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This article reports that prompt literatures of organized terse conclusions may increase ability to keep up in a subject, reduce need for translation, and make information available promptly. The fact that the annual output of the biomedical press would take 5 centuries to read at 1 hour a day is unimportant because nobody should have to read all of it. The fact that specialists such as medical researchers, chemists, and engineers say that they can no longer keep up with reading in their specialties is important. Inability to keep up is not imaginary.

The article presents information on recent developments related to American Institute of Biological Sciences Inc. The American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Society of General Physiologists, and Society for Industrial Microbiology have elected new officers. The Wildlife Disease Association and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center are cosponsoring a 2-day discussion on diseases of waterfowl, March 6-7, 1969, at the Research Center, Laurel, Maryland. The first full-scale International Botanical Congress to be held in the U.S. will commence August 24, 1969 in Seattle, Washington.

1. A bruit heard and recorded over the thyroid gland in thyrotoxic patients is a common finding. 2. Phonoarteriography demonstrates a preponderance of systolodiastolic murmurs, in thyrotoxicosis. 3. Dynamic changes in the quality and duration of the bruit during treatment are of clinical significance. 4. Detection of intracranial bruits in the presence of other neurological symptoms, has a particular clinical significance. 5. Phonoarteriography documents the existence, and the duration of intracranial bruits when auscultation alone lacks precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the paper "The Measurement of the Chronaxy As a Differential Diagnostic Aid in Scleroderma Like Conditions," by S. Tablonska, B. Bubnow and B. Lukastak. The authors have previously shown that the chronaxy is longer in diffuse and circumscribed scleroderma both in the affected and unaffected areas. This method of investigation has now enabled them to differentiate with certainty various scleroderma-like conditions in which clinical and histological distinction is often difficult or impossible.

The author discusses the influence exerted both by biotechnology and by theoretical biology with its tendency to enlarge man's horizons and deepen his understanding. It discusses man's control of human evolution when they can delineate any such gap between their capacities for prediction and understanding. Meanwhile, a similar issue is raised by the fact that biology, geology, and some sections of astronomy deal with the long-term development of organisms, the earth, and the universe. Moreover, the author does not believe that the problem of man's control of human evolution can be shunted aside in favor of the use of modern biological knowledge in areas which are neutral with respect to human evolution.

The article discusses the tissue culture and its role in cancer research. It is stated that the cancer researchers probably had made vast use of tissue culture methods in their work than the virologists. The authors' inform that there are numerous types of tissue cultures which the biologists employs during their research, which is broadly divided into primary cultures and continuous cell cultures. The authors' have devoted valuable effort to the development of cell strains and have also studied the factors which influence the growth and survival of cells in fluid suspension cultures.

The control of renal vascular tone by the nervous mechanism was investigated with the perfused renal nerves (kidney preparation) of toads. Results obtained were summarized as follows. 1. Pressure-flow diagram became linear in the perfusion pressure range of higher than 40 cm H2O. In the lower range, the diagram was convexed toward the pressure axis. The flow ceased at the perfusion pressure of 5 cm H2O. This value could be considered as ‘critical closing pressure.’ 2. Stimulation of the renal nerves with electric current of square wave pulses reduced the rate of renal outflow at every perfusion pressure, so that the pressure-flow curve thus depicted shifted to the right. The gradient of linear part of the curve was equal to that of the curve obtained without the nerve stimulation. The critical closing pressure was always higher than 5 cm H2O. 3. The rate of flow at a given perfusion pressure was always reduced by changing the perfusion fluid from Ringer's solution to noradrenaline-Ringer's solution of various concentrations. At a given perfusion pressure, the slope of the pressure-flow curve obtained by perfusion with noradrenaline-Ringer's solution grew smaller with an increase in the concentration of noradrenaline used. 4. The amount of the reduction in the ‘effective radius’ of imaginary equivalent unit vessel induced by the nerve stimulation decreased with an increase in perfusion pressure. On the other hand, the amount of the reduction brought about by perfusing the preparation with noradrenaline-Ringer's solution of a certain fixed concentration was constant in wide range of perfusion pressure. 5. The active tension of the wall of the imaginary equivalent unit vessel developed by the nerve stimulation and the administration of noradrenaline increased in proportion to the increase in the intravascular pressure. Therefore, the smooth muscle in the wall of the vessel is considered to be able to develop enough active tension to overcome the applied intravascular pressure and to shorten the radius by the same amount regardless of the intravascular pressure. 6. The rate of discharge of the vasoconstrictive transmitter from nerve endings produced by the supraliminal nerve stimulation was estimated experimentally to be constant. The concentration of the transmitter in perfusate was determined by the rate of perfusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A description is given of the apparatus and method employed in obtaining a rectilinear vectorcardiogram. With this method, the cardiac action current is transmitted by air before, during and after exercise, and the direction and magnitude of spatial vectors are clearly displayed with respect to time. Cardiac rotation has only a minimal effect on the magnitude of the spatial vector, as compared to the effects seen when a single lead is employed; therefore, the spatial magnitudes of the S-T segment vectors before and after exercise reflect primarily the presence or absence of coronary insufficiency. Because of this, the method appears to be well suited for the detection and evaluation of coronary insufficiency in its early stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Arteriography has assumed a position of limited importance in the management of selected cases of peripheral vascular disease. The indiscriminate use of this potentially dangerous adjunct for routine purposes or by inexperienced personnell is to be deplored. 2. At present the greatest indication for arteriography is in the selection of suitable patients for direct or by-pass grafts in cases of arteriosclerosis obliterans of the lower extremities. If surgical treatment is not under consideration, the study should be omitted. 3. The occasional use of arteriography in certain cases of aneurysm, arteriovenous fistula, arterial embolism, arteriospasm, differentiation between vascular lesions and tumor, lesions of bone, and arterial anastomosis is discussed and illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of ethnicity in biotechnology. Social and economic importance of divergence between technologies; Description of the time prior to the discovery of agriculture; Changes in technologies that were much more fundamental that those which had been based primarily on adaptation to local conditions.