Hyper-arborizing Tree of Knowledge
Standard textbooks in surgical pathology have grown in size and content over the last twenty to thirty years. What were at first single volumes, readable cover to cover, now consist of two to three tall, thick tombstones, accompanied by CDs crammed with information, the bulk of which must be absorbed within the 4-year time frame of old. The number of subspecialty books and series has also grown enormously, so that new trainees are faced with a task much more formidable than the one to which beginners were exposed 20 years ago. A vast and important discipline, molecular pathology, has elbowed its way into the curriculum, creating new and entirely different bases for our understanding of diseases and their classifications. Immunohistochemistry, a voluminous subject that commanded no meaningful attention during the early 1970s, is now "standard of care" in every modern surgical pathology laboratory. Figure 6 tells the story. Ackerman and Rosai's textbook (on the left) that I read cover to cover in the 1970s weighs a mere 8 pounds, whereas the current two volumes tip the scales at 21 pounds.
