How does a physician advise a patient who claims to have supernatural powers or chooses to stand encased in ice for more than 61 hours? Why did an ER nurse leave the comfort of a hospital for round-the-clock duty with a helicopter trauma team? How many yaks does it take to carry a New York microsurgeon’s medical equipment up Mt. Everest? Praxis Post, the webzine of medicine and culture, hazards answers to these questions of extremes in medical practice. Also in the current issue is a review of physiologist Frances Ashcroft’s Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival, [praxis.md/post/reviews/012401] as well as these columns:
IN PERSON:
An emergency room doctor examines a chilling prime time performance by an illusionist and his physician. [praxis.md/post/inperson/012401]
An interview with an emergency flight nurse, author, and self-described “adrenaline junkie.” [praxis.md/post/inperson/2/012401]
Conditions at the top of the world prevent a climber from remaining healthy in any standard sense, so why does a New York microsurgeon practice medicine there? [praxis.md/post/inperson/1/012401]
THIS WEEK: Dr. Gerald Weissmann welcomes the return of DDT, particularly to earthquake-ravaged El Salvador. [praxis.md/post/thisweek/012401]
THE YEAR IN: Dr. Ming Tsuang and his Harvard Medical School colleagues review the state of the art in psychiatric drugs. [praxis.md/post/theyear/012401]
TRENDS: What’s wrong with genetically modified foods? Shots over StarLink’s corn are heard around the world. [praxis.md/post/trends/012401]
RANDOM SAMPLE: What’s so amusing about a name? It depends on your specialty, Dr. Knee. [praxis.md/post/random/012401]
THE HOBBYIST: A cardiologist gets to the heart of how to equip a modern woodshop. [praxis.md/post/hobbyist/012401]
THE APPRENTICE: A first-year medical student practices self-diagnosis and consults with his father. Too bad Dad’s a veterinarian. [praxis.md/post/apprentice/012401]
WILLIAMS’ CORNER: An English professor comments on “Felix Randal,” a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins in which a bruiser is brought down while his spirit mends. [praxis.md/post/williamscorner/012401]
Praxis Post is available free to readers interested in medicine and science. Praxis Post’s medical news digest is written by the Praxis Post News Bureau and is published daily. Features change weekly.
SOURCE Praxis Press Inc. Web Site: www.praxispost.com
