Many medical errors can be attributed to large and complex health care systems in which care is increasingly fragmented. Hospitals with good safety cultures have lower complication rates, and improved patient and staff satisfaction. Transparency in health care is an increasingly recognized means to improve outcomes by allowing the free market to reward hospitals with a strong safety culture, go...

We describe a novel pharmacological activity of the gentian root, an ingredient of Chinese medicines. Root extract from Gentiana triflora triggered cell death of human Daudi cells in culture. In addition, daily administration of the extract to mice inhibited growth of implanted solid tumors. Extract treatment of cultured cells resulted in the appearance of shranken, fragmented, or condensed cel...

Galileo wrote that "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics"; his quantitative approach to understanding the natural world arguably marks the beginning of modern science. Nearly 400 years later, the fragmented teaching of science in our universities still leaves biology outside the quantitative and mathematical culture that has come to define the physical sciences and engin...