by BlueSci
Friday 9th March 2012, 12:00 BST
Watch this space, Kuhn! In this week’s Not-Sci, Hugo Schmit reveals the truth behind scientific change
Paradigm shifts – the replacement of an existing scientific model with a new one – are easily misinterpreted. Famous shifts include the rise of Darwin’s theory of evolution and the Copernican model of the solar system. Both displaced pre-existing ideas that didn’t quite fit the facts, and many people believe that when a new mode...
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by Ciaran McAuley
Thursday 8th March 2012, 16:59 BST
A number of weeks ago I was posed the question “If you were in charge of the NHS budget, how would you prioritise treatments and save the NHS millions?” This almost certainly is not a question to take lightly, especially, in my circumstances, when it might determine your future. Simply put: if there was an easy answer the government would be currently implementing it. So what is the answer to such a question?
Of course, the NHS already has...
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by BlueSci
Friday 2nd March 2012, 12:00 BST
Louisa Lyon says we shouldn’t get too pleased with oursleves for taking vitamin supplements.
Multivitamin pills can seem like a sensible precaution if you don’t always manage your 5-a-day. With the UK market for supplements valued at £411 million last year, many of us clearly believe in playing it safe, but are we just throwing our money away?
Vitamins are essential nutrients that your body c... Continue Reading
by Ciaran McAuley
Friday 2nd March 2012, 11:18 BST
With the rise of the internet over the last two decades, information has become increasingly easier to access. The dawn of the internet has fuelled many changes; the most notable of these changes being Twitter making the Arab Spring possible. So what impact has the internet and the media had on medicine?
The internet has made medical information freely accessible with a few clicks of the mouse. There are thousands of websites dedicated to he...
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by BlueSci
Friday 24th February 2012, 12:55 BST
Tobias Gerken warns us against climate skeptics who insist that the recent chill dispells climate change worries.
A week of snow and freezing temperatures is enough to spark panic in the tabloids while misinformed bloggers celebrate the death of the ‘global warming myth’, as if a cold snap can instantaneously remove greenhouse gases from atmosphere.
However, localised weather has no direct relationship to global climate. The driving...
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by Ciaran McAuley
Thursday 23rd February 2012, 15:29 BST
Imagine you have been put under for an operation and you suddenly wake up in the middle of the surgery. Like a temporary locked-in syndrome, you will almost certainly be unable to communicate the situation you are in. You will unfortunately have to lie there, awake, while the surgery continues. It sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but it is a reality which faces 1 to 2 in every 1,000 patients who undergo surgery, according to large group ...
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by George Baker
Sunday 19th February 2012, 08:47 BST
Ok this was meant to be a weekly blog about small conflicts of the 20th century, but I missed my deadline and failed to write about the 20th century.
I missed the deadline because I’m poorly organised. And the reason I couldn’t jauntily write about stuff in the past this week was because of this (http://youtu.be/kO7i8ontM58) video. It’s a horrific clip, purporting to show dead bodies in a field hospital – it’s as disturbing as it sou...
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by BlueSci
Friday 17th February 2012, 12:00 BST
This week’s Not-Sci, written by Bethany Jones, about the science of astrology.
“Your adaptable character expresses itself through skill and efficiency … endowed with the moral sense of a worthy, right-thinking, middle-class citizen.” (1)
Recognise yourself? Roughly 94% of people believe this astrological description applies to them (2). Astrology is one of the oldest human practices. Until recent centuries it was c...
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by Ciaran McAuley
Thursday 16th February 2012, 14:16 BST
Mental illness has long been a topic which causes unease; people do not want to think about or consider their mental faculties being affected in any way by illness. This awkwardness and fear has led to some animosity towards psychologists and psychiatrists. Psychiatry, the field of medicine which deals with mental disorders, is itself a relatively young field. This late arrival to medicine is probably down to a mixture of a lack of understand...
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by Alex Porter
Monday 13th February 2012, 17:27 BST
In a bid to increase its appeal to girls, Lego has released a new line of toys specifically geared towards to the needs and wants of the fairer sex. The announcement led to a great deal of both anticipation and scepticism, which culminated in the release of ‘Lego Friends’ earlier this month.
When the product was unveiled, Mads Nipper, the executive vice president of products and markets at Lego waxed lyrical about the intellectual benefits...
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