Author Archives: Science Media Centre
expert reaction to study investigating young fatherhood and likelihood of death in midlife
Publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, a team of researchers has investigated a possible connection between age of fatherhood and mortality using data from the 1950 Finnish census, reporting that younger fathers (under 25) had higher mortality than men who had children later in life. read more
expert reaction to impact of negative emissions technology on climate change
Strategies involving negative emissions, or the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, have been suggested as a way of mitigating the effects of climate change. Publishing in the journal Nature Communications, a team of scientists has concluded that based on their reported estimates, the development of such technologies should be accelerated and be central to climate policy. read more
expert reaction to carbon dioxide removal won’t reverse ocean acidification
Publishing in the journal Nature Climate Change, a group of researchers have modeled the effects of strategies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and report that in their systems such strategies would still leave long term negative effects on oceans in terms of pH and temperature. read more
expert reaction to trial results of VSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine in Guinea
Writing in The Lancet journal, a research team has published the results of a trial of an Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Merck, reporting 100% efficacy. read more
expert reaction to Lancet series of reviews on impacts of nuclear disasters, around the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The health effects and lessons learnt from nuclear disasters is the subject of three papers published in The Lancet. The papers report that survivors of such events have an increased risk of developing negative physical, psychological and social effects including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder. The papers concludethat physicians should receive training in how to deal with nuclear disasters, in order for them to provide decision aids to protect workers, vulnerable people and residents following a disaster. read more
expert reaction to potential wreckage from flight MH370
Debris from an aircraft thought to be a Boeing 777 has been found on an island in the Indian Ocean, and has been transported to France for testing as to whether it may be from the flight MH370 which went missing in March 2014. read more
expert reaction to Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)
In a paper published in The Ageing Male journal, a team of researchers have worked to establish the effect of different testosterone treatments on a group of men. The paper reports that different testosterone preparations appeared equally safe over long time periods, with either no change or improvement of cardiovascular risk factors observed in the patients. read more
expert reaction to study investigating switching off street lights, levels of crime and numbers of car crashes
The effects that different strategies for lighting streets at night (such as partial, dimmer or no lighting) might have on crime and car crashes is the subject of a paper published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, in which the authors report that there was little evidence for harmful effects due to changes in lighting. read more
radiotherapy – present and future
Polls show that the public do not recognise radiotherapy as a modern form of cancer therapy, and many would describe it as ‘frightening’. Yet radiotherapy is one of the most effective cancer treatments available, and a staggering array of new developments should allow radiotherapy to become increasingly personalised to individual cancer patients. Major advances, such as Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), proton therapy, Cyberknife technology and research combining radiotherapy with MRI imaging, viral therapy, and chemotherapy, promise to revolutionise radiotherapy in the future. read more
expert reaction to premature babies and personality disorders
In a paper published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal, a group of researchers have investigated a possible link between babies who were born very early or with a much lower than average weight, and different personality traits. The authors report that adults who were in either of those categories were more likely to display features of introversion, autism and neuroticism as well as lower risk taking. read more
expert reaction to Marek’s disease in chickens, imperfect vaccines and virulence of viruses
The possibility that vaccines which do not block transmission of their target virus to un-vaccinated hosts encourage the evolution of more virulent pathogens is the subject of a study published in the journal PLOS Biology. The researchers examined this scenario in chickens using the Marek’s disease virus, and report that in this model this could indeed be the case. read more
expert reaction to news that two patients are being tested for suspected Middle Eastern Respiratory Virus Syndrome – Coronavirus Infection (MERS-CoV) at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and that the A&E Department there is temporarily closed
The A&E unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary has been closed with two patients being investigated for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. read more
expert reaction to news that the RTS,S malaria vaccine (Mosquirix) has received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use outside the EU
The European Medicines Agency has delivered a positive opinion on a malaria vaccine for use outside of the European Union in babies. read more
expert reaction to genetics and GCSE achievement
Genes are thought to play a significant role in general educational achievement, although it is unclear how this might apply to individual academic subjects. A team of researchers has now investigated this by using the GCSE results of pairs of both identical and non-identical twins, and report that many academic subjects are influenced by the same genes, even after accounting for general intelligence. read more
expert reaction to the UK government decision to authorise the limited use of two neonicotinoid pesticides
The UK government has announced a decision to allow the limited use of two neonicotinoid pesticides, which had been the subject of a wider ban. read more
expert reaction to solanezumab trial in Alzheimer’s as announced at Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC)
Results from the trial of a drug in patients with Alzheimer’s disease have been announced at a conference in Washington D.C., with researchers reporting that the drug may be useful in those with early stages of the disease. read more
expert reaction to study investigating sugar-sweetened drinks, artificially-sweetened drinks and type 2 diabetes incidence
Striking the right balance of components in our diets is an important but controversial area of research, and potential links between sugar, sweeteners and type 2 diabetes are explored in a paper published in The BMJ. The authors report an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and type 2 diabetes, and also an association when examining artificially-sweetened drinks or fruit juices, though they suggest that there may be some biases causing the two latter links. read more
expert reaction to final report from SACN (Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition) on carbohydrates and health, which makes recommendations on intake of sugar, fibre and carbs
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has published its latest guidance on carbohydrates and health. read more
expert reaction to new research on GM diamondback moths for pest control
Genetic modification strategies to control pests are being developed as an alternative to the use of chemical pesticides, and a paper published in the journal BioMed Central Biology has reported the modification of moths to select for male offspring in order to suppress total population size.
read more
expert reaction to study investigating the use of stem cells to correct mutations in mitochondrial DNA
Efforts to prevent mitochondrial diseases have led to the development of various techniques, and a team of researchers have described one such technique in the journal Nature based on the use of stem cells, though it has not yet been trialed in animals. read more