Bøger af David Finkelstein

Few artworks have been the subject of more extensive modern interpretation than Melencolia I by renowned artist, mathematician, and scientist Albrecht Dürer (1514). And yet, did each of these art experts and historians miss a secret manifesto that Dürer included within the engraving? This is the first work to decrypt secrets within Melencolia I based not on guesswork, but Dürer's own writings, other subliminal artists that inspired him (i.e., Leonardo da Vinci), the Jewish and Christian Bibles, and books that inspired Dürer (De Occulta Philosophia and the Hieorglyphica). To read the covert message of Melencolia I is to understand that Dürer was a humanist in his interests in mathematics, science, poetry, and antiquity. This book recognizes his unparalleled power with the burin, his mathematical skill in perspective, his dedication to precise language, and his acute observation of nature. Melencolia I may also be one of the most controversial (and at the time most criminal) pieces of art as it hid Dürer's disdain for the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Kaiser, and the Holy Roman Empire from the general public for centuries. This book closely ties the origins of philosophy (science) and the work of a Renaissance master together, and will be of interest for anyone who loves scientific history, art interpretation, and secret manifestos.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterised clinically by various non-motor and progressive motor symptoms, pathologically by loss of dopamine producing cells and intraneuronal cytoplasmic inclusions composed primarily of ?-synuclein. By the time a patient first presents with symptoms of Parkinson's disease at the clinic, a significant proportion of the cells in the substantia nigra have already been destroyed. This degeneration progresses despite the current therapies until the cell loss is so great that the quality of normal life is compromised. The dopamine precursor levodopa is the most valuable drug currently available for the treatment of PD. However for most PD patients, the optimal clinical benefit from levodopa decreases around five to six years of treatment. The aim of the chapters of this book is to work towards an understanding in the mechanisms of degeneration and to develop disease modifying therapies.

The Scottish publishing house of William Blackwoood & Sons, founded in 1804, was a major force in 19th- and early 20th-century British literary history, publishing a diverse group of important authors, including George Eliot and Joseph Conrad. This is a look at its success and eventual demise.