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

Ingredients in magic mushrooms may have profound therapeutic potential in the treatment of psychological disorders, but under current UK law, it’s almost impossible to study them. We ask Professor David Nutt where scientists can get their hands on some…

Flibanserin has become the first FDA-approved drug for female sexual dysfunction. But does lack of sexual desire require treatment?

Download Issue 34 Summer 2016    

The new I, Science is out! Grab your copy on campus or read it online.

Experimental neuroscience which studies dopamine and the brain’s reward system can shed light on drug addiction, how it works, and how to treat it.

What is the placebo effect and could it resolve the antibiotic crisis? We explore the famed phenomenon that has mystified scientists since its discovery over 200 years ago.

Liz Zuccala looks at how scientists are looking for drugs to stop sexual development of malaria parasites

Circadian rhythms run the biological world like clockwork. Madeleine Hurry explains how they work, from the genes in a bacterium to the human brain

Matt Sargeant asks if addiction will still be a major societal problem by the 22nd Century, and whether pharmacology might have the answer

The UK needs to adopt the Breakthrough Therapy model, which allows super drugs into the market faster …

Ten thousand years ago, human life expectancy was only 30 years. The discovery of new medicines has extended this life expectancy …

Themes of the last fortnight have been the growing calls for a strategy on obesity, drug experimenting and lessons from bird flight …

Are rare diseases actually rare? How much time and money should pharma companies invest in developing drugs for these?…

Glue and aerosols have been popular routes to getting ‘high’ in the past, and now laughing gas is the latest volatile substance to be abused …

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

Drugs policy: not as easy as ABC. A new report on UK drug policy is refreshingly different …

Stop! Before you drink that pint, have you considered a genetic test? Susceptibility to developing mental illness from alcohol could come from genes …

Drugs that treat rare diseases are riding a wave of financial and clinical success. But why should that be? And should we be pleased?

Some festive fun. Jo Poole takes an imaginative look at how the twelve days of Christmas song relates to drug discovery from anti-depressants to paracetamol …

Who really decides your medical treatment? The government wants it to be you, but are you really the best judge? Lies, damned lies, and statistics. A household catchphrase referring to the deceptive nature of statistical studies. People are easily seduced by science when it is presented as logic and reason. After all, numbers shouldn’t lie. […]

Failure to consult the public on a new drug-pricing policy may store up trouble for the future. Somewhere, in the depths of Whitehall, an elephant has taken up residence. This big, pink, imaginary elephant – let’s call her Nellie – is currently standing in a bustling project room, squeezed, I imagine, somewhere between a conference […]

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 […]

In early December the coalition government launched its new Life Sciences Strategy, described by the Prime Minister as an attempt to improve patient care, foster innovation and catalyse the medical breakthroughs necessary for the industry to remain “a jewel in the crown of our economy”. While the UK’s economic crown is looking a little tarnished […]

Us humans are always looking for the easy way out. If we can get someone else to do our dirty work for us, so much the better, which is why drug dealers rely on mules to ship merchandise for them. One of the trickiest things to do in medical science is smuggling drugs or nanoprobes […]

“Waiting those 14 hours was the most terrible experience of my life” says Parastou Khiaban. “When we saw her coming out of intensive care, that image will haunt me for the rest of my life.” Parastou’s mother was treated for breast cancer in 2009. The operation took fourteen hours. Complications left her in intensive care […]

Despite what many students may firmly believe, money can’t buy you happiness, right? A lot of money can, however, buy you diamonds and although I’ve never been financially stable enough to test the theory, it seems that diamonds can make women very, very happy indeed. It also seems that the bigger the diamond, the happier […]

The worldwide trade of illicit drugs is big business, affecting countries across the world; from production in Latin America and the Middle East, to consumption in Europe and the United States (and everywhere in between). At home, the saga of our own, outdated, drug legislation continues. Last week the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies […]

Fifteen stops on the Piccadilly line did nothing to shake off the twinges of my subtle hangover. The bracing air on the short walk from King’s Cross to the Wellcome Collection picked me up a bit, and the calm, quiet exhibition space brought the world back into full focus. How appropriate that I was visiting […]

08/02/2006 Three years ago, after yet another Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) had failed and science seemed a never-ending series of repetitive frustrations, a friend lent me a book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR. Mullis, as it turns out, is one of those controversial figures of science. A distinguished […]