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The article aims to show that in the second half of the XIXth Century the European Romantic trend in literature became even in Italy part of the launch pad for the first "Fanta-clinic" and "Medical-thriller" novels. According to the lesson of the coeval French literature it also baptized a kind of modern poetry turned to épater le bourgeois through the transfiguration of Anatomy and later through the use of the scientific method in composing verses and novels. This paper aims to focalize some links between Literature and Medicine by concerning literary inspirations felt by many coeval writers about Paolo Gorini (1813- 1881) and Efisio Marini (1835-1900). The paper tries to demonstrate that the dark suggestions offered by the two scientists to some well known names of the Italian Literature (from Carlo Dossi to Matilde Serao) grew up strong in the Northern part of Italy as well as they did in the Southern part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of the nineteenth centuno the Italian physician and anthropologist Cesare Lombroso established the foundations of criminological sciences by introducing a biological theory> of delinquency, which was later discredited and replaced by the sociological approach. The theory of the "born criminal" was poor in methods and analysis, and turned out to be controversial in its formulations, assumptions, and mostly in its predictions. However, recent research in behavioral genetics and neuroscience has brought back some version of the Lombrosian idea by providing evidence for the genetic and biological correlates of criminality. This research has been impacting legal proceedings worldwide. In this paper, I compare the Lombrosian and the contemporary scientific meanings of "heredity" and "predisposition" to aggressive and violent behavior, by highlighting theoretical similarities and differences in the two approaches. On the one hand, the paper is arguing against the idea that contemporary theories are radically deterministic, while on the other hand it aims at rehabilitating the intellectual image of Lombroso by showing that the denigration of his brilliant work by his successors was unjustified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to answer two questions: is there a section in the Qur 'an that describes the human embryo development? Second, if such a case existed, could it be compared to the Greek theories of generation? The answer to both questions is affirmative. In the first part of this paper, we discuss some Quranic verses talking about the embryo development. We also outline how the terminology (nutfah, 'alaqah, mudghah) used for expressing the embryo development in these verses involves complex translation challenges. In the second part, we compare the Quranic verses to two Greek theories of generation. Finally, we highlight a little-known aspect of the Quranic text worthy of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to reconstruct the climate of Turin where he lived and worked Giuseppe Levi, the particular figures which animated the subalpine universities in the fascist period, the fruitful interaction between Jewish and anti-fascist world. Particular attention will be devoted to the different reactions of the Jewish community during the confidence to fascism in 1931 oath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the historical framework for the events leading up to the 1931 oath of allegiance to the Fascist government, which all of Italy's university professors were required to sign, and how Turin's professor of anatomy Giuseppe Levi and the Roman mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita responded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galen's discussions of philosophical issues show a complete mastery of the school debates of his time. Galen, however, is not a school philosopher: his philosophical allegiance is controversial and he refers to philosophical theories and debates for specific purposes that pertain to his views about the status of medical knowledge. The extant fragments of his lost treatise On Demonstration offer an interesting example of this attitude. The present paper focuses on some passages from Galen's lost On Demonstration book 4, which deal with the generation of cosmos and its incorruptibility. They are preserved in John Philoponus' On the Eternity of the World and in al- Rāzī's Doubts on Galen. Galen's argument relies heavily on philosophical sources such as Plato, Aristotle and the Platonic philosopher Atticus. Galen's treatment of the topic, however, is highly original and can plausibly be seen as a discussion pro et contra the eternity of the cosmos, which aims to show the limits and fallacies of speculative knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept 'super-female' initially appeared in genetic studies of the common fruit fly, Drosophila, during the 1920s, and in early medical cytogenetic research in 1959. In this paper I present a genealogy of this gendered term and analyse the influence of the genetic concepts formulated by drosophilists on the construction of what would come to be known as medical - human - cytogenetics. While retrieving the participation of woman geneticists, the historical trajectory of this word and its meaning will be traced through the early cytogenetics of sex determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept 'super-female ' initially appeared in genetic studies of the common fruit fly, Drosophila, during the 1920s, and in early medical cytogenetic research in 1959. In this paper I present a genealogy of this gendered term and analyse the influence of the genetic concepts formulated by drosophilists on the construction of what would come to be known as medical - human - cytogenetics. While retrieving the participation of woman geneticists, the historical trajectory of this word and its meaning will be traced through the early cytogenetics of sex determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the conceptual innovations introduced by recent developments in genetics and genomics in diagnosis, both in its cognitive and clinical aspect. Genetic diagnosis started as the recognition of statistically significant occurrence of symptoms within families, and later became the simple test to diagnose a molecular disease, by highlighting the presence of a single pathological gene (or of a few of them). The advent of cheap genomic technologies all owed for genome-wide data collection, so that even complex traits, physiological as well as pathological, may be diagnosed. However, genome analysis has revealed that most phenotypic traits are the result of the interaction of multiple genes and of the environment. Diagnosis in the genomic age is no longer the act of connecting symptoms and the recognition of a pattern, but it crucially involves statistical concepts such as "risk" and "contribution", leaving a wide space of uncertainty for therapeutic action. The lifestyle of the patient is back again at the center of the stage: in order to stave off disease, an individual regimen may be the best available option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of XX century the British physician Archibald Garrod put forward seminal aspects of medical genetics and Mendelian transmission of a few human metabolic diseases, highlighting the close relation between heredity and abnormal conditions for the first time. After the mid-1950s, advances in biochemistry, genetics and, then, functional genomics have eventually shown that Garrod's pioneering concept of "chemical individuality", which is expressed through protein variants, is still topical. As from 2002, the mapping of single nucleotide of polymorphisms (SNPs) - changes of single "letters" in DNA sequence common in human population - provided one of the main sources of genetic variations, relevant for complex traits. The paper will track the evolution of the concept of individuality, from the Garrodian to the current post genomic perspective, exemplified by specific definitions. Further, it will be shown that such evolution has been paralleled by a shift of focus in medical thought: from a reactive to an always more preventive and personalized oriented therapeutic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at examining the way in which Aristotle deals with the problem of genetic malformations, developed, in particular, in The Generation of Animals (Book IV), within the theory of the genetic inheritance. According to this doctrine a malformation represents a deviation from the teleological development of the reproductive process, whose first step is represented by a female birth. Even though necessary for the continuation of the species, this event is described within the same theoretical frame of the genetic anomalies by Aristotle, who is committed to provide some prescriptions about mating and reproduction, in order to prevent this departure. In general, the issue of malformations highlights the presence of the material and mechanical aspect of the nature which, at times, can support or obstruct its teleological design, but which constitutes one of the fundamental assumptions of the physis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetics is regarded as a promising research field to better understand the interplay between genetic and environmental factors underlying both typical and atypical developmental processes (from embryonic cell specialization to severe neurological and mental disorders). The aim of this paper is to describe the history of the concept of epigenesis from its Aristotelian foundation. Emphasizing the relation between internal powers and external factors of change, Aristotle seems to anticipate the current meaning of epigenetics, coined by Conrad Waddington in 1940 and then developed by the modern genetics. The discovery of epigenetic mechanisms has challenged the static nature of DNA pointing out the dynamic and reversible changes occurring in response to environmental prompts. This stimulates considerations on the relational nature of life in the response to various environmental stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleogenetics is providing increasing evidence about the biological characteristics of ancient populations. This paper examines the guiding principles and methodologies to the study of ancient DNA with constant references to the state of the art in this fascinating disciplin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]