Edwin Earl Gaar
In 1543 Copernicus developed a radical and revolutionary idea that the earth indeed was not the center of the universe. He chose to publish and accept the wrath of society, as opposed to keeping his new-found knowledge within safe circles. At the same time he therefore allowed his theory to withstand the test of time. This certainly exemplifies the multi-faceted role of the physician/scientist, whose obligation is the creation, conservation and dissemination of medical knowledge to alleviate illness and suffering of mankind. Over the past 25 years, our society has undergone an information explosion parallel with the development and refinement of both the personal computer and the internet. History will show these to be the most significant, long lasting achievements of the late 20th century. I have been fortunate to see this revolution first hand having performed my first medline search on a first generation DOS based IBM PC via a telephone modem in 1984. At that time, a two megabyte hard disc drive was considered exotic. Today, the ipad that I carry to work each day today contains more computing power than the first Apollo capsule that went to the moon. It contains more books and articles than I can fit on my desk. It allows me access to the entire internet at will. The internet has exploded to the point that most children in this country have ready access to it, and use it as a toy. Virtually every radio and television commercial contains the phrase "for more information go to www." Many lay public consider information posted on the internet as "gospel".