Das Gehirn eines Anästhesisten unterscheidet sich grundsätzlich von dem eines Chirurgen...

Thinking caps on
Tony Delamothe, deputy editor, BMJ
tdelamothe@bmj.com

When I was a medical student a helpful anaesthetist explained that surgeons wore caps in theatre to stop the bright lights from transilluminating their skulls. Now an anaesthetist has lifted the lid and discovered that surgeons have brains very similar to those of higher primates, with surprisingly complex wiring. Apparently, anaesthetists’ brains differ markedly from surgeons’(doi:10.1136/bmj.b5490). Who would have thought?

While this is brand new research, readers will discover many articles in this issue with a historical theme—intentionally chosen to mark the year that our complete archive (1840-2009) was made available online. We’ve included a short description of the nine videos we commissioned to bring to life some of the important figures from the archive (doi:10.1136/bmj.b5439). They’re vieweable free at bmj.com/videos. And we publish the winners of our £1000 prize for the most interesting use of the archive. Tom Jefferson and Eliana Ferroni reviewed what the BMJ published on the Spanish flu 1918-1924, unearthing observations that may have lessons for today (doi:10.1136/bmj.b5313).

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b5471