astronomy

John Paul Blass

John Paul Blass is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Paul Blass rather than just read about it. In short: John P. Blass, physician, biochemist and neurochemist, was born on February 21, 1937, in Vienna, Austria, and died on March 12, 2023, in New York City.

Key takeaways

John Paul Blass belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Paul Blass to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Paul Blass from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John P. Blass, physician, biochemist and neurochemist, was born on February 21, 1937, in Vienna, Austria, and died on March 12, 2023, in New York City. Both his parents were physicians; his father, Gustaf Blass, was a prominent Viennese radiologist and his mother, Jolan Wirth Blass, a student of Sigmund Freud, was a psychoanalyst originally from Budapest. The family then moved to Stamford, Connecticut. Both parents practiced psychiatry, Gustaf in a private sanitarium in Stamford and Jolan as a child psychiatrist in New York City and Connecticut. He is survived by his wife, son and two granddaughters. Blass's most prominent professional achievements were in the area of aging and Alzheimer's disease, in particular relating to brain metabolism. He was granted patents based on decades of scientific research, including a neutraceutical "metabolic enhancer" which has been under study in a large-scale, controlled, "multicenter" clinical trial. He wrote and contributed to a number of books, including assorted volumes on Alzheimer's disease and a textbook on pharmacology.

Education and institutional positions Blass's studies brought him to Harvard College (summa cum laude, class of 1958, Harvard Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa (senior sixteen), Sigma Xi, biochemical sciences major); the University of London, where as a Marshall Scholar he earned his PhD in biochemistry (1960) under thesis professor and pioneer of modern neurochemistry Henry McIlwain; and to Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where Blass earned his medical degree (Alpha Omega Alpha, class of 1965). During this time, he took a year off to do research as an American Cancer Society fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Heinrich Waelsch, another founding father of neurochemistry. Blass's internship and residency was in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (1965–67). He then spent three years (1967-1970) in the National Heart Institute at the National Institute of Health (NIH) (now the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). From 1970 to 1978 he was assistant and associate professor of psychiatry and biochemistry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. In 1978 he was appointed Winifred Masterson Burke Professor of Neurology and Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Blass established and directed the Dementia Research Service, a combined research and clinical unit at a Cornell-affiliated institution, the Burke Medical Research Institute. He was also appointed in the field of Neurosciences. He served on the National Panel on Alzheimer's Disease from 1986 to 1996 and was its chairman from 1986 to 1991. As a member of the National Institute on Aging, he was chairman of Geriatric Medicine Ad Hoc Review Committees from 1981 to 1984, and chairman of the Consensus Panel on Neurochemistry of Alzheimer's Disease in 1982. He served on the President's Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease in 1982–1984. He was president of the American Federation for Aging Research in 1994–1996. In 2005, he became emeritus professor at Cornell, and fully retired as of 2007. In September 2007, the New York Academy of Sciences held a conference in honor of Blass, 'Mitochondria and Oxidative Stress in Neurodegenerative Disorders', also a satellite meeting of the International Society of Neurochemistry. Also in 2007 the scientific journal Neurochemical Research published a special issue (Volume 32, Numbers 4-5, 775–781, doi:10.1007/s11064-006-9207-7) dedicated to Blass.

Publications Among Blass's roughly 200–250 publications, his papers in The New England Journal of Medicine are the most widely recognized, e.g. 'Abnormality of a thiamine-requiring enzyme in patients with Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome' (New Eng J Med 1977; 297: 1367-1370, with Gary E. Gibson). Blass was author of the textbook 'Concise Clinical Pharmacology: CNS Therapeutics' (2006, McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN 0-07-144036-4 (0-07-144036-4)); and co-author of Alzheimer's Disease: A Physician's Guide to Practical Management (with Ralph W. Richter, 2003, Humana Press, ISBN 0-89603-891-2 (0-89603-891-2)), Oxidative/Energy Metabolism in Neurodegenerative Disorders (with Fletcher H. McDowell, 1999, New York Academy of Sciences, ISBN 1-57331-209-6 (1-57331-209-6)), Alzheimer's Disease Vol. 1: New Treatment Strategies (with Zhaven Khachaturian, 1992, Dekker Incorporated, Marcel, ISBN 0-8247-8620-3 (0-8247-8620-3)), Caring for Alzheimer's Patients: A Guide for Family and Healthcare Providers (with Ralph W. Richter, 1989, Insight Productions, ISBN 0-306-43199-8 (0-306-43199-8)), and Principles of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (with Fletcher H. McDowell, 1989, McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN 0-07-027500-9 (0-07-027500-9) plus multiple subsequent editions with additional authors).

Board, council, and society memberships Blass served on the editorial boards of 17 journals, including the Journal of Neurochemistry. He was associate editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society for five years. He served on a number of governmental review panels and other committees, including the Council of the National Institute on Aging. He was the first chair of the joint Presidential-Congressional Panel on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders. Blass consulted for state governments and for private foundations in the US and Europe. He was a past president of the American Federation of Aging Research, and remained on its board since its founding. His academic honors include several visiting professorships. He served as a member of the council of both the American Society for Neurochemistry and the International Society for Neurochemistry. He belonged to a number of other scholarly societies, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (https://www.asbmb.org/), Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Alpha Omega Alpha.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Paul Blass

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Paul Blass claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Paul Blass before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Paul Blass ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Paul Blass

In research: John Paul Blass appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Paul Blass in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Paul Blass is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1937 births, 2023 deaths, Alumni of the University of London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Paul Blass outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Paul Blass in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Paul Blass means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Paul Blass out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Paul Blass in simple terms?

John P. Blass, physician, biochemist and neurochemist, was born on February 21, 1937, in Vienna, Austria, and died on March 12, 2023, in New York City.

Why does John Paul Blass matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Paul Blass?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Paul Blass.