freelance science journalist and author
From ABC Health and Wellbeing, 23 May 2014: The debate about the effectiveness of homeopathy is nothing new. Most recently it made headlines after Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council released a draft information paper on homeopathy which found there were “no health conditions for which there was reliable evidence that homeopathy was effective”. … Continue reading Can homeopathy ‘work’ even when there’s no evidence?
This is a blog tour. A what? It’s a kind of blog chain letter, in this case, for authors. But it’s a lot more fun than a chain letter because you get to talk about yourself and then you get to plug your friends, which is a great thing to do. This particular blog tour … Continue reading Blog tour: How I Write
From Cardiology News, 6 May 2014: MELBOURNE – Reducing salt intake to less than 5 g/day could reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease by 11% and significantly decrease out-of-pocket health expenditures, particularly among economically vulnerable middle-income households, according to a modeling study of South Africa’s salt reduction policy. The study used surveys and epidemiological data to … Continue reading Salt targets could reduce cardiovascular disease burden and health expenditures
From Cardiology News, 6 May 2014: A polypill combining aspirin, simvastatin, and two antihypertensive drugs has shown a significant improvement in adherence as well as reductions in blood pressure and LDL cholesterol in patients with existing heart disease, according to data from a large international multicenter trial. The Single Pill to Avert Cardiovascular Events (SPACE) … Continue reading Significant improvements in adherence, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol with polypill
Dear Writer’s Voice coaches, I’d like to submit my completed adult science fiction manuscript Biohunter for your consideration (and hopefully enjoyment), and introduce you to my unconventional heroine Niobe Grace. Niobe is guilty of many things – bar brawls, affairs with married mayors, eyebrow-raising morals, and of swaggering through life like a punch-drunk cavalier. She is … Continue reading The Writer’s Voice: BIOHUNTER
From ABC Science, 2 May 2014: The time has come for a major rethink on antibiotics believes Monash University researcher Professor Jian Li. “People think you can throw antibiotics in the system or in the patient and it will kill the bacterial cells, but actually there are two major factors we have to consider,” says … Continue reading Unblocking the antibiotics pipeline
From ABC Health and Wellbeing, 1 May 2014: Talk to many parents and they’ll list a number of foods guaranteed to turn their normally well-behaved offspring into an uncontrollable monster. But speak to those who spend their days working with children who have behavioural problems and you get a very different perspective. Parenting forums, blogs … Continue reading Does diet affect children’s behaviour?
From Medicine Today, April 2014: One in eight individuals who experience ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage before the age of 50 years still struggle to function independently 10 years after the event, say researchers. A study of 722 patients aged 18 to 50 years presenting with their first stroke, haemorrhage or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) … Continue reading Young adult stroke leaves one in eight dependent
From Medicine Today, April 2014: Terminally-ill cancer patients receiving palliative chemotherapy in the four months before death are more likely to die in intensive care units, and more likely to have CPR and mechanical ventilation in the last week of life. Analysis of data from a US-based prospective longitudinal study showed that 56% of 386 … Continue reading Dying in ICU more likely with palliative chemotherapy
The stereotypical view of a scientific conference is generally a mind-numbing parade of semi-coherent individuals droning on at the floor about their pet piece of fringe research while a room full of sedated people sit there wondering when they can legitimately sneak out and enjoy the local tourism opportunities but still earn the requisite CPD … Continue reading Conference capers
Bianca Nogrady 