“Ay, thou art for the grave; thy glances shine Too brightly to shine long; another Spring Shall deck her for men’s eyes—but not for thine— Sealed in a sleep which knows no wakening. The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf, And the vexed ore no mineral of power; And they who love thee wait in anxious grief Till the slow plague shall bring the final hour…” From Consumption by William Cullen Bryant – – – Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease of global concern, and one of the oldest enemies of the human race: the records of its presence date…

“For in and out, above, about, below, ‘Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show Play’d in a Box whose Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go.” — The Rubâiyât of Omar Khayyâm We have been raised to believe in a concrete reality defined by matter, which is something that occupies space, and is either perceived by our sensory organs, or measured by other tools [1]. As beings with a physical dimension, we humans tend to think of our “selves” as unified “wholes”. Of course, our everyday lives and activities pose little threat to this perception: the…