jjablkowski's blog

Richard Feynman (1918–1988), an American theoretical physicist, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics. He was a keen popularizer of physics through both books and lectures. His famous comment about quantum mechanics was, “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.”

In the 1960s the Star Trek television series took the viewer to life on a spaceship traveling beyond our solar system. Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy, medical officer of the spaceship, was equipped with a tricorder, a medical device that could scan a patient, read their vital signs, and diagnose problems in minutes.

I won’t bother you with statistics about how poor the people of Sierra Leone are. You can Google that and other statistics.

Is the Mini-Mental State Exam an appropriate device to determine the mental acuity of our senior citizens? It is obvious to any retired physician who has reached advanced years that a lot of the questions have little relevance. For example, the date and day of the week are immaterial and no longer noted. The season can be determined by looking out of the window; “wet” and “dry” seem pretty good answers for this part of the world.

In August 1958 my favorite cartoon character, Charlie Brown, began to write to his pen-pal for the first time but was soon thwarted when he spilled ink all over his letter. The stalwart little character did not give up entirely, though. In 1994 he started a pen-pal relationship with Morag, a Scottish cartoon lass. Charlie Brown was hoping for romance, but alas, he was crushed again: Morag had 30 other pals on her list.