Word: functional
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...Harry Knowles of the popular ain't-it-cool-news.com picked the defiantly weird Requiem for a Dream as his No. 1). The web is where traditional criticism is democratized, where the ?lite meet defeat at the hands of the cyber-rabble. You don?t need experience, insight or a spell- check function (Note to all websters: "its" is a possessive, "it?s" is a contraction), just passion and a lot of spare time...
...even humans. In a 1975 book audaciously titled Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, he charted in evolutionary terms the social architecture of a wide range of species--their breeding behavior, gender dominance, caste systems. "In a Darwinian sense," Wilson wrote, "the organism does not live for itself. Its primary function is not even to reproduce other organisms; it reproduces genes, and it serves as their temporary carrier...
...Brunswick, N.J., was born on New Year's Day at the precise midpoint of the 20th century. Back then, the thinking about spinal-cord injury was straightforward: When a cord is damaged, it's damaged. There's nothing that can be done after an injury to restore the function that was so suddenly lost...
...question that received wisdom, but in 1980 he began to have his doubts. Spinal cords, he knew, experience progressive damage after they're injured, including swelling and inflammation, which may worsen the condition of the already damaged tissue. If that secondary insult could be relieved with drugs, might some function be preserved...
Young spent a decade looking into the question, and in 1990 he co-led a landmark study showing that when high doses of a steroid known as methylprednisolone are administered within eight hours of an injury, about 20% of function can be saved. Twenty percent is hardly everything, but it can often be the difference between breathing unassisted or relying on a respirator, walking or spending one's life in a wheelchair. "This discovery led to a revolution in neuroprotective therapy," Young says...