Econometric theory is like an exquisitely balanced French recipe, spelling out precisely with how many turns to mix the sauce, how many carats of spice to add, and for how many seconds to bake the mixture at exactly 474 degrees of temperature. But when the statistical cook turns to the raw materials, he finds that hearts of cactus fruits are unavailable, so he substitutes cantaloupe; where the ...

The physics of the standard hot big bang cosmology ensures that the early Universe was a primordial nuclear reactor, synthesizing the light nuclides (D, 3 He, 4 He, and 7 Li) in the first 20 minutes of its evolution. After an overview of nucleosynthesis in the standard model (SBBN), the primordial abundance yields will be presented, followed by a status report (intended to stimulate further dis...

In the late 80’s, a session was organized on “Simulation Environment of the 1990’s”. Fourteen years have passed. Where are we now with respect to the predictions made the last time? Can we make new predictions, now that new hardware and software are ever more powerful? Are we any closer to where we wanted to be with methodologies, tools, etc.? Looking back at the paper for the session “Simulati...

OBJECTIVE This paper examines the current literature pertaining to brain ageing. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of the effects of ageing on brain structure and function and to examine possible mediators of these changes. METHODS A MEDLINE search was conducted for each area of interest. A selective review was undertaken of relevant articles. RESULTS Although fundament...

Somerset Maugham is well known for his literary skills as a best-selling author. But many may not know that he studied medicine and qualified as a surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital, London. It is no wonder that in his book “Of Human Bondage”, Maugham wrote of a lecturer advising first-year medical students that, “You will have to learn many tedious things which you will forget the moment you have...