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Letters to Harvey Sparks
Jaime R. Villablanca writes: “Thank you for contacting me on behalf
of the Senior Physiologist Committee.
“Given the tone of your letter, it appears that you never received my letter
in which I reviewed some of the same issues in your recent letter. I will
quote here a key sentence of that letter: ‘I am convinced now that the
thrill and awe of discovery, i,e., the essence of the scientific endeavor,
is one of the most satisfying experiences that we humans can have. I would
go for it over and over again.’
“I continue to be excited by the motivation above which, I believe, is even
stronger when ‘discovery’ involves the workings of the brain. For example, I
am now in the process of submitting for publication an updating review of my
work on the functional role of the caudate nucleus. Thereafter, I will start
working on a solicited book chapter on REM sleep based on our work in
animals with a permanent brain stem transection. This certainly means that I
have to keep updating my knowledge in the areas which have been the subject
of my research. It seems that I am fulfilling this purpose since I still get
invitations to participate in advanced teaching (e.g., in May I traveled to
Madrid, Spain, to participate in an intensive postgraduate course on
sleeping and waking).
“I have been lucky in that my Department has allowed me to keep my old
office. Perhaps this is due, in part, to my continued involvement in
University activities. For example, I am a member of the Council of Advisors
for UCLA junior faculty. I truly enjoy these activities.
“On a more personal note I feel proud to be contributing new academicians to
the university. Two of my postdoctoral students now hold full professorships
here at UCLA. Moreover, our daughter, Amparo, is a professor in the School
of Medicine at the UC Davis Campus, our son, Pablo, is also a full Professor
(as well as the Chief of the Neuroradiology Division), here at UCLA, and our
son, Fraincis, is a Professor of Biology at CalPoly San Luis Obispo.
“Also on a personal note, I am finally able to make time for an activity I
always wanted to pursue but never could, i.e., learning music. I am taking
piano lessons twice a month and enjoying the playing and learning immensely.
Moreover, the ‘alien’ field of Cosmology fascinates me and I attempt to
follow the main discoveries in that area, too.
“All of the above, I must acknowledge, would not have been possible without
the support and understanding of my beloved wife Guillermina.
“Thanks, once again, for the opportunity to write this note.”
Lester VanMiddlesworth writes: “For the past 70 years I have been
impressed by the role of the halogen, iodine, in the mammalian organism and
by the tools that have been developed to study thyroid and goiter
technology. From the presence of goiters and cretins of the late 1920’s and
through periods of radioactive fallout during the past 50 years, the
adventures of iodine metabolism have been associated with biological
ingenuity and discovery of improved relationships. We have developed methods
to improve adaptation to our environment. These processes have involved
continuous experimental efforts to test, to understand and to improve our
adaptation and our biological roles among the living and the nonliving
participants.
“The whole process has been observed and tested with great satisfaction and
with realization that each observation is proof that we have only begun our
discovery, and vigilance must be continuous. The processes will surely
continue indefinitely! Each solution introduces new problems of greater
interest.”
Franz von Bruchhausen writes: “I was born at Munster (Westfalia) on
September 2, 1929 as a son of a Pharmaceutical Professor. Since 1936, I
visited the elementary school of Wuerzburg and the old-languished gymnasium
in Brunswick. Since 1847 I studied medicine in Gottingen, Madrid (Spain) and
Wurzburg and Chemistry at Braunschweig, Editorship of handbook volumes
(insulin (Platelest and their factors). Since 1975, author of antimicrobial
Chemotherapies in a widespread text promotion in 1955 (MD) on venoms of
beerosts and snakes. Since 1960 I worked in the Pharmacological Institute of
Berlin-Dahlem on endocrinological themese (lipoxinases, prostaglandin
synthetase, anthocyanidines and platelet activating factor) book for
students (Pharmacotherapy/Clinical Pharmacology by Fulgraff/Palm edit).
Editorship of Hagers Handbook of Practical Pharmacists 1993-1999. Since
1994, Pensioneering. Thereafter, through the end of 2008 chairman of Ethical
Commission of country Brandenburg and working on Questions of age and aging
(Co-authorhship of textbook Medicamental Therapy of Older Patients) and on
bacteriophages.” |
