Slow ideas (2013)

> Some people criticized anesthesia as a “needless luxury”; clergymen deplored its use to reduce pain during childbirth as a frustration of the Almighty’s designs.

It’s become fashionable to take potshots at Christianity, justified or otherwise.

From a post on internationalskeptics.com[1]

> British science historian Colin A. Russell, in "The Conflict of Science and Religion" (published in The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia), refers to "the alleged opposition to James Young Simpson (1811-70) for his introduction of chloroform anesthesia in midwifery": Quote: Despite repeated claims of clerical harassment, the evidence is almost nonexistent. Insofar as there was any conflict, it was between the London and Edinburgh medical establishments or between obstetricians and surgeons. The origins of that myth may be located in an inadequately documented footnote in White[.]”

[1] http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t...

Diffusion of Innovations is an established corpus of knowledge. Including, of course, common causes of variation in speeds of adoption.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

Discussed in 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10175493.

Inspired by the recent Freakonomics podcast interview with the author Dr Atul Gawande? I recommend listening to it as well if you're interested in an opinion about modern healthcare delivery systems.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/atul-gawande/

Great article. Goes into how to effectively influence people to change.

The biggest takeaway for me is that people who are reluctant to change are going to be more so if they see you as someone trying to find mistakes in what they do. Instead they should see you as a friend.

Very eye-opening, and refreshing reminder that soft skills matter.

> Morton would not divulge the composition of the gas, which he called Letheon, because he had applied for a patent. But Bigelow reported that he smelled ether in it (ether was used as an ingredient in certain medical preparations), and that seems to have been enough. The idea spread like a contagion, travelling through letters, meetings, and periodicals.

Interesting. I wonder what would have happened if Bigelow didn't say a thing. The way this is put, it looks like yet another case where disregarding "intellectual property" is a net positive for the world.

I just wonder how many decades are going to pass before one of those new super batteries, caries vaccines / tooth regeneration techniques or cancer cures invented every year is going to be made available to the people.

BTW did you know that umifenovir (arbidol) has recently been found[1] to be ~100% effective against flaviviruses (that cause e.g. tick-borne encephalitis, dengue fever etc.)? But I doubt American doctors are going to start prescribing it any soon if ever.

[1] http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/domaci/2457559-nadejny-cesk...