freelance science journalist and author
From Swinburne Magazine, March 2008:It took a Hong Kong fortune cookie to help web entrepreneur Domenic Carosa understand the path to business success. “It said ‘a jack of all trades and a master of none’,” recalls Domenic, 33, one of Australia’s top young entrepreneurs.“I was insulted,” he quips lightly, but adds that a couple of … Continue reading ‘Jack of all trades’ becomes media master
From Australian Doctor, 29 February 2008:Dodgy music, out-of-date information and unanswered phones are all ways to aggravate your patients when they call — but it doesn’t have to be like that.HELL is hold music that is a tinny, expressionless facsimile of a once-beloved tune, mangled beyond belief and painful to listen to. Unfortunately, this musical … Continue reading Hanging on the telephone
From The Australian, 23 February 2008:Awareness that Australia has a drinking problem has reached the highest levels of government, writes Bianca Nogrady.ANDREW didn’t think his friends had a drinking problem. That is, until a few drink-driving offences landed him in the Odyssey House drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Now Andrew sees alcohol a little differently.“I … Continue reading Alcohol abuse eclipsing heroin
From Kiwi FM, 1 November 2007:Talking with Wammo about the latest in New Scientist magazine, including elephants on LSD and why herpes is bad for the ageing brain. Listen here.
From Australian Doctor, 21 January 2008:BMJ Aspirin resistance, thought to affect up to one-third of patients, is associated with significantly increased cardiovascular morbidity, a comprehensive meta-analysis suggests.The research, which analysed 20 studies including 2930 patients with cardiovascular disease, found aspirin-resistant patients had an almost sixfold increase in risk of death, were almost four times more … Continue reading Major cardiac risk in aspirin-resistant patients
From FISH, September 2007:An unexpected discovery by researchers from the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute is opening the door to new diagnostic techniques, treatments and vaccines that could substantially reduce the impact of amoebic gill disease in Tasmania and around the world. Read more.
From Pathway, the magazine of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, Summer 2007:You’re mowing the lawn on a fine Sunday morning, when suddenly an invisible band wraps around your chest, squeezing tightly and painfully until you can hardly breathe. This is what patients with angina pectoris fear: the ‘elephant sitting on my chest’ sensation … Continue reading Magic bullet theory
From Scientific American, December 2007: HIV is devastating because it attacks and destroys the body’s defense system against pathogens, leaving patients fatally exposed. So what would possess scientists to treat HIV-positive patients with drugs that suppress the immune system? Such therapy may in fact offer a new approach in the battle against AIDS. An unexpected … Continue reading T cell turnoff
From Process magazine, October 2007:An unfortunate twist of chemistry means that one of the earth’s most beautiful metals requires one of the planet’s most deadly compounds to extract it from an ore body: gold mining relies on the use of cyanide to dissolve gold into solution so it can be recaptured as pure metal.The inevitable … Continue reading Meeting of models helps reduce toxic waste
From Australian Doctor, 1 November 2007.THE first year of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program has been encouraging, although issues such as a poorer male participation rate and delay in colonoscopy follow-up are yet to be resolved, a leading gastroenterologist says.About 156,000 Australians took part in the first stage of the faecal occult blood test-based … Continue reading Bowel program works but needs men
