Today Professor Vladimir Khavinson is the President of the European Academy of Gerontology and Geriatrics, but in the 1980’s he was a Colonel in the Soviet Union military medical corps. At the time, he and his team were approached by Kremlin officials, they wanted them to find a way to protect their troops from a myriad of problems; issues such as radiation for submariners in nuclear submarines to troops that may be blinded from known, (but thankfully unused) new weapons such as battlefield lasers.

Death came calling when I suffered a minor arrhythmia. My damaged youth started when my close friends pushed me aside and sometimes retorted with irritating comments. I hadn’t realized how negative I had become and its unwelcome effects upon my friends. My neurosurgeon colleague diagnosed me with Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism), but he had only partial remedies to offer. He suggested that I talk less and try to better read people’s facial expressions. These methods did work somewhat, but I was still depressed about having lost my connection with close friends.