Radiation has received a mixed press since the discovery of x rays 115 years ago. Wilhelm Roentgen’s exciting new finding was initially thought to be beneficial for health and was […]
Editors at large
Domhnall MacAuley on editors, journals, and Harry Potter
Paddington Bear was at the end of the platform. And, he is still there 15 years later as I travel through London on my way to the BMJ office – still […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The SCAR project. Surviving cancer. Absolute reality.
Ambling along a New York street, a poster grabbed me by the throat. A young woman with a mastectomy scar and pregnant.* “Breast cancer is not a pink ribbon,” it […]
Elizabeth Loder on sharing SPIRIT
A diverse collection of people, ranging from medical journal editors to the head of the clintrials.gov trial registration website gathered at the third meeting of the SPIRIT initiative in Toronto on […]
Domhnall MacAuley on rowing glory and cruel irony
They asked me to go on the radio. Andy Holmes, double Olympic gold medallist rower had just died of Leptospirosis. After a long break away from the sport, he returned two […]
Sally Carter on maternal health – with a touch of glamour
Eighteen months ago I had my first child, and ever since I’ve loved listening to other people’s birth stories – long, short, blissful, or terrifying – I’m all ears. I got a ticket […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Sports medicine awards and research opportunity
The Lord Speaker’s chambers at the House of Lords seemed an appropriate setting for the presentation of the Duke of Edinburgh prize for sport and exercise medicine. And, it seems, […]
Helen Jaques: Evidence and policy making in public health
“Should evidence always dictate policy?” This was the key question at a recent debate at the Royal Society of Medicine organised as part of the Battle of Ideas, a festival […]
Annabel Ferriman: Of magnetricity, hand dryers, and levitating frogs
It is not often you get to swig champagne with a swarm of superior British scientists at the Science Museum but on Tuesday I did just that. I was substituting […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Charge the sick
Why not charge people for being ill? A satirical letter in the Irish Times, recommended a monthly levy on illness. Declan Moriarty suggested a sliding scale so that MS sufferers […]