In his essay (2011) on the history of Darwinian (or evolutionary) medicine, Jonathan Fuller describes potentially relevant interests and insights that preceded the famous paper by Nesse and Williams (1991) that is widely regarded as having catalyzed the resurgence of...
Whatever definition is used, there is no shortage of complexity in biology, medicine, or of greatest relevance for this forum, evolutionary medicine. As is made abundantly clear in the first-ever textbook of evolutionary medicine by Gluckman et al. (2010), in...
Among human pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae holds an especially prominent place in the history of biomedical investigation. Griffith (1928) described the transforming principle, a soluble substance released by dead, virulent pneumococci that could render...
The imitation of living and sentient beings by machines is recently much on the minds of many Americans. A computer designed and built by scientists and engineers at IBM, “Watson,” convincingly defeated two former “Jeopardy” champions in a televised competition...
It is challenging to account for the origins or fully fathom the workings of the generally imposing and sometimes inspiring complexity of both intracellular and extracellular biochemical systems. One theme among many illustrative of this complexity is the...
