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When your dog is vomiting at 2 a.m. or your cat suddenly stops eating, you aren’t thinking about private equity, holding companies, or corporate structures. You’re thinking about trust . You want a veterinarian who listens, explains, and puts your pet ahead of profit. But behind the friendly faces at the front desk, the ownership of veterinary hospitals has changed dramatically. In many countries, a growing share of clinics are now owned or funded by large corporations and pr

In the past few months, three papers using dogs as models for brain tumor research have landed on my desk, and they’ve been hard to stop thinking about. The first , by John Rossmeisl and colleagues, explores how high-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE) reshapes tumor-derived extracellular vesicles and nudges the brain’s immune landscape. https://www.scilit.com/publications/4f97ed7da675ba231c52663a0d387ed9 The second , led by Sheila Carrera-Justiz, reports a system

The ginkgo leaf holds two distinct lobes on a single stem. You can think of one lobe as the independent practice  and the other as the corporate practice . They look separate, even pull in slightly different directions, but they’re joined at the same base: the veterinary profession’s oath to relieve suffering, protect animal welfare, and serve the bond between people and their animals. Hold the leaf up to the light and you see those veins radiating out like a river delta. Tha

There is a Ginkgo tree at the end of my street .... In summer it is almost forgettable. Just another green shape among poles and power lines. But in late autumn it does something extraordinary. Overnight, the leaves turn a clear, unwavering yellow, and then, sometimes in a single windy day, they let go. The footpath becomes a carpet of fan-shaped coins, as if someone had spilled a jar of sunlight at the cul-de-sac. Standing there with a rake in my hand, it’s easy to think thi

In climate science, we talk about tipping points , externalities , and a just transition . These are not just abstract terms for melting ice sheets and coal plants. They are also a remarkably accurate vocabulary for what is happening to veterinary medicine in 2025. Veterinary care, like the climate, is being reshaped by powerful economic forces that gather momentum quietly and then suddenly feel unstoppable. The question in both arenas is no longer whether change is occurring

There were two paintings in my childhood home that felt less like decoration and more like members of the family. One hung above my father’s desk: The Macquarie River near Dubbo, NSW by Colin Parker , painted in the early 1960s. The other watched over my mother’s room: Through Winter Trees  by Colleen Parker , dated 1984, and purchased by my mother after my father’s death. For decades I thought of them simply as Dad’s painting  and Mum’s painting . Two separate choices, two

There aren’t many marketing professors who become household names, fewer still who manage to turn balance sheets and antitrust policy into compelling storytelling. Scott Galloway , NYU Stern professor, serial entrepreneur, podcaster, columnist, and now commentator on masculinity, has somehow done exactly that. At a moment when tech feels untouchable, politics feels tribal, and a lot of young people feel lost, Galloway has positioned himself as a kind of blunt, data-driven unc

When Georgia O’Keeffe arrived in New Mexico in 1929, she described it as love at first sight. O’Keefe said: When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country. Her words would later echo through decades of tourism campaigns and art history textbooks, shaping the mythology of O’Keeffe Country . A place imagined as vast, empty, and waiting to be claimed. But from an Indigenous perspective, the land O’Keeffe called mine was never hers to take. It a

In Marvel Comics, the Juggernaut  (aka. Cain Marko ) has a brutally simple power set. Once he starts moving, he cannot be stopped. Gifted with mystical strength by the entity Cyttorak , he becomes a living avalanche. Walls crumble, streets tear open, heroes scatter. And yet, for all his brute force, he has a weakness. Remove his helmet and telepaths can pierce his mind, slow him, even bring him down. The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak: Where the Power Comes From Juggernaut was not b

I was walking along a cobbled street in the heart of Kraków, half tourist and half daydreamer, when the scene unfolded. It was one of those soft afternoons when the light seems to linger on everything. On the stone facades. On the tram wires overhead. On the small clusters of people drifting between cafés and churches. A busker a block away was playing something vaguely familiar on an accordion. The air smelled of coffee, caramel, and city dust. And then I saw them. Four nuns

In Part 1 , I asked a simple question: Where, in 2025, does our profession openly and respectfully challenge one another’s ideas? We talked about the demise of letters to the editor, the rise of VIN and WhatsApp groups, and the strange new world where LinkedIn has become a kind of global hallway conversation for veterinary medicine. But there’s another question sitting behind all of this, and it’s more uncomfortable: Who benefits when veterinarians say less in public? Because

Once upon a time, if you wanted to challenge an idea in veterinary medicine, you wrote a letter. You read an article in a journal, you disagreed with the conclusions, or the statistics, or the ethics, and you put pen to paper. A few weeks or months later, your letter appeared in print alongside a reply from the author. The whole profession could see the debate, in black and white, preserved for the record. It wasn’t perfect, but it was authentic  and ours . It was slow, thoug

Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci , never saw a sunflower. Yet the sequence of numbers he revealed in 1202, namely 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, describes the hidden architecture of nature itself. Spirals in pine cones, seeds, shells, and galaxies all whisper the same mathematical poetry. Each new term born from the sum of the two before, each life form echoing the balance between order and chaos. Fibonacci and the Logic of Life In plants, Fibonacci numbers are not a

In veterinary medicine, as in many professions, we often celebrate the stars . The surgeon with flawless hands. The diagnostician who spots the zebra in a herd of horses. The researcher whose name appears first on a publication. But in doing so, we sometimes forget that modern veterinary care is not a solo performance. It is a symphony. One that falters if even a single instrument is ignored. The Problem with Stardom in Veterinary Culture Most clinics and teaching hospitals

Artificial intelligence has entered the world of scientific publishing with astonishing speed. What began as a convenience for grammar correction and language polishing has evolved into something far more potent: an analytical assistant , a reference engine , and, increasingly, a silent reviewer . The appearance of AI-generated text in manuscripts, and even AI-assisted peer reviews, has raised fundamental questions. What happens when artificial intelligence becomes not just a

For much of the late 20th century, veterinary neurology and neurosurgery were disciplines dominated by the United States, driven by large academic centers, NIH-funded comparative studies, and the early establishment of the Neurology Specialty of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) . Yet, over the past two decades, a quiet but unmistakable seismic shift has occurred. Europe has not only caught up but now appears to lead the world in research productiv

Early morning light reveals them. Silken mandalas suspended between stems, shimmering with dew. Orb webs are among nature’s most exquisite creations, spun by spiders whose patience and precision rival any architect’s. Yet, within these masterpieces lies an even deeper mystery. A decoration, often bright white and geometric, stitched into the web’s center. Scientists call it the stabilimentum , though its true purpose has long been a puzzle. Not for Strength, but for Story The

Once upon a time, bedtime meant a parent’s voice softening into the rhythm of a story. Perhaps a worn copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar  or Goodnight Moon  held between lamplight and pillow. Those few minutes before sleep were sacred. A ritual of connection, language, and imagination. But in the glow of our digital age, this nightly ritual is quietly changing. With parents stretched thin and technology creeping into every corner of family life, traditional storybooks are be

There are words that feel like memories even when we hear them for the first time. Halcyon Days  is one of those phrases. Soft, nostalgic, and strangely luminous. It evokes warmth, calm seas, and a sense of time suspended. We use it to describe the peaceful chapters of our lives, yet its origin is not in leisure or luxury, but in love, grief, and transformation. The Myth Beneath the Calm In Greek mythology,  Alcyone  was the daughter of Aeolus , the god of the winds, and wife

There’s an Italian phrase that seems to hum rather than speak. Sta’ calma . Two words. A pause disguised as instruction. It doesn’t strike the ear like a command. It drifts through the air like a breeze through a curtain. In English, stay calm  feels utilitarian, even slightly anxious. A plea amid commotion. But in Italian, sta’ calma  feels elemental. It’s not merely telling you what to do. It’s reminding you what you already know. The language itself breathes for you. Techn