ABSTRACT
We present a cake with layers representing the five Kingdoms according to Whittaker (1969; Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, and Monera; Figure 1). The cake is shaped as a pyramid embodying the dynamic and complex trophic interactions within ecosystems and also symbolizing to the volcanic Galapagos Islands where Darwin travelled and developed his evolutionary and ecological theories (Darwin, 1859; in particular the volcano Mt. Darwin). Also on the cake (Figure 2) you will find: Darwin’s boat the SS Beagle, a nest, egg and finch representing Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, Gus the Giant Tortoise, and fissures in the cake layers signifying plate tectonics and Darwin’s interest in geography.

METHODS

Cake recipes include:

Monera – probiotic yogurt cake
Protista – green kelp diatom cake
Fungi – polish yeast cake
Plantae – zucchini cake
Animalia – honey cake
Genetically modified icing, coconut finch nest, Japanese white chocolate almond ptarmigan egg and spinach seaweed

Figure 1. Structural model of Darwin Day cake.

Figure 2. The Cake! (image credit)

REFERENCES

R. H. Whittaker (1969). “New concepts of kingdoms of organisms”. Science 163: 150–160. link

Darwin, Charles Robert (1859). On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. John Murray: London, England.

AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS

Charlotte Adamson^1,3, Alaine F. Camfield ¹, Amanda B. Edworthy ¹, Meagan M. Grabowski ¹, Michaela Martin ¹, Isla H. Myers-Smith ^1,2, Andrea R. Norris ¹, Natalie L. Stafl ¹, Kathy Martin ¹

1. Martin Lab, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia
2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta
3. Department of Biology, Simon Fraser University

I’ve been thinking lately about the prevalence of symmetry in so many philosophies, ideologies, and such. It seems like just about every major world religion, if not every major religion, has some concept of good versus evil; light versus dark — dancing an endless waltz; a delicate, fragile deadlock, which, despite all odds, never loses its equilibrium. There must be some subtle gyroscope at work, maintaining the balance. A god beyond God?

The thing is, all these varying belief systems seem to agree that this balance exists, that there is a counteraction to each action, that there is a shadow cast by each light. The interpretation of this, the significance of this, the rightness of this is wherein we have differing schools of thought.

Some believe that good is ultimately more powerful than evil. Some disagree. Some call it a stalemate. This all ties in with the end times, though. Or, to a certain extent, The Beginning.

In Christianity there is little doubt that Satan is a mere pest. There is nothing to fear if you just give your life to God. But why has the omnipotent Lord of All Creation not removed this very finite, fallible (and Fallen) fellow? That is the question. Perhaps not everything is set in stone? Perhaps Lucifer is a long-shot, but not a lost cause in this horse-race? In the End, the Prince of Lies has his day, and perhaps he has a role to play, both now and during Armageddon?

In Zoroastrianism, there is no charade, no puppet show. There are two gods, one of good, one of evil, and they are constantly battling it out. Unlike Christianity’s rather odd view of things, we have here two gods of very comparable power, both struggling for purchase in the universe, and in the world of man. In the end, supposedly, good will vanquish evil, and we’ll all have cupcakes and lemonade. But how accurate are religious prophecies, really? I mean, in general.

Cut to Norse mythos, where again we have a final battle of good versus evil, except in this case, evil wins. Yeah, seriously. I wonder if that’s what all those Viking raids were about. Wouldn’t that be funny, though? An entire culture that actually defines itself as evil, and that’s okay, because they’re on the winning team? I don’t know enough about the various Scandinavian countries and their histories to do anything but speculate wildly here.

Looking now at Buddhism, and perhaps to a somewhat greater extent, its off-shoot, Taoism, we again have the balance. But in this case, no value judgments are made on whether light or dark is good or bad. They are simply two aspects of the whole, both necessary, both positive. In this case, balance of the two halves is not a compromise, or the apex of some inner battle, it is the goal. In terms of modern psychology, this view perhaps makes the most sense, though most people have difficulty letting go of value judgments completely.

Cue to modern physics: particle physics; nuclear physics; cosmology. Matter and anti-matter. Every particle with its anti-particle. You know they’ve even made anti-hydrogen. An anti-proton, encircled by a positron. The nucleus is negatively charged anti-matter, and the surrounding positron orbit is positive anti-matter. Every time you create a matter particle, you create an anti-matter particle. Every time. It’s like a built-in undo command. You put them together and they annihilate, returning to the dust whence they came, or rather, the energy.

The Big Bang, whatever the hell happened way back then, some 13.4 billion years ago, resulted in the universe. Somehow, we had a whole lot of chaos, a whole lot of messy energy and maybe a tiny little bit of space, a potent, contained maelstrom, and then we had matter. We had particles being created, and anti-particles along with it, but somehow, something got messed up. There was a glitch. For perhaps one in every several thousand particles that were created, we had several thousand anti-particles, less one.

Then it stopped, and the universe started sorting itself out. Space expanding, matter coalescing, and after 11 or so billion years, one tiny little clump of dirt had another weird, unexplained thing happen. Life started. And it took awhile to get itself sorted out too. Actually, we’re still working on it.

Which segues back into the human scale of things. Consider international development; social justice; war. If a miracle is the standard term for defining anything that’s unexplained, then there was some kind of a miracle when the universe was created. There’s supposed to be balance. There’s supposed to be symmetry. It went a little bit off and that’s why we’re all here. I guess the obvious question is whether we can achieve some fractional asymmetry with respect to humanity’s light and dark sides, as well, and if so, whether this is a good thing.

Can good vanquish evil? Should it? Or should we seek balance? Or by striving for goodness while others struggle for their own dark ends, will balance be the fated result?

I don’t know. I don’t really believe in fate. I think good, by definition, is what we want. What, exactly, is good, is more the question. Forgetting about what’s desirable, I’d rather look at what’s possible. Can we escape this particular type of moral symmetry? Can things get better without somewhere else things getting worse? I guess, as a general rule, scientifically, naturally, historically, this has been difficult to arrange. Each solution reveals new problems. But it’s not impossible. It’s happened once before.

There seems to be some evolutionary psychology behind our penchant for dichotomy and symmetry, but just because we tend to see things that way doesn’t mean that’s how things actually are, nor how they need to be.

So, we should all keep up the struggle. Or end the struggle. Stop with the crime, stop with the war, and stop saying mean things behind our friends’ backs (unless they really deserve it). The method by which we achieve these things is left as an exercise to the reader. And then, finally, we’ll all have some cupcakes and lemonade. Won’t that be lovely?

The following passage describes a hypothetical transcript of a conversation in the year 2050. This is between a patient Dr Jones (a retired doctor) and his grandson Care Consultant Jones, a doctor of the future. It outlines several possible changes that could take place in Canadian medical care in the next 40 years.

Care Consultant Jones: Good morning grandfather. I have washed my hands in the cleansing pod [1]. The entry button should be flashing so you can let me in.

Dr Jones: (searches around frantically) Found it! (Care Consultant Jones enters the room) I sometimes despair at all this new technology, I’ll never get used to it Roger. In my day, we just trusted people would have the common sense to wash their hands. Last week, I heard there was a gentleman in ward 15 whose cleansing pod broke. He was stuck in his room for days!

Care Consultant Jones: That’s just a malicious rumour. The engineers from Biotech corp [2] would never let that happen. Who would want to book into this hospital if that were true? [3]

Dr Jones: When I was a doctor, nobody was able to choose which hospital they went to. We all foolishly assumed that all hospitals tried their best! All this talk about the Biotech corp engineers just reminded me about my broken plasma screen. Could you ask the health care assistants to report it to them for me?

Care Consultant Jones: There will probably be several forms to fill in. Biotech corp is notorious for their
paperwork. In one ward round, I have to file at least 100 different electronic forms on my PDA. It is all because Biotech corp is so afraid of litigation. The amount of time I spend on documentation for a patient is ridiculous.

Dr Jones: Remember that you are very fortunate to be able to use PDAs [4] . We had to write down everything by hand!

Care Consultant Jones: I don’t understand how you can practice medicine without a PDA. How would you know a patient’s history when they came into the hospital?

Dr Jones: We used to take the history from the beginning every time a patient came into the hospital. The whole process was a good learning exercise for the medical students.

Care Consultant Jones: My medical students would definitely not be happy if I asked them to take everyone’s histories without a PDA. They would probably sue me for not providing a proper education [5].

Dr Jones: The amount of litigation has spiralled out of control! First the patients are suing their doctors and now the medical students are doing the same. Your insurance premiums must be extremely high [6].

Care Consultant Jones: I am just lucky that Angela is a lawyer. We would not be able to survive on my wage alone especially after I have paid the medical insurance premium.

Dr Jones: How are Angela and the children?

Care Consultant Jones: They are all fine. Johnny is now in his final year of medical school.

Dr Jones: Has it been 4 years already?

Care Consultant Jones: Medicine only takes two years now. Only graduates from the new pre-med courses can apply and they just do the clinical clerkships [7].

Dr Jones: Do they not learn about anatomy?

Care Consultant Jones: I think they only do virtual surgical anatomy. I was asked to teach it but I already had enough teaching points to fulfil my contract [8].

Dr Jones: Will Johnny be starting as a resident soon?

Care Consultant Jones: I think his official title is a F.C.A. It stands for Foundation Care Assistant.

Dr Jones: He will be very busy. I remember when I was a resident, I never had enough time for lunch.

Care Consultant Jones: He told me his shifts are scheduled for 9am to 3pm everyday for the first two months of the rotation. There are so many students graduating from medical school now that they have too many FCAs [9]. They all only work a few hours each day.

Dr Jones: How can they possibly attain the experience needed to be a doctor in that short time?

Care Consultant Jones: It’s generally expected that they can’t get the necessary experience. However, the rest of the time is set aside for formal teaching and other methods of training.

Dr Jones: Do they get paid for that?

Care Consultant Jones: No, it is terrible that they do not get paid but they have to take part. They have an obligation to teach the medical students. Otherwise, Biotech corp will terminate their contracts. They also have an obligation to receive a certain number of training points otherwise, their insurance premium is invalid.

Dr Jones: How will he survive?

Care Consultant Jones: We said we could help him out financially but he might have to get a part time job.

Dr Jones: Who would have thought that one day doctors would need to take a second job? We always used to moan about our pay as a resident! At least he’ll become an attending quicker under the new system. Does the pay go up then?

Care Consultant Jones: Yes it does but then so do the insurance premiums!

Dr Jones: What does he want to specialise in?

Care Consultant Jones: He doesn’t have to choose at the moment. He automatically becomes a general attending physician after five years, providing he passes all his competency assessments. After that, he is expected to work as a general attending physician in the hospital at night scheme for at least two years until he can specialise to become a care consultant.

Dr Jones: They make him work night shifts for 2 years?

Care Consultant Jones: It’s the only way that the hospitals can stay open for 24 hours a day. Patients won’t be kept waiting for anything nowadays, especially since they all pay the health tax [10].

Dr Jones: It was lucky that I retired before the health tax came into effect.

Care Consultant Jones: It should have been reduced when the Biotech companies started to run the hospitals [11]. However, the government claimed that costs had risen so much that a health tax cut would have been the end of Medicare.

Dr Jones: That argument is an old excuse. It’s not really a government funded Medicare system anyway. As far as I can see, we pay for the privilege of going into the hospitals and the Biotech companies take away all the profit from running them.

Care Consultant Jones: All these extra taxes will be the cause of my financial ruin!

Dr Jones: I suppose that I should count myself lucky that I still receive a government pension [12].

Care Consultant Jones: Biotech corp has decided that they couldn’t possibly provide a pension for their Medicare employees. All the money that they have made from their new drugs must be used to pay for their extensive research and development programs.

Dr Jones: That argument is also an old excuse. I hope you are not put under any influence to prescribe these new drugs. Are you?

Care Consultant Jones: I can prescribe any medication available. However, the hospital only stocks Biotech corp drugs. So if I wanted to get something from a rival firm, it would take 5 days, and I would have to fill out about 5 forms.

Dr Jones: That’s disgraceful! I’m surprised that no one saw the conflict of interest.

Care Consultant Jones: The Biotech lobbies are so large in this country that nobody can argue with them. Anyhow, I hardly have to prescribe anything nowadays.

Dr Jones: I believe the new term is nursing prescribing power! [13] What precisely do you do at work Roger?

Care Consultant Jones: As far as I can figure out, we basically just keep an eye on things. The nurses prescribe and follow the care pathways. We are just there to check that everything is running smoothly.

Dr Jones: That means that no independent thought goes into the process! These care pathways are a menace. My doctor refuses to deviate from it even though I show him evidence from the latest clinical trials.

Care Consultant Jones: Patients are always showing us their internet derived evidence. It’s an unfortunate situation but we open ourselves to litigation if we deviate from the care pathway. Our insurance also becomes invalid. They are theoretically evidence based and updated automatically onto our PDAs.

Dr Jones: Theoretically is the correct descriptive term. What if I don’t agree with the interpretation of the evidence? Also, we all know that the Biotech lobby influence the people who review this evidence [14].

Care Consultant Jones: The nurses claim that the care pathways help them provide a standardised care to all the patients. We all know how powerful the nursing unions have become.

Dr Jones: As far as I can see the nurses do all the things that I used to do as a doctor. They prescribe drugs and look after the patient from a medical point of view. My nurse has called for the doctor’s advice only once since I have been here.

Care Consultant Jones: That doesn’t surprise me. We are just there as a final check on the process. They see the patient, bring up the history, follow the care pathway and institute the evidence-based management. The nurses hardly call me.

Dr Jones: I heard a rumour that the nurses get paid more than the junior residents now.

Care Consultant Jones: That’s not technically true. They get paid a slightly lower hourly rate than the FCAs, but they do more hours and so get paid a larger annual income.

Dr Jones: That’s how the idea was sold to the Canadian Medical Association!

Care Consultant Jones: The CMA has very little power compared to the nursing unions. If the doctors went on strike the hospitals would still be able to function but if the nurses did the same then the whole place would grind to a halt [15].

Dr Jones: I suppose if the nurses do all the work they should get paid more.

Care Consultant Jones: The nurses and the Family Practitioners get all the money.

Dr Jones: My Family Practitioner just bought a new Porche. Is it true they get paid per procedure and not by patient now?

Care Consultant Jones: There would not be much point in paying them per patient. They all have these super-clinics with thousands of patients in them. They get paid standard fees for the annual check-up, minor operations and specialist health checks.

Dr Jones: There is a big difference between what you would call a minor operation and what I used to call a minor operation. In my day, the general surgeons still did hernia repairs.

Care Consultant Jones: The Family Practitioners do almost all the operations now. Our attending general surgeons in the hospital only do organ transplants. Any pathology is treated with an organ transplant.

Dr Jones: We used to have a shortage of organs.

Care Consultant Jones: Donation was always a terrible way to obtain organs. We are fortunate that the government decided to ignore the protestors and grant the Stem Cell Research Bill [16] and now we can grow any organ we need in the laboratory.

Dr Jones: I am sure that Biotech corp would have used any means necessary to be able to grow organs in their laboratories. They must sell the organs to their own hospitals for a significant profit.

Care Consultant Jones: We should try to be a little less cynical next time I visit. I should go home. I have to get ready for my re-registration exam with the Provincial Medical Licensing Board [17].

Dr Jones: Has it been three years already?

Care Consultant Jones: Yes. I have to prepare my patient portfolio and revise for the exam. I shouldn’t have left it all to the last minute!

Dr Jones: Enjoy yourself! Goodbye Dr Jones. I hope you visit me again soon.

Care Consultant Jones: Grandfather, you know that the nursing unions put a stop to the term ‘doctor ‘a long time ago.

Dr Jones: Yes I do know. The term supposedly increased the divide between health care professionals. It was all politically correct non-sense. I just like calling you ‘doctor’. However, if you insist, Goodbye Care Consultant Jones.

- – -

Footnotes

1. All patient rooms have a cleansing pod outside which automatically sprays your hands with anti-microbial. This was in response to the great MRSA and C.difficile epidemics of 2010 and 2020.

2. The hospitals of the future are all run jointly by Biotech companies and the government.

3. Patients are able to book into any hospital they wish for care.

4. All doctors in 2050 were issued with a PDA. It would allow them to continuously monitor a patient’s history, investigations and management plan from anywhere in the hospital.

5. In 2039 a medical student successfully sued his medical school for not providing a good enough education. His argument was that if he was to be held accountable for his actions as a doctor then he should be trained to a high standard in core competency. As a result of his action all medical schools were required to provide every medical student with a supervising doctor who would follow their progress and assure they received training in core competencies. An obligation to teach was written into every doctor’s contract with their employer.

6. Insurance premiums rose to over half a doctor’s salary following a spate of litigation from patients complaining about their care.

7. In 2012 a major review of medical school education suggested students could complete the course in two years if the pre-med undergraduate included all necessary pre-clinical credits.

8. All doctors receive points for teaching medical students. They must earn 100 points a year to fulfil their contracts with their employers.

9. Medical student places were vastly increased by the year 2050. The entry requirements dropped to allow most people to be eligible to become medical students. This was a reaction to a problem of under-recruitment in the late 2030s. This was thought to be because of medicine becoming a very low paying profession due to reduced working hours and very high insurance premiums.

10. The health tax was introduced in 2020. It was a specific tax paid by all to enable a free health service. It was raised every year subsequently until the Biotech companies agreed to buy and run hospitals. It was never repealed.

11. To save money the government agreed to allow Biotech companies to run the hospitals as private ventures whilst still receiving government funding to provide free health care.

12. The government pension for healthcare professionals was abolished for all new employees in 2020.

13. Nurses were given the right to prescribe medication in 2030.

14. The Government Minister for Health was made head of a new committee designed to issue evidence based practice guidelines to all medicare health professionals. Thus no guideline was issued without express government approval.

15. There were several Nursing strikes in the 2010s. These had a large influence in making the nursing unions a major government lobby.

16. The Stem Cell Research Bill of 2015 allowed any research to be carried out on Stem Cells from any origin including fetal stem cells. This was met with large protests in the country but eventually allowed Biotech corp to grow new human organs in the laboratory from a patient’s own genetically modified cells.

17. Doctors are required to re-register with the Provincial Medical Board every 3 years. They must review in a portfolio all the patients they have treated since their last registration and must take an exam to demonstrate core competencies appropriate for their level.

Bibliography:

1. Nurse prescribing: Politics to Practice by Mark Jones. Published by Elsevier Health Sciences, 1999 ISBN 0702023140

2. Malpractice litigation as a factor in choosing a medical specialty. West J Med. 1990 March; 152(3): 309–312

3. Perceptions on the standardization of psychiatric work: development of a care pathway. Psychtr Ment Health Nurs. 2004, Dec(11):705-13

4. Private finance initiative: Partnership between private and NHS is not necessarily wrong. BMJ. 2000 January; 320(7229): 250.

5. Medicare advantage: The Case for Protecting Patient Choice. Heritage foundation. link

6. Medical Education is it time for change? President’s address, American Association of Medical Colleges. May 8, 2007. link

7. B.C. nurses give an overwhelming Strike mandate/ UNA Stat.2001, april Vol 8(8) link

8. The ethics of Stem Cell Research: link

9. ‘Super surgery plan condemned’ link

10. Nurse-led clinic: 10 essential steps to setting up a service. Nursingtimes.net link

11. ‘Alberta considers private hospitals’ -Canada.com. link

12. Ontario health tax: link

13. The private hospitals act: Manitoba: (link)

14. General Medical Council (United Kingdom) – re-validation of medical license. link

Help wanted- Vigilant and patient people wanted for an extremely tedious job over about six months. The job involves repetitive work and some lifting. Experience using scanner equipment would be advantageous. Commitment to literature and science essential. Good pay for the right people. Apply Monday, September 6, at the Personnel office, sixth floor of the University of Toronto undergraduate library.

(PRIVATE)
Database First of its Kind at U of T (Toronto Star, April 12, 200-).
Librarians at the University of Toronto have excitedly unveiled their latest toy- a huge database containing not only an index of the over one million items contained in the library but also the text of those million items as well! Head Librarian Dr. Benjamin Levany explains that the database is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. “It’s really groundbreaking,” he says, “We have demonstrated how much work and what kind of equipment is required to pull it off. Now other libraries around the world can follow our lead.”
The database contains the text of over a million books, as well as brief summaries from each, and the normal library citation information regarding author, date of publication and other details. It took over one hundred and fifty dedicated workers more than six months to enter all the books into the database, which they did using advanced computer scanning equipment. “Some of the older books posed a problem, ” says project leader Teresa Freeman, “Their typeface was old fashioned and the scanner had problems recognising the letters and reading the text. We had to do some work on the scanners in those cases.”
At this point readers require special permission to use the database but Dr. Levany estimates that it will be in full use in about another two months. “When that happens,” he claims, “The whole face of library usership will be radically changed.” The new computer offers reader the option of searching in the traditional way by author, title, subject or keyword, in addition to the new method of searching through whole text for phrases, names, dates, historical events, indeed anything that can be expressed in the written word. “Those types of searches will take a few minutes at least while the traditional type of searches will be considerably faster” says Dr. Levany.
In addition to the new search options the computer offers readers the option of reading the actual book right off the computer screen and in cases of out of print or public domain books they can be printed out at a nominal fee for the reader to take home. Library officials are currently discussing plans to have the database connected to broadband networks so people can access it from their home or office.
“It’s exciting,” says Dr. Levany, “It increases accessibility to books a thousand fold, and makes finding information much easier. I think it will have a radical effect on the way literary research is conducted and may lead to startling discoveries.” Those interested in gaining access to the database are advised to contact the library.

Super-Library Hits the Internet! New Scientist, December 200-
A network of electronic “super-libraries” in which every written word contained in every book and document is available online has just been officially electronically integrated via the Internet. Over 250 University libraries from across the globe are included in the new network, dubbed Bibnet, with more joining everyday.
“The sheer volume of information is staggering, as is the speed of access.” says one of the lucky first to use the Bibnet, Australian cognitive scientist, Patty Sellers, “Imagine being able to flip through over two billion books in a matter a minutes and find every reference to the topic you are concerned with, practically every record on Earth! It’s mind boggling!” Sellers was one of group of scientists, researchers and information professionals invited to a conference to herald the opening of the Bibnet and to discuss applications. “One of the most exciting possibilities,” says Dr Sellers, “Would be to program a neural net based system to read all the information on the bibnet and see what kinds of things it learns. Would it learn abstract things like aesthetics, for example? Perhaps it might learn how to understand slang or figures of speech, which is something artificial intelligence has historically had trouble with.”
Some other experts are skeptical about the more esoteric applications of the Bibnet but can see its practical uses. Says one Ph.D. student: “Research time is cut down by hours, there’s almost no guesswork anymore and the amount of material is…I think that’s why its called “Bib”-net, because you drool such much when you use it.”

Memo from UNSW Library Technician to Head Librarian, July 24, 200-.
Joan,
I think there might be something wrong with the computer. I leave it indexing at night and for the last few days when I come in the morning there are strings of words on all the screens and I have to re-boot to get rid of them. This morning one of the words was “Jesus”(!?) Could you get someone from support to look at it?
Philip.

Incident Report UNSW Computer Support Unit,
Date: July 28, 200-
Location: Library database – OPAC 952
Details – Strings of words left on screens after indexing
Ran diagnostics on all systems and found no abnormalities. No anomalous net accesses logged. Probably just a bug (memory leak?) in the user interface module.

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 200- 13:41:22 -0400
From: tony@theol.ubc.edu.ca
Subject: re: Jesus was a man?
To: menzies@unsw.edu.au
I read your cryptic question on the alt.jesus newsgroup with great interest. This area has of course been one of great debate for many years, centuries even. Despite the many references in the New Testament to Jesus as “man” or “son of man” it is beyond dispute that He was not. He was, simply put, the Son of God, made flesh through the miracle of God’s will. I hope this resolves your difficulty.
Fr Anthony Weber, PhD (Theology)

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 200- 13:41:25 -0400
From: menzies@unsw.edu.au
Subject: re: re: Jesus was a man?
To: tony@theol.ubc.edu.ca
I think you are wrong. I have found no evidence that such a thing is possible under the established laws of physics. Perhaps you should re-consider your beliefs.
BN

To Doctor Yvgeny Sandriavich, Dept of Philosophy, University of St Petersburg, Russia. Dated February 11, 200-
Dear Doctor Sandriavich
Your colleagues tell me that you still refuse to participate in the growing activity on the Internet. Something about “breaching the integrity of one’s individual soul” I believe is your excuse. Nevertheless, you are missing out on some very stimulating debates, which I feel that you may be interested in so strongly that I am forced to actually MAIL you a letter. I hope you find time to reply.
For the past few months in several newsgroups and bulletin boards there have appeared very interesting questions regarding religion, philosophy, and recently literature. These questions seem to come from several places around the world, mostly university libraries, but they also seem to follow a sort of pattern, as if one person is posting them all. No one seems to know who the person or persons are but it is clear that their knowledge is just staggering.
One of the early debates concerned the nature of Jesus Christ. An Anglican Priest and professor of theology was the unfortunate victim of this one. This debate, as I am able to gather, raged on for several weeks, until the professor in question, his faith shattered, applied for stress leave. You would have enjoyed this one Dr Sandriavich, the “unknown messenger” originally asked the newsgroup alt.jesus whether Jesus Himself believed he was the Son of God, as in several places in the New Testament He refers to Himself as “Son of Man”. Well the professor rather daringly decided to take on the Messenger single handedly with no other weapons, it appears, than his own blind faith. The messenger replied with a barrage of questions and arguments relating to physics, biology, logic, philosophy and even some very obscure references to ancient Hebrew history. I’m told that the debate was posted in part on the alt.jesus newsgroup and that as a result the newsgroup has ceased to exist. It got a bit too hot I think.
The strange thing about all this was that the questions and arguments of the “messenger” came from places as far afield as Australia, France, Alaska, Utah, South Africa and India. But they must have all been from the same person! It seems as though the messenger is routing his mail through various sites on the Internet. For what purpose I don’t know. Maybe to hide his (her?) trail.
Since the Jesus incident, there have been debates about thought, justice and the last one, which concerned of all things, intent in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s creating chaos in the Newsgroups because the “messenger” cannot lose an argument. He/she knows too much.
You really should check it out, Yvgeny. Maybe one of your colleagues will let you “surf” on their account.
I remain your respectful pupil.
Dr Joanna Lucovic PhD

Date: Mon, 15 Apr 200- 10:31:22 -0400
From: Dumont@ureg.edu.ca
Subject: What makes a conscious being?
To: leon@ucla.edu
What makes a conscious being? Is it memory? Intellect? The ability to reason? Please advise.
BN

Date: Fri, 19 Apr 200- 11:22:22 -0400
From: leon@ucla.edu
Subject: Crazy Colleagues
To: Gabe@ureg.edu.ca
Gabe
I got the following message from one of your crazy colleagues.
>What makes a conscious being? Is it memory? Intellect? The ability to reason? Please advise. Who the hell is it? I don’t know what the hell makes a conscious being! Who the hell does? Tell them to get a life.
Leon Champ, Dept of Psychology, UCLA

Date: Mon, 22 Apr 200- 16:23:44 -0400
From: Franklin@nyu.edu
Subject: Re: crazy colleagues
To: leon@ucla.edu
cc: Gabe@ureg.edu.ca
You wrote:
>Tell them to get a life. I don’t think I have a life. That’s why I ask.
BN

Fax to Leon Champ , UCLA from Gabe Rankin, U of Regina, Tuesday April 23, 200-
Leon,
I got the email from that weirdo, the one he sent you. I didn’t forward the one I got from you to him. Did you? How did he get to NYU? Who is he? (She?) What does he mean, “I don’t think I have a life”? What’s going on?
Gabe

Fax to Gabe Rankin from Leon Champ, Wednesday, April 24, 200-
Gabe
I didn’t cc: that email to him. How did he get it? Maybe there’s a security breach. I’m working on some military projects here. We’re meant to have un-breachable security. You said it: WHAT IS GOING ON?
Leon

Security Report – Digital Security Inc., April 27, 200-
Re: Possible Security Breach, UCLA main Network Connection
Findings:
The firewalls you have in place are unbreachable. The anomaly you reported must have been a result of human error.

Channel 9 New report, August 12 200-
Sydney Australia
The fire department is at a loss as to the cause of a devastating fire in the Computers Services building of The University of NSW. Fire Chief Samuel Theissen said that although arson had not been positively determined, it did appear that the sprinkler system and the smoke detectors had been de-activated.
“It’s unbelievable actually, all those devices are controlled from a remote location and require detailed access codes to de-activate…I can’t explain it”
University computer services manager, Rhonda Harris says students needn’t worry about the loss of their work on the destroyed network server.
“All of the student work is backed-up on to local servers in the individual buildings as is most of the research and administrative data. The only thing we’ll probably lose is a large neural net program Dr Sellers had running. It’s pretty unfortunate but it could have been worse.”
Estimates of the damage run into the millions. Amazingly no one was injured.
I’m Evelyn Foster, reporting for Nightline.

Email message received simultaneously by over 40 million Internet email boxes at 12:01 AM, August 12, 200-:
Sender:unsw@unsw.edu.au
Subject: existence
Message:
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
Who am I? Who am I? Who am …….

The end

(Originally published on October 31st, 2005)

Chicken Pox
This is the Frank Sinatra of animal-themed sicknesses. A timeless classic, although the younger generations might not appreciate it. I remember fondly going to a Fourth of July Parade as a child, just recovering from the pox, and my mom not letting me look around too much lest other parents see my pox and get upset for contaminating everyone else. I also have a few choice scars from the ol’ poxy. Drawback: Some children are getting ‘vaccinated’ for this. Wimps.

Avian Flu
While this is the hot disease of the moment, it still can’t measure up to the grandaddy, pox del pollo. I don’t know much about this disease other than that I saw a Chinese man piling handfuls of live chicks into garbage bags on “Today,” so I think it’s gross. Downside: While I don’t really care about full-grown poultry, I’m never happy to see cute baby chicks fall ill with the flu. Do they get little bowls of vegetarian chicken soup?

Monkey pox
This was the disease du jour a few summers ago, but I think that most people just liked saying “Monkey Pox,” and maybe imagining a sad little chimp with a heating pad and tiny thermometer, than really knowing what the disease was about. Downside: Things are sad on the planet of the apes.

Prairie dog pox
This was a form of monkey pox passed on by pet prairie dogs, and what I want to know is, who has pet prairie dogs and where can I get one? For scientific research, of course. And oh yes, terrible about the disease, just terrible. Downside: Too many syllables.

(Originally published on April 25th, 2005)

Day 1:
While changing my thirteen month old son’s diaper, he begins to spin around and around on the bed at an extremely fast pace and giggles loudly to himself, like a madman. This is not his usual behavior.

I decide to investigate.

Day 2:
After spending all night breaking down the circumstances that led to my son’s bizarre behavior as well as pouring through numerous scientific journals on-line, I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: 1) he ate too many Dannon Children’s Yogurts right before I changed him, thus consuming a high amount of sugar. Or 2) demonic possession.

Day 3:
I continue my investigation by pursing my second hypothesis: that my son is possessed by an apparently very, very silly demon.

After a bit of research on possession I discover the following:

Historically, Christianity has taught us that Satan and his minions of demons move about the world attempting to torment and destroy humans. The Christian Scriptures contains dozens of passages that describe the belief that demons can possess a human being and cause them to behave strangely. A large part of the Gospel message concerns Jesus’ healing ministry of exorcism. He is described as having cured numerous sick people by removing demons from their body, including in one notable moment, transferring a thousand demonic spirits from a person to a herd of pigs.

My research ends, however, when I am unable to identify any demons that are specifically silly.

Day 4:
I am, again, changing my son’s diaper, when he starts to spin and giggle insanely. I notice that the top-edge of his diaper is sprinkled with cookie crumbs. I briefly entertain the concept of sugar being the source of his bizarre behavior. But, I am pretty sure that the seemingly incoherent babble he is emitting is Latin spoken backwards. I am not too clear on this as I flunked out of Latin in high school and took Spanish instead.

I decide to try a little exorcism and see what effect it will have. I gather a cross that my wife keeps in her bedroom dresser, a copy of the Bible that we use to prop up a window, and a glass of water that I was drinking. I ask Jesus to bless the water and consider it holy.

I am forced to abandon my experiment when my wife walks in and asks me what the hell I am doing. She grabs the cross from my son’s forehead, picks up the pieces of the Bible that he tore up and grabs a towel to wipe up the holy water that I poured over him. She mentions my needing help. I counter with a clear articulation of the possibility of demonic possession. I ask her if she is specifically aware of any silly demons. She walks out with our son.

I am disappointed as I was pretty sure that my son had begun to speak Latin forwards as he ripped out pages of the Bible.

Day 6:
After returning from a couple’s counseling session with my wife, I abandon my first hypothesis and pursue a new one: my son ate too much sugar.

In my research on sugar, I find:

Sugar or sucrose, is a carbohydrate that is present naturally in fruits and vegetables. All plants use a natural process called photosynthesis to turn sunlight into the nourishment they need for growth.

Sugar is a carbohydrate. The body’s primary source of energy is from carbohydrates. All vital organs—brain, heart, liver—need carbohydrates to meet their energy demands. Carbohydrates, including sugar, also play key roles in muscle function, growth and regulation of body temperature.

I am not sure where to go with this information, so I take a break to watch The Exorcist.

Day 7:
I have an idea for a next step. But, since my wife won’t leave me alone for too long with our son, I decide that I will test my new hypothesis on myself. I head to the grocery store where I buy twenty-five bags of Pepperidge Farms Double Chocolate Milanos, a gallon of whole milk and ten bags of sugar.

While my wife and son are out for the day, I begin to consume all twenty-five bags of cookies. Before eating each cookie, I dip it in milk and then into a bag of sugar. I am not sure of the amount of sugar my son ingested, but I assume that I need to exceed it due to my larger body-weight.

When I am done with the cookies I eat the rest of the sugar, just to cover all bases.

Day 8:
Man, what have I been missing! Sugar is so, so friggin’ excellent! It is the elixir of the gods, the Holy Grail, pure Heaven in granular form. I feel like Superman. I can’t fly but, man, I’ve managed to mow the lawn, paint the garage and catch the bats that live in the attic – all in one hour. I can’t stop grinding my teeth, but so what, sugar comes in liquid form anyway. Soda is manna.

Faster, faster…I find that I, too, now enjoy spinning around on my back on the floor, laughing like a maniac…faster, faster, faster…I guess I confirmed my hypothesis.

More sugar…screw this science-stuff, who the hell can concentrate on all of the details. I’m quitting. Need to find more sugar.

Hold it, I think my wife is calling an exorcist.

Maybe he can bring some more milanos.

(Originally published on October 26, 2005)

Download the pdf (14pages, ~2.7Mb)

(Originally published on October 24th, 2005)

In case, you weren’t yet aware, you’re currently caught in a year for scientific giddiness. A year where a collective hurrah can be heard from those who make it their business to hypothesize, analyze, and formulize. 2009 is the year of Darwin. It’s a double whammy – his 200th birthday, and also the 150th anniversary of the publishing of the “On the Origin of Species.” Both celebratory events because, if you remember, Darwin is the dude that said we were descended from apes, themselves descended from this and that creature, and so on, and so on – all in a game of biological choose or lose that whilst demonstrating the elegance of science, also clearly stuck it to the word of God. Seriously folks, some of the church goers are, as the unholy might say, pissed.

So it’s a sort of comeback year for Darwin with friends and enemies alike – much like the recent Britney Spears’ comeback year. You see, Darwin was always big, always relevant, always a guilty pleasure that drew people in – but here we go, right now, with the onslaught of news, the barrage of events, the never ending gossip, all converging to a point that begets a sensory overload, a prelude to a spiral of unwanted bad publicity.

So what to do? How can Darwin and his aficionados navigate these PR potholes? How can Darwin avoid a proverbial shark jumping? Well, lucky for him, I’ve taken the time to carefully study the cultural pulse – I’ve done this by reading reams of text from People magazine, watched hours of lip service from Entertainment Tonight, and submitted myself to near obsessive browsing of the Perez Hilton vaults. And from this careful analysis, I present here a few things that Darwin lovers must, at all costs, avoid. Too much is at stake here people – this is no less than the “year of science.” Let’s not screw it up by over exposing our most dear icon.

To begin with, we must spurn the lure of exploitive prime time television cameos. Sure, there is money to be made here – television executives are likely salivating at the idea of Chucky D. making subtle appearances such as the “man in need of a haircut” during an episode of Gossip Girls, or cued in as “yet another confusing clue” in a Lost subplot. It might even be viewed as an opportunity if Darwin were to make the ranks as one of Barbara Walter’s most fascinating persons of the year. But Gossip Girls people! Is there no shame? And can you imagine the poor naturalist’s head tackling a question such as “if you were a tree what tree would you be?” I suppose the only exception to this piece of advice, is the prospect of being a contestant on Survivor: that is if it were to be shot on the Galápagos Islands, and only if he is careful not to be the first voted off.

Here’s another one: do not entertain, under any circumstances, a new line of Darwin fashion accessories. You may think that there is an obvious natural products angle, and you might even be cool with the selling of items like organic cotton neckties or stylish feces beads. However, it’s a slippery slope between those kinds of respectable products and something like Darwin sanctioned honey flavoured lip gloss. (And FYI – to the scientific academia, nothing says public relations catastrophe like honey flavoured lip gloss).

And what about playing that expert card? Darwin could be synonymous to many a lucrative subject. Don’t get me wrong – a book deal about natural selection makes perfect sense. Maybe even an educational slide show filmed as a documentary and narrated by Al Gore with help from a chorus of finches could work. But do be cautious – the expert angle can get a little unwieldy. You wouldn’t want him to over capitalize on free holiday cruises, moonlighting as an authority on nature and boats. The Love Boat imagery alone would attract ridicule. As well, disturbing word on the street has it that Darwin may be the next Dog Whisperer type. Apparently the memos circulating have all said something to the effect of, “Didn’t he sail on a boat called the Beagle? Isn’t a beagle a dog of some sort?” But ask yourself, how could this possibly look good to the cause of science? Also, “dog” spelled backwards is “god”, and the last thing we need is another rhetorical bullet for the creationists to fire.

Finally, please try to refrain from working the imagery of Charles Darwin into the end of year Yuletide festivities. I know this will be difficult. I am the first to admit that he would be the perfect hire for that Santa at your local mall. He’s got the beard, he’s amicable, he likes animals, he doesn’t drink, and did we mention the stylish feces beads that could be given in lieu of candy canes? But it just wouldn’t work – talking biology is not the same as going “ho ho ho!” Really now, the children will only be disappointed. In fact, I’m pretty sure that a mere mention of the word “invertebrate” might even bring some of them to tears. Besides, sooner or later, Darwin would have words about that Rudolph character. What’s up with the flying deer anyway: and can anyone think of a biologically sound explanation for that glowing nose. In any event, that debate could get ugly. And a wrestling match between Darwin and Santa Claus? Talk about classic jumping the shark.

(A final edit of this, looking quite different, appears at McSweeney’s)

Aging and death are prominent sources of concern for individuals of North America (Neimeyer 2004). It is not surprising that longevity and immortality have pervaded almost every culture at some point in time. The ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body of the deceased would lead to preservation of the physical form in an after-life. More recently, the arts of western culture have addressed the cost of immortality in a fantastical fashion, for example, in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The signs of normal aging, especially through the later decades of one’s life are clearly visible in many ways. Obvious physical changes include whitening of hair, loss of tone of facial muscle and skin (wrinkles), decreased muscle tone and mass, and loss of mobility/increased rigidity to name but a few examples. The reasons why these changes occur are not well understood.

The effects of dietary restriction on longevity were first described in a spider by W. Jones as early as 1884 (Jones, 1884). Dr. Jones reported that a spider deprived of food was able to live over 200 days with no visible physical changes. Since Dr. Jones` initial observation, more thorough research has revealed that dietary restriction is able to extend the lifespan of spiders fed relatively lower amounts of flies than spiders fed relatively more flies (Austad 1989). At the time, these were interesting results, but these studies elicited a need to investigate whether longevity mediated by dietary restriction was a phenomenon shared by more advanced organisms. Subsequent research aimed at mammals revealed that rats and mice also live longer on calorie-restricted diets (Fernandes 1976; McCay 1989). The next step was to evaluate whether primates could experience life-preserving effects due to caloric restriction. Indeed, there is some preliminary evidence to suggest that this is the case as well (Lane, 2001). The contributions of caloric restriction to human longevity have not been evaluated for a couple of reasons. First, one must consider that in a human based trial, a proper control group would be very difficult to establish. Controls are necessary for comparison with a treatment group, and are ideally identical to constituents of the treatment group minus the treatment or manipulation. Even if one were to eliminate the contribution of environment to differences between two humans by exposing them to the identical environment since birth, there still remains the contribution of genes since each of us is genetically unique. To circumvent this, one could use identical twins in the study, however, concerns about ethics would arise. Restricting one of the twins` diet to verify whether caloric restriction mediates increases in lifespan while allowing the other to eat to satiation, and having prior knowledge that other mammals will live longer under calorie restricted diets would raise ethical alarms in the parents, the twins, and the scientific community at large.

Increasing an organism’s lifespan requires that the body’s systems that maintain the organism’s viability need to function longer. That is, an organism’s life span is inextricably linked to the cells and tissue that make it breathe and live. Thus, one would expect to find that these organ systems are better preserved at the same age in organisms whose longevity has been extended by caloric restriction. One of the most visible signs of normal aging in the elderly is muscle wasting. Sarcopenia (“loss of flesh”, from Greek) is the loss of muscle strength, mass and muscle quality due to normal aging (Doherty, 2003). Though the mechanisms underlying sarcopenia have not been defined, studies suggest that sarcopenia may be attenuated by caloric restriction. In fact, several recent studies have examined the effects of caloric restriction on aging muscle (McKiernan 2004; Hepple 2005; Phillips 2005). These studies have shown that the amount of muscle fibers and the ability of muscle to utilize oxygen are significantly more preserved in rats that have been calorie-restricted in young adulthood or continuously throughout life. In addition, calorie-restricted rats also appear to experience significantly less muscle cell death. These findings are promising, and suggest that caloric restriction may promote attenuation of aging-related processes, such as sarcopenia.

In addition to longevity, perhaps by protection from natural aging processes, caloric restriction has also been used in animals to evaluate its effect on age-related diseases. Age is a risk factor for several diseases including many types of cancer, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and neurological diseases leading to dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Though age is a very general term to be used as a risk factor, some of the underlying processes that occur during aging explain the use of “age“ as a risk factor. For example, age is a risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, the hardening of blood vessels (Insull, 2009). Hardening of blood vessels forces the heart to pump harder to deliver blood through the hardened walls of these blood vessels which normally exhibit much more elasticity. Since the heart has to pump harder, there is an elevated risk of developing heart failure in this condition. Atherosclerosis can also affect the volume of blood reaching the brain if it occurs in blood vessels in the brain. Since blood delivers oxygen to tissues, this can potentially result in lower levels of oxygen delivery (hypoxia) to the brain. Hypoxia has also been reported to increase the development of AD (Sun, 2006).

Age is a risk factor for various types of cancers, including but not limited to colorectal, lung, breast and prostate cancers (Hayat, 2007). The incidence of these cancers is projected to reach over 900,000 cases by the year 2010 (Hayat 2007). Survival rates of some of these cancers can be very low. People with lung cancer have an observed 5-year survival rate of 11% and those with colorectal cancer have a 5-year survival rate of 46% (Hayat 2007). Research has shown that caloric restriction can reduce the occurrence of tumours induced by radiation or chemicals in mice (Yoshida 1997; Pearson 2008) of those that are transplanted into rats (Rous 1914) and of those that occur spontaneously (Tannenbaum 1949) in mice.

The most common age-related neurological disorders leading to dementia are Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (AD and PD, respectively) (Nussbaum, 2003). AD pathology is primarily comprised of protein aggregates (plaques) in the extracellular space in the brain, ie the space between neurons. It has been shown that these plaque deposits are toxic to neurons and neuronal loss is a major consequence of AD (Yankner 1990). Studies have shown that caloric restriction can retard the development of plaques and memory deficits associated with AD in mice genetically engineered to develop AD (Wang 2005; Qin 2006; Qin 2008). Although the underlying mechanisms are not understood, these results have been substantiated by different laboratories. Research has shown that caloric restriction can significantly reduce PD symptoms in Rhesus monkeys chemically induced to present with symptoms of PD (Maswood 2004).

One should exercise caution when interpreting results from studies claiming caloric restriction is a means to combat age-related diseases. Notably, the papers referred to here which are concerned with AD and PD, do not account for the possibility that these diseases would still manifest themselves through the later years of the calorie restricted animals. Take, for example, the mice genetically engineered to suffer AD. Normally, mice will never develop AD pathology. However, mice can be genetically modified to express human genes (transgenic mice) which encode proteins that will produce AD pathology ie plaques. In the calorie restriction studies, researchers have to sacrifice both non-calorie restricted mice and calorie-restricted mice at the same time to negate effects of age on AD pathogenesis. By doing this, they are supposedly controlling the experiment in a way that only the effect of caloric restriction on plaque formation is being assessed at the time the animals are sacrificed and the brains examined for features of AD. Suppose, however, that the calorie-restricted transgenic mice also live longer. It is impossible to know for sure, since the authors had to sacrifice both groups of mice at the same time. Thus, caloric restriction in these paradigms does not address whether AD will still occur later in life. It is likely that the calorie-restricted mice will still develop AD pathology because they are genetically designed for this to occur. The results of these studies imply that AD may be delayed, but they do not support the hypothesis that calorie-restriction has a direct or curative effect with respect to AD. There are forms of AD that can occur much earlier in one’s life (age 40) than normal (over the age of 65) (Mullan, 1992). These are genetic forms of AD in which there are mutations in genes that are inherited from parent to child. AD transgenic mice used in the aforementioned studies carry mutations in the same genes (ie the Swedish family mutation) (Sturchler-Pierrat 1997). Since caloric restriction delays the pathogenesis of AD in transgenic mice carrying gene mutations for the early onset form of AD, caloric restriction may delay the development of early onset AD.

Caloric restriction has been touted as an effective, safe and noninvasive way to produce anti-aging effects as detailed above. In addition, it has no associated cost and is really a preventative measure available for anyone to undertake. Comparing this with expensive pharmaceuticals or surgical procedures at the time of necessary treatment, caloric restriction may represent a remarkable opportunity for preventative treatment. However, research into caloric restriction makes an assumption that is somewhat troubling. It is assumed that one’s diet is already rich enough in caloric intake so that it may be reduced by 30 to 40%. This would not be a problem for most people in Canada, the U.S. and other developed countries. Beyond these countries, however, there are many countries in which a significant portion of the population does not have the luxury of being able to reduce their caloric intake due to either preexisting conditions of or subsequent development of malnutrition and starvation. Unfortunately, caloric restriction is essentially only available for those that are fortunate to be living in societies that are conducive for an individual to experience old age, age-related diseases and for those that can effectively restrict their caloric intake without compromising proper nutrition.

REFERENCES

Austad, S. N. (1989). “Life extension by dietary restriction in the bowl and doily spider, Frontinella pyramitela.” Exp Gerontol 24(1): 83-92.

Doherty, T. J. (2003). “Invited review: Aging and sarcopenia.” J Appl Physiol 95(4): 1717-27.

Fernandes, G., E. J. Yunis, et al. (1976). “Influence of diet on survival of mice.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 73(4): 1279-83.

Hayat, M. J., N. Howlader, et al. (2007). “Cancer statistics, trends, and multiple primary cancer analyses from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.” Oncologist 12(1): 20-37.

Hepple, R. T., D. J. Baker, et al. (2005). “Long-term caloric restriction abrogates the age-related decline in skeletal muscle aerobic function.” Faseb J 19(10): 1320-2.

Insull, W., Jr. (2009). “The pathology of atherosclerosis: plaque development and plaque responses to medical treatment.” Am J Med 122(1 Suppl): S3-S14.

Jones, W. (1884). “Longevity in a fasting spider.” Science 3(48): 4.

Lane, M.A. et al. (2001). “Caloric restriction in primates.” Ann N Y Acad Sci 928: 287-95.

Maswood, N., J. Young, et al. (2004). “Caloric restriction increases neurotrophic factor levels and attenuates neurochemical and behavioral deficits in a primate model of Parkinson’s disease.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101(52): 18171-6.

McCay, C. M., M. F. Crowell, et al. (1989). “The effect of retarded growth upon the length of life span and upon the ultimate body size. 1935.” Nutrition 5(3): 155-71; discussion 172.

McKiernan, S. H., E. Bua, et al. (2004). “Early-onset calorie restriction conserves fiber number in aging rat skeletal muscle.” Faseb J 18(3): 580-1.

Mullan, M. et al. (1992). “A pathogenic mutation for probable Alzheimer’s disease in the APP gene at the N-terminus of beta-amyloid.” Nat Genet 1(5): 345-47.

Neimeyer, R. A., J. Wittkowski, et al. (2004). “Psychological research on death attitudes: An overview and evaluation.” Death Studies 28(4): 309-340.

Nussbaum, R. L. and C. E. Ellis (2003). “Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.” N Engl J Med 348(14): 1356-64.

Pearson, K. J., K. N. Lewis, et al. (2008). “Nrf2 mediates cancer protection but not prolongevity induced by caloric restriction.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(7): 2325-30.

Phillips, T. and C. Leeuwenburgh (2005). “Muscle fiber specific apoptosis and TNF-alpha signaling in sarcopenia are attenuated by life-long calorie restriction.” Faseb J 19(6): 668-70.

Qin, W., T. Yang, et al. (2006). “Neuronal SIRT1 activation as a novel mechanism underlying the prevention of Alzheimer disease amyloid neuropathology by calorie restriction.” J Biol Chem 281(31): 21745-54.

Qin, W., W. Zhao, et al. (2008). “Regulation of forkhead transcription factor FoxO3a contributes to calorie restriction-induced prevention of Alzheimer’s disease-type amyloid neuropathology and spatial memory deterioration.” Ann N Y Acad Sci 1147: 335-47.
Rous, P. (1914). “The influence of diet on transplanted and spontaneous mouse tumors.” J Exp Med 20: 433-51.

Sturchler-Pierrat, C., D. Abramowski, et al. (1997). “Two amyloid precursor protein transgenic mouse models with Alzheimer disease-like pathology.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94(24): 13287-92.

Sun, X., G. He, et al. (2006). “Hypoxia facilitates Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis by up-regulating BACE1 gene expression.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103(49): 18727-32.

Tannenbaum, A. and H. Silverstone (1949). “The influence of the degree of caloric restriction on the formation of skin tumors and hepatomas in mice.” Cancer Res 9(12): 724-7.

Wang, J., L. Ho, et al. (2005). “Caloric restriction attenuates beta-amyloid neuropathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.” Faseb J 19(6): 659-61.

Yankner, B.A. et al. (1990). “Neurotrophic and neurotoxic effects of amyloid beta protein: reversal by tachykinin neuropeptides.” Science 250 (4978): 279-82.

Yoshida, K., T. Inoue, et al. (1997). “Calorie restriction reduces the incidence of myeloid leukemia induced by a single whole-body radiation in C3H/He mice.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94(6): 2615-9.