New South Wales has become the latest Australian state to issue an alert about a measles outbreak, joining Victoria and Queensland. Queensland’s chief health officer has even written directly to parents…
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Health – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 6326 - 6350 of 8031 articles
The history of biology is peppered with invaluable contributions by physics and physicists. Even if we leave aside the argument that it’s all just physics anyway, theoretical and practical biology leans…
There’s a growing body of evidence from all over the world showing that health is influenced by all kinds of social factors. But one of the best Australian initiatives embracing this approach was recently…
Chinggis Khaan (or as he is known in many countries, Genghis Khan) is Mongolia’s national hero. The famous 12th and 13th century leader used considerable military and political savvy to build one of the…
Unlike many drugs, caffeine may be taken legally by people of all ages, which helps make it the world’s most widely used stimulant. Approximately 80% of the world’s caffeine is consumed in the form of…
Deliberately inflicting pain or injury by cutting oneself or some other form of self-mutilation seems incomprehensible to many people. But it’s a common, typically secretive, experience for about 8% of…
Whether sequences of genetic material can be patented has been a matter of heated debate for the past decade or more. In many countries, patents have been granted for isolated gene sequences, methods of…
The development of the pill was a game changer for birth control in the 1960s. It was enthusiastically embraced by women who were desperate for some control over their fertility, despite the side effects…
We live in an age of great public fascination with minds and brains; books about brain plasticity, for instance, regularly make the bestseller lists. This fascination is not merely the product of our thirst…
Alcohol and substance abuse costs the Australian economy A$24.5bn a year. The human toll from accidents, overdoses, chronic disease, violence, mental illness and family disruption, however, is immeasurable…
Outside professional sport, few industries measure the performance of their workforces more intensively than academia. There’s particular scrutiny on how much difference academic research has made to the…
The traditional view of health is a biomedical one – stop people from getting ill by preventing infection and treating disease. But a growing body of research showing that health is the result of social…
Refugees and asylum seekers living in Australia are particularly vulnerable to self-harm and suicidal behaviours, but aren’t getting the specialised mental health care they need, according to a Spotlight…
What do bread, beer and botox have in common with this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine? More than you might think. But more on that in a minute. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine…
How do you know you are sick? No, really… Think about it. If you have suffered through another winter of coughs and sniffles, and you are about to be hit by the spring allergies, you will know the feeling…
Antioxidants are a commonly promoted feature of health foods and supplements. They’re portrayed as the good forces that fight free radicals – nasty molecules causing damage thought to hasten ageing and…
CLINICAL TRIALS – Human clinical trials are an important last hurdle in the development of new drugs and therapies. Today, The Conversation takes a closer look at this vital scientific endeavour with three…
CLINICAL TRIALS – Human clinical trials are an important last hurdle in the development of new drugs and therapies. Today, The Conversation takes a closer look at this vital scientific endeavour with three…
CLINICAL TRIALS – Human clinical trials are an important last hurdle in the development of new drugs and therapies. Today, The Conversation takes a closer look at this vital scientific endeavour with three…
Today (October 5) is 300 years since the birth of Denis Diderot, a prominent Enlightenment philosopher, art critic, and writer, who died on July 31, 1784, aged 70. A key Enlightenment figure, many of Diderot’s…
The brain and the mind are two sides of the same coin. We have always wanted to understand how our minds work but, until recently, lacked the tools to investigate the brain. The jelly-like tissue that…
It’s rare to hear good news about dementia, so two recent reports showing it may be becoming less common created a fair amount of excitement. Not a week goes by without some new promised therapy for dementia…
If you or someone close to you has lived with prostate cancer, you’ve probably come across dozens of emerging treatments in your hours of Googling. One such treatment, focal therapy, has been dubbed the…
The fundamental role of food is to provide nutrition for the body but it is much more than that. Food lies at the heart of our health and the health of our environment. Food affects international relations…
People who use mobile devices to monitor their health may be surprised to hear that up until now, there has been little definitive guidance on what medical apps need regulatory approval. In some cases…