Calcific aortic stenosis (AS) was initially characterized as a degenerative process (disorder) because of a tendency to describe any disorder that was not well understood and often occurred in the ‘elderly’ as degenerative. In the last ‘15–20’ years, the observation of the presence of risk factors for arterial atherosclerosis in patients with calcific AS, the production of aortic valve calcific...

The question whether evolution is blind is usually presented as a choice between no goals at all ('the blind watchmaker') and long-term goals which would be external to the organism, for example in the form of special creation or intelligent design. The arguments either way do not address the question whether there are short-term goals within rather than external to organisms. Organisms and the...