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Christmas Pudding and the Atom
What we now call Christmas Pudding is not what it used to be. In medieval times, they knew it as Christmas pottage, made from hulled wheat boiled in milk along with spices and sugar. It evolved into a more recognisable pudding in Victorian times when it was commonly called figgy or plumb pudding. Amongst the…
Shortage of antibiotics
The news media is full of reports of shortages of common antibiotics. Focus has been on penicillin-based antibiotics like amoxicillin, but the shortages have extended to other classes, including macrolides, such as erythromycin. The stories, at least in the United Kingdom, circle around the death of 16 children (total at the time of writing) from…
Personal take on the Theranos Fraud
The headline this morning: “Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years for defrauding investors”. The case centred around her false claims that her technology could detect hundreds of diseases from a single drop of blood. The BBC reported, “Silicon Valley is a place where fortunes can be made and squandered. It’s not unusual for investors…
Atomic Time Machine
This day, 6th August, marks the anniversary when in 1945, the first, and to date only, nuclear weapons were used in war. A uranium bomb nicknamed Little Boy, exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and three days later a plutonium bomb nicknamed Fat Man detonated close to Nagasaki. By the end of that year…
An historical scandal
This blog post is a little different to my pharmacological posts, because instead I want to recount a little history of science. It’s a story of tragedy, scandal, blackmail and a delicious happy ending. Yesterday, 26th July, marked the anniversary when, in 1895, Marie Sklodowska married Pierre Curie (their wedding photograph is shown on the…
Hangover cure – I’m sceptical
If, like me, you’re a fan of P. G. Wodehouse, then you might know the short story, “Jeeves Takes Charge”. Bertie Wooster has had one-over-the-eight the night before and is complaining of a hangover. Jeeves presents him with “a little preparation of my own invention” and upon drinking it down, Bertie is instantly revived.…
Weight loss drugs of a new class
I once attended a pharmacology conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. It’s a huge conference centre and navigating its many halls is daunting for someone like me who has no sense of direction. Ambling towards the lecture theatre I wandered through the exhibition hall festooned with donut stands, pretzel stalls, breakfast burritos, waffles and pancakes.…
Osteoarthritis
Arthritis is a term used to describe several inflammatory conditions affecting joints. As is so often the case with medical history, the name was derived from observed symptoms but subsequently it was found these were the result of a plethora of different causes. Today, “arthritis” covers around 100 different conditions associated with joint disease. Rheumatoid…
Homeopathy Awareness Week
It’s world homeopathy awareness week and so I thought I would oblige and make people aware of one of the most prevalent and pernicious forms of alternative medicine in existence. There are many who steadfastly believe in homeopathy even though the foundations not only have no basis in reality, they are really quite bizarre. Preparation…
Is Chocolate Toxic?
It’s rare that governments of the world act in unison and so today goes down in regulatory history as the day the US FDA, the European EMA, the UK MHRA and the Australian TGA have simultaneously issued restrictions on the use of theobromine. I suspect most people are not aware of theobromine or this new…
Controversial Alzheimer’s drug
Last year a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s arrived on the scene called aducanumab, trade name Aduhelm, made by Biogen in Cambridge Massachusetts. It’s claimed this drug is different to its predecessors because it targets the causative biology of the disease – but it’s not without some controversy. To explain, let’s first look at what…
The world’s most expensive drug is not a drug
Reports have appeared in the media recently headlining “the world’s most expensive drug” The subject of these headlines is Libmeldy, but the media seems obsessed with its cost, rather than what Libmeldy actually is. And, by the way, Libmeldy is no more a drug than my bird-watching binoculars are the James Web Space Telescope, but…
Covid-19 and the brain
A common symptom of Covid-19 is anosmia (loss of the ability to smell) which suggested to some that the virus could get into the brain. More recent evidence seems to bear this out, although there is still a lot of speculation. I once attended a lecture by Martin Rees, the UK’s Astronomer Royal, who astonished the…
Spinal muscular atrophy and Zolgensma
Reports have appeared in the UK media of the NHS administering the most expensive drug in the world to a 5-month-old boy. Onasemnogene abeparvovec (sold as Zolgensma), costing around two and a half million US-dollars (£1.79 million),* is a gene therapy agent to treat spinal muscular atrophy. The headlines quoted the price but gave scant…
A Crisis of Infection
It’s amazing what humankind can achieve with the right amount of political will and resources. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Roosevelt oversaw the rebuilding of the Pacific fleet in only 6-months. Driven by rivalry with the Soviet Union, Kennedy announced in May 1961, “…we choose to go to the moon …”…
Magic mushrooms and depression
Recent trials have suggested the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, might be a treatment for depression. This might be linked to widely used antidepressants such as Prozac.
What has opioid addiction got to do with cats?
Cat lovers will know the effect of catnip on their beloved pets only too well. Catnip (Nepeta cataria) is a member of the mint family and along with a similar plant called silver vine (Actinidia polygamy) it elicits a feline euphoria followed by a period of placid tranquillity, lasting perhaps 15-30 minutes. The effects were…
Maradona and a Biochemist
I start this blog post with, “I don’t want to sound bitter but…” and then I’ll go on to probably do just that. The media is full of tributes to Diego Maradona; some call him a genius, some a deeply flawed legend. For me personally, he was a cocaine addict connected to the Mafia who…
Pfizer-BioNTech are making a mRNA vaccine, but what is that?
Covid-19 blog for the non-expert The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 is all over the media. What hasn’t been in the headlines so much, is that this is a mRNA vaccine and if successful, it’ll be the first of its type. Some say they will not take it because it’s “rushed” but this misses the point…
90% effective Covid-19 vaccine
The headlines are jubilant with “Covid-19” vaccine 90% effective. As one of those skeptical scientists, I’m in a difficult position because I don’t want to dampen any hope, but at the same time it’s worth questioning the headline to see what’s really behind it. The announcement was from Pfizer and BioNTech, and the media are…
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Graham Lappin 