Genes can be altered by experience

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:00:54 GMT

clipped by: jimbo1000
clipper's remarks: Natural selection and mutations have seemed to me too slow to describe evolution. It looks as though there is a faster mechanism working alongside them.

Clip Source: www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

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May 2008 | 146 » Special report » What genes remember Many geneticists now think that the behaviour of our genes can be altered by experience—and even that these changes can be passed on to future generations. This finding may transform our understanding of inheritance and evolution

Philip Hunter

Pain as an art form

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:51:32 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Mr. Collen wrote to pain doctors around the world to solicit examples of art from pain patients. Working with San Francisco college student James Gregory, 21, who suffers from chronic pain as the result of a car accident, the two created the Pain Exhibit, an online gallery of art from pain sufferers. The images are evocative and troubling.“Some of them are painful even to look at,'’ Dr. Basbaum said.

Finding ways to communicate pain is essential to patients who are suffering, many of whom don’t receive adequate treatment from doctors.Mr. Collen said the main goal of the exhibit is to raise awareness about the problem of chronic pain.“People don’t believe what they can’t see,'’ Mr. Collen said. “But they see a piece of art an individual created about their pain and everything changes.'’

Clip Source: well.blogs.nytimes.com

Pain as an Art Form

Pain doesn’t show up on a body scan and can’t be measured in a test. As a result, many chronic pain sufferers turn to art, opting to paint, draw or sculpt images in an effort to depict their pain.

“It’s often much more difficult to put pain into words, which is one of the big problems with pain,'’ said Allan I. Basbaum

“The Broken Column,” by Frida Kahlo

“It was only when I started doing art about pain, and physicians saw the art, that they understood what I was going through,” Mr. Collen

who suffers from chronic back pain

said.

“Words are limiting, but art elicits an emotional response.'’

Some of the images from the Pain Exhibit, like “Broken People” by Robert S. Beal of Tulsa, Okla., depict the physical side of pain. Others, such as “Against the Barrier to Life,” convey the emotional challenges of chronic pain.

Clip Source: www.painexhibit.com

Broken People

Clip Source: www.painexhibit.com

Against The Barrier To Life

Artist Statement

I feel I am constantly fighting against a tidal wave of pain in order to achieve some quality of life.

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Genes can be altered by experience

Pain as an art form

Pain as an Art Form