Crystals And Catalysts

Returning to academia... A masters degree is a big deal and a serious financial decision so it needs a lot of thought before you begin the application process and you need to be able to answer the following questions before reading the rest of this post.

Why are we obsessed with eternal youth and dreams of living forever? And can it really lead us to new scientific breakthroughs?

I almost completely forgot that exactly four years ago today, I launched my blog! 🎊 Four years ago!  I've not been active on my blog lately, mainly because I'm working on my dissertation and my future career steps after my masters is finally over🕐😭

As most of you know, one of my goals is to become a published science writer... and part of that is becoming a reality! With my first magazine article that has been published in Kinesis Magazine (a student-led magazine in UCL ). “More Research is Needed” and Other Clichés My article is an analysis of the use of the phrase "more research is needed" and other paraphrases, where we look at the implications of the phrase and how the 'public' receives that phrase, especially when it is coming from a scientist -- who is expected to know all the answers and have conclusive results... Have a read through my first article and let me know what you think in the comments!

Today may be a normal day for all of us, we get up to go to work, university or school and carry out our daily routine… but this is most of us - not all of us. We may be the lucky ones who have not been cursed with dreaded migraines, causing the most unfortunate of us to seek refuge in our bedrooms like owls who only appear during the night. Robyn*, a migraine sufferer has seen her mother and her auntie go through a difficult time with migraines and at the age of 40, she became a victim herself. On the days she yearned to be outside, sociable, proactive, she was imprisoned in a dark room, no sound, no lights and no smells (they all make her headaches worse and make her throw up). She’s tried a lot of medications, none seem to at least shorten the time period that the dark cloud takes over.  But now, thanks to science, she may be able to experience a brighter future. This is because of a new advancement in migraine history. The first migraine drug to prove successful in 20 y...

Book: Merchants of Doubt (How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming) Authors: Naomi Oreskes, Eric M. Conway Published: 2010 (film in 2014) ISBN‎: ‎978-1-59691-610-4 Blurb : The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers. Click here to read the rest of the blurb... If you are vaguely interested in science and you care about the future of our planet, you have to read this book.  To me, Merchants of Doubt has been an eye-opener.  It meticulously dissects the tactics that went into creating doubt in the public community on issues ranging from tobacco smoke to global wa...

14.11.2017 World Diabetes Day 2017 November (2017) is World Diabetes Month and the theme is Women & Diabetes . I was invited to join this great campaign by Krishana Sankar, who has been doing awesome work all over her social media ( IG  and  Twitter ) throughout this month. Over social media you will be seeing a blue circle which is a symbol of the IDF WDD campaign - so look out for it and don't forget to share!  Also be sure to check out my Instagram where I will be sharing diabetes facts from the IDF and Twitter where I will be sharing everyone's updates on WDD. On top of a healthy diet, it's recommended that on average, an adult should fit in 150 minutes of exercise a week.  The reason behind #150mins is based on studies that have shown to maintain healthy lifestyles, adults should be physically active for at least 150 mins per week. This is related to diabetes since people with pre-diabetes and early-onset type 2 diabetes can possibly r...

Next year the National Health Service— the public healthcare service in the UK— will celebrate its 70 th birthday, but will it be the version of the NHS that its creators imagined it to be? The NHS is being pulled in all directions with the government pulling at one side (with its lack of spending) and Big Pharma pulling at the other side (attempting to take the NHS to court over the use of cheaper drugs). So how much longer can the NHS take all of this? With austerity pressurising the NHS into reducing its spending costs on medications, the NHS is turning to new, innovative and cheaper therapeutics along with methods for monitoring their patients. Albeit taking a controversial route with their deal with Google’s AI (artificial intelligence) company— DeepMind .  Does the NHS think AI is the answer to all of their problems? Most likely, yes, because the NHS have placed a mountain of trust in DeepMind, giving them access to a shocking 1.6 million patient’s health data, without ...

( This blog post is an extension/update of this blog post ) There is a huge difference between finding out that your favourite author uses a ghost writer to write their novels and finding out that the pharmaceutical industry uses ghost writers for most, if not all of their scientific content.  Disturbingly, someone else has been paid to write the paper, the scientific research which governs our health and wellbeing has been written by someone else (a “medical ghost writer”) not the author(s) whose name sits at the top of the paper.  These writers aren’t called ghost writers; they have a more professional name: medical writers. They’re anyone with a strong scientific background and are employed in agencies, recruited by pharmaceutical companies to help them with the approval and the promotion of new therapies coming to the drug market.   This is where the problem emerges, we’re supposed to trust Key Opinion Leaders (KOL’s – a doctor/healthcare professional...

There is a huge difference between finding out that your favourite author uses a ghostwriter to write their novels and finding out that the pharmaceutical industry uses ghostwriters for the majority of their scientific content. Who are the medical ghostwriters? These writers aren’t called ghostwriters; they have a more professional name: medical writers. They are anyone with a science background (which doesn’t have to be a background in the therapy areas the agency is working on) and most likely a PhD.  Medical writers work in agencies and these agencies are employed by pharmaceutical companies to help them with the approval and the promotion of new therapies coming to the drug market by providing advice and the preparation of various scientific materials such as slide decks and publications for scientific journals. This is where the problem arises, a medical writer can write publications but will not have their name published on it, and instead, the name of ...