Author Archives: mew

In The Reasoner: Boiled eggs

Last month saw the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The Ig Nobel prizes aim to honour achievements that first make people laugh and then make people think. Here is a quote from their website: “The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative—and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”The award ceremony takes place every September. This year’s ceremony can be viewed on the Improbable Research website. And past ceremonies can be viewed at the Improbable Research YouTube channel.

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In The Reasoner: Antibiotics

Antibiotics play a crucial role in modern medicine by controlling bacterial infection. For instance, much surgery would be life-threatening without an ability to control infection. However, antibiotics are becoming less effective due to antimicrobial resistance. The overuse of antibiotics gives bacteria that happen to be resistant a greater chance of spreading. In the words of a Public Health England report: ‘Antibiotics are unlike other drugs used in medicine, as the more we use them the less effective they become.’

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In The Reasoner: Statins

The ongoing debate over the use of statins has been covered extensively in the mainstream media. Recently, Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, has expressed concern that the lack of resolution to debates such as this is damaging public confidence in medicine. In response, Davies concluded that what is needed is “an authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs as an intervention.” As a result, the Academy of Medical Sciences has begun a working group project on Evaluating evidence. The aim of the project is to “explore how evidence that originates from different sources (e.g. randomised clinical trials and observational data) are used to make decisions about the safety and efficacy of drugs and medical interventions.”

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