h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Quincy declined to help us verify his qualifications as an MD Forensic Pathologist, so we decided to make enquiries ourselves to see if we could locate a Forensic Pathologist by the name of Murray Strauss, who was currently, or had been recently, practising in New York.

The results have only just come through, and they are as follows:

* The Office of Professional Medical Conduct of the New York State Department of Health responded and said that a review of the licensure files of the New York State Department revealed only one physician by the name of Murray Strauss. The physician is board certified in Plastic Surgery. This physician has not been registered to practise medicine for the last 8 years.

* The American Medical Association (AMA) includes physicians with an active and unrestricted license granted by one of the US allopathic (MD) or osteopathic (DO) licensing boards. They said that their records did not contain an Murray Strauss MD specialising in Pathology in New York. They suggested that we recheck the name for accuracy and verify that the physician is an MD or a DO.

* The American Society for Investigative Pathology said that they didn't have a Murray Strauss MD as a member, however, they did tell us that a number of pathologists choose to become members of other organizations.

* We also contacted the Murray A Straus (note the different spelling here) Professor of Sociology, whom Lucinda located. He told us that he wasn't a member of h2g2 and had not been mailing us, and didn't know of any other doctors with the same name.

We've taken reasonable steps to attempt to verify the existance of a Murray Strauss, MD and Forensic Pathologist, but have been unable to do so. Perhaps he does exist out there, but without his assistance we're unable to verify his qualifications.

We're not going to do any more searching, as we've spent enough time on it already...

The Eds

Thanks for that, I was convinced Quincy was valid, and I was quite confused as to how everybody was so certain. I was wrong in my vehement defense of him and I wish to apologise to anyone who found my comments insensitive.

Still very confused though, hoping it doesn't happen anymore.

A bit late, I know, but I just wanted to thank the Editors for putting so much effort into this. I had no idea. You're all so wonderful, and I'm surprized, impressed, and overjoyed that you care so much. I, for one, am proud to have you as Editors.

-Spike A.