It is a cliché of self-help advice that there are no problems, only opportunities. The rationale and actions of the BSHS in creating its Global Digital History of Science Festival may be a rare genuine confirmation of this mantra. The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 meant that the society's usual annual conference – like everyone else's – had to be cancelled. Once the society decided to go digital, we had a hundred days to organize and deliver our first online festival. (...) In the hope that this will help, inspire and warn colleagues around the world who are also trying to move online, we here detail the considerations, conversations and thinking behind the organizing team's decisions. (shrink)

Whistleblowing is a subject which seizes the media headlines from time to time, and nowhere is such a dilemma of conscience more sensitive than in the area of finance and internal auditing. Additionally, professional organisations are sometimes felt to be less than supportive of their members who occasionally resort to whistlelowing. But how does it look from inside the auditing profession? Professor Chambers is a director of The Institute of Internal Auditors Inc., and a member of the Internal Auditing Standards (...) Board. He is Professor of Audit & Control at the University of Hull, and since 1991 he has chaired the Professional Standards & Guidelines Committee of IIA . He is author of several books and a former Dean of the Business School of City University, London. In 1991 he established Management Audit Ltd., The Water Mill, Moat Lane, Old Bolingbroke, Spilsby, Lincolnshire PE23 4EU, which specialises in services to boards, audit committees and internal auditors. This article was originally presented to the 54e Conférence Internationale of The Institute of Internal Auditors, Inc., organised by the Institut Francais des Auditeurs Consultants Internes. Except where otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this article are those of the author. (shrink)

Science and religion pervade the 1973 horror The Exorcist, and the film exists, as the movie’s tagline suggests, ‘somewhere between science and superstition’. Archival materials show the depth of research conducted by writer/director William Friedkin in his commitment to presenting and exploring emerging scientific procedures and accurate Catholic ritual. Where clinical and barbaric science fails, faith and ritual save the possessed child Reagan MacNeil from her demons. The Exorcist created media frenzy in 1973, with increased reports in the popular press (...) of demon possessions, audience members convulsing and vomiting at screenings, and apparent religious and specifically Catholic moral outrage. However, the official Catholic response to The Exorcist was not as reactionary as the press claimed. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Film and Broadcasting officially and publicly condemned the film as being unsuitable for a wide audience, but reviews produced for the office by priests and lay Catholics and correspondence between the Vatican and the USCCB-OFB show that the church at least notionally interpreted it as a positive response to the power of faith. Warner Bros. Studios, however, were keen to promote stories of religious outrage to boost sales and news coverage – a marketing strategy that actively contradicted Friedkin’s respectful and collaborative approach to working with both religious communities and medical professionals. Reports of Catholic outrage were a means of promoting The Exorcist rather than an accurate reflection of the Catholic Church’s nuanced response to the film and its scientific and religious content. (shrink)

Death from cancer is usually due to metastasis. Fortunately, most cells that escape from a primary tumor fail to form metastases. Identifying reasons for this failure will help development of anti‐metastatic therapies. Intravital videomicroscopy (IVVM) can be used to observe cancer cells injected into live animals. Co‐injected microspheres can be used to assess cell survival. These techniques have been used to show that circulating tumor cells generally arrest in the microcirculation and may extravasate with high efficiency. While many tumor cells (...) may survive in a secondary site, only a small subset form micrometastases and only a subset of these micrometastases persist to form vascularized macrometastases. Furthermore, solitary tumor cells may remain dormant for long periods of time in secondary sites. These findings suggest that metastatic growth and angiogenesis are prime targets for anti‐metastatic therapy. BioEssays 24:885–893, 2002. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)