Retrospectoscope

1994, Virginia L. Miller, Molecular Genetics of Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Tribute to Stanley Falkow, Amer Society for Microbiology The retrospectoscope is a marvelous instrument, particularly if it is supplied with rose-colored lenses. I cannot pretend to reconstruct objectively the events that affected my career.

I have also had to learn that just as the lens of the retrospectoscope provides false clarity, the lens of unbridled optimism distorts reality.

A distinguished private foundation, that shall be nameless, offered me a small grant if l would test out their crystal ball with its two new attachments; one of them called the retrospectoscope and the other called the prognosticator.

The view through the retrospectoscope is almost always clear, precise, and correct.

Once we are proficient in using both the retrospectoscope and the prospectoscope, we are ready to use the perspectoscope—the scope that all patients deserve.

Using the famous "retrospectoscope" technique, in which events of the past can be brought into sharper focus, one can sometimes identify the fear-inducing stimulus quite accurately in time and space.