Anatomic adjectival forms

In anatomy, most nouns have a corresponding adjective. In medicine, the adjectival forms are not always derived from the same root as the noun form.

Doctors don't usually refer to stomach flu, when they can use a term like gastric flu.

Likewise, the adjective for finger is not finger-like or fingy; it's digital. Speaking of "digital," medical software developers who work in natural language processing, need to have lists of the adjectival forms of anatomic nouns. I prepared the following computer-parsable list for my own use. I thought that others working in the field of medical informatics may have a use for these terms. If you have additional terms to add, please submit them as a comment to this posting.

As with all the documents and software I provide, the following
disclaimer holds:

The data list is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind,
express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties
of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and
noninfringement. in no event shall the authors or copyright
holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability,
whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising
from, out of or in connection with the data list or the use or
other dealings in the data list.

The data list, created by Jules J. Berman, on June 5, 2010, is
donated to the Public Domain.

abdomen <=> abdominal
adenohypophysis <=> adenohypophyseal
adnexa <=> adnexal
adnexae <=> adnexal
alveolus <=> alveolar
amygdala <=> amygdaloid
anatomy <=> anatomic or anatomical
antecubitus <=> antecubital
antrum <=> antral
anus <=> anal
aorta <=> aortic or aortal
appendix <=> appendiceal
arm <=> brachial
artery <=> arterial
aryepiglottis <=> aryepiglottic
atrium <=> atrial
bladder (urinary bladder or vesica) <=> vesical
bone <=> osseous
brachium <=> brachial
bronchus <=> bronchial
caecum <=> caecal
calf <=> sural
callosum <=> callosal
cecum <=> cecal
cerebrum <=> cerebral
cervix <=> cervical
clitoris <=> clitoral
cloaca <=> cloacal
coelom <=> coelomic
colon <=> colonic
commissure <=> commissural
cranium <=> cranial
cuticle <=> cuticular
cutis <=> cutaneous
cytology <=> cytologic or cytological
decidua <=> decidual
dermis <=> dermal
diaphragm <=> diaphragmatic
digit <=> digital
dorsum <=> dorsal
duct <=> ductal
duodenum <=> duodenal
dura <=> dural
ear <=> aural
embryo <=> embryonic or embryonal
endocervix <=> endocervical
endometrium <=> endometrial or endometrioid
endothelium <=> endothelial
epicanthus <=> epicanthal or epicanthic
epicardium <=> epicardial
epidermis <=> epidermal or epidermic
epiglottis <=> epiglottal or epiglottic
epithelium <=> epithelial
esophagus <=> esophageal
ethmoid <=> ethmoidal
eye <=> ocular
face <=> facial
faeces <=> faecal
fascia <=> fascial
feces <=> fecal
fetus <=> fetal
finger or toe<=> digital
fibula <=> fibular
focus <=> focal
foetus <=> foetal
foot <=> pedal
forearm or elbow <=> cubital
front <=> frontal
gestation <=> gestational
gland <=> glandular
globe <=> global
glottis <=> glottal or glottic
gluteus <=> gluteal
gonad <=> gonadal
gyrus<=> gyral
haemorrhoid <=> haemorrhoidal
hallux (big toe) <=> hallucal
ham (back of knee) <=> popliteal
heart <=> cardiac or myocardial
hemorrhoid <=> hemorrhoidal
hepatocyte <=> hepatocellular
hernia <=> hernial
hiatus <=> hiatal
histiocyte <=> histiocytic
histology <=> histologic or histological
hypophysis <=> hypophyseal
ileum <=> ileac or ileal (intestine)
ilium <=> iliac or ilial (bone)
intestine <=> intestinal or enteric or enteral
ischium <=> ischial
jejunum <=> jejunal
kidney <=> renal or nephric or nephroid
labium <=> labial
larynx <=> laryngeal
leg <=> crural
leukocyte <=> leukocytic
liver <=> hepatic
lumen <=> luminal
lung <=> pulmonary or pulmonic
lymph <=> lymphatic or lymphoid
megakaryocyte <=> megakaryocytic
meninges <=> meningeal
metaphysis <=> metaphyseal
monocyte <=> monocytic or monocytoid
mouth or os<=> oral
mucus <=> mucous
myocardium <=> myocardial
myometrium <=> myometrial
neck <=> nuchal or cervical
node <=> nodal
nose <=> nasal
oesophagus <=> oesophageal
omentum <=> omental
orbit <=> orbital
os <=> oral
ovaries <=> ovarian
ovary <=> ovarian
pallidus <=> pallidal
pancreas <=> pancreatic
pathologic <=> pathologic or pathological
pelvis <=> pelvic
penis <=> penile
pericardium <=> pericardial
peritoneum <=> peritoneal
peroneum <=> peroneal
phalanges <=> phalangeal
phallus <=> phallic
pharynx <=> pharyngeal
pia <=> pial
pollex (thumb) <=> pollical
prostate <=> prostatic
rectum <=> rectal
retina <=> retinal
scrotum <=> scrotal
skin <=> cutaneous or dermal
sphincter <=> sphincteric
spine <=> spinal or vertebral
spleen <=> splenic or lienal or splanchnic or splenial
stomach <=> gastric
subcutis <=> subcutaneous
synovium <=> synovial
tear <=> lacrimal
testis or testicle <=> testicular
thalamus <=> thalamic
thorax <=> thoracic
throat <=> glottal
thymus <=> thymic
tongue <=> lingual or glossal or glottic
tooth or teeth <=> dental
trachea <=> tracheal
ureter <=> ureteral or ureteric
uterus <=> uterine
vagina <=> vaginal
vein <=> venous
ventricle <=> ventricular
vesicle (organelle, not to be confused with vesica or bladder) <=> vesicular
vessel <=> vascular
vulva <=> vulvar or vulval

---

In June, 2014, my book, entitled Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs: Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases was published by Elsevier. The book builds the argument that our best chance of curing the common diseases will come from studying and curing the rare diseases.

I urge you to read more about my book. There's a generous preview of the book at the Google Books site. If you like the book, please request your librarian to purchase a copy of this book for your library or reading room.

- Jules J. Berman, Ph.D., M.D. tags: common disease, orphan disease, orphan drugs, rare disease, subsets of disease, disease genetics, genetics of complex disease, genetics of common diseases, cryptic disease, terminology pitfalls and confusing terminology, adjectives, anatomic adjectival forms, medical terminology, nomenclature, pathology, synonyms, plesionyms, public domain, listing, list

Updated web pages

I've recently updated four of my web pages:

1. Book resource page (scripts, documents and other supplemental materials for my published books):

http://www.julesberman.info/factoids/index_g.htm

2. Chronology of earth page (timeline of some of the most significant events in the history of earth):

http://www.julesberman.info/chronos.htm

3. Precancer consensus meeting page (the published consensus paper from the NCI - George Washington University conference on precancer):

http://www.julesberman.info/factoids/precmeet.htm

4. Archive page for the Machiavelli's Laboratory blog site (links to all of the blog posts on my recently published ebook, Machiavelli's Laboratory:

http://www.julesberman.info/blogmach.htm

- Jules Berman

Cover art design with PovRay 6

This will be the last of the blogs on cover art design with Pov-Ray.

Here is the tiled Machiavelli world. Other than the script provided, and Pov-Ray, you'll need the public domain image of Machiavelli, obtained from Wikipedia.


Click on image for larger size
Notice that there are two light sources, and two shadows to the globe.

#include "colors.inc" 
#include "textures.inc"
#include "shapes.inc"

camera {
 right      < -1.33, 0, 0 > 
 up         < 0, 1, 0 > 
 direction  < 0, 0, 1 > 
 location   < 0, 4, 20 > 
 look_at    < 0, 0, 0 > 
}

light_source { < -20, 35, 34 > 
color White
}

light_source { < 0, 0, 24 > 
color White
}

plane { y, -20
    pigment{ color Gray80}
    normal { ripples 1.0 frequency 3 scale 8}
    finish {
        reflection 0.15
        ambient 0.3      
    }
}
                 
sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 5.0
      pigment { image_map 
                { gif "c:\ftp\mach_wiki_public.gif" 
                //filepath for the Machiavelli image                       
                  map_type 0                       
                  interpolate 2 
                 } } 
          }

A modified version of this script was used to produce the cover art for Machiavelli's Laboratory, a satire on science ethics.

-© 2010 Jules J. Berman

---

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

Cover art design with PovRay 5

Here's one more simple Pov-Ray image and its script.


Click on image to see higher resolution

  #include "colors.inc"
  camera {
    location <0, 1, -10>
    look_at 0
    angle 36
  }            
  
  sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient z
    color_map {
      [0.0 rgb <0.6,0.7,1.0>]
      [0.2 rgb <0.2,0.3,0.9>]
    }
  }
}
  
   light_source { <500, 500, -1000> White }
  plane { y, -1.5                          
      pigment { checker Black White }
  }

  sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 1
texture{pigment{color Blue filter 2 } 
finish{phong .8}} interior {ior 0.1}
    translate -0.5*x
  }
  sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 1
texture{pigment{color Red filter 2 } 
finish{phong .8}} interior {ior 0.1}
    translate 0.5*x
  }
       
 sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 1
texture{pigment{color Yellow filter 2 } 
finish{phong .8}} interior {ior 0.1}
        translate -0.5*y
  }
  sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 1 
texture{pigment{color Green filter 2 } 
finish{phong .8}} interior {ior 0.1}
        translate 0.5*y
  }

- Jules J. Berman

---

My book, Principles of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information was published in 2013 by Morgan Kaufmann.

I urge you to explore my book. Google books has prepared a generous preview of the book contents.

tags: big data, metadata, data preparation, data analytics, data repurposing, datamining, data mining

Cover art design with PovRay 4

Here is a sample of what you can generate with a simple Pov-Ray script.


Click on the image to see a higher resolution picture.

This is basically the same image that I showed in my blog a few days ago. But I increased the number of reflecting spheres and assigned them random locations in the scene-space. Basically, I just kept tweaking a stock script for a sphere on a checkered plane, until I got what I wanted.

Here's the entire script that produced the image rendered by Pov-Ray.

global_settings { assumed_gamma 1.0 }

camera {
  location  <5.0, -12.0, 2.0>
  up z sky z
  look_at   <0.0, 0.0, 0.5> 
  angle 40
}

sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient z
    color_map {
      
      [0.2 rgb 0.2]
      [0.2 rgb 0.2]
      
    }
  }
}

light_source {
  <3, 1, 2>*1000
  color rgb <2.2, 1.8, 1.5>
}   

plane {
  z, 0
  texture {
    pigment {
      checker
      color rgb 1, color rgb 0
    }
  }
}

#macro Sphere(Pos, Radius)
  sphere {
    <Pos.x, Pos.y, -1 + Radius*3.3>, Radius
    texture {
      pigment { color rgb 1 }
      finish{
        diffuse 0.3
        ambient 0.0
        specular 0.6
        reflection 0.8
      }
    }
  }
#end

#local Cnt=0;
#local Seed=seed(0);

#while (Cnt<10000)
  Sphere(
    -100+<rand(Seed), rand(Seed)>*200, 
    0.3+pow(rand(Seed),2)*0.8
  )  
  #local Cnt=Cnt+1;
#end

If you try to run this .pov script in Pov-Ray, you'll find that the image looks a little different with each run. That's what happens when you use a random function.

- © 2010 Jules Berman

tags: graphic design, 3-D rendering, pov-ray, povray, cover art, machiavelli's laboratory

---

In June, 2014, my book, entitled Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs: Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases was published by Elsevier. The book builds the argument that our best chance of curing the common diseases will come from studying and curing the rare diseases.

I urge you to read more about my book. There's a generous preview of the book at the Google Books site. If you like the book, please request your librarian to purchase a copy of this book for your library or reading room.

Cover art design with PovRay 3

Every Pov-Ray newbie should start at the Pov-Ray organization's web site:

http://www.povray.org/

There, you can download the latest version of Pov-Ray, read tons of Pov-Ray documentation, look at amazing galleries of art created with Pov-Ray, find ancillary software that you can use with Pov-Ray, and acquire libraries of Pov-Ray objects that you can insert into your own renderings.

I use Windows, and my Pov-Ray installation was easy. When you open the application, you can choose to open a .pov script editing window [in which you write and save your scripts]. Whenever you get to a point where you think you can render the script, you simply click on an icon, and Pov-Ray will try to render your image.

In practice, especially for people new to Pov-Ray, you will build your first images by taking parts of sample .pov scripts created by others, and placing them into your own scripts. You will repeatedly render the images, making changes in the positions of the camera and lighting, in selection of colors, texture, and size, in modifications of the properties of textures and pigments, until you are happy with the rendered image, and then it becomes "your own". You will eventually add new objects into your image. Eventually, you might reach the stage where most, if not all, of the image is entirely your creation. Even then, you will be indebted to hundreds of Pov-Ray enthusiasts whose works led you to a level of competence.

Like so many other programming languages, you can write your first simple .POV script in under an hour, and you can spend the remainder of your life sharpening your skills.

Pov-Ray needs a little help for certain types of objects. 3-D text is actually very difficult to create "from scratch" in Pov-Ray. For text, you might want to use another freely available software application, Breeze Designer.

Breeze Designer is available at:

http://www.imagos.fl.net.au/

For the cover image I created a few days ago, I used Breeze Designer to make the text object, then I simply copied the object specifications from Breeze Designer and pasted them into my Pov-Ray script for the cover image. Then I added a marble texture to the text.


Click on image for larger size
Finally, I positioned the text on top of the globe from the scene, to produce the final image.


Click on image for larger size
Pov-Ray blends geometry, mathematics, and programming, and art. The online Pov-Ray tutorials are excellent.

- © 2010 Jules Berman

tags: graphic art, 3-D rendering, cover art, self-publishing, big data, metadata, data preparation, data analytics, data repurposing, datamining, data mining

---

My book, Principles of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information was published in 2013 by Morgan Kaufmann.

I urge you to explore my book. Google books has prepared a generous preview of the book contents.

Cover art design with PovRay 2

This is the second blog in a multi-part series on Pov-Ray.

Pov-Ray (Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer) is software that renders a 3-D image from a script. Pov-Ray was initially started in the 1980s by David Kirk Buck and Aaron A. Collins. In the 1990s, development was handled by a team of extremely talented and dedicated programmers who have produced upgraded versions of this remarkable, and free software.

Pov-Ray is covered in a very good article in Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article includes a superb, public domain Pov-Ray rendering, shown here:

Click on image for larger size
Before you try any project like this, you've got to start with something small. Every Pov-Ray newbie starts with a simple scene consisting of a ball, placed over a plane.

Here is an example:

Click on image for larger size
The Pov-Ray script for the scene is:

global_settings { assumed_gamma 1.0 }

// ----------------------------------------

camera {
  location  <5.0, -12.0, 2.0>
  up z sky z
  look_at   <0.0, 0.0, 0.5> 
  angle 40
}

sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient z
    color_map {
      [0.0 rgb <0.6,0.7,1.0>]
      [0.2 rgb <0.2,0.3,0.9>]
    }
  }
}

light_source {
  <3, 1, 2>*1000
  color rgb <2.2, 1.8, 1.5>
}   

// ----------------------------------------

plane {
  z, 0
  texture {
    pigment {
      checker
      color rgb 1, color rgb 0
    }
  }
}

sphere {
  z*1.4, 1
  texture {
    pigment { color rgb 1 }
    finish{
      diffuse 0.3
      ambient 0.0
      specular 0.6
      reflection 0.8
    }
  }
}

Every Pov-Ray script contains command lines that specify a camera, one or more sources of light, and one or more objects. The camera, light source, and objects are provided coordinates on an imaginary 3-D grid. The Pov-Ray script calulates the pixels on an imaginary camera screen (corresponding to the final image) receiving rays of light that leave the light source(s) and travel through scene. The color of the light that reaches each pixel position on the camera is determined by the properties of the objects in the scene.

Tomorrow, I'll explain a little more about the mechanics of building and executing a Pov-Ray script (called a .pov script) from within the Pov-Ray application.

- © 2010 Jules Berman

tags: graphic art, 3-D rendering, cover art, self-publishing

---

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

Cover art design with PovRay

I have no artistic skill. I cannot draw anything. I would have no way of even starting to represent a 3-D object on a piece of paper. It's been like this all of my life.

I recently self-published an e-book, Machiavelli's Laboratory, (discussed in several prior blogs). I needed to produce a striking cover image for the book. I turned to PovRay and used a public domain photograph from wikipedia of Niccolo Machiavelli, for the tiled globe:


Source: Wikipedia, public domain

The final image (tiled globe, on an infinite rippled plane, with 3-D block letters painted with multi-colored marble) was produced by a script, NOT with computerized drawing aids. The PovRay application rendered the entire image, with script commands, just like any programming language produces an output by following the commands in a program.


Click on image for larger view

I thought the 3-D lettering was a bit too flashy, so I ended up using a flat font, and this final image:



In the next few blogs, I'll discuss PovRay, and Breeze Designer (used to create the 3-D text object in the first rendered image), and I'll provide the two PovRay scripts that produced the final images. I'll also show you how you can obtain PovRay and Breeze Designer (both can be downloaded at no cost).

- © 2010 Jules Berman

---

My book, Principles of Big Data: Preparing, Sharing, and Analyzing Complex Information was published last year by Morgan Kaufmann.

I urge you to read a litte about my book. Google books has prepared a generous preview of the book contents. If you like the book, please request your librarian to purchase a copy of this book for your library or reading room.

tags: big data, metadata, data preparation, data analytics, data repurposing, datamining, data mining, graphic art, rendering software, cover art

Reviews are in on Precancer book

My recently published book, Precancer: The Beginning and the End of Cancer, written with Dr. G. William Moore, has now gotten six customer reviews on Amazon.

In the interest of complete disclosure, all six of the reviewers are people known to myself or to Dr. Moore. But the reviews were entirely voluntary and unpaid, and the reviewers were obviously free to write whatever they chose. Most of the reviewers included their own professional opinions on the book's subject, and I found it very interesting to see the different types of reactions to the book's central message (i.e., that we can virtually eliminate the disease known as cancer if we treated the precancers).

The reviews are available at Amazon.com's Precancer book page.

- Jules J. Berman, Ph.D., M.D.

key words: pre-cancer, precancers, precancerous lesions, early cancer, cancer precursor, preneoplastic lesions, cancer prevention, cancer treatment, eradication of cancer

FIRST CREDIT 5

This is the fifth and last in a multi-part blog on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences.

Sometimes, credit falls on the person who least understood the significance of his own work. In 1771, Charles Messier (1730 - 1817) , selected 103 heavenly objects that have captured the rapt attention of astronomers for nearly two and a half centuries. Messier selected regions of space that were nebulous, and obscured his view of comets (his sole interest). He made a point of categorizing the Messier objects as areas of space that should be avoided by serious astronomers. In 1771, his chosen spots might have been accurately called the Messier non-objects.


Charles Messier.
Source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Today, the Messier objects are credited with holding some of the most fascinating galaxies and cosmologic curiosities in the known universe. Though Messier was completely wrong, he has achieved scientific immortality, just the same.


Messier object 51.
Source: Wikipedia, public domain NASA image.

The first observation of a particular type of anemia associated with sickled red blood cells, was made by Ernest E. Irons (1). Dr. Irons was a young intern when he encountered a patient, Walter Clement Noel, and made his historic observation. He alerted his attending physician, James B. Herrick. Irons sketched the shaped of the cells directly into the patient's hospital record. Herrick wrote the 1910 case report as a single author submission, excluding Irons (2). To this day, the disease sickle cell anemia carries the eponym, Herrick's disease (not Irons disease).

Sometimes first credit goes to the wrong species. Salicylic acid has been used as a medicinal by several different ancient cultures. In the western tradition, Hippocrates (5th century BC) claimed that a bitter powder extracted from willow bark could ease aches and pains. How did the ancients know that willow bark would relieve pain? Bears were observed rubbing against the bark of willow trees when wounded. The humans stole credit for an ursine discovery.

[1] Savitt TL, Goldberg MF. Herrick's 1910 case report of sickle cell anemia: the rest of the story. JAMA 261: 266-271, 1989.

[2] Herrick JB. Peculiar elongated and sickle-shaped red blood corpuscles in a case of severe anemia. Arch Intern Med 6:517-521, 1910.


This is the last entry on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences. If you have read the five-part series, I'd appreciate reading your comments.

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

---

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

FIRST CREDIT 4

This is the fourth in a multi-part blog on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences.

Johann Franz Encke (1791 - 1865) is given credit for the discovery of [Encke's] comet (1818), but Encke merely calculated the orbit, using a technique first developed more than a century earlier by Edmond Halley (1656-1742). In 1705, Halley applied Newton's laws of physics to correctly predict that a particular comet (known today as Halley's comet), observed in 1531, 1607, and 1682, would return in 1758. The comet known today as Encke's comet was named after a person who neither first-sighted the comet nor discovered the methodology to predict the comet's orbit. The person who made the first sight of the commet has descended into scientific obscurity.


Johann Franz Encke.
Source: Wikipedia (public domain).

When a new technology becomes available to the practitioners of a field, it often happens that a new discovery is made by multiple independent researchers, simultaneously. For example, sunspots were discovered by Thomas Harriot (England, 1610), Johannes and David Fabricius (Frisia, now parts of The Netherlands and Germany, 1611), Galileo Galilei (Italy, 1612), and Christoph Scheiner (Germany, 1612). First credit usually goes to the most influential of the discoverers.

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

---

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

FIRST CREDIT 3

This is the third in a multi-part blog on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences.

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

- Carl Sagan

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742 - 1786) made some of the most important discoveries in the field of chemistry, but, through a series of bad breaks, lost first credit for all of them. Scheele discovered Oxygen a full two years before Priestley, but Scheele sent his manuscript to a publisher who held the work for several years, during which time Priestley got his discovery into print. Today, Joseph Priestley (1733 - 1804) is widely held to be the discoverer of Oxygen. In 1774, Scheele laid the groundwork for the discovery of Manganese, but Johan Gottlieb Gahn (1745 - 1818) finished the task and received the credit. Also in 1774, Scheele isolated chlorine but failed to identify it as an element; credit eventually went to Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829). Scheele did great service to science during his 46 years on earth.


Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Source: Wikipedia, public domain

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

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Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

FIRST CREDIT 2

This is the second in a multi-part blog on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences.

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is sometimes credited with inventing the modern microscope. Not so. Leeuwenhoek improved the microscope with his superb lens grinding technique, but he did not invent the microscope and did not make any particularly important modifications to the design of the microscope.


Source: Garrison FH. History of medicine.
WB Saunders, Philadelphia, 1921.

In 1595, fifteen-year old fledgling Dutch lens grinder (and part-time counterfeiter), Zacharias Jansen (1580 - 1638) placed two lenses in a tube, and created the first compound microscope.


Source: Wikipedia (public domain)

This amazing invention sat dormant until 1667, when Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703) studied insects and plant material, particularly cork, with this 72 year old invention. Hooke used the word "cell" to describe the complex, living structures that compose every organism. In 1675 (eight years after Hooke), with improved lenses, Leeuwenhoek studied micro-organisms in water and cells of the human body. Hooke and Leeuwenhoek kick-started modern microscopy, but Zacharias Jansen invented the microscope.

Smallpox was the first disease for which vaccination was successful. As early as 200 B.C.E. in China and 1000 B.C.E. in India, physicians knew that infection with smallpox conferred immunity against subsequent infection. Based on this observation, they were the first to develop a vaccination, administered nasally, of attenuated virus. Arabic doctors developed their own treatment, consisting of transferring material from an infected pox blister to another person via a small cut. Emmanuel Timoni (1670 - 1718) was a physician practicing in Constantinople. He introduced the Arabic vaccination process to West, in 1717. In 1796, Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823) developed a new vaccine, developed from a bovine pox virus (vaccinia) that seemed to confer cross-immunity against smallpox (variola). When you consider that the word, "vaccine", derives from Jenner's choice of inoculum (vaccinia), it seems reasonable to give Jenner the credit for developing the first effective vaccine. Incidentally, Jenner's paper describing his smallpox vaccine was rejected, in 1976, by a peer-reviewed journal (1).


Source: Garrison FH. History of medicine.
WB Saunders, Philadelphia, 1921.

If you want to give credit to the first person to save European lives by immunizing against smallpox, you would need to go 80 years earler than Jenner; to Timoni. To be really fair, you would need to go back many centuries, to the Chinese, Indian and Arabic physicians, to find the origin of human immune treatments.

[1] Altman LK. When peer review produces unsound science. The New York Times June 11, 2002.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

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Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

FIRST CREDIT 1

This is the first in a multi-part blog on the topic of FIRST CREDIT in the sciences.

Stigler's law of eponymy, "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer."

- SM Stigler (1)

According to Stigler, credit always goes to the wrong person, and this is the essence of Stigler's law of eponymy (which, according to Stigler, must have been invented by someone other than Stigler). Stigler provides numerous examples of credit going to the wrong scientist (1). "Laplace employed Fourier Transforms in print before Fourier published on the topic, that Lagrange presented Laplace Transforms before Laplace began his scientific career, that Poisson published the Cauchy distribution in 1824, twenty-nine years before Cauchy touched on it in an incidental manner, and that Bienayme stated and proved the Chebychev Inequality a decade before and in greater generality than Chebychev's first work on the topic."

Yes, misleading eponymous terms are commonplace in the sciences. Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694) was an Italian physician who was one of the earliest scientists to use the microscope to describe tissues and their diseases. He was the first to describe lymphoadenoma, the lymphoma known today as Hodgkin's disease. More than a century later, Thomas Hodgkin (1798 - 1866) wrote a manuscript and credited Malpighi with the first description of the disease. Nonetheless, the eponym for the lymphoma went to Hodgkin.


Source: Garrison FH. History of medicine.
WB Saunders, Philadelphia, 1921.

Likewise, the Wheatstone bridge, introduced in 1843, was not invented by Charles Wheatstone (1802 - 1875). Wheatstone, working from the prototype, improved and popularized the device. The eponym was bestowed on Wheatstone, despite his protestations. The original bridge was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie (1784 - 1865), in 1833.

[1] Stigler SM. Statistics on the table: the history of statistical concepts and methods. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, p 277, 1999.

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

---

Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 6

This is the sixth and last in a multi-part blog on the topic of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY in the sciences.

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

- Oscar Wilde

In earlier blogs, we covered uses of the patent system that had dubious societal value, specifically:

1. Patenting to suppress innovation.
2. Patent farming.
3. Patent spreading.
4. Patent holding.
5. Patent shifting.
6. Remixing prior patents.
7. Patenting the uses of unpatented inventions.
8. Patenting the obvious and the previous.
9. Patenting life.
10. Viral patenting.
11. Royalty stacking.
12. Reaching through a patent.

The government awards patents, but when someone infringes on a patent, the government takes no action. Only the patent holder is harmed, and only the patent holder can litigate against the infringing party. For this reason, a patent is sometimes referred to as the right to sue. Paradoxically, the typical patent holder is terribly frightened of lawsuits and will do almost anything to avoid a court appearance. Why?

I am not a lawyer, and the following paragraphs should not be construed as competent legal advice. They are included here to indicate that some patents, software patents in particular, sit on shaky ground, and that they are often vulnerable to declaratory judgments.

Imagine that you hold a software patent, and you have identified a person whose software contains some code that seems to infringe on one or more of the claims contained in your patent. Your lawyer sends this person a letter claiming infringement and demanding that the person either stop using the patented property or begin paying an assigned royalty. This is the so-called "demand letter" that every software programmer fears.

The alleged infringer, if smart, will seek remedy in a federal court, arguing that your patent is invalid or unenforceable, or that he did not infringe. He will ask for a declaratory judgment to stop you from pursuing your patent demands.

The declaratory judgment is a preventive adjudication. Its purpose is to clear the air, so that the person who received the demand letter need not labor under the constant fear of an impending lawsuit filed by the patent holder (1). Your alleged infringer will bring his case to a federal court venue, near where he lives (you and will need to travel to the location), giving him the home court advantage. If he asks for a declaratory judgment based on non-infringement, you will be required to pursue a counterclaim of infringement; an action that you may not be prepared to pursue. In the case of software patents, virtually every patent holder stands on very weak ground. All software is derivative of someone else's work; hence, every software patent is vulnerable to a declaratory judgment. You may have spent millions of dollars developing your invention and seeking your patent, but all of your investment could be lost through a declaratory judgment.

Declaratory judgment cases must be triggered by a significant controversy, usually a threat of litigation. Your demand letter, indicating infringement and requiring compensation, is often sufficient to trigger a claim for declaratory judgment. This means that, if you have a vulnerable patent, you must NOT send a demand letter that has the effect of a threat.

You may try having a salesman send the letter (not a lawyer). A letter from a salesman is less likely to imply the threat of legal action than a letter from retained counsel. In the letter, you might want to simply identify the patent and indicate that it was available for licensing. It may be wise not to suggest that infringement has occurred.

The purpose of a "demand" letter is to motivate the receiver to buy a license, without triggering a declaratory judgment action. If the letter is sufficiently bland and non-threatening, it may do the trick. Remember, though, that the receiver will likely interpret your letter as a thinly veiled threat. When determining jurisdiction for a declaratory judgment, courts look at all the relevant circumstances. If you have a history of vigorously pursuing patent claims, or you have a history of intimidating people with the implied threat of legal action, a court may interpret any letter from you, no matter how bland, as an intent to litigate.

What is the moral of this multi-part blog on INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? The patent system does not always work to the benefit of the patent holder, or of society. Scientists who develop basic algorithms, or implementations of existing patents, or whose works do not qualify as inventions or devices, or whose discovery was a creation of nature, or a finding of vital importance to the health of others, should think very deeply before seeking patent protection for their works.

[1] Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act. National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. August 2 - 8, 1922.

© 2010 Jules Berman

key words: history of science , specified life blog , Jules J Berman PhD, MD

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Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.