• Getting our heads around African sleeping sickness

    African sleeping sickness is one of those scary diseases that seems kind of alien to anyone living in the Western world but which is a real threat to those living in sub-Sahara Africa, causing around 50,000 cases each year. The disease gets its name from the most recognisable symptom—a disruption...

  • Hitting an Invisible Target in TB Vaccine Design

     I have a troubled relationship with Twitter. It’s an unredeemable hate sort of thing. I’m generally an inane mix of angry opinion and low self-esteem so, in theory, we’re perfect for each other. I just don’t feel it, though. I had a quick look for online videos in the same vein of the YouTube...

  • Murder Your Darlings

     It makes me laugh when I hear people say that they don’t like fantasy or science fiction novels because ‘it’s not real’. All fiction, by definition, is made up. Yet, when it comes to imaginary monsters or aliens or magicians with pointy hats and white beards, many people don’t want to read...

  • Fw: Criminal Gang Initiations in Rural English Villages

     If you see a baby seat left by the side of the road, DO NOT STOP!!! Local police have released a warning that criminal gangs are using this ruse to lure women into stopping their cars to check on the baby. The location of the car seat will usually be beside a wooded area, and the woman will be...

  • Rebranding Tuberculosis

     If infectious diseases were monsters, what would they look like? I imagine malaria would be a terrible mosquito-like creature made of bones, with a wickedly sharp proboscis and a throbbing gut of fiery red blood. Diarrhoeal disease would rise from a swamp of sewage, grinning with its skull’s jaw...

  • Middle of the Road Pays for Pathogens

     To understand why infectious diseases make us ill, it helps to consider disease from the pathogen’s point of view. Bacteria, viruses and parasites did not evolve simply to cause illness and suffering; virulence is simply a by-product of a pathogen’s fight for survival. Because an infectious...

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Do you want to put science in the headlines?

Posted by Kathryn at 11:46 • 0 comments
If you do then the British Science Association Media Fellowships are for you. Experience first-hand how science is reported by spending 3-6 weeks on a summer placement with a press, broadcast or online journalist such as the Guardian, The Times or BBC. You will work with them to produce well informed, newsworthy pieces...

Saturday, 19 January 2013

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Faecal Transplants Through the Medium of Cartoons

Posted by Kathryn at 13:37 • 0 comments
Faecal transplants are highly effective in treating recurrent Clostridium difficile infections compared to conventional antibiotics. The transplants proved so successful that the trial was stopped early to give other patients the chance to benefit from this slightly icky-sounding treatment, which is proposed to repopulate the...
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