Oxford University Press has produced new materials for primary schools aimed at encouraging boys to read. I’m not qualified even to start pondering the biosocial reasons why young boys apparently […]
Columnists
Liz Wager’s vital statistics
One of my best presents this Christmas was a slim book called the Pocket World in Figures, published by The Economist. […]
Richard Smith: Can poetry define health?
Reflecting on the challenge by Alex Jadad and Laura O’Grady to define health, I begin to conclude that it can’t be captured in a few words. Disease is a simple […]
Julian Sheather on hope and human rights in Zimbabawe
Last week I was in Uganda, speaking at a conference on monitoring the right to health. During the conference I met a fourth year medical student from Zimbabwe, Norman Matara. Norman […]
Anna Donald on the joy of carers and nasogastric tubes
I’m lying in bed at 4 in the afternoon drinking Yakult. The little pot of yoghurty bacteria, recommended by a friend. I have no idea if it will help my […]
Richard Smith on the right to health
On first acquaintance the concept of a right to health can seem ridiculous. Why not a right to happiness, beauty, high intelligence, and Arsenal winning the cup every year? The […]
Anna Donald blogging again
It’s been a bit of a rough five weeks, as readers might have guessed from the protracted absence of blogs. Apparently I was “overdosed” on chemotherapy and ended up in […]
Richard Smith on why diabetes envies cancer
Those who campaign on diabetes envy those who campaign on cancer because cancer gets so much more attention than diabetes. Indeed, the diabetes campaigners are very frustrated that diabetes is […]
Siddhartha Yadav: Sex and the city
Thamel is a busy tourist hub in Kathmandu. Its streets are lined by numerous shops, massage centres, bars, pubs, hotels, restaurants and even strip clubs, popularly known as dance restaurants. […]
Julian Sheather on genetically modified organisms
One evening last week I found myself alone in the restaurant of a large golfing hotel in a remote corner of Essex. Probably because it happens so infrequently, I quite […]