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Miller, Sir Jonathan Wolfe

Miller, Sir Jonathan Wolfe

Doctor Jonathan Wolfe Miller (born 21 July 1934) is a British physician, theatre and opera director and television presenter.

Life and career

Miller grew up in Hampstead in a well connected Jewish family - his father Emanuel (1892-1970) was a psychiatrist specialising in child development and his mother Betty (née Spiro) (1910-65) was a novelist and biographer. He studied natural sciences and medicine at St John's College at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1959 and worked as a hospital doctor for the next two years. However he was also involved in the university drama society and the Cambridge Footlights and in 1960 he helped write and produce 'Beyond the Fringe' at the Edinburgh Festival which launched the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Miller quit the show shortly after its move to New York and took over as editor and presenter of the BBC's flagship arts programme "Monitor". In 1966 he wrote, produced and directed a play of Alice in Wonderland for the BBC. During the later 1960s he had a major falling out with the magazine Private Eye that Miller accounts to implicit anti-semitism. In the 1970s he started directing and producing operas for Kent Opera and Glyndebourne, with a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera in 1978. He has now become one of the world's leading opera directors. At the same time he held a research fellowship in the history of medicine at University College, London. Most of his work for television has been for the BBC, starting by producing a series of 12 Shakespeare plays between 1980-82. He also wrote and presented several factual series drawing on his experience as a physician, for example 'The Body in Question' 1978 (which caused some controversy for showing the dissection of a cadaver), 'States of Mind' 1983, 'Who Cares' and 'Born Talking'. In 2004 he wrote and presented a series on atheism, 'Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief' (on-screen title; but more commonly referred to as 'Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief') for BBC Four TV, exploring the roots of his own lack of belief and investigating the history of atheism. Individual conversations, debates and discussions for the series that could not be included, due to time constraints - were individually aired in a six-part series entited The Atheism Tapes. He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1983), a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and Edinburgh and a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was knighted in 2002. In the film for television Not Only But Always about the careers of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Jonathan Aris played Jonathan Miller as a young man. Miller is a currently a resident of Camden.

Bibliography

Country of publication is the UK, unless stated otherwise As writer, contributor or editor
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- (republished in 2000 as Introducing Darwin and Evolution Icon Books (Faber))
- (1994 Jonathan Cape [pop-up book])
- — participants include Jerome Bruner, Daniel Dennett, Brian Farrell, Jerome Fodor, Thomas Szasz
- (pop-up book intended for children)
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- (The Applause Acting Series)
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- (University Research Lecture Series No. 5)
- — Contributors Jonathan Miller with Stephen Jay Gould, Daniel J Kevles, RC Lewontin, Oliver Sacks
- [kit / model book]
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- [collection of his photographs]
- — Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills Introduction or foreword contributed
- (directors note)
- (introduction)
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- Books about Miller
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- Miller and the satire boom
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External links


- [http://www.roycecarlton.com/speakers/miller.html Jonathan Miller: Theatre & Opera Director, Physician and Author]
- [http://roycecarlton.com/pdf/Miller-Kit.pdf Jonathan Miller biographical pack] from Miller's agents
- [http://www.freethoughtfilter.com/wiki/index.php/A_Brief_History_of_Disbelief A Brief History of Disbelief on Freethought Filter Wiki]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20050123.shtml Jonathan Miller Interview ] on Desert Island Discs
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/atheism.shtml Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief] Miller, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan

Doctor

Doctor means teacher in Latin. It has been used continuously as an honored academic title for over a millennium in Europe, where it dates back to the rise of the university. This use spread to the Americas, former European colonies, and is now prevalent in most of the world. As a prefix – “Dr” – its primary designation is a person who has obtained a doctorate — that is, the highest rank of the academic degrees whose completion, in most fields, involves extensive research. However, in the last two centuries of popular use in English-speaking and many other countries, the noun doctor has come to be used widely to refer to physicians (medical doctors), who are also granted use of the prefix as a courtesy title, whether or not they hold doctorates. The primary medical qualification in the UK and in many Commonwealth Countries is the degree of 'Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery' (MB BS, MB ChB, BM BCh or MB BChir, depending on the University granting the award). After qualification, medical practitioners may then read for the postgraduate research degree of 'Doctor of Medicine'.

Medical usage of the noun "doctor"

In United States, Indian, and Canadian parlance, the noun "doctor" is most often used for all forms of physicians and surgeons, including internists, pediatricians, gynecologists, and all other surgical and nonsurgical specialists who hold M.D. degrees and practice medicine of any form. It is also used in this sense for osteopathic physicians (whose medical degree is D.O.). In a specific context or setting that does not include physicians, doctor is sometimes used as a noun to refer to a chiropractor, veterinarian, dentist, optometrist, podiatrist, pharmacist, or clinical psychologist (whose degrees are usually D.C., D.V.M., D.D.S., O.D., D.P.M., Pharm.D., Ph.D., and Psy.D., respectively), though less often in a context which includes physicians. In the United Kingdom, Australia, India and other areas whose culture was more recently linked to the United Kingdom, within medical circles the title Doctor generally applies to medically qualified individuals ("registered medical practitioners"). However, those who are Members or Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons for historic reasons prefer to be addressed as Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss. There are many other countries, such as France, where doctor nearly always is synonymous with medical doctor.

Academic doctorates and usage of "Doctor" as a title of address

Although medical doctors and some other health professionals with the above medical degrees are addressed as Doctor (e.g., "Doctor Smith" or "Dr Smith"), medical degrees are not usually doctorates, except in the USA and Canada, where they are considered first-professional (as opposed to research-oriented) doctorates. The most advanced academic degrees in any discipline, including the medical disciplines, are referred to as "doctorates" and represent the highest earned degree in a given area of the sciences or humanities. The most common of these is the Ph.D., but there are many other research-oriented doctorates with different designations. In much of the world, holders of doctoral degrees are generally addressed as Doctor. In the USA, however, while the Juris Doctor or J.D. is indeed a professional doctorate, by custom and legal convention lawyers do not use the title of doctor. Lawyers who hold another doctorate such as the J.S.D. (Doctor of Juristic Science), L.Sc.D. (Doctor of the Science of Law), Th.D. (Doctor of Theology), or the LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) may use the title of doctor. In an academic setting, where the educational background of the individual is of course salient, doctor is the term of address and title used by holders of a doctoral degree; however, the rank of professor often takes precedence and may be used as a title. Academics below the rank of professor who do not hold a doctoral degree are referred to as Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms. It is also true, however, that the usage of doctor as a title also varies by country and culture. While the title Doctor (abbreviated Dr) is used in the United States, the UK and Germany for most people holding a doctorate, in some other countries, such as France, it is generally not used except for physicians and thus has become a synonym for "physician". In certain countries, for members of certain professions, the title of doctor may be used even when the academic qualification of doctorate is not held: for instance, in Italy, for holders of a Laurea. In some regions such as the American South, Dr. is also traditionally added to a man's first name for men holding doctorates, where it is used in either direct or indirect familiar address, among research colleagues, as in Dr. Bill, for example, when informally speaking to or referring to someone named William Smith, Ph.D. This usage is deprecated in formal settings. In the US, another familiar address form is to use the form Doc Evans, among the students of someone, for example, named John Evans, Ph.D. This same usage is also seen in popular culture, such as for Doc Savage, 'Man of Bronze', a series of young adult pulp fiction paperback books popular among US high school students during the 1960's through the 1970's, although originally written in the 1930's and 1940's. Another example is Doc Brass, a similar pulp fiction character.

Other usages

::See also the corresponding disambiguation page.
- In Roman Catholicism, a Doctor of the Church is an eminent theologian (e.g. Thomas Aquinas) from whose teachings the whole Christian Church is held to have derived great advantage. This is not an academic title but reflects the most ancient sense of the word as "teacher".
- "Doctor" is an undressing game played by children.
- A Doctor blade is a knife blade pressed to a moving surface to smoothen the surface or remove an unwanted substance from the surface. Doctor blades are often used in industrial processes.
- Doctors is a UK daytime soap opera.
- The main character of the British television series Doctor Who is known only as "The Doctor".
- Doctor is a web-based interface to CVS allowing easy creation of patches.
- Doctor is a Canadian rock band. Category:Titles
- ja:博士 ms:Doktor

1934

1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-April


- January 1 - Alcatraz becomes a federal prison.
- January 1 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring."
- January 7 - First Flash Gordon comic strip is published.
- January 10 - Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe
- January 24 - Einstein visits White House
- January 26 - The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
- February 9 - Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France
- February 12 - The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
- February 12 to February 16 - Austrian Civil War
- February 23 - Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
- March 1 - Manchuria becomes Manchukuo
- March 3 - John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol
- March 8 - Prince Sigvard of Sweden loses his titles because of his marriage
- March 20 - All the police forces in Germany come under command of Heinrich Himmler
- April 1 - Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
- April 6 - Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
- April 19 - Surgeon R.K. Wilson allegedly takes a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster.
- April 22 - John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of the FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin

May-June


- May 7 - Pearl of Lao-Tze, 24 x 14 cm, is found in a giant clam off Palawan, Philippines
- May 11 - Dust Bowl: A strong two-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl.
- May 15 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
- May 15 - Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
- May 23 - Near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, FBI men ambush bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and fire, killing them.
- May 24 - Tomás Masaryk re-elected president of Czechoslovakia
- May 28 - Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Olivia and Elzire Dionne later becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
- June 6 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- June 9 - Release of the animated short The Wise Little Hen, directed by Bert Gillett for the Silly Symphonies series, featuring the debut of Donald Duck.
- June 10 - Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time to win the 1934 World Cup.
- June 12 - Political parties banned in Bulgaria
- June 27 - Emir of Yemen and ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia conclude a peace treaty
- June 30 - The Nazi SA camp Oranienburg becomes national camp, taken over by the SS.
- June 30 - Night of the Long Knives - Nazis purge the SA

July-September


- July 10 - German social democrat and author Erich Mühsam killed in Oranienburg concentration camp
- July 17 - Supreme court of North Dakota declares lieutenant governor of the state, Ole Olsen, the legitimate governor and tells William Langer to resign. Langer proceeds to declare North Dakota independent. He revokes the declaration after the Supreme Court justices meet him
- July 19 - Francisco Sá Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal (1980; died in office).
- July 22 - Outside Chicago, Illinois's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
- July 25 - Austrian Nazis assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during a failed coup attempt.
- August 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.
- August 19 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
- September 8 - Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner Morro Castle kills 134 people.
- September 19 - Soviet Union joins the League of Nations
- September 21 - Hurricane in Honshu, Japan - 4000 dead
- November 27 - A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Sam Cowley, who is still able to mortally shoot Nelson.
- September 28 - Afghanistan joins the League of Nations
- September 28 - Trial for the custody of young Gloria Vanderbilt begins - it lasts seven weeks and ends with a compromise
- September 29 - Stanley Matthews makes his England debut, beginning a record 23-year international career

October-December


- October 2 - Tornado in Osaka and Kyoto and destroys the rice harvest - 1660 dead, 5400 injured
- October 6 - Catalonian separatists rebel
- October 9 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated during the king's state visit in Marseille
- October 16 - The Long March of Chinese communists begins
- November 13 - Italian government decrees that teachers must use a military or party uniform in a class
- November 21 - MCC makes an ultimately controversial decision to alter the lbw rule so a batsman can be lbw to a ball pitching outside off stump. The change is later blamed for many problems developing during the 1950s - primarily negative bowling outside leg stump to a field of short-leg fieldsmen.
- November 23 - An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lay well within Ethiopian territory. This encounter leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
- December 1 - In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolayev (it is widely thought that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered this murder).
- December 5 - Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.
- December 14 - Female suffrage in Turkey
- December 18 - Low-key fascist conference in Moreaux
- December 27 - Persia becomes Iran
- December 29 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

Unknown dates


- The sonoluminescence effect is discovered.
- First Jay Gordon record is made.
- The GPU becomes the NKVD.
- The Maginot Line is finished.
- Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Côte d'Ivoire.

Births

January


- January 7 - Charlie Jenkins, American runner
- January 9 - Bart Starr, American football player
- January 11 - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
- January 16 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
- January 18 - Raymond Briggs, English writer and illustrator
- January 20 - Tom Baker, English actor
- January 22 - Bill Bixby, American television actor (d. 1993)
- January 24 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (d. 1976)

February


- February 5 - Hank Aaron, baseball player
- February 7 - Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)
- February 10 - Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
- February 11 - Tina Louise, American actress
- February 11 - Mary Quant, English fashion designer
- February 11 - John Surtees, British race car driver
- February 12 - Bill Russell, American basketball player
- February 13 - George Segal, American actor
- February 14 - Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
- February 14 - Florence Henderson, American television actress
- February 15 - Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist
- February 17 - Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003)
- February 17 - Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
- February 20 - Bobby Unser, American race car driver
- February 21 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
- February 22 - Sparky Anderson, baseball manager
- February 24 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
- February 24 - Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
- February 27 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist

March-April


- March 1 - Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian sculptor (d. 2005)
- March 1 - Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
- March 4 - Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist
- March 5 - Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 7 - Willard Scott, American television broadcaster
- March 9 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (d. 1968)
- March 11 - Sam Donaldson, American reporter
- March 13 - Barry Hughart, American author
- March 16 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian Governor-General (d. 2002)
- March 20 - Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, California
- March 22 - Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah
- March 26 - Alan Arkin, American actor
- March 31 - Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
- March 31 - Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 1 - Rod Kanehl, baseball player (d. 2004)
- April 2 - Paul Joseph Cohen, American mathematician
- April 2 - Brian Glover, British actor and wrestler (d. 1997)
- April 3 - Jane Goodall, English zoologist
- April 24 - Shirley MacLaine, American actress
- April 29 - Otis Rush, American musician

May-August


- May 3 - Henry Cooper, British boxer
- May 9 - Alan Bennett, British actor and writer
- May 13 - Leon Wagner, baseball player (d. 2004)
- May 14 - Siân Phillips, Welsh actress
- May 19 - Jim Lehrer, American television journalist
- May 21 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- May 22 - Peter Nero, American pianist
- May 23 - Robert Moog, American inventor of the synthesizer
- May 27 - Harlan Ellison, American writer
- May 28 - Dionne quintuplets, world's first surviving quintuplets
- May 30 - Aleksei Leonov, cosmonaut
- June 3 - Rolland D. McCune, American theologian
- June 6 - King Albert II of Belgium
- June 16 - William Forsyth Sharpe, American economicst, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 26 - Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
- June 30 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician (d. 1997)
- July 1 - Jean Marsh, British actress
- July 11 - Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer
- July 12 - Van Cliburn, American pianist
- July 13 - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 13 - Aleksei Yeliseyev, cosmonaut
- July 14 - John Tyndall, British politician (d. 2005)
- July 15 - Harrison Birtwistle, English composer
- August 2 - Valery Bykovsky, cosmonaut
- August 18 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 1972)

September-December


- September 2 - Dominic Chianese, American actor
- September 4 - Clive Granger, Welsh-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 7 - Little Milton, American musician
- September 8 - Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer
- September 10 - Charles Kuralt, American journalist (d. 1997)
- September 17 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (d. 1969)
- September 20 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
- October 1 - Chuck Hiller, baseball player (d. 2004)
- October 2 - Earl Wilson, baseball player (d. 2005)
- October 17 - Rico Rodriguez, Jamaican trombonist
- October 18 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist
- October 26 - Roy Ascott, British artist
- October 30 - Frans Brüggen, Dutch flutist, recorder player, and conductor
- November 1 - Umberto Agnelli, Swiss-born automobile executive (d. 2004)
- November 9 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer (d. 1996)
- November 12 - Charles Manson, serial killer
- November 24 - Alfred Schnittke, Volga German composer (d. 1998)
- December 2 - Andre Rodgers, baseball player (d. 2004)
- December 3 - Viktor Gorbatko, cosmonaut
- December 4 - Wink Martindale, American game show host and disc jockey
- December 9 - Judi Dench, English actress
- December 9 - Junior Wells, American harmonica player (d. 1998)
- December 10 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- December 16 - Elgin Baylor, American basketball player
- December 18 - Boris Volynov, cosmonaut
- December 19 - Al Kaline, baseball player
- December 27 - Larissa Latynina, Russian gymnast
- December 28 - Maggie Smith, English actress
- December 30 - Joseph P. Hoar, U.S. Marine commander
- December 30 - John Norris Bahcall, American astrophysicist (d. 2005)
- December 30 - Del Shannon, American singer (d. 1990)

Unknown dates


- Jayakanthan, Tamil writer

Deaths


- January 10 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (executed) (b. 1909)
- January 29 - Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- February 17 - Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
- February 23 - Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
- March 15 - Davidson Black, Cnadian-born Paleoanthropologist (b.1884).
- March 29 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German-born millionaire philanthropist (b. 1867)
- May 23 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1909)
- May 23 - Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1910)
- May 25 - Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
- May 30 - Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (b. 1848)
- June 10 - Frederick Delius, English composer (b. 1862)
- June 11 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian developmental psychologist (b. 1896)
- July 4 - Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and physics (b. 1867)
- July 8 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (b. 1848)
- July 22 - John Dillinger, American criminal (b. 1903)
- July 25 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
- July 25 - Englebert Dolfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
- July 25 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
- July 26 - Winsor McCay, American comic creator and animator (b. 1871)
- July 28 - Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
- August 2 - Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (b. 1847)
- September 2 - Alcide Nunez, American musician (b. 1884)
- October 17 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)
- November 2 - Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (b. 1845)
- November 16 - Alice Liddell, English schoolgirl, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (b. 1852)
- December 1 - Sergei Kirov, Soviet leader (b. 1886)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - Harold Clayton Urey
- Medicine - George Hoyt Whipple, George Richards Minot, William Parry Murphy
- Literature - Luigi Pirandello
- Peace - Arthur Henderson Category:1934 ko:1934년 ms:1934 ja:1934年 simple:1934 th:พ.ศ. 2477

United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.

History

Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.

Government and politics

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional law. While the monarch is Head of State and holds all executive power, it is the Prime Minister who is the head of government. The government is answerable chiefly to the House of Commons and the Prime Minister is drawn from this chamber of Parliament by constitutional convention. The majority of cabinet members will be from the House of Commons, the rest from the House of Lords. Ministers do not, however, legally have to come from Parliament, though that is the modern day custom. The British system of government has been emulated around the world - a legacy of the United Kingdom's colonial past - most notably in the other Commonwealth Realms. The Prime Minister is chosen as the MP who can command a majority in the House of Commons - usually the leader of the largest party or, if there is no majority party, the largest coalition. The current Prime Minister is Tony Blair of the Labour Party, who has been in office since 1997. In the United Kingdom the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his or her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament (as the "Crown-in-Parliament") and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the Queen (being given Royal Assent), although no monarch has refused to assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. Although the abolition of the monarchy has been suggested several times, the popularity of the monarchy remains strong in spite of recent controversies. Support for a British republic usually fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the population, with roughly 10% undecided or indifferent [http://www.mori.com/mrr/2000/c000616.shtml]. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953. Parliament is the national legislature of the United Kingdom. It is the ultimate legislative authority in the United Kingdom, according to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It is bicameral, composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords, whose members are mostly appointed. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The House of Commons has 646 members who are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords has 724 members (though this number is not fixed): hereditary peers, life peers, and bishops of the Church of England. The Church of England is the established church of the state in England. established church]] The two largest political parties are the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The UK has long had a two-party system, but in the last 20 years the Liberal Democrats have re-emerged as a large third party. The electoral system used for general elections is first-past-the-post. The constitution of the United Kingdom is un-codified and partially unwritten, which means that no single document regulates how the government works, and unwritten constitutional conventions are used extensively. The constitution is based on the principle that Parliament is the ultimate sovereign body in the country. There has long been a widespread sense of national identity in the Celtic nations. Throughout the late 19th century the UK debated giving Ireland home rule. The Scottish National Party was founded in 1934, and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) in 1925. Referenda for devolution succeeded in 1997 for Scotland and Wales and in 1998 for Northern Ireland. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were established, the former having primary legislative power. Proportional representation is used for the elections, which has resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Scotland. Due to internal disagreements, the Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since 2002.

Subdivisions

The United Kingdom is a country that is divided into four constituent parts:
- England
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
- Wales The constituent parts of the United Kingdom have administrative subdivisions as follows:
- The regions and administrative counties of England
- The council areas of Scotland
- The counties and county boroughs of Wales
- The districts of Northern Ireland The Laws in Wales Act 1535 incorporated Wales and England into England and Wales for legal purposes. Although all four have historically been divided into counties, England's population is an order of magnitude larger than the others so in recent years it has for some purposes been divided into nine intermediate-level Government Office Regions. Each region is made up of counties and unitary authorities, apart from London, which consists of London boroughs. Although at one point it was intended that each or some of these regions would be given its own regional assembly, the plan's future is uncertain, as of 2004, after the North East region rejected its proposed assembly in a referendum. Scotland consists of 32 Council Areas. Wales consists of 22 Unitary Authorities, styled as 10 County Boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Northern Ireland is divided into 26 Districts. Also sometimes associated with the United Kingdom, though not constitutionally part of the United Kingdom itself, are the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man) as self-governing possessions of the Crown, and a number of overseas territories under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

Military

The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. Their Commander-in-Chief is the Queen and they are managed by the Ministry of Defence. Ministry of Defence The British Armed Forces are charged with protecting the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, promoting the United Kingdom's wider security interests, and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO and other coalition operations. The United Kingdom fields one of the most powerful and comprehensive military forces in the World. Its global power projection capabilities are second only to those of the United States Armed Forces. The British Army had a reported strength of 112,700 in 2004, including 7,600 women, and the Royal Air Force a strength of 53,400. The 40,900-member Royal Navy is in charge of the United Kingdom's independent strategic nuclear arm, which consists of four Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, while the Royal Marines provide infantry units for amphibious assault and for specialist reinforcement forces in and beyond the NATO area. This puts total active duty military troops in the 210,000 range, currently deployed in over 80 countries. The UK's special forces, principally the SAS, provides elite commandos trained for quick, mobile, military responses; often where secrecy or covert operations are required. The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the World in terms of gross tonnage. Despite the United Kingdom's wide ranging capabilities, recent pragmatic defence policy has a stated assumption that any large operation would be undertaken as part of a coalition. Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Granby, No-Fly-Zones, Desert Fox and Telic) may all be taken as precedent - indeed the last true war in which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982, in which military action was initiated by Argentina and the UK was fighting a defensive, rather than offensive, campaign. The British army has been actively involved in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, a programme of demilitarisation is being gradually implemented.

Geography

Troubles World Factbook Map of the United Kingdom]] Most of England consists of rolling lowland terrain, divided east from west by more mountainous terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District) and north (the upland moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line. The lower limestone hills of the Isle of Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest urban area is Greater London. Near Dover, the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom with France. There is no peak in England that is 1000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater. Wales is mostly mountainous, the highest peak being Snowdon at 1085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level. North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey. The largest and capital city is Cardiff, located in South Wales. Scotland's geography is varied, with lowlands in the south and east and highlands in the north and west, including Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain at 1343 metres (4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea arms, firths, and lochs. A multitude of islands west and north of Scotland are also included, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The largest city is Glasgow. Northern Ireland, making up the north-eastern part of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The main cities are Belfast ('Beal Feirste' in Irish) and Londonderry / Derry ('Doire' in Irish). The province is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns up to 40 feett (12 m) high. In total it is estimated that the UK includes around 1098 small islands, some being natural and some being crannogs, a type of artificial island which was built in past times using stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural waste building up over time.

Economy

artificial island The United Kingdom, a leading trading power and financial centre, has an essentially capitalist economy, the fourth largest in the world in terms of market exchange rates and the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates. Over the past three decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership by means of privatisation programmes, and has contained the growth of the Welfare State. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial state. Services, particularly banking, insurance and business services, account for by far the largest proportion of GDP. Industry continues to decline in importance, although the UK is still Europe's largest manufacturer of armaments, petroleum products, personal computers, televisions, and mobile telephones. Tourism is also important: with over 24 million tourists a year, between China (33) and Austria (19.1), the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world. The Blair government has put off the question of participation in the Euro system, citing five economic tests that would need to be met before they recommend that the UK adopts the Euro, and hold a referendum.

Society

Demographics

At the April 2001 census, the United Kingdom's population was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and metropolitan France) and the twenty-first largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's prosperous south-east and is predominantly urban and suburban--with about 7.2 million in the capital of London. The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99%) is attributable to universal public education introduced for the primary level in 1870 and secondary level in 1900 (except in Scotland where it was introduced in 1696). Education is mandatory from ages five through sixteen. referendum The Church of England and the Church of Scotland function as the official national religions in their respective countries, but most religions found in the world are represented in the United Kingdom. Anglicanism is the state religion that has been established in England since 1534 during the reign of King Henry VIII. During his reign, England broke ties with the Roman Catholic church and established the Church of England as the offical religion of England. Reforms to the nature of the church's relationship to the state have been ongoing, especially concerning the nature of the House of Lords and the appointment of a fixed amount of the lordships going to Lords Temporal, bishops of the Church of England. A group of islands close to continental Europe, the British Isles have been subject to many invasions and migrations, especially from Scandinavia and the continent, including Roman occupation for several centuries. Contemporary Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic stocks that settled there before the eleventh century. The pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse influences were blended on Great Britain under the Normans, Scandinavian Vikings who had lived in Northern France. Although Celtic languages persist in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the predominant language is English, which is a West Germanic language descended from Old English, featuring a large amount of borrowings from Norman French.The other indigenous languages include the Celtic languages; Welsh, the closely related Irish and Scots Gaelic, and the Cornish language; as well as Lowland Scots, which is closely related to English; Romany; and British Sign Language (Northern Ireland Sign Language is also used in Northern Ireland). Celtic dialectal influences from Cumbric persisted in Northern England for many centuries, most famously in a unique set of numbers used for counting sheep. Recent immigrants, especially from the Commonwealth, speak many other languages, including Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. The United Kingdom has the largest number of Hindi speaking peoples outside of the Indian sub continent.

Culture

Urdu The United Kingdom contains many of the world's leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the University of London (which incorporates, amongst others, Imperial College and University College London), and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the nation is credited with many inventions including the locomotive, vaccination, television, vacuum, and both the internal combustion and the jet engine. The English language has spread to all corners of the world (primarily because of the country’s empire) and is referred to as a ‘global language’. It is now taught as a second language more than any other around the world. Over the next few decades, it is estimated that approximately half the world’s population will be proficient in the language. Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the history of the English language; other well-known writers from the United Kingdom include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), Jane Austen, William Thackeray, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, H. G. Wells and Charles Dickens. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Lord Tennyson and William Blake. Notable composers from the United Kingdom have included William Byrd, John Taverner, William Lawes, John Dowland, Thomas Tallis, and Henry Purcell from the 16th and early 17th centuries, and, more recently, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten in the 19th and 20th. George Frideric Handel spent most of his composing life in England. The BBC is the oldest and perhaps the most respected broadcasting network on the globe, with the BBC World Service radio channel and its news output held in particularly high regard. The other main television networks are ITV, Channel 4, five (TV) and Sky Television. Popular programmes in the UK include the three soaps Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as the comedy news quiz Have I Got News For You and Reality TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. Various British TV formats have been exported to other nations, notably Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link and The Office. The UK was, with the US, one of the two main contributors in the development of rock and roll, and the UK has provided some of the most famous rock stars, including the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Who and many others. The UK was at the forefront of punk rock music in the 1970s with bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and the subsequent rebirth of heavy metal with bands such as Motörhead and Iron Maiden. In mid to late '90s, the Britpop phenomenon has seen bands such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Coldplay gain international fame. The UK is also at the forefront of electronica, with British artists such as Aphex Twin, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Lamb at the cutting edge. The United Kingdom was also associated with music from the Caribbean, with a large number of Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals being present in the UK.

Sport

A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and boxing. The national sport of the UK is association football, but the UK does not compete as a nation in any major football tournament. Instead, the home nations compete individually as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is because of this unique four-team arrangement that the UK currently does not compete in football events at the Olympic Games. However, a united team will probably take part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as these are hosted in London. The English and Northern Irish football associations have confirmed participation in this team while the Scottish FA and the Welsh FA have declined to participate. The UK also hosts many world-renowned football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in England and Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. Clubs compete in national leagues and competitions and some go on to compete in European competitions. Both forms of rugby are national sports. Rugby League originates from and is generally played in the North of England, whilst Rugby Union is played all over Britain. In Rugby League the UK plays as one nation - Great Britain - whilst in union it is represented by the four nations. England are the current holders of the Rugby Union World Cup. Every four years the British and Irish Lions (comprising the best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) tour other countries. Cricket is also played in the UK, although it is focussed in England. The Wimbledon Championships are an international tennis event held in Wimbledon in south London every summer and are seen as the most prestigious of the tennis calendar. Golf is one of the most popular participation sports played in the UK and St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course.

Miscellaneous topics

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] History of the nations within the UK.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html CIA World Factbook: UK.]
- [http://www.direct.gov.uk Gateway to UK governmental services and websites.]
- [http://www.number-10.gov.uk Number 10 Downing Street]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]
- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk Office of Public Sector Information] Source for all UK legislation 1987-present (successor to Her Majesty's Stationery Office).
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of the UK.
- [http://www.royal.gov.uk The British Monarchy]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The United Kingdom Parliament]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5703&Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272 Official Yearbook of the UK] factbook produced by the Office for National Statistics (years 2000 to 2005 available online).
- [http://www.ukcities.co.uk UK Cities] lists a variety of useful resources for every city in the UK.
- [http://www.justuk.org UK travel guide] United Kingdom for travellers.
- [http://www.world66.com/europe/unitedkingdom World66 Guide to United Kingdom] A travel guide written by its users.
- [http://www.multimap.co.uk www.multimap.co.uk] provides online maps and aerial photographs of the UK.
- [http://www.streetmap.co.uk www.streetmap.co.uk] an alternative to multimap.
- [http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-kingdom/map.html Physical map of United Kingdom.]
- [http://www.upmystreet.com www.upmystreet.com] detailed localised information about places in the United Kingdom.
- [http://www.parks.it/world/UK/Eindex.html UK Parks] National parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other protected areas. ----
Category:British Isles Category:European countries Category:European Union member states Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Monarchies A als:Grossbritannien und Nordirland zh-min-nan:Liân-ha̍p Ông-kok ko:영국 ms:United Kingdom ja:イギリス simple:United Kingdom th:สหราชอาณาจักร

Physician

A physician is a person who practices medicine. See that article for more information on what physicians do in their practices; this article focuses on physician training and regulation. In the United States, the term physician is traditional and commonly used. In Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the term doctor is more common as physician refers to specialists in internal medicine. Because of the extensive training requirements, physicians are traditionally considered to be members of a learned profession.

Training

:See also: medical school and medical residency.

United Kingdom

Medicine in the UK is an undergraduate subject. Students can begin training after leaving the school at 18 years of age. Medical school training lasts either five or six years, depending on the institution, and combines academic and practical training. Junior doctors then enter a vocational training phase. In the UK a doctor's training normally follows this path: #Degree level preclinical - Doctors must study medicine in university or medical school for two to three years "preclinical" (meaning little patient contact). However following recommendations by the British Medical Association (BMA) many universities are following a "Problem-based learning" approach, which stresses basing the studies around actual patient cases. #Clinical - This time is spent in a teaching hospital and typically lasts two or three years. After this is completed the student doctor is awarded a Bachelor of Medicine (BM or MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (BCh or BS). An honorary prefix of "Dr" is now entitled to be used, although it is not recognised in the academic sense of the word (see Doctorate). Doctors who graduated overseas have to pass the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board test (PLAB) to be eligible for further postgraduate training and jobs in UK. #The Foundation Programme - Due to recent changes in the training of junior doctors, newly qualified doctors enter a two year Foundation Programme, where they train in a variety of different specialities. These must include training in General Medicine and General Surgery but can also include other fields such as Paediatrics or General Practice. Following completion of the Foundation Programme a doctor can choose to specialise in one field. All routes involve further assessment and examinations. The majority in the UK work in the community as General practitioners (GPs), who are the first port of call for patients. They diagnose illness and refer patients for further examination by specialists if necessary. The majority of patients are managed by their GP without the need for further referral. Hospital doctors are promoted after sitting relevant postgraduate exams within their chosen specialty (e.g. Member of the Royal College of Physicians MRCP, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons MRCS) and a competitive interview selection process from SHO to Specialist Registrar and eventually Consultant on completion of the CCST (Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training), which is the highest level in a specialty team (with the exception of university-linked professors). The competition is great for those who wish to attain consultant level and many now complete higher degrees in research such as a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) which is a thesis-based award based on at least two years full-time research or PhD which involves at least three years of full-time research. The time taken to get from graduation from medical school to becoming a Consultant varies from speciality to speciality but can be anything from 7 to 10 years, or longer in some specialities.

United States

In the United States and countries following the U.S. method, the path to a medical degree is somewhat different. #Admissions: Admission into medical school requires either three years of undergraduate study or a four-year post-secondary bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, depending on medical institution. Most require that the applicant have attained a bachelor's degree prior to matriculation. Admissions criteria include overall performance in the undergraduate years and performance in a group of courses specifically required by U.S. medical schools, the score on the Medical College Admissions Test (a national standardized test), application essays, letters of recommendation (number varies, but at least 1 from science faculty and 1 from non-science faculty), and interview(s). The list of courses required are as follows:  #
- biology (1 year) #
- general chemistry (1 year) #
- organic chemistry (1 year) #
- physics (1 year) #
- calculus or sometimes statistics (1 year) #
- English composition (1 year) #
- sometimes behavior science and/or biochemistry (1 semester)
Note:These subjects are studied part time, so several can be completed in one year.

#Medical School: Once admitted to medical school, it takes four years to earn a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine "Osteopathy" (D.O.) degree. The course of study is divided into two roughly equal parts. Preclinical study generally comprises the first two years and consists of classroom and laboratory instruction in core subjects such as anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, and neurosciences. Once the student successfully completes preclinical training, he or she moves on to the clinical portion. This usually occupies the final two years of medical school and takes place almost exclusively on the wards of a teaching hospital or, occasionally, with community physicians. The students observe and take part in the care of actual patients under the supervision of residents and attending physicians. Rotations on clinical services such as internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry are the foundation of this curriculum, but many specialty electives may be chosen as well. Upon completion of medical school, the student earns the title of doctor, but cannot practice independently until completing further training. Also, several universities across the U.S. admit high school students to both their undergraduate colleges and the medical schools simultaneously; students attend a single six-year to eight-year integrated program consisting of two to four years of an undergraduate curriculum and four years of medical school curriculum, culminating in both a bachelor's and M.D. degree.
  #Internship: During the last year of medical school, students apply for postgraduate residencies in their chosen field of specialization. These are more or less competitive depending upon the desirability of the specialty, prestige of the program, and the number of applicants relative to the number of available positions. All but a few positions are granted via a national computer match which pairs an applicant's preference with the programs' preference for applicants. The first year of any residency is known as "internship". Completion of this year is the minimum training requirement for obtaining a license to practice medicine in the U.S.
  #Residency: Each of the specialties in medicine has established its own curriculum, which defines the length and content of residency training necessary to practice in that specialty. Programs range from three years after medical school for internal medicine to five years for surgery to eight or nine for neurosurgery. This does not include research years that may last from 1 year up to a completion of a Ph.D. Each specialty incorporates an internship year to satisfy the requirements of licensure. All specialties hold a board exam (either written or written and oral) at the completion of training in order to confer "Board Certification" in that specialty.
  #Fellowship: Certain highly specialized fields require formal training beyond residency. Examples of these are cardiology, endocrinology, oncology after internal medicine; cardiothoracic surgery, pediatric surgery, surgical oncology after general surgery to name just a few. There are many others for each field of study. The training programs for these fields are known as fellowships and their participants are "Fellows" to denote that they already have completed a residency and are "Board Eligible" or "Board Certified" in their basic specialty. Fellowships range in length from one to three years and are granted by application to the individual program or sub-specialty organizing board.
  #Attending physicians and Consultants: The physician or surgeon who has completed his or her residency and possibly fellowship training and is in the practice of their specialty is known as an Attending or Consultant. These are the physicians who may independently care for patients and are the final arbiters of care. They are responsible for all care decisions and may bill for their services. However, medicine is an extremely diverse profession with many options available. Some doctors work in pharmaceutical research, occupational medicine (within a company),