities and faculties to fall away, and I think about what I hope to preserve. Taking being with those I love as a given, […]