de Gaulle was a headache for both Winston Churchill and FDR

This is my letter-to-the-editor at Observer Reporter (Washington, PA) in early 2010 about the interesting relationship among de Gaulle, Churchill, and FDR.

Edwards' scandal, blaming the mainstream press -- my letter-to-the-editor

This is my letter-to-the-editor at Observer-Reporter (1/29/10) chastising the mainstream press for failing to inform the public in time about John Edwards' scandal. No wonder the National Enquirer is now officially in the running of a Pulitzer Prize in the category of Investigative and National Reporting.

(The following is my letter.)

I am glad you wrote an editorial on Edwards’ folly on Jan. 25.  Never has a politician stoop so low.  Edwards will never tell a truth unless it is absolutely necessary.

I still fault the mainstream press for failing to inform the public soon enough.  It is a disgrace to America that he could run a presidential campaign and was even ahead of Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Caucus.

It is true that a politician’s personal life is none of our business.  But a powerful and immoral politician is a dangerous thing.  Let’s not forget that Lincoln’s greatness largely comes from his courage and morality.

While the National Enquirer devoted its resources to pursue and unravel the scandal back in 2007, the mainstream press kept silent, allowing Edwards to brush it off as “tabloid trash”.

Remembering Virginia Woolf today

Today (March 28) in 1941 Virginia Woolf with stones in her pockets walked into River Ouse in Lewes, England. Was she thinking about the last line of her beloved novel The Waves? “Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!”

During her last bout of depression and breakdown, she went mad hearing inside her head (auditory hallucination) a chorus of birds singing in Greek. I wonder whether she could be saved had the SSRI and SNRI (popular antidepressants) been available then? I recall Arvid Carlsson, in his Nobel Lecture in 2000 said that the suicide rate was reduced by about 20% a few years after the SSRI became available.

Gardening by Dr. & Mrs. Der-Fong Fan (范德豐)

Dr. Fan Der-Fong (范德豐) gave a talk about gradening at the Taiwanese Bible Study.  Dr. Fan, who along with his wife, Mary, are renowned gardeners/horticulturists in greater Pittsburgh area. We’re always looking forward to be their guests when the harvest time comes. Their garden is as beautiful as the produce is fresh and pleasing. Here are the proofs.

Dr. Fang and Dr. Liang's gardens inspired us to start our combined vegetable and flower garden.  Katy has been doing the garden with Dr. Greenlee and Mr. Gapen over the years, now with the passing of these two seasoned gardeners, I picked up what they left behind, the torch was passed; but that is another write up.

A Winter's Tale

Unlike Shakespeare’s, my winter’s tale is about the winter storm that caused the unprecedented power outage in nearly 40 years.

At the end of the last snow storm in early February, the sun came out high in the sky; it was truly a thing of beauty; this must be the way Nature showing off its work, saying "look! See what I have just made!"

our neighbor

We're left without electricity and heating for two days; it came back in time for the Super Bowl, thanks to the power company kind consideration. We literally went to bed “after dark”, but one can only sleep so many hours, my iPod ran out of battery and cannot be recharged without a computer on; trying to read with candle light but gave it up as it strained the eyes. Longing for the hot food, but the nearby McDonald closed for two days. We still had the warm heart, but that is the only thing left that is still warm in the house. I took time making rounds in the hospital and Katy went with me; she spent time in the hospital Wellness Center taking a hot shower.

We finally dug ourselves out (the electric blower lay idle watching us laboring with each shovel) only to have the second storm came in days; it wasn’t as bad the second one around, but with the high walls along the drive way, where were we to put away the more snow to come?

my Facebook debut

I better start facebooking as Facebook has topped Google on visiting the Web sites, lest I would be left too far behind. Visits to Facebook made up 7.07% of all Web visits compared with 7.03% for Google. Facebook is where all friends are.

Chinese lunar New Year celebration 匹茲堡美華協會春宴

We’re honored and privileged to have 2009 Miss Pennsylvania and 2009 Miss Pennsylvania Teen attend the Chinese New Year celebration sponsored by Overseas Chinese Association (OCA), Pittsburgh Chapter on Feb. 27, 2010.

The following is Katy's dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報) that was published on March 10, 2010 reporting this event.

美華協會匹茲堡分會日前假敘利亞廟會中心（Syria Shrine Center）舉行虎年新春聯歡宴會，300多位中西嘉賓出席，場面熱鬧。

晚會由第11頻道電視台主播提蜜卡‧安提斯（Timyka Artist）及凱倫‧尹（Karen Yee）主持，出席貴賓包括美國鋁業公司（ALCOA）、紐約美隆銀行（BNY Mellon）、匹大醫學中心骨科部門（UPMC）、PNC銀行、大都會保險金融服務（MetLife）等代表，以及台灣同鄉會會長黃琦惠、餐飲公會會長陳飛、慈濟負責人陳家興等。

 

該會會長李東昌致詞表示，美華協會自1973年成立以來，積極參與美國地方和國家事務，以爭取平等機會和待遇，並宣揚文化，以消弭族群偏見，是大力宣導與確保美國亞太裔公民權益的組織。

 

他回顧了去年舉辦的許多活動，包括1月該會青少年在謝家碧老師指導下，第一次做舞蹈才藝公演，參與匹茲堡北邊的救世軍濟貧餐飲。2月牛年春宴。5月亞太裔傳統月，該協會參與了絲綢電影節、龍舟節、亞洲文化節、支持台灣實踐大學的羅漢門宋江陣表演。10月參加防癌協會「生命接力」募款活動。11月假匹茲堡大學UPMC診所舉辦義診。歲末參加匹茲堡市區感恩節遊行。他表示，能圓滿達成這麼多社會服務工作，得歸功所有志工的付出；他呼籲，華人應踴躍參與人口普查。

 

曾任該會會長的陳家興被選為今年的榮譽主席，並獲李東昌頒贈「德行廣眾」獎牌及禮物。國會眾議員墨菲（Tim Murphy）向該會頒贈賀詞，並頒發義工國會獎（Congressional Award）給三位高中生。

 

當晚表演除有該會醒獅團與歌舞團，也邀請匹茲堡海華青年管弦樂團和「彩虹兒童」演出。中外貴賓一邊享用由匹茲堡華人餐館協會準備的佳餚，一與欣賞謝家碧策劃的精彩歌舞，其中「敦煌飛天」及「彩帶舞」更是贏得如雷掌聲。

 

當晚摸彩活動，由2010美國賓州小姐吉娜‧喜芮莉（Gina Cerilli）和2010美國賓州妙齡小姐伊蓮娜‧拉闊垂（Elena LaQuatram）抽獎。另有舞獅及慈善義賣，最後學生獻花謝幕，圓滿結束這場春宴。有意加入該分會者，可上網址

George Washington's wisdom -- my letter-to-the-editor

This is my letter-to-the-editor (3/5/10) at Observer-Reporter (Washington, PA) telling a less well known wisdom of our cherry tree chopper.  I like the editor using "By George" as the heading of the letter to express a 'surprise'.

Miss Pennsylvania

We’re honored and privileged to have 2009 Miss Pennsylvania and 2009 Miss Pennsylvania Teen attend the Chinese New Year celebration sponsored by Overseas Chinese Association (OCA), Pittsburgh Chapter on Feb. 27, 2010.

Katy sent a dispatch to the World Journal. The link may work for a limited time only.

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_njpa/6625480/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E7%BE%8E%E8%8F%AF%E5%8D%94%E6%9C%83%E6%98%A5%E5%AE%B4?instance=nj_story1

Taiwanese Pittsburghers welcomed Dr. Wen-Ta Chiu (10/21/09)

Members of the Taiwanese American community at Pittsburgh were privileged and honored to welcome Dr. Wen-Ta Chiu (邱文達) during his visit to Pittsburgh on 10/21/2009; on the occasion of his being selected as the prestigious GSPH 2009 Legacy Laureate—the highest honor bestowed to the alumnui of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. (click the photo to enlarge it)

The welcome party was held at the Sushi Tomo of Pittsburgh; we all enjoyed good food and good company. After the dinner Dr. Chiu had a Power Point presentation introducing Taipei Medical University (TMU), of which Dr. Chiu is the current president. We’re very impressed by the rapid development and expansion of TMU under his leadership. (A granddaughter of my eldest sister is currently a 5th year student at TMU.)

Rarely has any physician excelled in so many diverse fields of medicine. Dr. Chiu’s service and contribution in neurosurgery is matched by his skill in managing large medical universities and large teaching hospitals, not mentioned his experience and expertise in the field of public health. His selection of being a GSPH 2009 Legacy Laureate is no surprise. Our hats off!

Katy sent a dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報, published on 10/31/09), in which news about receiving the prestigious and highly competitive Godina Lecture Award in the field of microsurgery by Dr. Yur-Ren Kuo (we’re fortunate to know him during his research days at UPMC and still miss him), was also mentioned, that will be another post. Stay tuned.

Iron City architecture -- my letter-to-the-editor at the Wall Street Journal

This is my letter-to-the-editor published at the Wall Street Journal on 10/3/09, talking about the architecture of the Iron City (Pittsburgh).  The last G20 meeting was held at Pittsburgh, during which period the Wall Street Journal had a book review about the Pittsburgh city architecture.

(The following is my letter)

Princely Observation From the Iron City

I read David Shribman's review of Franklin Toker's "Pittsburgh: A New Portrait" (Bookshelf, Sept.  22) with delight and pride. It was the Pittsburgh landscape that brought Prince Charles, the most celebrated architecture critic, to Pittsburgh in 1988 when he was the keynote speaker at the Remaking Cities Conference.  His royal highness observed "if we encourage a renaissance of craftmanship and the art of embellishing building for man's pleasure and for the sheer joy in beauty itself . . . then we shall have made our cities centers of civilization once again.

Jer-Yuan Tsai

Waynesburg, PA"

Chemistry is essential to doctors

In these letters-to-the-editor at WSJ, the writers tell why doctor needs to know his/her chemistry, especially organic chemistry and biochemistry.

The old faithful couple at the Old Faithful

Janice called from the Old Faithful yesterday afternoon; we’re there two summers ago, here are some of the pictures.

Yellowstone National Park is the geyser country, about one-third of the world geysers, of which the Old Faithful is the most famous one, are here between Madison Junction and the Old Faithful. There are all types of nature wonders, such as mud caldrons, bubbling and colorful paint pots, and fumaroles. The most amazing is that there are all close together, proving God is considerate, creating the Wonders for the tourists’ convenience.

The old faithful couple at the Old Faithful

The Old Faithful presently erupts every 90 minutes or so, there was a mathematical relationship between the duration and intervals. The intervals between eruptions are longer now than used to be; it was attributed to the earthquake, not the 1988 fire as explained by our tour guide. The eruption shoots out up to 8,400 gallons boiling water to a height up to 184 feet lasting for up to 5 minutes.

It is OK not to read the books you collected

I spotted two used volumes of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization: Volume V The Renaissance and Volume VII The Age of Reason Begins at Harvard Book Store while visiting Janice last November, and only took them out to look for something on a few occasions. (I have checked them out from library many times in the past, though.)

I once got Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson from a book sale in the library, even though I already have had one copy for many years. I have two copies of Churchill’s Blood, Toil, Tears & Sweat (The Speeches of Winston Churchill); it was only $1.98, I simply couldn't resist not taking it home, even though I do not need it.

I brought a bag of used books home from library last week, costing $2 a bag, and those books are still in the bag. One of the books was A Planet called Earth by George Gamow; Joy, he was the same Gamow in James Watson’s Genes, Girl, and Gamow (the book you bought me) after the Double Helix; the other was James Michener’s Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections.

Janice, I am hoping you haven’t thrown away May 31 the Wall Street Journal (Weekend Journal) yet. Hopefully you didn’t miss the article “The Book Collection that Devoured My Life”. There was a “Letters to the Editor” on the Journal today (June 9)—Not reading the books I collected, I now proclaim myself as “the elite and unruffled ranks of the truly cultured" as the letter said.

To read or not to read

Both Janice and I are avid readers; of different breeds, though: she tries to read 50 books, page-to-page, a year, and I rarely read a book from preface to epilogue and every page in between.  I went through the list of books she has read past several years and few, if any, overlap with mine.  We both read John Updike, she read his short stories (Museums and Women) and I essays and criticism (Due Consideration).

While plunging into WWII (limited to European theater), I browsed many books that include Churchill’s The Second World War, Martin Gilbert’s Second World War: a complete history, Ike’s Crusade in Europe, Harry Butcher’s My Three Years with Eisenhower, The Rommel Papers (edited by Liddell Hart), Ernie’s War: The best of Ernie Pyle’s WWII dispatches, or even Kay Summersby Morgan’s Past Forgetting: My Lover Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower and more.

The title of this posting borrowed from Oscar Wilde’s that he wrote in 1886, in which he wrote, (may click the photo to enlarge it)    

“To tell people what to read is as a rule either useless or harmful, for the true appreciation of literature is a question of temperament not of teaching, and nothing that one can learn is ever worth learning.  But to tell people what not to read is very different matter, and I venture to recommend it as a mission to the University Extension Scheme.”

He went on to write that his age is “an age which reads so much that it has no time to admire, and writes so much that it has no time to think.” So is our age, if not more so.

Janice once wrote, “I know some people who read constantly but the rigor of their reading material leaves much to be desired.”  I couldn’t have agreed more or said it better.  It is not only whether you’re reading or not, but also what you’ve been reading.  It is safe to say ‘you’re what you read.’ 

I often lament ‘I have much to write, and more to read,’ and I have no hesitation to drop a book that is not informative, insightful, rigorous, provocative, or entertaining to me.  I emphasize “to me” and that’s why I can tell you what book I am reading and there is no use to ask you to read it.  You need to pick it up on your own and do not hesitate to put it down if it doesn't please/help you.

Wilde wrote, “Books, I fancy, may be conveniently divided into three classes: 1. Books to read, 2. Books to re-read, and 3. Books not to read at all.”  Since I am of the opinion of not to tell one what book to read, I’ll copy what he said about the third class,

“Books not to read at all, such as Thomson’s Seasons, Roger’s Italy, Paley’s Evidences, all the Fathers except St. Augustine, all John Stuart Mill, except the essay on Liberty, all Voltaire’s plays without any exception, Butler’s Analogy, Grant’s Aristotle, Hume’s England, Lewes’ History and Philosophy, all argumentative books, and all books that try to prove anything.”

Witty though he might be, Wilde might not be the one telling us what not to read, considering his ‘art for art’s sake’ philosophy.

Physician addresses woman’s club

The Waynesburg Woman’s Club monthly meeting was held at Washington Street Methodist Church on February 26, 2008 and was hosted by Katy Tsai.  Dr. Jer-Yuan Tsai was invited to give a talk on the current news and controversies in medicine, covering many topics of interest.

Making flu vaccine is a calculated and educated guess; he explained why the influenza vaccine this season doesn’t work as well as anticipated and emphasized the science behind the vaccine is still solid and sound and do not lose faith to it.
 
He mentioned many of the medical controversies derive from statistical analysis and jokingly said there is a line in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” and the best way to prevent medical controversy is “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the statisticians.”  On a serious note, he emphasized that, like medicine, statistics is also science, something to be reckoned with.

He talked about the shingles and shingles vaccine in great detail so that one can make an informed decision in deciding whether to take the shingles vaccine or not.

The talk focused on type 2 diabetes.  He explained the concept of insulin resistance and the mechanisms by which many kinds of diabetic drugs work and why some type 2 diabetes patients may eventually end up requiring insulin.

Many in the audience were surprised, just like many doctors were puzzled, to learn that the mortality rate of the Intensive-glycemic-control arm of ACCORD trial was higher than that in the more laid-back standard strategy.  ACCORD is being conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Speaking of whether one should be aggressive in controlling diabetes: “To be or not to be, that is the question” with no answer, at least for now.  Dr Tsai also pointed out the outcomes of many landmark studies didn't agree with that of ACCORD study.

He used the example of current controversy of Vytorin and Zetia (cholesterol-lowering drugs) to illustrate

the relationship of media and medicine and how sometimes physicians may see things differently in a given study.  He pointed out that TV medical news reporting is generally commendable, but due to the time constraint, the details, which can be important in helping us drawing the conclusion, are often let out.
He briefly touched the topic of E-coli O157:H7 and the use of the the medication Evista to prevent breast cancer.

He ended the talk by quoting Moses Mamonides (1135-1204) “Live sensibly—among a thousand people, only one dies a natural death, the rest succumb to irrational modes of living.” Dr. Tsai’s best advice is “Eat less, exercise more, and go extra miles when walking” which is better than every thing he said or every medicine he mentioned.

Not all patients with myasthenia gravis are grave

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is another autoimmune disease in that the body is tricked to think acetylcholine receptor, an important component in the nerve conduction, is ‘foreign’ and dutifully attacks it.

There is a gap between nerves or between nerve and muscle, through which the conduction of impulse depends on chemical substances called neurotransmitters, in the case of MG, it is acetylcholine between nerve and muscle.

There are two clinical forms of myasthenia gravis: (1) ocular form (affects the eyes only)  and (2) generalized form (may affect any skeletal muscles on the whole body) Myasthenia means “muscle debility”; Latin gravis means “serious” and having a generalized form of myasthenia gravis is indeed serious (grave); but this dreaded name makes the more limited ocular form seem more serious than it actually is.

(click the photo to enlarge it)

About half (50%) of patients with purely ocular MG are seropositive (i.e. has acetylcholine antibody in the blood).  About 85% of patients with generalized form, and virtually all patients (98-100%) with MG and thymoma (tumor in thymus) have this antibody.

About 10-15% of MG patients have thymoma, and about 85% have thymic hyperplasia (i.e. thymus gland overgrow, but there is no tumor) It is postulated that all patients with myasthenia gravis have B cells that produces acetylcholine antibody.

Most experts feel it is beneficial to surgically remove thymus gland (whether thymic hyperplasia or thymoma) and it may take many years to see the benefit of thymectomy (surgical removal of thymus).

It is well known that a given disease may present with a widely varying severity and course.  Another example is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in the U.S.) in which the motor neurons are destroyed.  Lou Gehrig succumbed to it less than two years after he proclaimed that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” in his touching farewell address at Yankee Stadium.  And yet Stephen Hawking has lived with this disease for more than 40 years and is still going on ‘strong’ in his quest in the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity.

Pernicious anemia is no longer pernicious

The once invariably fatal pernicious anemia is nowadays easily treated with a monthly injection of vitamin B₁₂.  Vitamin B₁₂ (cobalamin) is only present in animal products (meat and dairy products).  Cobalamin is required in making blood; without proper supplement, the strict vegetarians are in danger of developing megaloblastic anemia.
 
The cobalamin we take in needs intrinsic factor (secreted by parietal cells lining the stomach) to carry it to the small intestine (terminal ileum) to be absorbed.  Pernicious anemia is one of the numerous autoimmune diseases that plagues us.  The body somehow treats the intrinsic factor (IF) as ‘foreign’ and attacks it, rendering it useless.  This is why pernicious anemia has to be treated with injection of cobalamin, and taking it orally wouldn’t work.

Recent discovery that there is second back up transport system for cobalamin, lower efficiency though it may be, that does not require intrinsic factor or a functional terminal ileum.  But, it requires taking megadose (at least 1,000 to 2,000 μg (1-2 mg) orally a day. (for injection 1,000 μg or even 100 μg a month is more than enough.)

The word ‘pernicious’ means highly destructive or exceedingly harmful; Shakespeare used it in Henry VI (part 2), “Pernicious blood-sucker of sleeping men!” its Latin root “nex” means ‘violent death’.  English physician Thomas Addison first described it in 1855 and German physician Anton Biermer coined the name of “pernicious anemia” in 1872.

Pernicious anemia was still invariably fatal in 1930s when three physicians (two from Harvard) were honored with Nobel Prizes in Medicine (1934) for their using liver-rich diet in successfully treating patients with pernicious anemia.  I read the following in the presentation speech in 1934 Nobel Prize in Medicine,

“I propose to say a little about pernicious anemia.  As the name tells us, it is a fateful disease, which, previous to the labours of our prize-winners, almost invariably, with only a few exceptions, ended fatally in the course of a few years, or in a still shorter time, a few months.  Its cause is unknown. . .”

Of note, vitamin B₁₂ was not isolated until 1948 and they didn’t have any idea of what actually helped; medical science was not always exact, even for the Nobel-Prize work, in those days.  And those improved upon this diet probably did not have true pernicious anemia, in which 70% would have antibody against intrinsic factor (IF) and would require vitamin B₁₂ injections to get better.

Many elderly have atrophic gastritis leading to decline in IF production, in which cases, antibodies are directly against the gastric parietal cells that produce IF.  The inadequacy of IF can be compensated by the realtively large amount of vitamin B₁₂ in the diet, otherwise, these three physicians wouldn't succeed and became laureates.

Medical students learn Structure and Function in their first year schooling before they plunge into the Scientific Basis of Medicine the second year.  Using X ray crystallography technique; Dorothy Crawfoot Hodgkin labored, coupled with high intellect and intuition, from 1948 to 1956, and figured out the structure of vitamin B₁₂, a very large and complex biomolecule—a tremendous feat that earned her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.  I believe that the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher once studied under Dorothy Hodgkin at Oxford.
 
Elucidation of the structure of vitamin B₁₂ opened the door of the understanding of the metabolism, synthesis, and function of vitamin B₁₂ that we have come to know.  And the name of pernicious anemia stays only for sentimental reason.

Exubera never brought exuberance to Pfizer

It was touted as a revolutionary new delivery system for insulin since it was developed some 80 years ago when Exubera, an inhaled insulin, was approved for adults with types 1 or 2 diabetes in January 2006.

Unfortunately it never took off, failing to gain the acceptance of patients and physicians and Pfizer announced on October 18, 2007 that it will end the marketing of Exubera, phasing it out over the next three months.

It was a business decision and there was no issue of safety or efficacy.  But FDA has warned on April 10, 2008 that more cases of lung cancers have been reported in patients treated with Exubera than in controls in clinical trials. FDA added that “too few cases to determine whether the emergence of these events is related to Exubera” and all patients diagnosed with lung cancer had a history of cigarette smoking.

Having a ‘philosophy’ of “never be the first one to use the new medicine o.r the last one to discard the old medicine,” I somehow never prescribed Exubera.

From Californium to Seaborgium to Fermium and injustice to female scientists

Today (March 17) in 1950 scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, named “californium.”  The team was headed by Glenn Seaborg, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951 for his work on the chemistry of transuranium elements, which have atomic number greater than that of uranium (92), and with the atomic number of 98, californium is the 6^th transuranium element.

Two of Seaborg’s heroes were Gilbert Lewis and Enrico Fermi, whose biography, Atoms in the Family, was written by his widow, Laura (of Jewish heritage), after his untimely death at the age of 52 or 53.  Right after receiving his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938, he escaped to America from Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship (Fermi's wife is Jewish.)

While serving as the chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and during one of the Senate hearing in 1960s, Seaborg was grilled by Senator Gore Sr. (Al’s dad), as he laid off many machinists at Oak Ridge Lab in Tennessee due to budget constraint. “Dr. Seaborg, just what do you have against machinists?” Seaborg responded, “Senator, I don’t have anything against machinists, . . . my father was a machinist, and my grandfather was a machinist . . . and my great-grandfather was a machinist.  And if I had any talent for it, I would have been a machinist myself.”

I always lamented that it was a great injustice that Gilbert Lewis was snubbed by the Nobel committee.  His contributions were worthy of several Nobel Prizes.  It was Lewis to tell us that electrons bonding is how molecules stick together, and only the valence electrons participating the chemical reactions.  He coined the term ‘covalent bond.’  We’re still drawing the valence electrons the way he did long time ago—simplistically beautiful and practical.  Because of him, we understand better about acid and base:  Lewis acid and base, Lewis structure, just to mention a few. 

After getting his Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, Seaborg was Lewis’ personal assistant for two years.  In Adventure in the Atomic Age, Seaborg analyzed why Lewis never received the Nobel Prize.

Glenn Seaborg

Seaborg was the only person having an element named after him while he was still alive—Seaborgium (atomic number 106)  I believe Enrico Fermi was aware that one element (Fermium with atomic number 100) would be named after him, but he died a few months before the naming became official.

In his letter to President Roosevelt, Einstein began with “Sir:  Some recent work by Fermi and Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. . . .”

Fermi conducted the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago.  It was Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner first bombarded uranium nuclei with neutrons, freeing neutrons, releasing the enormous God-made and God-hide energy, a process they called nuclear fission.

Being a theoretic physicist, Lise Meitner was the one provided the theoretic explanation as Otto Hahn was a super chemist; and yet Otto Hahn was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944—another injustice to the female scientist.  Meitner fled Nazi’s Germany to Sweden in 1938 and therefore didn’t participate the final experiment.

Years after the drop of the atomic bomb, Meitner wrote in a letter to friend that before the war, “one could love one’s work and not always be tormented by the fear of the ghastly and malevolent things that people might do with beautiful scientific findings.” 

The above is from James Watson’s Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science; Watson clearly agreed that it was the Hershey-Chase Experiment that led to Hershey’s sharing the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1969 with Max Delbrűck and Salvador Luria.  From what I read Martha Chase was an equal partner, not Hershey’s assistant, and yet the rule of no more than three people share a prize sacrificed her.

It was Leo Szilard (a Jew) to reveal in 1933, after fleeing Hitler’s Germany to England, that a nuclear disintegration releasing more neutrons than it consumed would unleash the tremendous amount of energy of the atom that follows Einstein’s E = mc² equation.  It was Szilard who ‘penned’ Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt.  Szilard and Enrico conducted the first nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago in 1942.

I always want to write an article of “In praise of the physicists who advanced the life science” and Leo Szilard is on my list.  He was the co-founder of the Salk’s Institute at La Jolla and unfortunately died a few months after its completion. 

I read in the March 2008 issue of Discover, in which it was mentioned that Austrian physicist Freidrich Hasenőhrl published the basic equation E = mc² a year before Einstein did.  the poor Hasenőhrl failed to connect the equation with the principle of relativity.  Just imagine how much it cost him.