Author: Hannah
-
Why blog? Because it’s the best job, ever
Thanks to a grant from the National Association of Science Writers, the New England Science Writers has made their Jan. 19 presentation on health & science blogging freely available online. The panel featured: Moderator Alison Bass, http://alison-bass.blogspot.com Daniel Carlat: The Carlat Psychiatry Blog: Promoting honesty in medical education, http://carlatpsychiatry.blogspot.com Ivan Oransky: Embargo Watch: Keeping an…
-
Bill to help Canadian companies ship generics has uncertain future
From Nature Medicine. Published online 7 March 2011. Backed by nongovernmental organizations and the generics industry, the left-of-center New Democratic Party has championed a bill that set out to improve Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), a law that enables drug manufacturers in the country to make generic medications for shipment to developing countries to treat illnesses…
-
The painted brain: how our lives colour our minds
The brain arrives shortly after lunch. It rests on the lab bench, in a Styrofoam box plastered with “Urgent Delivery” and “Fragile” stickers, while two research assistants prepare the dissection laboratory. One has tuned a small radio to a classical station. The sounds of bassoons and strings waft into the room. The opus is an…
-
Cancer drugs should add months, not weeks, say experts
From Nature Medicine. Published online 7 January 2011. In the last decade, the world’s drug regulatory agencies have approved dozens of new anticancer therapies for everything from lung carcinoma to skin melanoma. Some of these new drugs add months to a patient’s life. But others may offer only an extra week or two, on average,…
-
Banking on biodiversity
The diversity of life on Earth gives ecosystems the resilience they need to thrive. Yet every day scores of plants and animals go extinct, victims of activities we humans undertake to feed, clothe, house and transport ourselves. How can we meet our own needs without destroying that which sustains us? The west coast of Vancouver…