Tag: Epidemiology

The real legacy of the Olympics: uncomfortable truths.

Olympic StadiumAbout 15 years ago, I visited the Montreal Olympic Village. A captivating and beautiful city, the Olympic Village was a complete contrast. Tired-looking vacant stadia and vast, mostly unused concrete behemoths populated by a few shuffling tourists. I found it a depressing place and the slowly flaking paint symbolised a squandered enterprise. Costing Canada $1bn, the 1976 Montreal Olympics were the greatest financial disaster in the history of the Olympic games.

UK residents will be well-versed with Prime Minister David Cameron’s rhetoric: London 2012 will leave a ‘lasting legacy’ for the UK and London. It will regenerate to a deprived London district; increase tourism, improve infrastructure and give a much-needed economic boost. These are compelling and believable justifications for spending £9bn ($14bn) from the public purse. However, claims of a major economic boost have already shown themselves to be exaggerated: increased sales and footfall in Stratford have so far been cancelled out by losses in the West End.

My heart says that London 2012 is a good thing for the UK. Yet I can’t help feeling we have been misled by the politicians’ claims that it will make a better Britain. There is ample evidence to investigate claims about tourism, economics and even the ‘feelgood’ factor. David Cameron, like practically every country leader before him, has chosen political points over a sincere explanation of the evidence. Let’s find out what the legacy of London 2012 will most likely look like… Read more

Is Love Enough? Science Shows 6 Ways Kate and Wills can have a lasting Royal Marriage!

Are you getting excited about the Royal Wedding yet?

Wills and Kate
The Perfect Couple? Prince William and Kate Middleton will be wed on 26th April 2011 at Westminster Abbey
(Even if you’re not, Brits have an extra day off work to look forward to!)

In a world with frighteningly high divorce rates, and facing a life in the limelight, is there really any hope that the royal marriage can survive a lifetime?

Well here are some tips for them that come from a rather surprising place – a recent edition of Social Science Research! (no, really) It contains a thorough analysis of some of the most comprehensive research ever done on marriage and divorce. Professor Wilcox from the University of Virginia scrutinised all previous research before delving into six years worth of surveys of married couples. He came up with some fascinating answers to those elusive questions, ‘What makes for a happy marriage?‘ and ‘Why do some people divorce?

I fear Kate and Wills have a copy of ‘Social Science Research’ sitting in their magazine rack- so I have summarised for them six top tips on how they can improve their chances of having a long and happy marriageRead more

New Findings: How the ‘Five-A-Day’ Scheme has changed what we eat (or not)…

Do you think you eat enough fruit and veg? If you’re like most of us – then you probably don’t.

FruitsAlmost a decade has passed since governments around the world starting telling us to eat ‘five-a-day’. Upping your intake of vegetables has been shown to reduce your chance of heart attack, stroke and cancer. But have these high profile initiatives made even the slightest bit of difference to our eating habits?

Analysts from the University of Bolgna have been trawling through data from the UK since the British ‘Five-A-Day‘ programme started in 2003. They have just published their findings and they make some interesting revelations…

Read more