Most humans do not have the power to predict the future, but we can see it. At least we can see one-tenth of a second of it. The May-June issue of the journal Cognitive Science published a review by Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, claiming that the human visual system has evolved to... Read more →

I’ve been looking into violent deaths lately. And now I understand a few things.  Mostly, I understand what we don’t know about violent death in the United States. For instance, consider one of the most horrific kinds of violent death — mass shootings in public places like malls and... Read more →

A new report by Policy Exchange reveals over a third of spending on mental health services in prison is wasted and calls for a drastic overhaul in treating mental health in prisons, including mandatory training for prison officers. Mental healthcare in prisons is widely overlooked as being a problem... Read more →

In this series of posts we are examining the ethics behind medicine. This includes the entire ethical spectrum of behavior by doctors, patients, nurses, and the entire medical system. Here we present another case scenario about a patient. A 36 year old man presents to his plastic surgeon for cosmetic... Read more →

A BMJ editorial, Food additives and hyperactivity, discusses the recent attention that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been giving to the possible link between food additives and childhood hyperactivity. Apparently the EFSA had to re-evaluate studies regarding this possible connection after... Read more →

The current US healthcare system is broken. Few would argue this point. Rising costs, decreasing reimbursements, more lawsuits, insurance hikes, and an aging population are just some of the difficulties that face both physicians and patients today, and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving. One... Read more →

This is the second post in my Patient Manifesto series. In my first post I tried to outline some broad categories of things patients want and expect from their doctor. One comment addressed two points that I didn’t focus much on but that in hindsight should not have escaped me — communication... Read more →

In grammar school, they told us that thought was the sixth sense. But you hear all kinds of crazy things in grammar school. The picnic benches had bolts that, should their paint chip off, would release kooties, but I live to tell you about it. Thinking is largely about processing existing sensory data,... Read more →