“Over the last six years, I’ve witnessed their hard work, dedication and faithfulness to care for their charges much as they would their own. That’s been a privilege to witness first-hand, and never more so than in Jan’s last few days,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Is AI intelligent? Sure. It is, and becoming as intelligent or more than most humans. Is AI sentient? Not yet, but on the way. And it won’t be long,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Diminishment, the loss of abilities which we take for granted … comes to all of us in different ways and times. It’s how we manage that diminishment that counts,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“All models are provisional and, even if based on the best data available, might have to change in the light of new evidence,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Here, many billions of years later, was evidence of the radiation created in the Big Bang, now cooled to a few degrees above zero Kelvin and stretched by the expanding universe into the microwave range — what became known as the cosmic background radiation,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“This is a very solid story of science at its best, expressed in the imagination and dogged persistence of the three laureates,” writes Dr. William Brown, on this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine and their discoveries concerning how the immune system is kept in check.

“The Nobel Prizes in the sciences began in 1901, and despite the emergence of a host of other worthy prizes in mathematics, engineering and recently the computer sciences, it remains the gold standard,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“In 2024, it was obvious just how powerful these computational programs could be for determining the 3D structure of a protein,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“It takes villages, towns and cities of scientists working together, whether directly or simply by sharing insights and data, to make most science work in our time,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“These days, China is imitating what worked in the West for success in business and science by instituting major changes to its political and managerial system to create the right combination of atmosphere, encouragement and support to develop science within China,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Increasingly, awards are evolving and while the Nobel Prizes remain at the top for now, the number of high-calibre competing awards by other institutions is increasing,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“The story of human evolution is important too because without modern humans, there would be no science and no one to understand what was happening in the universe — the universe would unfold without a witness,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Given the high-tech nature of this telescope and wide window on the universe the Rubin telescope provides, we should get answers to many puzzling questions within the decade,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Telescope design, whether for space or land-based, manufacture, launch and maintenance, to say nothing of the scientists and engineers involved, are all very expensive,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“If sub-systems in the nervous system can be created and connected with each other in meaningful ways, could a brain be created from its constituent systems?” writes Dr. William Brown.

“It sounds great to treat as early as possible, but the drug had better be not only effective, but safe and free from troublesome side effects in patients who are clinically well,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“The window for successful treatment of neurodegenerative diseases is usually well before symptoms develop, and perhaps explains why treatments employed when the first symptoms develop may be too late to prevent progression of the disease,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Some visionaries imagine that tiny devices might be adopted for treating cancer and vascular disease,” writes Dr. William Brown. “That’s forward-thinking very much in line with Feynman’s vision for what was possible in 1984.”    

“Despite so much muscle, compression of the nerve can still cause symptoms. For example, the nerve may be compressed within the sciatic notch by an enlarged piriformis muscle through which the nerve passes on its way through the notch,” writes Dr. William Brown.

“Evidence that the spinal cord is compressed is based on weakness in what’s often referred to as a ‘long-track’ distribution,” writes Dr. William Brown. “Some patients report that they feel an electric shock sensation extending from their neck and often into their trunk legs when they flex their neck, cough or step down hard on something.”

For those in the later stages of life dealing with degenerative changes, “sorting out which clinical, radiological and electrodiagnostic features best explain the symptoms can be very challenging,” writes Dr. William Brown, “and the reason why surgery to relieve symptoms related to degenerative disease so often fails to relieve symptoms.”

“Interfering with signalling in the peripheral and central nervous systems has serious functional consequences, the effects of which may be masked by the capacity of surviving nerve fibres and nerve cells to carry the load — up to a point,” writes Dr. William Brown.