Happy Birthday! Dr Stu’s blog is one year old today!

Birthday cakeToday, Dr Stu’s blog is one year old – cue the cake and candles!

This little experiment to write about science, health and technology in an understandable way has been extremely well received and continues to be read by an increasing number of people. After a few weeks of writing practice, the blog officially went live on 26th October 2010 with the acquisition of realdoctorstu.com.

This humble blog has now been read by over 85,000 people, and on also shares its Birthday with the recording of “Under Pressure” by Queen (a legendary song), Churchill’s 1951 election victory and the unarguably great actor Bob Hoskins.

Incidentally, this is my 100th post – but In case you didn’t read all of them, here are some of the highlights from the past 365 days, and why there is an ever-pressing need for science blogging on the internet… Read more

When is it right to Smack a Child?

This post was chosen as an Editor's Selection for ResearchBlogging.org“Spare the rod and spoil the child”

A punishment cane from 1973Last week I received an odd request from a local radio station. They phoned to ask if I would take part in an on-air discussion about parenting issues – I was more than a little bemused. Having no experience of parenting (babysitting doesn’t count) – I felt ill qualified. But I simply couldn’t resist the temptation to indulge in a fiery radio debate: In the league table of dinner party topics to avoid, the rights and wrongs of parenting ranks at the top. (possibly only just pipped to the post by a discussion of body odour problems).

The latest progeny-raising hot-potato to leap out of the pram is that of spanking: should smacking, hitting and spanking our precious bambinos be outlawed? Advocates and apologists are so irreconcilable – it would seem to be easier to get Richard Dawkins to convert to Catholicism than to get parents to agree.

The Welsh Assembly have just decided to ban smacking and spanking. So – why not take the opportunity to enter the debate – blog style? Does smacking harm a child?, Does it help discipline?, Is it a parent’s right to spank? Dipping into the wealth of research data, the two opposing views thrash it out… (in a non-physical way, of course).

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5 Best Selling Food Supplements that Don’t Work: So why do we still take them?

 

We sure love popping pills.

daily doseIn the last two decades, popular culture has decreed that three basic meals a day isn’t enough: modern-day healthy living needs something more – supplements. Despite a global economic downturn, the world’s appetite for dietary supplements remains insatiable; every year we collectively swallow over fifty billion dollars of minerals, vitamins and weird herb extracts.

Stepping into the Aladdin’s treasure trove of weight-loss berries, anti-cancer honeys and natural pain-fighting remedies (that is your local health food store) how do we know which (if any) actually work? Often endorsed by high profile celebrities and glossy magazines – I’m in pursuit of finding out which actually do anything useful... Read more

“Hey you, Fatty! Stop eating so much!” declares UK government

Kenneth Clake (Source Wikipedia)
Obesity - a lack of willpower. Apparently
That’s right, being fat is your fault after all.

Yesterday, the UK minister for health, Andrew Lansley jabbed his not-too-chubby finger at the overweight far lacking insight into their food addiction. In a rally-call to the 60% of overweight adult Britons, his announced a new ‘national ambition’ is to cut out the hamburgers and go easy on the tipple.

So, come on you Brits, it’s time to wake up and smell the broccoli. Let’s club together, reinvigorate the ‘Bulldog Spirit’, and together we can cut out 28.4 million caffe lattes out of our collective intake.

That’s right Kenneth Clarke, he’s talking to you… Read more

The Guardian Science Writing Prize 2011: My Entry – “A Seizing Experience”

Whirlpool take me to the Deeps below Ok, so I didn’t win.

Still, getting short-listed from over 800 for the Guardian/Observer Wellcome Trust Science Writing competition isn’t too shabby, so I shan’t get down in the dumps. Besides, the canapés at the award ceremony were worth the trip alone (tuna topped with salmon caviar – Oolala!).

Up until know, all the entries have needed to be strictly ‘unpublished’. Since the esteemed Guardian newspaper have decided not to publish my 800 word literary endeavour, I can showcase it – in full – for your reading pleasure… Enjoy! Read more

Why is the Universe is Expanding and Accelerating? Here’s my pet theory… (by a non-physicist)

Scientists don’t normally make much money.

space
An accelerating, expanding Universe?
But Nobel Prize winners Perlmutter, Riess and Schmidt don’t need worry about being short of cash anymore. They can forget eating instant noodles and cobbling together loose change to keep the electricity meter running. Winning the highest accolade in science is more than luck. It wasn’t their lucky stars that bagged them the $1.5 million Prize this week; but their tenacity in studying celestial bodies.

Their discovery – that the Universe is expanding at an ever increasing speed – is simply profound. Although they first discovered it back in 1998, it still causes confusion amongst bespeckled star-gazers and flies in the face of the accepted notion that everything around us is simply the result of a Big Explosion.

No one has yet come up with a wholly convincing reason why stars are speeding away from each other at an increasing rate of knots. I have a little theory that’s been on my mind for a while – and I’d like to share it. Watch out, things are going to get rather theoretical… Read more

The Scary New Computer Program that spots Born Leaders and Predicts Election Results!

Have you ever done a ‘leadership’ exercise?

three cups stackedI’m sure you know the sort of thing – You’re on a corporate “training day” and after being placed into arbitrary groups in a stuffy meeting room, you are given a handful of straws, paperclips and plastic cups and told to build a tower that reaches the ceiling. Oh, and it’s a race.

Normally billed as a light-hearted ‘ice breaker’, such tasks are watched by an eagle-eyed organiser – on the lookout for the ‘natural leaders’. Which people are the ‘doers’; who are the diplomatic types; and who like the sound of their own voice a little too much?! These activities make me cringe – they feel artificial and forced – and worse, presume that true leadership can be identified in a conference room.

But is leadership really an inherent ability that some of us have but others don’t? Researchers from the University of Amsterdam seem to think so. In newly published work, they claim to have developed a computer program that not only predicts who are the best leaders from facial characteristics, but will also tell you who will win the next presidential election…

Read more

“Don’t Blame Me Officer! I was Sleep-Driving…”

In a world of silly excuses for lousy driving, this just about tops the list.

Gimme a break
Busted!
‘Sleep Driving’ isn’t about getting pulled over for driving your Ford Capri drunk. Nor is it taking to the road in a sleep-deprived haze. As improbable as it sounds, ‘sleep driving’ is navigating your gasoline-powered auto whilst completely away-with-the-fairies asleep.

Increasingly, sleep driving has been recognised as a real and dangerous condition by police. Reported most often in The United States, and getting some high profile news coverage, some suggest it’s another quack condition concocted by creative lawyers.

I would wholeheartedly disagree. Sleep driving does happen – but not like how it has been reported in the media. It does seem to happen most often in the USA. No one knows why, but I’d guess it has a lot to do with the wide highways and automatic cars our American friends like to drive… Read more

The Next Legal High: Sun Tanning?

“You’ve got a healthy glow! Have you been somewhere hot?”

No, I’ve just spent the afternoon in the garden!

Blue MagicI am one of those irritating people who get a tan at the mere hint of sunshine. A hundred years ago however, I wouldn’t be gloating. Until fairly recently, women went to extraordinary (and dangerous) lengths in pursuit of a freckle-free, pale complexion. To be tanned was ugly and represented the poor, undesirable ‘working class’. That all changed the moment fashion designer Coco Chanel stepped off a cruise liner in 1922 – with a sun-bronzed skin.

Fast forward to today – no longer are lead-based skin whiteners or blood-letting beauty treatments threatening health. The present day sun-worshipping generation risk skin cancer and – perversely – increased skin aging, immune system damage and blindness.

Increasingly, research is uncovering that tanning has become more than an innocuous way to while away a sunny afternoon: For some it becomes an uncontrollable compulsion. Offering a buzz similar to taking drugs, some experts now claim that ‘Tanorexia’ is a very real addiction that destroys lives… Read more

How much 9/11 TV footage is too much?

UA Flight 175 hits WTC south towerTen years on from the fateful and tragic day, once again our TV screens relive the moments when the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon came under terrorist attack.

Footage of planes exploding into skyscrapers, crumbling buildings and billowing dust clouds are all now indelibly etched into all of our psyches. It was a watershed moment for countries, world religions, and citizens the world over – and now it is right that due homage is paid for the lives wasted and suffering that resulted. For each of us, September 11th 2001 will hold different meanings.

But is repeated coverage of towers tumbling, bodies falling and people dying truly helpful? It may serve to educate the young and provoke solemnity within the rest of us – but continuous looped footage (as some news channels have opted for) accompanied by increasingly tenuous documentaries is possibly doing those who suffered that day a great disservice – and increasing their mental anguish… Read more