An organ transplant is the removal of a healthy organ or tissue (depending on the type of transplant, the organ may be harvested from a live donor or a cadaver) for the purpose of replacing the recipient’s damaged or deteriorating organ. While the surgery itself usually goes off without a hitch, subsequent transplant rejection poses the largest threat to the recipient. Transplant rejection occurs when the immune system, detecting ‘foreign’ material in the body, attacks the replacement organ or tissue. This immune response is likely, as the purpose of the immune system is to protect the body from invading bacteria and viruses. The administering of immunosuppressant medication has played a crucial role in preventing transplant rejection and extending the life expectancy of recipients. However, the use of these anti-rejection medications can be toxic to other organs and renders the recipient vulnerable to contracting severe infections.
The international medical community was stunned in January 2008, when doctors at Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital announced that 15-year old liver transplant recipient Demi-Lee Brennan had miraculously adopted her donor’s immune system and blood type. Brennan is the first known transplant recipient to spontaneously switch blood types, and the odds of this phenomenon have been estimated to be one in six billion. Tests revealed that stem cells from the live donor had managed to penetrate her bone marrow unassisted, a marvel that her doctors described as a “natural bone transplant.”
Brennan was subsequently taken off her anti-rejection medication, which is almost never done unless a risky bone marrow transplant is first performed. Bone marrow transplant recipients run the very real risk of developing graft versus host disease (GVHD), which can occur if the donor lymphoid cells identify the host cells as “foreign” and attacks them accordingly. As such, many transplant specialists are studying Brennan’s case in the hope that her miraculous outcome could be replicated in other transplant recipients.
Hypnotism is loosely defined as “an artificially induced altered state of consciousness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction.” While the study of hypnosis has traditionally been centered on its effect on human subjects, researches remain divided between defining it as a mental state (state theory) or a set of attitudes (nonstate theory), in part due to the complexity of human psychology. As such, a growing number of researchers have turned to studying the existence of this phenomenon in the animal kingdom, notably with respect to chickens, in the hope that they will be able to isolate the mechanisms involved in hypnotic induction. The hypnosis of chickens is widespread among farmers who sometimes rely on it for the purposes of subduing the birds before slaughter.
The first known written reference to chicken hypnotism dates back to 1646, in Athanasius Kircher’s, Experimentum de Imaginatione Gallinae. Kircher’s method for hypnotizing a chicken involved holding the chicken with its head down to the ground and drawing a chalk line on the ground away from the beak. He believed that the drawing of the chalk line induced a hypnotic state in the chicken because it believed itself to be tightly tethered to the chalk line. However, it has since been found that drawing a chalk line is unnecessary, and that a chicken can be hypnotized simply by holding it firmly on its side on a flat surface for 30 seconds. After an initial short struggle for release, the chicken will become completely immobile, with its muscles stiffening and its body assuming a rubbery flexibility. A hypnotized chicken will usually remain in this state for anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 minutes, although the longest documented instance lasted for an impressive 3 hours and 47 minutes.
Many researchers contend that “chicken hypnosis” is not hypnosis at all, and instead represents a case of tonic immobility (a reflex action in which an animal will become paralyzed when they feel threatened by a predator), or thanatosis (the defense mechanism of playing dead in order to avoid threat). However, despite this nay saying, “chicken hypnotism” remains fascinating to those who have witnessed or induced it. Many prominent figures have discussed their experiences hypnotizing chickens, including German statesman Helmut Kohl, Will Smith and Friedrich Nietzsche. Former Vice-President Al Gore even boldly claimed that he invented (along with the Internet), a new technique for hypnotizing chickens that consisted of holding the chicken down while drawing imaginary circles around its head.
Former slave and American abolitionist Frederick Douglass was one of the few men in attendance (and the only African-American) at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), the first women’s rights convention held in the United States. In addition to advocating for the abolition of slavery and the rights of African-Americans, Douglass was a vocal suffragist and ardent supporter of the expansion of women’s rights. He was often quoted as saying that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man in good conscience if women could never claim the same right.
At the convention, women’s rights icon Elizabeth Cady Stanton urged the assembly to pass a resolution in favor of petitioning for women’s suffrage. This caused a stir in the audience, as many of the attendees believed that it was in the movement’s best interest to start out with a more modest agenda, by focusing on improving women’s social status and avoiding controversial political goals, so as to avoid being dismissed as “radicals.” Even convention organizer and featured speaker Lucretia Mott was opposed to the resolution, famously exclaiming, “Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous!” With the convention at a standstill, Douglass stood and spoke passionately in favor of the resolution, stating that the world was worse for the absence of women from the political sphere, “In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of government of the world.” Many of the naysayers in the audience were swayed by Douglass’s eloquent plea, and the resolution was subsequently passed by the Convention.
Though Douglass’s support of women’s rights never flagged, he disagreed with both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s call for women’s suffrage to be passed simultaneously with the granting of voting rights to African-American males. Douglass argued that the extension of the franchise to African-Americans should take precedence over women’s suffrage, arguing that their need to vote was more pressing because they bore a heavier burden of prejudice and violence at the hands of white males. Howver, despite this disagreement, Douglass remained actively involved in the fledgling women’s rights movement for the remainder of his life. In fact, his last speech was held in front of the National Council of Women in 1895; he suffered a heart attack a few hours later and passed away the same evening.
Benjamin Franklin (January 16, 1706-April 17, 1790), among his many other groundbreaking achievements, has long been credited as the first chess player known by name in the American colonies. Moreover, his essay “Morals of Chess”, published in 1786 in The Columbian Magazine, is one of the most famous pieces on chess ever published, and has been translated in many languages. Notably, it appeared in the first book on chess published in Russia.
In typical Franklin fashion, “Morals of Chess” ties the game of chess to the cultivation of virtuous habits, including foresight, circumspection and caution. Franklin’s devotion to the game was so strong that he stated in his essay that, “The Games of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions.”
In Franklin’s autobiography, he claims that he and an acquaintance used their frequent chess matches to help them learn the Italian language. According to Franklin, the winner of each game was charged with the task of giving his vanquished opponent an assignment, such as memorizing a set of Italian words or parts of grammar, which had to be performed by the loser before the next game. Franklin also claimed that chess brought him into peace negotiations with Rear Admiral Viscount Howe in 1774, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the Revolutionary War; the playing sessions acted as an excuse to get the two men talking.
In light of his major contribution and influence on the game of chess in the United States, Franklin was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in Miami, Florida in 1999, becoming only the 29th player to earn this distinction.
