Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) is the intensive feeling that the own body will be "more completed" after amputation of a limb. What all people affected by BIID have in common, is that they ultimately wish to be handicapped. But the personality profiles of the most sufferers are in the average range. Many sufferers - mostly men - are well educated and successful. Prof. Dr. Aglaja Stirn, Dr. Aylin Thiel et al. deliver insights into the previously unexplored disorder.

Together with heroin, crack cocaine has been the joint number one drug in the marginalised drug user´s scene in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) for almost two decades. Bernd Werse and Lukas Sarvary asked in a qualitative study: Why? Many respondents could not refer to particular motives for crack use. Instead, the drug was often described as dominating one´s mind and routine. A majority described staying in the core area of the drug scene (Bahnhofsviertel) as the strongest trigger for use. This perception underlines the significance of social factors for the user´s habits. Public and individual beliefs about the addictive potential of the drug have reinforced each other, leading to the ubiquitous ´motiveless´ use of the drug.

Extracorporeal Circulation in cardiac surgery: One of the unresolved controversies of cardiopulmonary bypass procedures has been whether there are benefits to using pulsatile flow rather than conventional non-pulsatile perfusion. Dr. Akif Ündar (Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center/USA) summarizes the clinical benefits and disadvantages of pulsatile flow (in: Extracorporeal Circulation in Theory and Practice):

The underwater cables that connect nations could go offline for months, the study warns. The sun is always showering Earth with a mist of magnetized particles known as solar wind. For the most part, our planet's magnetic shield blocks this electric wind from doing any real damage to Earth or its inhabitants, instead sending those particles skittering toward the poles and leaving behind a pleasant aurora in their wake.