Topic
The experiments, accidents and insights that reshaped our understanding of the human body.
Discover the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks, whose immortal HeLa cells revolutionised medical research, leading to breakthroughs in vaccines, cancer studies, and bioethics debates.
What on earth do pregnancy tests have to do with frogs, you might be asking? Nowadays, it is a very straightforward task to do a home pregnancy test. Anyone can simply walk into a chemist and buy one over the counter…
In the 14 years or so that I worked as a doctor, I placed my lips on hers many thousands of times during resus training and teaching days. Resusci Annie has been called the most-kissed face in history, and it has been…
Medicine wasn’t always as we know it now in its current refined form. There weren’t always processed pills and syrups, and there weren’t any complicated procedures to help the injured heal and recover. But one thing…
In the 14 years or so that I worked in the Emergency Department, I ordered literally thousands of X-rays. X-rays have a wide range of applications varying from the diagnosis of simple bone fractures, through to the…
I first heard the story of Phineas Gage in 1998, during my second year at Medical School. Neuroanatomy was not my strongest suit, and I spent most of the lectures scribbling notes in a frantic haze of confusion…
Nearly all of us know at least one person that has diabetes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 382 million people worldwide currently have diabetes. Diabetes prevents the body from effectively…
I sometimes take antibiotics for granted. As a doctor, I have prescribed thousands of courses of antibiotics throughout my career. I have taken many courses myself also, and they almost certainly saved my life when I…
The tendon hammer is one of the most historically resilient medical instruments still in use today. It is a simple yet invaluable device that can be used to diagnose a wide variety of nervous system and muscular…
Do you ever feel like you are going round in circles? Well, your blood is continuously going round in circles, in the pulmonary and systemic circulations. Less than 400 years ago, however, these life-giving…
ECG interpretation has long been a guilty pleasure of mine. One of the first books I purchased as a medical student was the ‘ECG Made Easy’. After reading that book for the first time ECG interpretation seemed far from…
No single piece of equipment is more synonymous with the medical profession than the stethoscope. I can vividly remember wearing my brand new Littmann stethoscope with pride on ward rounds as a medical student…
