Insights and Updates

In the morning, when I open the window of my study, I can always hear the clear, melodious call of a Chinese hwamei (laughingthrush). I do not know whether it is a bird kept by a household downstairs or a wild one in the woods…

Danggui Longhui Wan (Angelica, Aloe, Gentian Pill) is a Chinese patent medicine. Its composition is: Danggui (Angelica sinensis), Longdancao (Gentiana), Zhizi (Gardenia), Huanglian (Coptis), Huangbo (Phellodendron) and Huangqin (Scutellaria) each 30 g; Shu Dahuang (prepared rhubarb), Luhui (aloe) and Qingdai (indigo naturalis) each 15 g;…

The average lifespan of the Peking Man (“Beijing apeman”) of Zhoukoudian was only about 15 years. After more than 500,000 years of evolution, the human life expectancy has now reached the seventies or eighties. In some long-lived countries and regions it is even higher; for…

Ling Yunpeng was a veteran TCM physician in China who mastered both internal medicine and external medicine. Dr. Ling inherited the family tradition of external medicine from childhood and practiced for more than thirty years with rich experience. He believed that “the practice of external…

About six or seven years ago, my older male cousin treated my father to a meal at a restaurant in our hometown county town. Restaurants in Hubei cook their dishes very spicy; after that meal, my father developed severe constipation, which then troubled him on…

The onion is the bulb of Allium cepa L. of the lily family (Liliaceae), also known as scallion head, ball onion, round onion, jade onion, or Dutch onion. Prized for its delicious flavor and high nutritional and health value, it is hailed as the “queen…

The Bletilla (Baiji) I planted on the balcony of my study has flowered. What I grow is a white-flowered variant given to me by a friend; its blossoms are pure white and elegant, resembling daffodils, and have become a sight in my study—a welcome surprise.

Chinese herb Banzhilian (Scutellaria barbata D. Don) is the whole plant of a member of the genus Scutellaria (skullcap) in the mint family (Lamiaceae), and it is a commonly used herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for various tumor diseases. The flowers of Banzhilian closely…

The Biology of Cancer is a textbook of molecular oncology by Robert A. Weinberg, professor of biology at MIT and member of the US National Academy of Sciences. It is regarded as a classic in the life sciences and is admired by students, teachers, researchers,…

Humans have not conquered cancer, yet the literature on it already fills warehouses. Merely reading it all is impossible; no one could finish in a lifetime. And by the time we finish the existing literature, new research may have overturned the earlier conclusions. Oncology experts…