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Category Archives: science
Looking Back on Covid-19
As I write this, some scientists are urging us to start to wear masks again, because there is a new variant and cases of covid are rising. Covid hasn’t gone away and we know that things may take a turn … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Health Delivery, Health Policy, healthy food, Medicine, pandemic, science
Tagged Covid-19, health service, UK
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So who really gets really sick with Coronavirus?
It is still very early days of this new life for all of us. There are such a lot of changes – home working, loads of leisure time to fill, catching up with friends we have neglected due to busy … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, hospital beds, Medicine, science
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Is the patient really ill?
A question that often occurred to me when I was a GP was – Is this patient really ill? Some people obviously weren’t because they came about something else – for general advice for instance. But of the ones who … Continue reading
Lessons from Orkney.
Like many other people, I read a huge amount of stuff on environmental matters every day, such as on the climate disaster-in-the-making, overconsumption, pollution of the environment by plastic and other man-made materials, extinction of animals and insects, and, at … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archeology, Food, Global warming, Populaion growth, science
Tagged fertility, Maes Howe, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Orkney, Vikings
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Politics, Health and Devolution.
I don’t usually discussed politics at all in my blog, unless absolutely essential to make a point. However, politics is now intruding on almost every aspect of our lives, all over the world. In the UK, Brexit is affecting the … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, Private health care, science
Tagged Brexit, Northern Ireland, Privatisation, Scotland, UK, Wales
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Sexism in Science
There is currently a bit of a storm in scientific circles about sexism in science. Again. An article in New Scientist recently highlighted yet another male scientist who thinks that women can’t or shouldn’t do science – in this case … Continue reading
Posted in Medicine, science
Tagged gender inequality, human development, IQ scores, Mathematics, Nobel Prize, quality in healthcare
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Breast surgeon guilty of doing unnecessary operations.
How would you feel if you had had an operation or treatment that you thought was necessary and then found out that you never needed this treatment? If you were told you had cancer but you never had it? Pretty … Continue reading
Assisted dying.
I wrote in my last blog that recent advances in treating dementia have shown promise. I said, “Drugs are being developed to target monoclonal antibodies against amyloid β, the protein that seems to be awry in Alzheimer’s disease”. However since … Continue reading
Cheating Death
Ageing Most people do not want to talk about death and human life is held up to be absolutely sacrosanct; any death is a tragedy. There seems to be a taboo about admitting that we will all have to die … Continue reading
Posted in Medicine, old age, science
Tagged Ageing, Calorie-restricted diet, Death, DNA, Telomeres
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David Attenborough or Alice Roberts – who do you think is right?
It has been quite a week for those of us interested in the evolution of human beings. On Thursday, David Attenborough gave a talk on BBC radio 4 entitled “The Waterside Ape” and brought us an update on this intriguing … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, aquatic Ape Hypothesis, Elaine Morgan, Medicine, science
Tagged BBC, bones, evolution Sir David Attenborough, hominids, Prof Alice Roberts
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Elen Samuel, doctor and writer 