On the news this week: fossils from the Cambrian Explosion; new treatment for prostate cancer starts clinical trials; and new method of diagnosing Parkinson’s disease

On the news this week: Ebola outbreak in Congo; study shows large number of childhood cancer cases undiagnosed; and the global youth climate strike.

On the news this week: Diet drugs for mosquitoes; new cancer treatment; and hangover tips.

Until recently, researchers hadn’t given the immune system enough focus as a possible cancer treatment. A team at Imperial College is now looking for ways to improve on the initial successes of immunotherapy.

A new study exploring the interaction between cancer cells and their environment may result in effective methods for preventing the spread of malignant tumours.

“Women’s bodies are born with a fixed number of eggs”. So goes the accepted theory, which is understood to be one of the main causes for the limited lifespan of female fertility. However, research in its early stages has just emerged that may challenge this idea. Evelyn Telfer, a professor of reproductive biology at the […]

If you don’t already know when or how this common STI can cause cancer, these are the most important facts about HPV.

Rachel David reviews Sean Martin’s ‘A Short History of Disease’

Iona Twaddell compares the major environmental issue of the 1980s with climate change and asks if there are lessons to learn

“Intelligent” knife enables surgeons to identify cancerous tissue during tumour extraction

Eleanor Magson delves into the world of neuroanatomy in Henry Marsh’s fantastic new book.

What is epigenetics, and why the fuss? Charlotte Mykura explains.

Angelina Chrysanthou and Stephanie Sammann battle it out over which of
these everyday foods really presents the greatest health risk.

Does the apparently harmless potato have a dark side? 2015 may well bring the rise of a new GM variety to help us avoid cancer-causing chemicals..

Themes of the last fortnight have been medical money spinners, stem cell controversy and Doctors 2.0 …

Will patents, especially gene patents, restrict new research and innovation? …

This is the story of how telomeres determine our lifespan, but can they help ‘cure’ aging? …

We are constantly reminded of the looming, ominous and terrible prospect of cancer …

Dogs are already used to detect diabetes sufferers and illegal drugs but their acme noses might also be able to sniff out cancer …

Monoclonal antibodies attached to cytotoxic drugs act as homing missiles that destroy cancers from their core …

Electronic cigarettes have helped many smokers to quit, but how safe are they? …

A Panorama on the Texan doctor selling untested cures for cancer, while Unreported world charts rising sales in cosmetic surgery …

A speaker at the up-coming TEDMEDLive event explains how crowdsourcing funding has shaped her research…

From HG Wells’s Invisible Man to Sir Isaac Newton, what motivates scientists to become their own experimental guinea pigs? …

In ‘Scientists In The Pub’ Andy Roast talks to researchers about their latest work. In this episode he interviews Dr Duncan Casey about cancer diagnosis on a single cell level …

Cancer has been a monumental target for medical research – in the West it’s a leading cause of death, and is highly feared. But this reputation isn’t necessarily earned. A large number of patients arrive in clinic with the secret apprehension that it could be the ‘big C’ despite the fact heart disease is the […]

Chinese astronauts reach orbiting space lab Image: Xinhua/Wang Yongzhuo via Xinhuanet China’s Shenzhou 9 rocket – which last week became the first Chinese mission to carry a female astronaut – has successfully docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 station 340 km (210 miles) above the Earth. The arrival of the three crewmembers marks the first time […]

Every year, 36,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Having the cancer surgically removed can be a very painful process, both physically and emotionally. One can only imagine how it would feel to have undergone such a procedure only to be told that its success is uncertain. Yet this is a sad […]

A sad soul kills you quicker than a germ. The science behind the healing power of the mind. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven. – John Milton, Paradise Lost Neuro-psycho-biology is the lengthy name awarded to the up and coming field of […]

Should we all be sequencing our own genomes? It’s often said that “it’s what’s inside that counts”. From a medic’s point of view, past the external stigmata of disease, this is widely true. For a geneticist it is sacred. Genomes constitute an entire instruction manual for building an organism. They contain hidden heirlooms from our […]