5 days agoFelix Savart, Biological PhysicistI’m fascinated by scientists who make the transition from medicine to physics, which is the opposite of my own transition from physics to medicine. One example is Félix Savart. In this blog post, I provide several excerpts from a 1959 article by Victor McKusick and H. …Felix Savart4 min readFelix Savart4 min read
Jan 28The Preface as PoetryI mentioned before in this blog that I’m reading Will and Ariel Durant’s eleven-volume masterpiece The Story of Civilization. Recently, in Volume Nine about The Age of Voltaire, they discussed Alexander Pope, the eighteenth century English poet who, among other things, translated the Iliad into English poetry using iambic pentameter…Iambic Pentameter3 min readIambic Pentameter3 min read
Jan 20The Invisible RainbowOver Christmas break, I read The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life, by Arthur Firstenberg. What can I say about such a book? First, if the conclusions in my own book — Are Electromagnetic Fields Making Me Ill? How Electricity and Magnetism Affect Our Health — are true…Arthur Firstenberg6 min readArthur Firstenberg6 min read
Jan 13Happy Birthday, Robert ResnickRobert Resnick, physics textbook author extraordinaire, was born 100 years ago last Wednesday (January 11, 1923). A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute website states Robert Resnick is professor emeritus at Rensselaer and the former Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Science Education, 1974–93. …Physics2 min readPhysics2 min read
Jan 6Edith Anne Stoney, The First Woman Medical PhysicistToday is Edith Anne Stoney’s birthday; she was born on January 6, 1869. In an article that appeared in the December, 2013 issue of Scope (the quarterly magazine of the Institute for Physics and Engineering in Medicine), Francis Duck describes Stoney as “the first woman medical physicist.” …Edith Anne Stoney5 min readEdith Anne Stoney5 min read
Published in Intuition·Dec 31, 2022Bone HealingA slightly edited excerpt from Are Electromagnetic Fields Making Me Ill? by Brad Roth — Steady electric fields have been used to heal broken bones. This work was motivated by bone’s piezoelectric property: a mechanical stress produces an electric field, and conversely an electric field produces a mechanical stress. When orthopedic surgeons discovered bone’s piezoelectricity, they wondered if electric fields could cause effects in addition…Bone Healing4 min readBone Healing4 min read
Dec 30, 2022The Development of Transcranial Magnetic StimulationWhen I worked at the National Institutes of Health, I studied transcranial magnetic stimulation. In Chapter 8 of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology, Russ Hobbie and I describe this technique to activate neurons in the brain. Since a changing magnetic field generates an induced electric field, it is possible…Brain2 min readBrain2 min read
Dec 23, 2022Think Before You Calculate!I encourage students to build their qualitative problem solving skills by recasting equations in dimensionless variables, analyzing the limiting behavior of mathematical expressions, and sketching plots showing how functions behave. “Think Before You Calculate!” is my mantra. But how, specifically, do you do this? Let me show you an example. …Logistic Equation3 min readLogistic Equation3 min read
Published in Intuition·Dec 23, 2022Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve StimulationA slightly edited excerpt from Are Electromagnetic Fields Making Me Ill? by Brad Roth Clyde Norman Shealy was only 23 when he graduated from the Duke School of Medicine. During the 1960s, he worked at Western Reserve University (now part of Case Western Reserve) developing methods to control pain. …Tens4 min readTens4 min read
Dec 16, 2022Mark Hallett FestschriftLast Monday I attended (over the internet) a Festschrift to honor the retirement of Mark Hallett from the intramural program at the National Institutes of Health. Russ Hobbie and I cite Hallett in Chapter 8 of Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology. Magnetic stimulation can be used to diagnose central…Mark Hallett3 min readMark Hallett3 min read
