NASA's Mars Curiosity rover sends pictures after communications gap

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NASA / JPL-Caltech

A Martian view from one of Curiosity's hazard avoidance cameras, transmitted back to Earth on Thursday, shows the shadow of the instrument turret on the rover's robotic arm.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

NASA's Curiosity rover is back in business after a weeks-long communication gap caused by solar interference. The proof comes in the form of pictures transmitted back to Earth on Thursday from the 1-ton machine's vantage point at Yellowknife Bay on Mars.

"Can you hear me now? Conjunction is over. I have a clear view of Earth & am back to work!" the rover tweeted (with a little help from her entourage at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

Dozens of raw images are on display on NASA's Mars Curiosity website, featuring rocky terrain in the foreground and the 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) peak known as Mount Sharp or Aeolis Mons in the background. Other Mars probes, including the Opportunity rover, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are back at work as well.

NASA's Red Planet probes were on hiatus for most of April due to an unfavorable alignment of Mars, Earth and the sun. During solar conjunction, the sun gets in the way of the communication lines between the two planets, and mission controllers generally put science operations on hold. Such conjunctions occur every 26 months. Opportunity has gone through several communication breaks during its nine years on Mars, but this is the first one to occur since Curiosity landed last August.

The spacecraft weren't completely idle during the break: Curiosity conducted in-place investigations and sent back limited transmissions via X-band radio to let controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory know that it was doing OK. Opportunity autonomously flipped its computer into safe mode during the break, apparently due to a glitch involving a routine camera check. A fresh set of software commands fixed the glitch, and on Wednesday controllers reported that Opportunity was back in working order.

Curiosity is due for its own software upgrade, and then the rover is scheduled to drill out a second sample of ground-up rock for analysis. The first sample, analyzed in March, suggested that the Yellowknife Bay environment was potentially habitable billions of years ago. Scientists want to use the follow-up sample to confirm what they saw in previous chemical analyses.

After Curiosity finishes up its work in Yellowknife Bay and its surroundings in the Glenelg area of Gale Crater, controllers plan to point the rover toward Mount Sharp, 6 miles (10 kilometers) away. The science team suspects that the mountain's many layers of rock will hold further evidence of ancient organic chemistry.

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NASA, Russia Near Collision

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NASA's $690 million Fermi space telescope was nearly hit by the dead Russian spy satellite Cosmos 1805 on April 3, 2013. This NASA graphic depicts the orbital paths of the two spacecraft.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist's illustration of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.NASA

This NASA graphic depicts the amount of space junk currently orbiting Earth. The debris field is based on data from NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office. Image released on May 1, 2013.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/JSC

A high-tech NASA telescope in orbit escaped a potentially disastrous collision with a Soviet-era Russian spy satellite last year in a close call that highlights the growing threat of orbital debris around Earth.

NASA's $690 million Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope which studies the most powerful explosions in the universe narrowly avoided a direct hit with the defunct 1.5-ton Russian reconnaissance satellite Cosmos 1805 on April 3, 2012, space agency officials announced Tuesday, April 30. The potential space collision was avoided when engineers commanded Fermi to fire its thrusters in a critical dodging maneuver to move out of harm's way.

- NASA's Fermi project scientist Julie McEnery

NASA created a video of Fermi's near miss with space junk to illustrate how high the risk of a space collision really was. [Space Junk Photos & Cleanup Concepts]

Fermi mission scientists first learned of the space collision threat on March 29, 2012 when they received a notice that the space telescope and Cosmos 1805 would miss each other by just 700 feet. The mission team monitored the situation over the next day and it became clear that the two spacecraft, traveling in different orbits, would zip through the same point in space within 30 milliseconds of one another, NASA officials said.

"My immediate reaction was, 'Whoa, this is different from anything we've seen before!'" NASA's Fermi project scientist Julie McEnery said in a statement.

The Russian space junk was travelling at a speed of 27,000 miles per hour in relation to Fermi. If it had smashed into the space telescope the explosion of the two spacecraft would have released "as much energy as two and a half tons of explosives," NASA officials said

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NASA Rover to Explore… Greenland

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NASA's newest rover won't be exploring another planet, but will take a look at part of our own. Named Grover (short for Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research), the rover will explore Greenland's ice sheets to better understand how they form, and how quickly they may be melting.

The device is solar-powered and semi-autonomous, and will embark on its first mission beginning tomorrow (May 3), and continuing until June 8. It was developed from 2010-2011 by teams of students in summer engineering boot camps at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, according to a release from NASA.

The 6-foot-tall, 800-pound rover is equipped with ground-penetrating radar that will send "radio wave pulses into the ice sheet, and the waves bounce off buried features, informing researchers about the characteristics of the snow and ice layers," according to the NASA statement. [Video: Grover the Rover to Explore Greenland Ice Sheet]

At first Grover will operate near the National Science Foundation's Summit Camp, located at the apex of Greenland's ice sheet. Once it appears the rover is functioning properly, it will roam more widely and be controlled via satellite. Since the Arctic sun shines 24 hours a day during the summer, the solar-powered rover will be able to operate continuously, NASA said.

"We think it's really powerful," Gabriel Trisca, a Boise State master's degree student who developed Grover's software, said in the NASA statement. "The fact is the robot could be anywhere in the world and we'll be able to control it from anywhere."

Grover should shed light on Greenland's snow accumulation. Researchers can compare annual accumulation to the amount of ice lost to the sea each year to find out how much mass is being lost to melting, and how much Greenland's ice is contributing to sea level rise.

Greenland's ice sheets contain a vast store of freshwater that could affect global sea levels, and more and more ice is melting. In fact, Greenland's ice loss is accelerating by about 22 gigatons (22 cubic kilometers) of ice each year, according to a 2012 study.

Last summer, satellite images showed that about 40 percent of the ice sheet had thawed near the surface on July 8; only four days later, images showed a dramatic increase in melting with thawing across 97 percent of the ice sheet surface.

Email Douglas Mainor follow him @Douglas_Main. Follow us@OAPlanet, FacebookorGoogle+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

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NASA Rover to Explore… Greenland

Gout

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Gout cardiovascular disease - Professor Austin Stack, Chair of Medicine, University of Limerick
UL Medical School Researchers find Increased Death Risk in Subjects suffering from Gout and elevated Uric Acid Levels A new study led by researchers at the G...

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Gout

The Policy Implications of the Institute of Medicine’s Evaluation of PEPFAR – Video

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The Policy Implications of the Institute of Medicine #39;s Evaluation of PEPFAR
The Institute of Medicine #39;s recently completed Evaluation of PEPFAR assesses the program #39;s performance over the past decade, as it transitioned from an emerg...

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The Policy Implications of the Institute of Medicine's Evaluation of PEPFAR - Video

Medicine Tree’s historic past honored by travelers

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By Alyssa Nenemay

MEDICINE TREE On a creek-side highway south of Darby, nearly 100 people gathered to pay homage to what remains of the sacred Medicine Tree. The 20-foot Ponderosa stump stood proudly as members of the Salish and Pend dOreille Culture Committee spoke on behalf of its significance to the tribal people.

What are we thankful for? asked SPCC Director Tony Incashola. Every day you get up you should be thankful for another day. Be thankful everyday you see your children, your grandchildren, your family. Today, we leave our prayers (with the tree) and remember those who were here before uswhose foot prints are still here.

The gathering follows generations of tribal people who have traveled to the tree in order to pray and offer bundles of thanks. According to ancient Salish accounts, the tree stood long before human existence and played a key role in ending a ferocious rams reign of terror in the Bitterroot Valley. Through a series of events, the ram smashed and trapped his own horns into the trees trunk where they have been entombed since.

Although the tree has always served as a historical monument to the Salish people, in 1823, its first non-Indian description was documented by Hudson Bay fur trader Alexander Ross in his journal: Out of one of the pinesabout five feet from the ground, is growing up with the tree a rams head, with horns still attached to it

Salish elder Louie Adams took an opportunity to address the crowd and said the annual Medicine Tree summit highlights a darker event in Salish history. Headed by Chief Charlo, the last remaining band of Salish in the Bitterroot valley were forced by US officials to march over 100 miles to the current Flathead Reservation in 1891. The band had resisted moving from their homeland for nearly 20 years in spite of threats from the US Government.

Im always glad to be home, Adams said as he gazed at the serene surroundings. In 1891, the last of our tribe had to leave the Bitterroot in the early morning. Chief Charlo called everyone together and told them they had to leave that day or else. He knew what or else meantsoldiers have no respect for women or babies.

Although Adams was not among those to march, he said trauma of forced removal remains. Mrs. Holmes said that was the most humbling trip to takeeveryone cried like babies, even the men. (Creator) put us here. Everybody was lonesome. I remember coming back here with the old timers and theyd cry sometimes. Our families are buried here. Today, when you pray, pray for strength. Learn from what happened.

Once massive and majestic, the Medicine Tree has suffered through years of racially targeted vandalism as well as natural disturbances. During the 1890s a non-Indian pioneer cut the rams horns off the tree and recently an unknown vandal attempted to use salt to kill it. Then in 2001, a storm split the trees trunk leaving the 20-foot stump that stands today.

Like a lonesome relative, the tribal people will continue to travel nearly three hours to visit the tree and honor its significant role in in their culture and history. In spite of damages the tree has withstood, Incashola offered the crowd words of encouragement: Were doing our best to protect our very way of life the way the animals protected us. Regardless if this tree remains or not, this site will always be important to us. We will never forget, he said.

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Foundation Medicine partners with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

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By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Foundation Medicine Inc., a Cambridge biotechnology company using genomics data and DNA sequencing to help doctors pinpoint treatments for cancer patients, is partnering with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to co-develop a molecular diagnostic product designed to match patients with hematologic cancers with the best treatments.

Hematologic cancers include leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, the two entities noted in a press release.

Michael J. Pellini. Photo taken from Foundation Medicine website.

As of January, Foundation Medicine had raised nearly $100 million, including investments from Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the worlds premier cancer centers with deep scientific and clinical understanding of hematologic cancers and a commitment to driving a new genomic paradigm of individualized cancer care, Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive of Foundation Medicine, said in a statement. Our approach is to collaborate with leaders like Memorial Sloan-Kettering across all areas of clinical oncology and cancer genomics and seek partners who are equally committed to the changing paradigm of cancer care. This is the ideal partnership to support the development of our new product for patients with hematologic malignancies.

Foundation Medicine was founded by a team of top-tier Boston area scientists, including Eric Lander of the Broad Institute and biotechnology entrepreneur Alexis Borisy. They were among the first to recognize the importance of understanding the human genome in developing personalized medicines to treat diseases.

This new test that the company is working on with Memorial Sloan-Kettering will use RNA sequencing in addition to DNA sequencing to better enable identification of the unique genes and classes of genomic alterations that are characteristic of hematologic malignancies, the press release said.

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BG Medicine to Announce First Quarter 2013 Financial Results and Host Conference Call on Thursday, May 9, 2013

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WALTHAM, Mass., May 2, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BG Medicine, Inc. (BGMD) today announced that the company will host a conference call and webcast on Thursday, May 9 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its first quarter 2013 financial results. The call and webcast will follow the release of first quarter financial results before the market opens.

Conference Call Details

To access the live conference call on Thursday, May 9th at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time via phone, please dial (877) 845-1016 from the U.S. and Canada, or (708) 290-1155 internationally. Please dial in approximately ten minutes prior to the start of the call.

To access the live and subsequently archived webcast of the conference call, go to the Investor Relations section of the company's website http://investor.bg-medicine.com/events.cfm. Please connect to the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to allow for any software download that may be necessary.

About BG Medicine

BG Medicine, Inc. (BGMD) is a diagnostics company focused on the development and commercialization of novel cardiovascular tests to address significant unmet medical needs, improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. The Company has two products: the BGM Galectin-3(R) test for use in patients with chronic heart failure is available in the United States and Europe; and the CardioSCORE(TM) test for the risk prediction of major cardiovascular events will be launched in Europe in the first half of 2013. For additional information about BG Medicine, heart failure and galectin-3 testing, please visit http://www.bg-medicine.com and http://www.galectin-3.com.

The BG Medicine Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10352

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BG Medicine to Announce First Quarter 2013 Financial Results and Host Conference Call on Thursday, May 9, 2013

Occupational Medicine Physicians Launch Global Collaborative

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Newswise (Orlando, Florida May 2) Leaders from 16 international occupational medical societies attending the 2013 annual meeting of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) have launched the International Occupational Medicine Society Collaborative -- a new initiative aimed at improving worker health and wellness globally through the exchange of ideas and information.

Sponsored by the Society of Occupational Medicine, located in the United Kingdom, and ACOEM, located in the United States, the Collaborative is intended to provide an ongoing forum to promote best practices in occupational medicine and greater awareness of issues impacting worker health worldwide.

During its inaugural meeting, Collaborative members discussed shared interests as well as opportunities and challenges facing occupational medicine practitioners globally. Topics ranged from the impact of an aging workforce to the rise of chronic conditions that affect worker health and productivity such as obesity and diabetes. There was widespread agreement that more trained specialists would be needed to meet these growing issues.

Representatives from Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, India, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Slovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the first meeting of the Collaborative.

According to the International Labour Organization, there are an estimated 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million cases of occupationally related diseases each year worldwide, along with more than two million work-related fatalities. Organizers of the inaugural meeting of the Collaborative said the statistics provide a compelling reason for international occupational medicine societies to share resources and information.

As professional medical societies, we are engaged in a wide variety of educational, research, and advocacy activities aimed at addressing worker health, injury and illness, said ACOEM President Ron Loeppke, MD, who served as co-chair for the first meeting. Major contributions to the science and practice of occupational medicine are increasingly coming from all countries around the world. By communicating more closely as a group, we can leverage our individual efforts and experiences for greater impact.

Meeting co-chair Richard Heron, MD, President of the Society of Occupational Medicine, said the meeting was a great first-step forward in a shared effort to promote healthy workplaces worldwide.

He noted that while the participating countries have diverse populations, economies and social structures, many of their occupational health issues are remarkably similar.

We are more alike than different in that regard, he said. There is much we can learn from each other as we seek to promote a balanced work life, safe environments and accessible health resources for all workers.

The Collaborative plans a series of online meetings during 2013-14, with a second in-person meeting tentatively planned for a location in Europe in 2014.

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Occupational Medicine Physicians Launch Global Collaborative

Foundation Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Announce Partnership to Advance Patient Care in …

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Foundation Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center today announced a partnership that brings together clinical, genomic and computational expertise to advance patient care in hematologic cancers. This effort will focus on co-development of a new Foundation Medicine molecular diagnostic product designed to match patients with hematologic cancers (leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma) with the most rational targeted therapies or clinical trials for their cancer. Leaders in hematology from Memorial Sloan-Kettering will help accelerate product development by providing clinical and genomic expertise. This product complements FoundationOne, Foundation Medicines first product, which offers a similar fully informative genomic profile for solid tumors and likewise provides a concise report to assist physicians in matching patients with the targeted drugs or clinical trials best suited for their unique cancer. FoundationOne was launched in 2012.

The development of clinical grade sequencing is rapidly changing the practice of oncology, enabling us to more precisely understand and target the genomic alterations that drive a patients individual cancer, said Craig B. Thompson, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. We are partnering with Foundation Medicine to develop a best-in-class assay for hematologic cancers because we view achieving this goal as an extension of our mission as a comprehensive cancer center: making it possible for all patients to be treated with the therapy that is matched with their individual cancer.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the worlds premier cancer centers with deep scientific and clinical understanding of hematologic cancers and a commitment to driving a new genomic paradigm of individualized cancer care, said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. Our approach is to collaborate with leaders like Memorial Sloan-Kettering across all areas of clinical oncology and cancer genomics and seek partners who are equally committed to the changing paradigm of cancer care. This is the ideal partnership to support the development of our new product for patients with hematologic malignancies.

This new test is being developed using RNA sequencing in addition to DNA sequencing to better enable identification of the unique genes and classes of genomic alterations that are characteristic of hematologic malignancies. Similar to FoundationOne, the new hematologic malignancy test will assist physicians by matching these alterations with targeted treatment options that may be relevant to the patients genomic profile based on a comprehensive review of published literature.

The test will be based on technology, methods and computational algorithms developed by Foundation Medicine, and Foundation Medicine will commercialize the test both in the United States and internationally. Memorial Sloan-Kettering will help accelerate the development and optimization of the product by contributing their clinical and genomic expertise in hematologic malignancies. Foundation Medicine operates a CLIA-certified lab in Cambridge, Mass. and receives clinical patient samples from academic medical centers and community hospitals all over the world. The new test is expected to be commercially available by year-end 2013.

About Foundation Medicine

Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patients unique cancer. The companys initial clinical assay, FoundationOneTM, is a fully informative genomic profile to identify a patients individual molecular alterations and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicines molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).

Foundation Medicine is a registered trademark, and FoundationOneTMis a trademark, of Foundation Medicine, Inc.

About Memorial Sloan-Kettering

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Metagenics Announces Lifestyle Medicine Summit on Women’s Health: “What Women Really Want”

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ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Metagenics, Inc., a nutrigenomics and lifestyle medicine company focused on improving health, will host its second annual Lifestyle Medicine Summit in Chicagoon October 4-6, 2013. The Summit will feature 17 distinguished experts who will discuss What Women Really Want related to their health and medical care.

This years Lifestyle Medicine Summit will be an unparalleled conference featuring leading experts addressing the most critical and relevant issues related to womens health, said Willy Pardinas, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas for Metagenics. Healthcare providers will have access to the latest scientific findings and personalized lifestyle medicine approaches for more successful patient outcomes.

Speakers at the Summit include respected leaders in modern lifestyle medicine who will share their perspectives on issues critical to improving womens health. These speakers include:

About the Summit

The Lifestyle Medicine Summit will be held at the Fairmont Millennium Park Hotel in Chicago on October 4-6, 2013. For more details and registration information, visit http://www.metagenics.com/2013summit or call 800.692.9400 (United States) or 800.268.6200 (Canada). Early bird registration is $349, and registration after June 30, 2013 will be $399. Early registration is recommended as last years Lifestyle Medicine Summit sold out, and it is anticipated to sell out again this year.

About Metagenics, Inc.

Metagenics, Inc. (www.metagenics.com) is a nutrigenomics and lifestyle medicine company dedicated to helping people live happier, healthier lives by realizing their genetic potential. Founded in 1983, Metagenics serves more than 75,000 healthcare providers worldwide through premium quality, science-based medical foods, nutritional formulas, and lifestyle therapy programs such as FirstLine Therapy to help their patients achieve a lifetime of good health. Metagenics scientific staffamong the largest in the nutrigenomics industryhas published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has been awarded more than 50 international or domestic patents. The companys educational arm, Metagenics Educational Programs, collaborates with renowned medical experts to annually deliver more than 200 events designed to help healthcare professionals stay on the leading edge of lifestyle medicine and incorporate nutrition into their clinical practice.

Metagenics maintains its corporate headquarters in Aliso Viejo, CA; R&D headquarters in Gig Harbor, WA; and operating subsidiaries in Brussels, Belgium and Brisbane, Australia.

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Metagenics Announces Lifestyle Medicine Summit on Women’s Health: “What Women Really Want”

Research and Markets: Rehabilitation Medicine Partnering 2007-2013

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/p6gzn3/rehabilitation) has announced the addition of the "Rehabilitation Medicine Partnering 2007-2013" report to their offering.

Rehabilitation Medicine Partnering 2007-2013 report provides understanding and access to the rehabilitation medicine partnering deals and agreements entered into by the worlds leading healthcare companies.

- Trends in rehabilitation medicine partnering deals

- Top rehabilitation medicine deals by value

- Deals listed by company A-Z, industry sector, stage of development, technology type

Rehabilitation Medicine Partnering 2007-2013 provides understanding and access to the rehabilitation medicine partnering deals and agreements entered into by the worlds leading healthcare companies.

The report provides an analysis of rehabilitation medicine partnering deals. The majority of deals are discovery or development stage whereby the licensee obtains a right or an option right to license the licensors rehabilitation medicine technology. These deals tend to be multicomponent, starting with collaborative R&D, and commercialization of outcomes.

Understanding the flexibility of a prospective partner's negotiated deals terms provides critical insight into the negotiation process in terms of what you can expect to achieve during the negotiation of terms. Whilst many smaller companies will be seeking details of the payments clauses, the devil is in the detail in terms of how payments are triggered - contract documents provide this insight where press releases do not.

Key Topics Covered:

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Research and Markets: Rehabilitation Medicine Partnering 2007-2013

Evolution in medical school: Do we need more of it?

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Were used to controversies around the teaching of evolution but heres one place you might be surprised to learn Darwinian thinking is still struggling to take hold: medical schools. Its not that the medical establishment doubts evolution, its just that traditionally it hasnt viewed it as particularly relevant to taking care of patients.

Its not too hard to demonstrate that doctors are ignorant about real fundamentals of evolution, says Randolph Nesse. Theyd flunk their first quiz in an evolution course.

Nesse, who teaches evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan and was trained as a physician, has for more than two decades been leading the charge to make evolution a bigger part of how doctors are trained. He argues medical schools do a good job teaching doctors the mechanisms by which diseases attack the body, but pay insufficient attention to the more general question of why our bodies have evolved with vulnerabilities to pathologies like cancer and diabetes in the first palce.

A doctor who has a deep foundation in evolution will think different about disease, says Nesse. Instead of just seeing disease as some screw-up in the machine, they will ask of every disease, why didnt natural selection make the body more resistant to this particular problem?

Evolutionary thinking about health can be flimsy sometimes. Recent years have seen the rise of the so-called paleodiet, based on the idea that since most of our evolution took place in prehistoric time, we should eat like prehistoric people. In her new book Paleofantasy biologist Marlene Zuk reveals the lack of evidence supporting the paleodiet and other evolutionary health fads. For their part, evolutionary biologists say that their jobs are only made harder by this loose appropriation of their thinking.

A lot of people in the lifestyle world want to use the label of evolutionary medicine to describe things that are loose-goosey, says Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University and a leading advocate for evolutionary medicine. It makes my life more difficult, because the more rigorous insights tend to get lumped in with the less rigorous insights.

And its those more rigorous insights that proponents of evolutionary medicine claim medical students arent getting. Stearns, Nesse, and Jeffrey Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School, were among 13 co-authors of a 2010 paper called Making evolutionary biology a basic science for medicine. The core of their argument is that evolutionary medicine provides doctors with a unified way to think about the human body, as opposed to considering each part of the body in terms of its discrete function. Evolutionary biologists also argue that evolutionary thinking has the potential to help crack some of the biggest health problems of our time, including the increase of autoimmune disorders, the rising menace of antibiotic resistance, and the intransigence of cancer.

Not everyone agrees. Skeptics of evolutionary medicine argue that understanding why human beings evolved with a vulnerability to something like obesity doesnt change the way a doctor would treat an obese patient. They agree that evolutionary biology is a useful perspective for doctors to have, but dont think its necessarily any more essential than many other disciplines vying for space in crowded medical school course schedules.

I think evolutionary biology could be taught to a much greater extent, but as a dean who has many passions about education, there are many competing priorities for the time in the curriculum, says Robert Alpern, Dean of Yale Medical School. As to whether additional medical training in evolution would improve the way doctors treat patients or conduct research, Alpern says, I dont think theyd change a lot.

And this is one of the most interesting things of all about evolutionary medicine: how widely opinions differ about its usefulness. For evolutionary biologists like Nesse and Stearns, evolutionary medicine is tantamount to a revolution in the way we think about health and disease. For Alpern and others in the medical establishment, its an interesting perspective without significant practical implications thats already being taught sufficiently in most medical schools.

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Evolution in medical school: Do we need more of it?