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Resumen: En las últimas décadas se ha desencadenado una verdadera proliferación disciplinar y subdisciplinar tanto en el ámbito médico como en la ciencia en general. Esta tendencia podría ser parcialmente explicada por dos hechos diacrónicos e interconectados dialécticamente: la profundización de la división técnica, social e internacional del trabajo del mundo capitalista globalizado, y el triunfo del Programa Reduccionista, desarrollado principalmente por el empirismo lógico del Círculo de Viena. El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo ahondar el debate sobre los intrincados vínculos entre la medicina, la biología, la filosofía, el reduccionismo y el pensamiento complejo, a partir de la utilización de dos ejemplos: un informe de caso de la medicina actual y la situación experimentada por un afamado científico norteamericano, Stephen Jay Gould, a propósito de su primer cáncer, un mesotelioma abdominal. Hemos observado cómo los dos hechos históricos mencionados han venido operando como una súper estructura de ''pinza'', descuartizando y comprimiendo al mismo tiempo al objeto a conocer, a las teorías que permiten su estudio y al propio sujeto que recibe el conocimiento. Esta jibarización del logos constituye un verdadero problema para la salud pública desde el momento en que impacta, omnipresente, en el modelo médico hegemónico actual, propiciando actitudes potencialmente peligrosas para los diversos integrantes de los sistemas de salud.

Abstract: In recent decades, a disciplinary and subdisciplinary proliferation has triggered both in the medical fields and science in general. This trend may be partially explained by two diachronic, dialectically interconnected facts: the deepening of technical, social and international division of labor in the globalized capitalist world, and the triumph of the reductionist program, mainly developed by the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle. This paper aims to deepen the debate on the intricate links between medicine, biology, philosophy, reductionism and complex thought, by using two examples: a case report of current medicine and the situation experienced by a famous American scientist, Stephen Jay Gould, about his first cancer, an abdominal mesothelioma. We have witnessed how the two above-mentioned historical facts have been operating as a super-structure like a pair of ''tweezers'', dismembering and compressing at the same moment the object of knowledge, the theories that allow their study, and the subject that receives the knowledge. This jibarization of logos is a real problem for public health, from the moment that it impacts, omnipresent, in the actual hegemonic medical model, leading to potentially dangerous attitudes to the various components of health systems.

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RESUMO

In recent decades, a disciplinary and subdisciplinary proliferation has triggered both in the medical fields and science in general. This trend may be partially explained by two diachronic, dialectically interconnected facts: the deepening of technical, social and international division of labor in the globalized capitalist world, and the triumph of the reductionist program, mainly developed by the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle. This paper aims to deepen the debate on the intricate links between medicine, biology, philosophy, reductionism and complex thought, by using two examples: a case report of current medicine and the situation experienced by a famous American scientist, Stephen Jay Gould, about his first cancer, an abdominal mesothelioma. We have witnessed how the two above-mentioned historical facts have been operating as a super-structure like a pair of "tweezers", dismembering and compressing at the same moment the object of knowledge, the theories that allow their study, and the subject that receives the knowledge. This jibarization of logos is a real problem for public health, from the moment that it impacts, omnipresent, in the actual hegemonic medical model, leading to potentially dangerous attitudes to the various components of health systems.

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RESUMO

Between 2003 and 2012, 605 southern right whales (SRW; Eubalaena australis) were found dead along the shores of Península Valdés (PV), Argentina. These deaths included alarmingly high annual losses between 2007 and 2012, a peak number of deaths (116) in 2012, and a significant number of deaths across years in calves-of-the-year (544 of 605 [89.9%]; average = 60.4 yr(-1)). Post-mortem examination and pathogen testing were performed on 212 whales; 208 (98.1%) were calves-of-the-year and 48.0% of these were newborns or neonates. A known or probable cause of death was established in only a small number (6.6%) of cases. These included ship strike in a juvenile and blunt trauma or lacerations (n = 5), pneumonia (n = 4), myocarditis (n = 2), meningitis (n = 1), or myocarditis and meningitis (n = 1) in calves. Ante-mortem gull parasitism was the most common gross finding. It was associated with systemic disease in a single 1-2 mo old calf. Immunohistochemical labeling for canine distemper virus, Toxoplasma gondii and Brucella spp., and PCR for cetacean morbillivirus (CeMV), influenza A, and apicomplexan protozoa were negative on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung and brain samples from a subset of whales; PCR for Brucella spp. was positive in a newborn/neonate with pneumonia. Skin samples from whales with gull parasitism were PCR negative for CeMV, poxvirus, and papillomavirus. This is the first long-term study to investigate and summarize notable post-mortem findings in the PV SRW population. Consistent, significant findings within or between years to explain the majority of deaths and those in high-mortality years remain to be identified.

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