Mandibuloacral dysplasia with type B lipodystrophy in a patient from Chile.

We report the first case of mandibuloacral dysplasia with type B lipodystrophy (MADB) in Chile, South America. MADB is a very rare illness, characterized by short stature, mandibular hypoplasia, acro-osteolysis in hands, feet and clavicles, lipodystrophy, changes in skin pigments and skin calcinosis at knees and hands. Diagnosis was confirmed by molecular study that showed two compound heterozygous variants in ZMPSTE24 gene, c.1085dup p.(Leu362Phefs*19) and c.794A>G p.(Asn265Ser). This article could help in establishing the correlation between genotype and phenotype of this disorder, comparing with other cases previously described.

Kusomoto Ine, the 1st woman-doctor in Japan.

Kusumoto Ine was the first woman to practice Western medicine in Japan. Born in 1827, she will live at a turning point in the history of the country: the end of the Edo period (1600-1868) and the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912). Her birth, as mysterious and romantic as the-rest of her existence, has unleashed the imagination of writers, feuilleton, Japanese manga artists, so much so that - in the burgeoning romances more or less vapid who made her today a popular heroine - the search for authentic life data is sometimes difficult. The socio-cultural status of Japan in the nineteenth century - which provides information on the status of women - reveals a much less romantic story, but still as prodigious. In France, where his father, Philipp von Siebold, a German physician, great Traveller and marvelous botanist, is well known, a biography Kusumoto Ine had never yet been made.

[Jacques Monod: some unpublished pages of his life]. / Jacques Monod Quelques pages inédites de sa vie.

The friendship and affinity of thought between Albert Camus and Jacques Monod were little highlighted in France. A book published in the U.S. in 2013 over the period of the Second World War in France shows their importance. It seemed useful to collect the elements of correspondence and writings reflecting their common concerns,frequent meetings and friendship.

[Three female physicians of the Montpellier faculty at the turn of the 19th century]. / Portraits de trois femmes médecins de la'faculté de Montpellier au tournant du XIXème siècle.

As a part of a study on the census of female students listed in medicine at the faculty of Montpellier since it opened to women in 1868 until the end of the Third Republic, we selected three women who passed their thesis respectively in 1899, 1905 and 1911. Thanks to the documents found in the archives, and the testimony of their descendants, we were able to trace their biography. In obstetrics, surgery and orthopaedics, they were exceptional pioneers and set an example for new vocations.

[Sixty years of HeLa cell cultures]. / Regard sur soixante années de culture de cellules HeLa.

HeLa cells line was established in 1951 from cervical cancer cells taken from a young AfroAmerican patient, Henrietta Lacks, used without the permission of the family. Finally, in 2013, an agreement was established between the family and NIH: for any study, authorization is needed, first referred to a working group comprising scientists, ethicists and two members of the family.

[Story of the tomato through its genome]. / Histoire de la tomate à travers son génome.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a model for fruit development. The tomato history has origins traced back to the early Aztecs. It was not until around the 16(th) century that Europeans were introduced to this fruit, but only as ornamental plant since it was related to nightshade belladona. Then it was accepted into the kitchen all around the world. The genome sequence of the inbred cultivar Heinz 1706 is sequenced and provides interesting insights into the fleshy evolution.

[Greatness and tribulations of Zeiss and Leitz, two famous German optic companies III. Zeiss Ikon and elimination of Emanuel Goldberg]. / Grandeur et vicissitudes de deux grandes compagnies d'optique allemandes III. Zeiss Ikon et l'élimination d'Emanuel Goldberg.

Gathering archival documents to trace the history of the Zeiss company presents no difficulty : they are abundant… except for a period from 1932 to 1945, systematically ignored, and that corresponds to the Nazi period. On the website Zeiss Historica, among the outstanding personalities of the Zeiss company, we note that, for Professor Emanuel Goldberg, the web page « is still under development but an early picture of the professor is available. ¼. But fortunately, Mickael Buckland, a Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information brought the life and the work of Emanuel Goldberg to light. Thanks to him, his works and innovations, who had disappeared from our cultural and scientific heritage, return to light after being erased during fifty years. Goldberg had published dozens of articles, obtained patents, developed cameras, microdots, movie cameras, and he designed what he called a "Statistical Machine ", the first electronic document retrieval machine. In France, if this rediscovery was made known to the world of information science, it has not had the impact it deserved in the scientific world. Therefore it is time to reconstruct his career and his work, and to analyse the reasons why some attempted to erase definitively his name and memory.

[Greatness and tribulations of two German optic companies - II. The Leitz company]. / Grandeur et vicissitudes de deux grandes Compagnies d'optique allemandes - II. La firme Leitz.

A parallel is drawn between the histories of the two most famous German optic companies. Born in the middle of the 19th century, Zeiss and Leitz went through National Socialism. But their histories are very different. Leitz Archive documents abound, especially from one of the main actors, Oskar Barnack (father of the Leica). Ernst Leitz II and his daughter Elsie tried to help the Jewish workers, their families and, later, the Ukrainian women working in the factory. Leitz succeeded to establish what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as «the Leica Freedom Train¼. Their tribulations throw light on the German adventure during the last century.

[Greatness and tribulations of Zeiss and Leitz, two famous German optic companies - I. Zeiss]. / Grandeur et vicissitudes de deux grandes entreprises d'optique allemandes - I. La firme Zeiss.

In a series of three articles, a parallel is drawn between the histories of the two most famous German optic companies, Zeiss and Leitz. Born in the middle of the 19th century, Zeiss went through National Socialism, World War II, partition and reunification of Germany. Archive documents abound, but a careful analysis is necessary to understand or guess the part played by the main actors, as Ernst Abbe, brilliant German physicist, or Küppenbender who eclipsed Emanuel Goldberg, a pioneer in information storage and retrieval. The reunification of Germany provided the opportunity for the reuniting of the eastern and western Carl Zeiss enterprises, creating a macro-economic shock, with radical change for the Carl Zeiss Jena company. Today, Carl Zeiss AG is a global leader in the optical and optoelectronic industry.

[Requiem for Henrietta]. / Requiem pour Henrietta.

Fifty years after Henrietta Lacks died of aggressive glandular cervical cancer, the first cell line - HeLa cell line - is the workhorse of laboratories everywhere. It helped to produce drugs for numerous diseases, including poliomyelitis, Parkinson's, leukemias. But they are so outrageously robust that they contaminated hundred of other cell lines, as far away as Russia. For decades, biologists worked with contaminated cell lines and today, the problem is not yet solved. But the story of HeLa cells is also a moving reflection of racial and ethical issues in medicine in the late half-twentieth century in the USA.

[Ardipithecus ramidus, another link in the Descent of Man]. / Ardipithecus ramidus, un nouveau maillon dans la généalogie de l'homme.

An international team of paleontologists reports in Science an early hominid species, Ardipithecus ramidus and its environment. The features are shared by Sahelanthropus tchadensis, and these similarities confirm that Sahelanthropus is not an extinct ape. They help us bridge the more recent part of human evolution with the early human fossils and older ape fossils.