Paying the piper? When a researcher publishes a research paper he or she is obliged to state clearly any funding source. The reasons for this are entirely obvious. Most ‘bad’, ‘faulty’, or ‘unreliable’ research is tainted by the interests of those who have provided financial support. There is nothing new in any of this, and … Read more
A zoom panel discussion organised by Lindau, which included two other Nobel-prize winning scientists, provided Stanford biophysicist and Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt with a platform to vent his fury over the global scientific community’s flawed response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as he saw it. In particular, he condemned Imperial College’s Neil Ferguson for failing to … Read more
On April 30th, acting Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed defended Ireland’s agricultural sector,[i] claiming we are the second most food secure country in the world. What Creed seems to have been referring to was an Irish independent article from October 2019, saying Ireland had moved from first place to second in a Global Food Security … Read more
‘We are alive in a time of worst-case scenarios. The world we have inherited seems exhausted, destined for an absolute and final unravelling’. So begins Mark O’Connell’s journey into our ever-darkening future. There are, he notes darkly, fascists in the streets and in the palaces, while around us ‘the weather has gone uncanny, volatile, malevolent’. … Read more
It’s Saturday morning and I stand exhausted in line for my weekly shop, having left home without breakfast to get ahead of the despondency that might otherwise keep me indoors all day, despite the incongruent sunshine. I know at heart I am mostly there in hopes of some semblance of normal human contact. The phone … Read more
Fifty years ago today, more than twenty million people took to the streets in towns and cities across the U.S. in what was and remains the largest environmental protest in history. On that evening’s news, CBS anchor, Walter Cronkite intoned: “a unique day in American history is ending, a day set aside for a nationwide … Read more
Pressing Pause In the grip of serious illness anyone but an obtuse contrarian seeks medical assistance. As the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe, doctors are performing heroics, often at grave risks to their own health. Enhanced screening, testing and emergency treatment facilities, along with developing a vaccine, are now paramount considerations; but we … Read more
No one will want to read this, as this is about death. As we sit, quarantined in our homes, scrolling through the news of the pandemic, death seems to stand, ever present, in the corner of the sitting room. Our everyday behaviour is now invested with the knowledge of his presence. The actions we take, … Read more
Tonight I walked to the sea in the dark. The city streets were empty except for a tomcat clawing at a wooden lamp post. It turned and padded off as it heard my steps, its shoulders rolling, leonine. When I came to the shore the air was still, the city’s lights amber diffusions in the … Read more
My colleagues are working flat out these days. After seeing our list of patients, we are on the phone and email advising people to quarantine, to get tested, or take measures such as social distancing. What we are trying to do is help ‘flatten the curve’ of the outbreak: to avoid a peak of infections; … Read more