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The echocardiographic identification of cardiac tumors as cause of embolic episodes is infrequent, and the finding of multiple papillary fibroelastoma is even less common. We report a 70 years old female with a history of a rheumatic mitral valve lesion, subjected to a commissurotomy in 1970. She was admitted with a cerebrovascular accident and the transesophageal echocardiogram revealed the presence of a multiple papillary fibroelastoma in the aortic valve. The patient was operated and the tumor excised, the pathological analysis confirmed the diagnosis. The patient was discharged in good conditions and after 8 months of follow up, she has no neurological abnormality and is in functional class I.

The reduction of sciences to a limited number, in whose terms all scientific phenomena could be explained is conceivable. Particularly, is the reduction of biology to physics possible? The present article reviews critically this issue. First, it speaks about the topic on the parts and their relationships in the so-called levels of organization. Secondly it refers to the reduction of one branch into another within a same science. Finally it analyses the arguments against the possibility of reducing biology to physics.