Betting on bad health (with inside information)
Personal DNA testing is here. For $1,000 you can send off a DNA sample to an american company and find out your genetic predispositions to a wide variety of illnesses and problems, from male pattern baldness to cancer. The Telegraph is runn…
Read MoreTwo approaches to climate control
The Guardian leader today drew what it called a crude distinction between “two sets of people who both want to fight climate change”. Some think we can carry on more or less as we are while pursuing technological means to counte…
Read MoreConditional gifts for the NHS
The Royal Bank of Scotland has donated a state-of-the-art three dimensional CT scanner to an Edinburgh hospital, but with strings attached. The scanner will be available for use by NHS patients, but the Bank wants its staff to have priority…
Read MorePersonal Carbon Credits and Fairness Considerations
Not a day seems to pass without some news on the possible catastrophic impacts of climate change. International politics aims at establishing binding regulations for greenhouse gas emissions – but quite rightly gets accused of only paying l…
Read MoreFalse Hope? Greenpeace on Carbon Capture and Storage
Earlier this month Greenpeace released a report entitled ‘False Hope’ attacking carbon capture and storage (CCS) on the grounds that it ‘wont save the climate’ and that it therefore presents us with a false hope. (See: h…
Read MoreLegal Abortion Time-Limits: Arbitrary Limits Harm Women
By Dr. Lachlan de Crespigny, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne The vote by the British parliament to keep the upper legal limit on abortion at 24 weeks was headline news around the world. An article in The Ec…
Read MorePreventing Polka-Dot Problems: Should Measles Vaccination be Compulsory?
Jim Todd reports about his measles experience at BBC News. A number of years back such a report about how a case of adult measles feels would have been absurd, since so many had suffered it. A few years back it would have been absurd becaus…
Read MoreBrain Boosting and Cheating in Exams: Four Responses
A report by the Academy of Medical Sciences looking at different aspects of drug use and mental health has identified a growing trend for off-label use of drugs intended for the treatment of diseases including narcolepsy, ADHD and Alzheimer…
Read MoreHFEA and Regulating Reproduction:Triumph for Rationality and Victory for Secular Ethics
MPs voted on Tuesday on two of the most controversial issues surrounding reproduction- the provision of IVF treatment, and the availability of legal abortion. Under the new laws, IVF clinics will no longer have a legal requirement to consid…
Read MoreThe new asbestos?
Carbon nanotubes are tiny man-made fibers with an incredibly high tensile strength. They are one of the most promising nanotechnological developments with many potential applications in electronics, medicine and futuristic materials. Howeve…
Read More