Hospital History

http://obscuraday.com/

The Atlas Obscura1 is a compendium of the world’s wonders, curiosities and eccentric sites. It is a great resource for finding strange and unusual places to explore in both new and familiar locations, allowing you to investigate hidden treasures around the world. With more than 3,500 interesting sites around the world, it is a global phenomenon. Obscura Day is a celebration of these wonderful sites, which takes place on April 28^th. The first Obscura Day occurred in 2010, with just 80 locations taking part in the celebration. This day has since taken off in popularity with around 100 events around the world, and there is such high demand that most events quickly become sold out.

http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/160-years-of-great-ormond-street.html

One of this year’s events occurred at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in Central London2. The hospital was originally founded in a converted house in 1852, following the trend in Europe and becoming the UK’s first specialty children’s hospital. It was founded by the expert gynecologist Dr Charles West and was specifically intended for poor women and families. Initially the hospital contained 20 children’s beds, but over the years the hospital has expanded several times, with sections being built and rebuilt, leading to a modern institute formed of buildings of varying ages.

http://www.gosh.org/gen/peterpan/schools-and-youth-groups/peter-pan-week-2012/

The hospital itself is one of Europe’s leading institutes for children’s medicine3. The hospital has received support from Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, and J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, who gave the copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital4.

 http://obscuraday.com/events/great-ormond-street-hospital

The Obscura Day tour consisted of a personal tour of the hospital museum, which is located in a building opposite the hospital. The structure is part of a row of houses, which would have been the same as the house the original hospital occupied when it first opened. The museum is filled with artifacts from the hospitals different periods in history, it includes several metal cots, children’s wheelchairs and a variety of metical apparatus. There are a variety of exhibits charting the hospitals history, from the founder and contributors, to the effects of bombing during the world wars. The curator of the museum was a very knowledgeable man, recounting stories from the hospitals colourful history. Over all an amazing opportunity to explore the hidden relics behind a world leading institute and examine the small beginnings of the revolution in children’s healthcare.

1. http://atlasobscura.com/
2. http://obscuraday.com/events/great-ormond-street-hospital
3. http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/
4. http://www.gosh.org/gen/peterpan/

E Markham (2012). Hospital History Blogspot

Refreshment Review

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PeTk3lnSeM4/0.jpg

With headlines like “Drinking water improves exam grades”1 and “How to do better in your exams: Drinking a glass of water can boost your results by a grade”2 in all the top newspapers and news websites, it would hard to dismiss their claims. However all of the articles simply regurgitate and reiterate the exact same press release from the British Psychological Society, in which this research was presented at their annual conference this month3.

The research was interesting because it seemed to claim that by simply encouraging students to take water in to the exam with them they would be able to improve their exam grades. The BBC’s article on this research included the following statement: “Also, supplementing with water is a really cheap way students and educators can help get better results.” They went on to claim the results could be due to the benefits of hydration and stress relieving qualities of water.

This research extrapolates from an observation in a small number of subjects, and it is a typical leap of ‘correlation must mean causation.’ The study did not suggest the far more likely reason that students who take water in to their exams do better than students who don’t, which simply boils down to preparation. Students who take a mature approach to their studies are likely to study in a more structured and efficient manner, and are likely to be very prepared for the exam. Part of being prepared for an exam would be thinking of every eventuality and organising yourself to take everything you might need in to the exam with you, and that would include taking water.

This explains the observation that the percentage of students taking water increases in second and third year of university, because students are learning how to prepare for exams and are becoming more organised. If the researchers honestly thought that the water was the cause of the improved grades then they would carry out a randomised trial, where they took a group of students and randomly assigned half of the students a bottle of water to take in to the exam and then determine if there was a significant difference. What is more frustrating is that this research has taken the media by storm, but has not been critically analysed and peer reviewed before hand, as it has not yet been submitted for publication. Peer reviewing of such research would highlight the need for increased numbers of study subjects and the implementation of randomised trials, before releasing claims that water can improve exam grades, as this is likely to be a fallacy. 

1, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17741653

2, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2131276/How-better-exams-Drinking-glass-water-boost-results-grade.html

3, http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119335&CultureCode=en

E Markham (2012). Refreshment Review Blogspot

TED Talk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition

The Great Exhibition of 18511 was a grand display of the advances of the industrial revolution, bringing about a transformation in the exchanging of ideas and the way new technology and developments in science are demonstrations. This included the building of the Crystal Palace2, which was a huge feat of engineering, which then spurred the series of events called the World’s Fair3, which lead to fantastical structures that we know and enjoy today, like the Space Needle in Seattle3 and the Atomium monument in Brussels5. A new TEDx lecture at Imperial College London6 last month channelled the spirit of the Great Exhibition and contained a variety of different talks and displays to delight anyone’s interest.

http://tedximperialcollege.com/2012/04/tedximperialcollege2012/

One of the first talks to catch the audiences imagination was the inventor of fabric in a can (Fabrican)7, which is similar to silly sting, but is versatile enough to be washed, cut and embossed, allowing for items of clothing to be created which are unique, personal and changeable. It is also a technology that can transition its application to the field of medicine, as it can be used as a plaster cast or a dressing for wounds.

http://www.fabricanltd.com/

This was followed by a father of a child with a rare genetic condition called AKU8, who gave a heart wrenching discussion of the work he set in motion: creating a support group, fund raising and bringing together a community or affected individuals and research scientists9. This has produced some breakthroughs for a previously little known disease and lead to the discovery that rare genetic diseases can actually act as models for very common multifactorial diseases, and so help develop improved treatments for these conditions.

http://tedximperialcollege.com/2012/04/tedximperialcollege2012/

Later talks included a demonstration from a group of young engineers who designed an electric car which could drive the entire length of the Pan-American Highway10, a man who played a series of gramophones with recordings of early industrial age sounds11, a talk from a geneticist musician who created pieces of music based on each musician’s genetic composition12, and a talk on reclaiming art with a focus on urban art13. Not only were the talks highly enjoyable and inventive, but there was the opportunity to discuss ideas with the speakers and get involved with their research. It was a wonderful platform to explore ideas and there was an exciting energy among the audience as they discussed the talks.

1, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition
2, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace
3, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_fair
4, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_needle
5, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomium
6, http://tedximperialcollege.com/2012/04/tedximperialcollege2012/
7, http://www.fabricanltd.com/
8, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002180/
9, http://www.alkaptonuria.info/
10, http://www.racinggreenendurance.com/
11, http://www.exhibitionroad.com/supersonix
12, http://www.musicfromthegenome.org.uk/
13, http://greyworld.org/

E Markham (2012). TED Talk Blogspot

Miracle massage

http://bookologist.tumblr.com/

Most people will agree that massage is enjoyable, can relax sore muscles and make you feel both emotionally happier and calmer, but very few people claim that massage can ‘stimulate the immune system,’ ‘detox the body’ or produce ‘healing energy’. Of the scientific studies that have been carried out on massage, none have found conclusive evidence of any physical health benefits other than increasing the levels of oxytocin (the love hormone) and providing some psychological benefits, which can lead to a reduction in pain, as this often has a psychological basis. The diagram above is slightly misleading in it's positive claims for massage, as it does not make a distinction of what kind of pain is being reduced by the massage therapy. However, a newly published scientific article1 on massage therapy aims to investigate the direct physical benefits of massage therapy, studying its effects on relieving muscle damage caused by exercise, and claims massage can increase muscle recovery by stimulating mitochondrial growth.

http://www.eso-garden.com/index.php?/weblog/C10/P60/

At first it appears like an interesting article that probably over states the significance of the results, but upon further reading of the paper it becomes evident that overstating results was not the biggest flaw of this study; it was the ethics of the study. It is completely baffling how this study obtained ethical approval, because it is investigating an alternative medicine by using extreme invasive procedures on its healthy volunteers.

http://www.netterimages.com/image/63314.htm

It used muscle biopsies, which is a surgical procedure involving making an incision and removing a piece of muscle. This is far more invasive than a needle biopsy, and seems an extreme procedure in this case. The main problem I have with this study is not the procedure itself, but the fact that it is being used to investigate massage therapy, where very little potential benefit could be achieved for medicine. The study carried out these procedures based on a theory, and did not even include animal models to check if there was any grounding in their theory before scaling up in to human studies.

Ethical approval is dependent on the cost-benefit of the study, and unfortunately nothing revolutionary is likely to come from massage therapy; as humans have been carrying out basic forms of massage for hundreds of years, and if there was some dramatic benefit we would have already discovered it. So why are we subjecting healthy volunteers to invasive surgical procedures, where nothing significantly valuable could be gained? Ethical committees require more pressure to thoroughly investigate medical and research studies, questioning them in more detail to assess the cost-benefit before allowing the research to be carried out, because without regulatory bodies healthy volunteers would undergo unnecessary and often painful procedures as part of a wild goose chase, which could easily be avoided by a more thorough review process. Essentially this would protect the volunteers, which are at the heart of research, without them no new drug or treatment would be developed. Volunteers should be treated with respect and not subject to unnecessary invasive procedures which have no value.

1 http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/119/119ra13.abstract

E Markham (2012). Miracle Massage Blogspot

Barbaric Bear-bile

Alternative medicine has often gained support because it is seen as natural and so likely to be better for you, whilst ‘working in harmony with nature’. However, in recent years there has been an outcry in the West against Chinese medicine, because of its use of endangered animals and plants, but in the East there is a growing middle class who are turning towards traditional alternative medicines, suddenly producing more demand than ever for these scarce animals. It is true that many countries differ in the way they treat animals and their protection, with the East tending to have more detachment and practical approaches towards animals, however shocking reports of caged bears being ‘milked’ for their bile is just horrific and worrying.

Most of their customers assume that the bear’s bile is collected from a killed wild bear, rather than a caged bear with a tube sticking out of an open wound in its abdomen. Many animal rights campaigns have been fighting for changes in Chinese laws to ban the practice of milking and to protect these endangered Moon bears, but with little effect. A report by the BBC1 stated that ‘the animals suffer enormous physical and psychological pain’ but farmers claim that by caging and milking the bears it lowers the demand for killing wild bears for their bile, and so protects the wild population. However, that does not justify the extensive suffering inflicted on these bears for what can, at best, be described as a placebo and at worst be described as a dangerous, wasteful and inhumane practice. This is just another example of the harmful nature of alternative medicine; this time for not only misleading its patients in to thinking they are getting an effective medical treatment but also for supporting the torture and eradication of an endangered species.

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17188043

E Markham (2012). Barbaric Bear-bile Blogspot

Deceiving Degrees

http://www.dcscience.net/?p=19

While it may seem like there is more quackery now than ever before, however, British universities are finally starting to see the light and refuse to offer these pseudoscience courses any longer. A wonderful article in the Telegraph 1 this week discusses this sudden change of the range of courses offered by British universities in response to mounting pressure and campaigns by both the public and scientist, one of the largest was 10:23 2 which is a campaign to raise awareness of the ludicrous claims behind homeopathy, which involved thousands of people ‘overdosing’ on homeopathic tablets, only to show no side effects. While the situation seems to be improving within the UK, there is still a long way to go. The NHS still offers homeopathy and chiropractic treatments; which are a waste of resources, tax payer’s money as well as misleading the patients. Other countries with world renowned universities are also seeing their global reputation tainted because they still offer pseudoscience courses, most notably Australia. While they are many popular Australian evidence-based medicine proponents and celebrities, like Tim Minchin, this seems to not be enough to discourage ‘higher institutions’ from offering degrees is fake science.

 So why are students allowed to waste their money and time on pointless courses, which discourages critical thinking, whilst lowering the value of real scientific courses? For the moment it seems to be down to money, as universities are run like any business, and require tuition to pay for professor’s wages and building maintenance. But putting pressure on the universities by exposing these fake courses has been shown to be successful in the UK, so it’s only a matter of time before the knock on effects are seen in Australia and other countries, in response to increased awareness and protest, but also increased pressure from the student and parents for quality courses in the wake of the depression and rises in tuition fees.

1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9051103/Complementary-medicine-courses-in-universities-how-I-beat-the-varsity-quacks.html
2. http://www.1023.org.uk/

E Markham (2012). Deceiving Degrees Blogspot

Bird-Flu Bioterror

http://d-koolest-ac.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

Bird flu has hit the headlines yet again, this time in response to terrorism fears. Both the BBC1 and New Scientist2 have published articles on the issues involved. Scientists researching bird flu (H5N1) and its mutagenic properties have been developing a more virulent strain in order to better understand and prepare for potential outbreaks, which are likely to occur naturally in the future. However the US government have requested that key details are not published, as the fear is that it could be used for terrorism. The issue is that as soon as research is censored and the information is not freely shared between scientists and research groups then there can no longer be a united global research effort to better understand and combat potential future outbreaks. Research would be unnecessarily repeated and slowed down, due to a lack of openly sharing the information, essentially costing millions in wasted funding and delaying results.

Many factors make bird flu an inevitable threat in the future, as global populations increase, demand for meat also increases and so many people are forced to live in close contact with both pigs and chickens. Many chickens and birds naturally harbour influenza viruses, but it is not easily transmitted to humans, however it is deadly when it is transmitted, because humans are not the virus's normal host and we do not have any previous exposure or developed immunity. Pigs can however be easily infected with both bird and human strains, leading to a mixing pool effect and highly virulent mutant influenza strains can result which are infectious to humans, and have the potential to be transmitted from human to human, if a combination of gene mutations are present. Mutations are common and random but can be under selective pressure, depending on how successful these mutations make the virus. Essentially is boils down to a numbers game; with enough time and enough opportunities these highly virulent bird flu viruses will appear in nature. That is why a global effort to monitor flu outbreaks and develop research is so vital to avoid another global pandemic like that of the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed more people than both world wars combined. While it is important to be aware of potential terrorist risks, restraining research is only likely to make situations like that depicted in Contagion3 an ever increasing reality, because vital preventative measures and vaccinations would not be in place to combat an outbreak.

1, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16662346
2, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21311-killer-flu-research-to-be-censored.html
3, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(film)

E Markham (2012). Bird-Flu Bioterror Blogspot