It is a bold and foolish person who advises others how to live, but I can’t resist a little advice. I’m not going to tell you how to be smarter, sexier, stronger, or richer (as I have no idea) but rather how to start the day. My advice is simple: 90 minutes reading good books. […]
In the UK, one of our most valuable resources in the fight against cancer is our pool of patient data. Records of the nation’s health stretch back decades. And these data are unsurpassed globally. Cancer Research UK has benefitted hugely from the opportunities that this resource represents. We’re committed to ensuring that in the future […]
Just as the Paralympics came to a close, members of the International Society for Social Pediatrics practised running on the West Sands beach on St Andrews where the opening scenes of Chariots of Fire was filmed and where local pupils re-enacted the run with the Olympic torch just a few weeks ago. The theme of […]
JAMA 12 Sep 2012 Vol 308 981 “Considering the cost, invasiveness, inpatient requirement, and morbidity of bariatric surgery, a truly intensive nonsurgical comparison group is not only justifiable but also necessary to avoid scientific bias. A suitably intensive lifestyle intervention should include multiple components, such as residential treatment for several weeks to initiate rapid weight […]
You don’t expect to set off for a major football match on a beautiful spring morning with your young sons and nephew and emerge 12 hours later like a survivor from 9/11 or the Somme. In 20th century Britain you didn’t expect to find yourself in a football stadium reminiscent of Dickensian England or a […]
I am currently on my psychiatry rotation. Psychiatry is one of those peculiar specialties that tends to polarise medical students. Some dismiss it as merely asking, “And how does that make you feel?”, while others are like my housemate, whose eyes light up at the mention of psychosis and neurosis. Myself, I am approaching the […]
Let’s try a few mental exercises. Can you tell me how many windows you would see if you stood at the front of your house, do the first three notes of three blind mice go up or down, or can you throw a tennis ball up in the air and catch it—in your mind? Not […]
The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of WHO has some of the highest rates of non-communicable disease (NCD) in the world. Six of the countries with the highest rates of diabetes are in the region, half of the women are overweight or obese, and physical activity rates are the lowest in the world. Yet the region […]
The question of whether biotechnology should be deployed to improve human beings morally is starting to climb out of the pages of recondite publications and dip a quizzical toe in mainstream media. A recent article in the Telegraph quotes Professor Julian Savulescu from the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics saying that, should it ever […]
The EU scored an own goal a few weeks back when it launched its new website “Science: It’s a Girl Thing,” a site aimed at getting more teenage girls to consider pursuing science as a career. If you look at the site now, it looks innocuous enough, indeed possibly rather interesting and informative, but on […]