Wireless: The Life and Death of Guglielmo Marconi.

With little training in physics, Guglielmo Marconi developed the invention that stunned the world by wirelessly connecting ships and continents. Ten years before his death, he sustained a myocardial infarction followed by unmistakable angina pectoris. His personality and unhappy family life limited his ability to cope with his disease and to deal with Italy's most respected physicians. But their descriptions of his diagnosis and management are surprisingly few. Poor record keeping, intentional news suppression of his failing health or limited medical opportunities could be the reason for this lack of information. He died in 1937 when the value of electrocardiograms and X-rays were recognized (he had neither), but therapeutic options were severely limited. To gain insight into his care, we compared contemporary Italian understanding of coronary heart disease to British and American teachings. When he died of an acute coronary syndrome, heart failure and dysrhythmias, he was attended only by medical staff, but by none of his large family.

Nikola Tesla: Why was he so much resisted and forgotten? [Retrospectroscope].

Recently, during the Christmas season, a friend of mine visited me and, sneaking a look at my bookshelves, found two rather old Nikola Tesla biographies, which I had used to prepare a "Retrospectroscope" column for the then-named IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine when our dear friend Alvin Wald was its editor-inchief [2]. Eighteen years have elapsed since then; soon, the idea came up of revamping the article. Cynthia Weber, the magazine's current associate editor, considered it acceptable, and here is the new note divided in two parts: that is, a slightly revised version of the original article followed by new material, including some quite interesting information regarding Tesla's homes and laboratories. On top of this, Tesla is not devoid of a science fiction touch, as mentioned at the end.