The surface-exposed NadA adhesin produced by a subset of capsular serogroup B strains of Neisseria meningitidis is currently being considered as a vaccine candidate to prevent invasive disease caused by a hypervirulent lineage of meningococci. Levels of NadA are known to be controlled by both transcriptional regulatory factors and a component of human saliva, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid. Herein,...

The association of twins with health-giving powers is widespread in mythology, folklore, and religion. The Ashvins of the Rig-Veda, the classical Dioscuri, and the early Christian saints Cosmos and Damian are among the many examples of twins divinely empowered in the area of health and fertility. A characteristic set of attributes of twins recurs in different mythologies of wide distribution. I...

Can humans acquire knowledge of ultimate reality, even significant or comprehensive knowledge? I argue that for all we know we can, and that is so whether ultimate reality is divine or non-divine. My strategy involves arguing that we are ignorant, in the sense of lacking public or shared knowledge, about which possibilities, if any, obtain for humans to acquire knowledge of ultimate reality. Th...

William Farr must be counted a founder, even the founder, of epidemiology in its modern form. Among the special contributions of men like Quetelet and Galton to biostatistics, of John Snow to the survey as an explanatory instrument, and of Pasteur and Koch to specifications of environmental agents and host immunity, Farr's contributions surely cover the broadest range of the activities of conte...