Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder (11/10)
Although Tim Farnsworth's condition never receives an official diagnosis in The Unnamed, his relentless walking might seem to belong to the category of obsessive/compulsive disorders.
Obsessions are defined as recurrent, unavoidable thoughts, and compulsions are categorized as repetitive behaviors. Obsessive/compulsive disorder (OCD) ...
Mary Anning's Fossils (11/10)
he cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis, in Dorset on the south coast of England, are fertile hunting grounds for creatures who lived in what were equatorial seas in the early Jurassic period, around 190 million years ago. Here is a look at some of the fossil types Mary Anning discovers in
Remarkable Creatures:
Ammonites are distant ...
Birth Control and Childbirth in the 19th Century (08/10)
Dorothea Gibson’s daughter-in-law says, 'They (fathers) do not become dissolved into parenthood the way we [women] do.' Truer words may never have been spoken – at least as far as the 19th Century was concerned.
Dissolved? Dorothea (Dodo) Gibson floundered under the toll of eight closely spaced children plus several ...
Hurricanes (06/10)
The term 'hurricane' is believed to originate with the Carib people of the West Indies (after whom the Caribbean was named). Historians believe that the Carib word huracan was probably derived from the Mayan storm god, Hunraken or the K'iche god of thunder and lightning, Hurakan. K'iche (in Spanish Quiché) is a part of the Mayan ...
Waardenburg Syndrome (04/10)
Half Italian, half-Scottish forensic expert Enzo Macleod has distinctive good looks: long hair with a streak of white pulled back in a ponytail, and eyes of different colors. This is because Macleod has a genetic syndrome, called Waardenburg Syndrome, affecting hair color, eye pigmentation and sometimes hearing. It's so named for the ...
Horology, the art of time (04/10)
Protagonist George Crosby's love for repairing clocks is a prominent theme in
Tinkers, which includes references to a fictional 1783 book called The
Reasonable Horologist.
Horology encompasses both the science of measuring time and the art of
making time pieces. Thus, horologists include watchmakers, clockmakers,
scholars, ...
Preventing Drowning (04/10)
In
Bird Lake Moon, the tragic drowning of Spencer's four-year-old
brother haunts his family during their return visit to Bird Lake. As we approach
the summer months, it is wise to ponder the following tragic statistics
presented by the
Orange County Fire Authority:
'Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-...
Parapsychology vs. Skepticism (03/10)
While the Washburn Library is a purely fictional invention, it does have an analog in the real world: the
Rhine Research Center, once known as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, and home to the Institute for Parapsychology until 2002. Formerly affiliated with Duke University, the Rhine now operates independently a short ...
Eating Disorders (03/10)
Lia's anorexia and Cassie's bulimia represent two of the three most common eating disorders identified by the National Mental Health Information Center. Ninety percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25, but they can also manifest in teenage boys, and adult men and women of all ages. It's estimated ...
Non-Traditional Cancer Therapies (03/10)
Cancer is the term used to describe any
malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division.
A cancer is described as Stage 4 when it has spread from the original site to other
parts of the body. When we first meet Nicola, she has already undergone surgery
and chemotherapy. Below are some of the ...
Acromegaly (02/10)
Truly Plaice, the protagonist of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, is
referred to as a 'giant' even as a child. It is not until mid-way through the
book that a physician provides the name of the disease that afflicts her:
Acromegaly.
Acromegaly comes from the Latin acron, for extremity, and megas,
meaning large. It was ...
The Hippocratic Oath (02/10)
The title, Cutting for Stone, refers to a line in the Hippocratic Oath,
and to the last name of the three main characters, all of them surgeons. As
Abraham Verghese quotes it, the line from the Oath reads 'I will not cut for
stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest. I will leave this
operation to be performed by ...
A Short History of Archeology (01/10)
The fictional John Somerville's interest in archeology was typical for his time. Most so-called archeologists of the period were, like him, self-taught because there were virtually no academic courses offered. Additionally, his desire to secure a rich benefactor to fund his excavations was standard operating procedure in the field; for ...
Selective Mutism - a childhood anxiety disorder (08/09)
Isabelle is not diagnosed in
December but were she to be, she would probably be
diagnosed with
Selective Mutism, a childhood anxiety disorder. Some
therapists might even diagnose her with
Traumatic Mutism because of the immediate onset and her total silence. Most children with SM are not completely silent all the time. They are silent...
Biogas Digesters (07/09)
In The Big Necessity Rose George introduces readers to biogas digesters in rural China. Biogas digesters (often shortened to biodigesters) are permanent structures, usually constructed of cement, in which waste (human, animal and agricultural leftovers) decompose in the lower section causing the micro-organisms to release methane that is ...
Capgras Syndrome (05/09)
The idea of simulacrum, or impostors, has long been a subject of fascination in
fiction, and Capgras syndrome, or variations on its symptoms, often crop up in
short stories and novels. Most recently,
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers revolves around a character who suffers from Capgras syndrome after he suffers a head injury in a ...
Alzheimer's Disease (04/09)
First described by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. It is a progressive brain disorder in which the nerve cells in the brain gradually die off. It afflicts an estimated 26 million people world-wide, and of those, approximately 4.5 million live in the United States. ...
Quack Medicine (01/09)
In the nineteenth century, when even mainstream medical therapies included
painful bloodletting and leeching, quack* medicine didn't seem quite so quacky.
If you wanted your hair to grow, you could don a Thermocap to send just the
right amount of heat to your follicles. If your eyes were weak, you could apply
the Neu-Vita ...
Ichthyology (08/08)
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology that studies fish. This includes skeletal fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish.
There are at least 25,000 fish species in existence. Each year, about 250 new species are discovered and described.
The largest species of fish known is the
Whale Shark, which can grow to up to 50 feet in length and can ...
Poliomyelitis (07/08)
Poliomyelitis, more commonly known as Polio, is a viral disease that has plagued humans since ancient times. It is transmitted primarily through direct fecal-oral contact. However, it can also be transmitted by indirect contact with infectious saliva or feces or by contaminated sewage or water.
In over 90% of cases there are no symptoms ...
Uranium and Nuclear Power (05/08)
According to the
Uranium Information Center:- Over half of the world's production of uranium is from mines in Australia and Canada.
- 8 mining companies account for almost 80% of production.
- Nuclear energy supplies over 16% of the world's electricity.
- 31 countries use nuclear energy to generate electricity.
- 80% of France's electricity is from ...
All About Water (03/07)
Did you know?
- The earth contains about 1.1 quadrillion acre-feet of water, but 97% is
seawater.
- Of the remaining 28 trillion acre-feet of freshwater on or near the
surface, two-thirds is locked up as ice.
- Only the remaining 9.7 trillion acre-feet is in liquid form, mostly in
underground aquifers.
- However, what is ...
Multiple Personality Disorder (02/07)
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th
Edition, the primary characteristic of
Disassociate Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is the existence of more than one distinct
identity or personality within the same individual. The identities will ‘take...
The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) (01/07)
Dr. Nathaniel (Nate) McCormick, the hero of
Isolation Ward , describes himself as 'an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...part of the Special Pathogens Branch, which is in the Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases'.
Does such an organization exist? Absolutely!
The ...
Medical Prescriptions in USA (01/07)
- The average number of prescriptions per person per year soared from 7 in 1993, to 12 in 2004.
- According to the American Society of Clinical Pharmacologists, in 2000 27% of elderly patients received 9+ medications (compared to 17% in 1997).
- The amount spent to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers in 2004 was $4.45 billion (up ...
The Higgs Boson (06/05)
The Higgs particle was first hypothesized by the Scottish scientist Peter Higgs in
1964. After taking a weekend walk in the Cairngorm Mountains he returned to his laboratory in Edinburgh on Monday and declared to his colleagues that he had just experienced his 'one big idea' and now had an answer to the mystery of ...
Elisabeth Kubler Ross and the Five Stages of Grief (04/05)
Elisabeth Kubler Ross was born in 1926 in Zurich, Switzerland and died of natural causes in 2004 in Arizona. Her ground breaking and bestselling book, On Death and Dying, (1969) did much to change the treatment of terminally ill patients. She was compelled to write it while working as a doctor in hospitals in New York, Colorado and ...
