Tackling chronic disease through trying to reduce the ageing process

There’s an interesting and thought-provoking article in the BMJ last week about health promotion and a call to tackle the ageing process.
The traditional medical approach to ameliorating modern chronic diseases has been to tackle them individually, as if they were independent of one another. This approach flows naturally from our experience with acute diseases, where [...]

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From different perspectives the view can look very different

This photo of a cliff with the clouds swirling around it looks distant and remote. You could imagine it’s a landscape in a wild, barely populated area.
However………
When I pull back the zoom without shifting my feet a single inch I can capture this photo……

Different impression entirely, huh?

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Randy Pausch died on Friday

I posted about Randy Pausch twice before – once to post his Last Lecture video and once to tell one of the stories he told.

The inevitable death of Randy Pausch, the science professor who delivered a now-famous “last lecture” to students after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, was being mourned across America yesterday. A [...]

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CoenzymeQ and other technical fixes

I read a report today by Professor Lipshutz about coenzymeQ10. I don’t know if you’ve heard about it but it’s a chemical which is necessary for the normal functioning of every cell of your body. Given its biological importance, some people have wondered if you can improve function, and therefore health, by giving additional amounts [...]

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Complexity, science and genes

There’s a good piece in the New York Times today by David Brooks. He’s discussing the issue of genetics and pointing out very clearly and sensibly that the early claims about the possibilities which genetic discoveries might bring to understanding human behaviour were way off. As he says, first of all, we’ve seen there is [...]

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Plants, music and sacred places

I wandered into the Cathedrale Saint-Saveur in Aix en Provence the other day. It’s one of those awe-inspiring spaces. In fact, it’s a multiple of spaces inside, some vast, and some small and intimate. I’m always interested in the way plants are used by human beings (enthobotany is the correct term!) and so it was [...]

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Morning moon

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What brings back memories?

I found this lovely little tray of gooseberries in the local fruit and veg shop the other day. I haven’t tasted a gooseberry since I was a child. I don’t know why I haven’t eaten any for all those decades, but the first taste of one took me right back. We had gooseberries in the [...]

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Wondering while wandering

While wandering around yesterday I stumbled across this lovely butterfly. It’s not easy to get a photo of a butterfly cos they don’t stay still for very long, but this one seemed to be taking its time more than the others. It got me wondering. What do butterflies eat? And how do they fly the [...]

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Seasonal reading

I saw this photo on a bus stop shelter the other day. It’s promoting books to read during the summer. The headline says “This summer. I read”
Is your reading seasonal? If it is, are there particular kinds of books you prefer to read in certain seasons? Specifically, are there books you consider as “summer books”?
Did [...]

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