In the second half of the twentieth century, the medical community adopted the scientific method as a basis for practice. It seemed that after thousands of years the way was paved for a regulated process: from the laboratory through the clinical trial to the patient's bed. But it soon became clear that the road is neither straight nor continuous. Clinical research only offers unequivocal answers in a few cases. The balance between benefit and risk does not end with a statistical calculation; A significant part of the consideration of the factors that determine the change of medical practice is based on values, worldview and interests. Many factors are involved in the path leading from the laboratory to the patient: scientists, doctors, pharmaceutical and technology companies, politicians, regulators, and at the end of the path stand the patients themselves. Each of these factors uses the means at its disposal to influence the final result - the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of the patient. The path of progress from the laboratory to the patient is also not continuous: sometimes the intervals between steps are large, sometimes sudden jumps occur after a prolonged period of slowing down and even stopping. Scientific and clinical research depends on the initiative, skills and determination of the researchers, and not a little on coincidences and has no fixed timetables. This book is dedicated to revealing the evolution of medical practice, to identifying fundamental changes in practice and to describing the winding way in which they were accepted and assimilated into the body of medical knowledge and the mutual relationship between the doctor and the patient.

Korot is devoted to the study of the philosophical, sociological and ethical aspects of the history of medicine and Judaism. The topics covered by the journal include: medicine in Jewish and Hebrew sources, the history of Jewish physicians, medicine in Palestine and Israel and medicine during the Nazi period. Each volume contains mostly English-language articles, together with some Hebrew contributions (abstracted in English). The "Historical Notes" and "Notes and Events" sections cover recent important developments and events in the above mentioned topics around the world. Each issue also includes several reviews of noteworthy books and contributions to the field.

In October 2018, results of a randomized controlled trial showed an excess mortality mainly from cancer, among “healthy” people over the age of 70 who took aspirin, in contrast to many clinical studies previously published. This event was another record in the crisis in scientific medicine that has been unfolding before our eyes in recent decades. In this book the author tries to trace the causes of the shocks that afflict the medical knowledge base, and to offer solutions to strengthen and stabilize it. This book includes four parts. The first part discusses aspirin as a test case for development of clinical research. The second part is devoted to a discussion of the seven foundations of modern clinical research while revealing the pros and cons of each and their relative contribution to the pursuit of scientific truth. In the third part, five groundbreaking discoveries are examined. In each of them, the process that led to the discovery is deciphered, emphasizing the findings making clinical research, on the way from bench to bedside, redundant. In the fourth part the author exposes the rules of the competition among scientist, and determines its impact on the conduct of research and its results.

This book describes the increasing interactions between wildlife and people in human settlements in Israel and beyond.

There over 1,300 species of bats in the world, which constitute one-third of the total sum of mammals in Israel. Most people are not aware of them and their fantastic ways of living, because contrary to other mammals, bats do not walk or swim (although they are capable of doing both), but rather fly actively. They are also nocturnal, and unlike most mammals and birds their main sense is not sight but hearing. In order to find their way around, bats omit calls and listen to the echoes they produce in order to navigate. This is also how they find their prey, which is comprised of a variety of animals such as insects, scorpions, fish, frogs, and toads, as well as nectar and fruit. Each species of bats has a special diet and unique behavioural , anatomical and physiological adaptations for this purpose. Bats are beneficial to people by pollinating flowers of many plants, consuming enormous quantities of insects that spread malaria and damage agricultural crops and producing valuable fertilizer-guano. In spite of these benefits, people around the world have created many superstitious beliefs and legends about bats and their behavior. This book describes the biology of bats and their complex relationships with humanity.

Scientific investigation is a cognitive activity, aimed at revealing the truth of nature. Politics is an activity of intent, aimed at realizing specific values derive from subjective judgment. Political activity by scientists is a necessity arising out of the bitter competition over resources. Uncontrolled competition may endanger the ability of science to realize its aims, and will consequently undermine the trust of the society on which its very existence is based. The synthesis between science and politics depends on the interrelationship between daring and humility. Daring is the basis of the drive towards vigorous effort to expose the truth of nature. Humility is the origin of self-discipline and cooperation between individuals. The premise of this book is that recognition of the narrative behind scientific achievements is vital for understanding the scientific enterprise. Besides theoretical discussion the book depicts and interprets case histories relating to the conflict between politics and science: among them, the notebooks of Pasteur, the land of Darwin, the double helix, the understanding of aspirin, lithium and bipolar disorder, and the association between autism and immunization.

The theory of evolution evolved in the last 200 years. The book presents, for the first time in Hebrew, a survey of the ideas brought forward by scientists about the origin and the diversity of the living world, from the 18th to the end of the 20th century. Every chapter focuses on one of these scientists, to illustrate the uniqueness of his ideas against the views prevalent at the time. The contributions of Georges Cuvier and Jean Baptiste Lamarck in France, and of Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Thomas Henry Huxley in England, are emphasized, as well as the opposition to Darwin's views expressed by Bishop Sam Wilberforce, the biologist George Mivart, and the engineer Fleeming Jenkin. The description of the first mutations in plants and the re-discovery of a paper by Gregor Mendel in 1900 began the era of genetics. The Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries suggested a theory of mutations which was enthusiastically endorsed by the geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan when many "mendelian" mutations were discovered in his laboratory cultures of Drosophila. Genetic methods were employed in field studies of Drosophila by Theodosius Dobzhansky and his associates, and cooperation with Ernst Mayr yielded the genetic definition of the term species. Following the geneticists, mathematicians developed the theory of population genetics in evolution - R.A.Fisher, J. B. S.Haldane, and Sewall Wright. The combination of these models with Darwin's natural selection yielded the "Modern Synthesis " of the theory of evolution. Dissenting views of Richard Goldschmidt caused re-thinking about some established evolutionary principles.The introduction of electrophoretic and later molecular methods into field research on evolution in the mid-20th century caused a change in emphasis, giving more weight to random processes than to natural selection in evolution at the molecular level (The "neutrality" hypothesis of Motoo Kimura). The theory of evolution will no doubt continue to evolve in the future.

The Truth of Scientific Medicine is an attempt to deal with one of the crucial problems in modern medicine: the rapid rate of exchange of truths serving as the foundation of medical practice. Unstable truths are a source of skepticism and concern among many physicians. They are also one of the main reasons for the crisis undermining the trust between patient and physician. The quest for the truth in modern medicine passes through the six core concepts of scientific truth: paradigms, methods, borders, criteria, interpretation and inference. The author deliberates each of these concepts through concrete examples at three levels: the historical, the theoretical and the political. The issues serving as the basis of the discussion are of concern to the medical world, and appear at the core of professional and sometimes the public debate: management of coronary heart disease, treatment of bronchial asthma, hormone replacement in menopausal women, early detection of breast cancer, drug therapy for diabetes, conventional vs. alternative medicine.

How did cooperative social groups evolve? This is one of the major questions that concern evolutionary biologists ever since Darwin. One of the first explanations was selection at the level of the group: groups with cooperating individuals increase their reproduction and survival as a whole. Alternative explanations exist, such as selection at the level of the individual: a former beneficiary later rewords a cooperating organism or the seemingly altruist increases its social status thus increases its chances of finding a mate. Another explanation involves selection at the level of the gene: although an individual helping its relatives reduces its direct fitness, measured by its expected number of viable offspring, it enhances the frequency of genes identical to its own in the population. Each one of these models claims centrality or even exclusivity - theoretical primacy - in answering the question of the evolution of altruism. The book is an original and interdisciplinary contribution to the study of the evolution of cooperation. It facilitates a renewed discussion, from a fresh point of view, of classical problems in the fields of evolutionary biology and philosophy of biology; and raises fascinating questions about the history and sociology of science and the complex ties between science and values. From the Introduction by Prof. Yemima Ben Menahem and Prof. Eva Jablonka: Shavit's book discusses the different explanations to the evolution of altruism and how evolutionary researchers commonly decide between them. The author elucidates the nature of the problems and predicaments in this field, tries to identify their sources, and by using these insights offer new ways of thought that will avoid such pit falls in the future. The disposition to undermine observations and experiments of the local population while seeking the cause for universal altruism, and use of a narrow concept of 'group', biases researchers toward a semantic dispute, which completely denies group selection or spots this process everywhere. According to the author the roots of this practice lie, at least partly, in the socio-political echoes of the concept of 'group selection' since World War II. The author explicates an implicit and multifaceted dialog between science and values and argues for a plurality of selection processes in the evolution of altruism. This book is intended for anyone interested in the nature behind the well-known about the human nature. .

The book The Truth of Scientific Medicine tries to cope with one of the central problems of modern medicine: the quick pace in which the truths in the base of medicine practice are changed. Unstable truths are the reason for doubts and fears among many who practice medicine. Furthermore, they are one of the main reasons for the credibility crisis between doctor and patient.

What is life? What is death? Is the death penalty legitimate still? How does suicide fit in with survival instincts? Researchers representing the natural sciences, humanities, psychology, medicine and law, engage in fundamental questions concerning the nature of life and its value: Life and death; Is there extraterrestrial life; What is the will to live and how to understand suicide; Is there a significance and reason to life ; Perception of life as a biblical faith and Jewish thought; The status of the embryo in ancient times and in our time; The problem of the death penalty in the reality of life in Israel today; Dealing with the Finality of life; And "life after life" according to the Bible. Examining each of these aspects of the concept of 'life' continuously, reveals both the complexity of the subject and the complexity of the human spirit needed for it.