The New Antibiotic Mantra—“Shorter Is Better”

A report by Uranga, et al. of a randomized trial of 312  patients with pneumonia  published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine,  has found that continuing  antibiotics more than 5 days gives no additional benefit if the patient is stable and has been afebrile for 48...

The mother’s curse

This is a fascinating piece in Physorg about the likelihood that mother’s can transmit genes to their children that harm their sons but not their daughters – thanks to an evolutionary arms race between mitochondrial DNA (only transmitted by females in ova)...

Humans Never Stopped Evolving

I am acquainted with Steve Jones, professor of zoology at University College, London. He’s a lovely science writer and has talked a lot of sense. But I have never understood why he is so implacably opposed to the idea that Homo sapiens continues to evolve. He...

Where there is smoke there may be human evolution

Researchers at Penn State have discovered a mutation in the gene for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor which would desensitise an individual’s reaction to the aromatic hydrocarbons in smoke from cooking fires, and in meat roasted upon them, and through exposure to burning...