Science

Are we ready for the next pandemic?

Flu infections follow seasons, typically rising in winter and dropping in summer. As it moves, a virus mutates, with the risk that with every new flu season, a highly infectious virus could come back more deadly than before. We struggle between the hype of a new disease and the potential threat it imposes.

DEVTA Trial - will it help or harm our treatment programs?

In poverty-ridden countries with a lack of funds and resources, it is critical that the most cost-effective government treatment programs are used. The decision about which programs are the most beneficial needs to be driven by solid, swift science.

How Henrietta Lacks became immortal

In 1951, Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She had an aggressive tumour that quickly took over her body. Less than a year after being diagnosed, she died; leaving behind a devastated husband and 6 children. She was 31 years old. But even in her death, some of her cells lived on; dividing and growing, making trillions more cells than ever existed in her body. The combined weight of these cells is now over 400 times what Henrietta Lacks weighed when she was alive.

“Cure for death discovered” - Why media reports on science are often misleading

Stories about science in the media are often misleading and over-hyped. In today's science column, Kerry Gordon discusses why.