On alcohol burners and paper clips

[摘要] Those readers who tend to be titillated into reading articles whose titles include such eye-catching phrases as "a simple method" may well, at first, be disappointed in the contribution of Lister et al. elsewhere in this issue of Pediatrics. Surely, one feels appendices which assault our senses with such polysymbolic multiple equations as these must relate to a method more accurately described as formidable and, at best, academic-certainly not practical!Now, a paper clip is, indeed, simple in concept and design-its functional application is self-evident. Yet, the engineer's calculations and mechanical drawings of the machinery which enabled production of such a basic instrument of civilized living are, no doubt, a good deal more complicated than Listers' illustrations and appendices.

[学科分类] 儿科学