Tag: research

  • 2017 wasn’t all bad: a good news story that will change the world forever

    Now that the end is nigh for 2017, I think we’d all agree that the last twelve months have had more than their fair share of memorable moments. We’ve seen Donald Trump begin his reign of power, Kim Jong Un shoot off his shiny new intercontinental missiles, the Grenfell tower block burn down in the…

  • The vaccine controversy that isn’t controversial

    Polio is a disease that should be long dead by now. Some readers will be old enough to remember rooms full of ‘iron lungs’ – grotesque life-support machines that did the breathing for children left paralysed by this deadly infection. With their small heads poking out through a tight rubber seal, steam engine-like contraptions sucked…

  • The Science of the Midlife Crisis – a modern myth?

    They say that life begins at 40. If that is true, then I have four and half years coddled up in the womb of young adulthood before I am birthed into the cold harshness of ‘middle age’. We tend not to think too much of being ‘middle aged’, and we all know someone who has…

  • It’s good to go to work on an egg, as long as it’s not Easter

    As a child, I thought “go to work on an egg” was an advert for oval shaped cars. Starting soon after the end of World War II, “Go to Work on an Egg” was a long-running campaign that became one of the most successful food promotions of all time. Humorous television (see below) and newspaper…

  • It’s official: you’re only as old as you feel (and look)

    “You are only as old as you feel,” or so the saying goes. This adage is great for cheering yourself up when the grey hairs start to take root, but science has recently revealed that the time-honoured expression is alive and kicking – the younger you feel, the younger you actually are. Ground-breaking new research…

  • Get off your bum! Your office chair could be killing you (very slowly)

    I have some bad news to tell you – are you sitting down? Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but your office chair could be killing you. I know it looks harmless, with its ergonomic arm rests and comfy sponge seat, but each hour you spend sitting in it could be causing your…

  • Dr Stu’s science of bisuit dunking

    Go on, admit it: you love doing it. Every morning at 11 O’clock, tens of thousands of people prise open the biscuit tin to get ready to do some dunking. It’s a worldwide tea break curiosity that has existed to since the dawn of the sweet baked treat. In America, they do it with doughnuts,…

  • I can’t tweet without you: How twitter feeds our inner longing for friendship

    I think I’ve started to feel what it’s like to get old. Strange ‘#’ symbols started to flash up on the TV screen a few months back. Some odd new lottery I wondered? Oblivious to the newest and most important media advancement in the last decade, my friends laughed at my ignorance. Graciously educating me…

  • What is really in your takeaway pizza?

    It’s a Saturday night. Perhaps you shouldn’t have had that last Babycham, but it’s been a hard week and you deserve it. Now, like a Siren luring you to the rocks, the takeout calls. Will it be the kebab van, the burger joint or pizza parlour? Unlike tightly regulated franchises, most high street vendors don’t…