What the coronavirus crisis says about us
Media coverage of the coronavirus reveals more about social and political preoccupations than it does about real risk. (First published...
On stepping back as a journalist: loss and truth
Journalists take a lot of flack, not without good reason. But it’s also true that their – our – job isn’t easy....
Amanpour, Safak, Bhutto and Chadha on visual storytelling
Last Thursday I found myself in a cozy amphitheatre with an amazing line-up of speakers talking about the Power of...
Science, truth and a dash of Grayson Perry
The Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry once said “identity only seems to become an issue when it is challenged or...
Cyprus peace talks — an environmental angle
Cyprus doesn’t really feature in international news most days, but this past week was a break from the norm. It...
Tech, innovation and justice: where to begin?
Conversations about technology and innovation abound. From time to time there are actions too, like DFID’s new ‘frontier technologies’ programme, launched...
Books, and change in the air
Change is in the air. As I start freelancing after some very rewarding years full time with SciDev.Net, I find myself drawn...
Climate change, African women and the editor’s job: looking back on 2014
December is the month when most people look back on their year – but I think it’s just about not...
Getting with the times on scientific advice — deciding by dissensus?
The discussions I heard about scientific expertise and evidence-based policy at the STEPS Symposium in Brighton last month still reverberate...
From scientist to journalist
A couple of weeks ago I came across a Wellcome Trust blog post by Kathryn Lougheed, a microbiologist who writes...
Scientific jargon: wrong means, right end
On July 25th Nature published a commentary by science writer Trevor Quirk, who called for the use of jargon in...
Development goals and multidisciplinarity
The buzz around Rio+20 — the UN Conference on Sustainable Development — was hard to miss last June and in...
News on emerging health threats
If you’ve tried to read a story through the news page of this website over the past few weeks, you...
A matter of drug quality
I can’t think of many issues that would engage an INTERPOL officer, a lawyer working with a major humanitarian organisation,...
An update
If you’re a regular visitor you’ll notice a mini-revamp of the site, done with the occasion of a move to...
‘New Delhi’ superbug: what’s the story?
Perhaps a particular group of superbugs has been getting an unfair share of the spotlight over the past few months…...
A follow-up on recent posts: plague & HIV
In early September I blogged about a modelling study linking the incidence of plague with climate change in Kazakhstan. Donald...
How HIV turned pandemic
A piece of research into the early spread of HIV that I find interesting seems to have slipped the attention...
Could plague make a comeback with climate change?
It sounds like scaremongering – putting together in one sentence what is widely considered the chief global threat of our...
This is what I know, maybe. Trust me.
A feature article published in Nature this week chronicles how public opinion about climate change has changed and what climate...
Tracing the trail of science news
On June 9th the Guardian’s science website launched the ‘story tracker’, an experimental attempt to track reactions to and analysis...
Swine flu pandemic: a year later
Last Friday, June 11th, marked one year from the declaration of the 2009 influenza pandemic. Criticism of the World Health...
Scepticism seems to be the hardest word
I’ve listened to – but never taken a side in the climate change debate for as long as it has...
Climate change: stressing mental health – and uncertainty
Predicted impacts of climate change on health range from heat stroke to famine. A framework published in December now sheds...
Swine flu backlash
Back in October I began to suspect that pandemic response measures would come to be criticised if a severe winter...
Another epidemiological transition?
A literature review by Montira Pongsiri of the US Environmental Protection Agency and colleagues suggests we are moving towards the...
EHDN: Environment and Health Through a Poverty Lens
The PDF of a presentation I gave last June at the Environment Health and Development Network (EHDN) Inaugural Symposium was...
Science and policy: keeping it real
The fallout from the recent debate in the UK about reclassification of illegal drugs has a lot to do with...
On swine flu
There were encouraging signs this past week from a few cities in the US and from Scotland that things may...
Welcome
Every so often I’ll be sharing thoughts on research or debates I’ve come across. The views are mine and don’t...