After Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope, he encouraged other doctors to make their own.

This is reminiscent of the way Banting and Best handled insulin: 

"...the first “sale” of insulin was for just $3 (Canadian), not for a vial, but the very intellectual property of the drug itself. Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and James Collip, the team that first discovered and refined insulin therapy, agreed to receive $1 each in exchange for giving their patent rights to the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto in 1923.

This was a bold move, and not without controversy at the time, according to an article posted by the University of Toronto Centre for Innovation Law and Policy. At the turn of the 20th century, it was considered beneath scientists and universities to patent medical innovation at all. However, Banting and company believed that they needed to patent their formulation of insulin to stop pharmaceutical companies from rushing to patent an inferior, less potent form of the drug. The university immediately gave pharmaceutical companies the right to manufacture insulin, royalty-free, and to improve upon the formulation and patent any subsequent improvements."

If only we saw such responsibility and modesty from drug manufacturers now.

But back to Laennec: it is strange that we continue to venerate the stethoscope 200 years after its invention, especially when we have rapidly evolving, already far superior equipment in the form of handheld ultrasound. As the folks at 99 percent invisible note, docs no longer routinely carry reflex hammers or pinwheels, but they still overwhelmingly carry stethoscopes. I do not. You can't auscultate an adrenal tumor, you know what I'm saying? Bedside ultrasounds are the future, period. They'll just reach full market penetration sooner in the US than in developing countries.

Why do rich people love endurance sports?

Brad Stulberg pontificates on why endurance sports are so popular among high-income people. 

"... data collected in 2015 by USA Triathlon shows that the median income for triathletes is $126,000, with about 80 percent either working in white-collar jobs—professions such medicine, law, and accounting—or currently enrolled as students."

Once upon a time, and still for a shrinking older population, golf was the sport that signaled wealth. But now, with the fuzziness that surrounds the measurement of effectiveness in the knowledge economy, endurance sports give white-collar workers a simple, quantitative way to measure progress. You run/swim/bike/ski faster or slower than you did the last time, period. And the pain doesn't hurt (pun intended):

“By flooding the consciousness with gnawing unpleasantness, pain provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness,” write the researchers. “When leaving marks and wounds, pain helps consumers create the story of a fulfilled life. In a context of decreased physicality, [obstacle course races] play a major role in selling pain to the saturated selves of knowledge workers, who use pain as a way to simultaneously escape reflexivity and craft their life narrative.” 

Link from marginalrevolution.com

Related: Are elite athletes healthy?

Answer: it's complicated.

The myth of drug expiration dates

A pharmacist finds a cache of drugs, unopened, all 30-40 years past their expiration date. He has them tested by a toxicologist. The result? All of the drugs--all of them--are still useable.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (and his sweet bow tie) wants to reform the Farm Bill

Link from foodpolitics.com