Should you take Hormone Replacement Therapy? Avoid eating peanuts while pregnant to lower the risk of peanut allergy in your child? Take a daily dose of Statins to lower your cholesterol? The answers are often by no means clear despite published medical studies. To complicate the issues, according to a […]
medicine
21 posts
Here Mary Midgley, now in her 90s, reflects on the profound implications of attempting to abolish death. The more one thinks it through, the less desirable the prospect seems. An earlier version of this article appeared in Philosophy Now, March-April 2012 Till lately, people discussing death didn’t have to consider […]
On May 12 the Prince of Wales spoke in London to the Global Leaders Conference on One Health and Antimicrobial Resistance. HRH raised the issue of the overuse of antibiotics especially in the raising of farm animals, a situation that has led to antibiotic resistance in the human population in […]
We take it for granted that we are self-aware. That we are conscious of ourselves. But how far back in human evolution can this self-awareness be traced? One way of finding out is to look for the earliest graves. Human beings are the only species that bury their dead. Not […]
We’re used to thinking of our bodies as bio-chemical systems that our cells are maintained by chemical processes. When we visit a doctor, the treatment usually comes in the form of a pill, something to change our chemistry. What about electricity? What role does it play in biological systems? The […]
Do you have a purpose, in your life, or in your work, or both? Perhaps this is something you never ask yourself. Or perhaps it changes from day to day as you try to grapple with the challenges that life seems to throw at you. I have found that having […]
ABSTRACT The popular view of the inherent conflict between science and the occult has been rendered obsolete by recent advances in the history of science. Yet, these historiographical revisions have gone unnoticed in the public understanding of science and public education at large. Particularly, reconstructions of the formation of modern […]
Do dolphins have language skills similar to ours? Do the vocalizations of bottlenose dolphins mean anything? Are the dolphins conveying useful information or just having a good time? While primates such as chimpanzees can be taught sign language, there is a great deal of scepticism as to whether they are […]
A recent study by scientists at Imperial College London has revealed for the first time how the brain behaves during an LSD induced experience. The study, led by David J. Nutt, involved fMRI scans of subjects who had taken LSD and compared them with others who had been given a […]
Epigenetics — the science of gene expression is a moving target. Over the past thirty years geneticists recognised that the way a gene is expressed can be influenced by environmental factors. A mother’s obesity, diabetes stress or even mental illness can be passed onto her offspring even if the condition […]