Readers of this blog know very well by now that, despite (or is it because of?) being both a scientist and a philosopher, I have often defended the idea that science and philosophy are distinct disciplines, and I am critical in particular of those who I think display a scientistic (i.e., intellectually imperialistic) attitude in wanting to expand the scope of science to pretty much everything that is worth knowing, usually at the expense of humanistic disciplines, philosophy in particular.

In the UK, health care is nationalized but a trial lawyer for maternity cases says that has made money a bigger concern in deciding who gets quality medical care. 

A report by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said there was enormous disparity in the quality of care patients received across the country. It looked at the performance of maternity units in England during 2011/12 and found that rates of inductions, emergency cesareans and assisted deliveries were twice as high in some hospitals as others.

The Groningen Protocol, introduced in Holland in 2005, was devised to create a standard for doctors who had families that wanted to end the suffering of sick newborns for humanitarian reasons. It outlined parameters to help identify situations in which euthanasia is warranted and wouldn't land anyone in jail. 

We all know time is relative, just like we know that the plates are moving around underneath us, but both time and that the earth is not moving still 'ground' us on a daily basis.

A map of avian influenza (H7N9) risk is now available. The map is comprised of bird migration patterns, and adding in estimations of poultry production and consumption, which are used to infer future risk and to advise on ways to prevent infection.

As of today, there have been 127 confirmed cases of H7N9 in mainland China with 27 deaths. A lack of information about the virus and its mode of transmission has led to public concerns that H7N9 could be a pandemic waiting to happen.

Prenoxad Injection is a pre-filled syringe containing 1mg/ml naloxone hydrochloride solution for injection. Martindale Pharma announced the world's first licensed emergency treatment for acute opioid related overdose for use at home or other non-medical settings. 

There are more than 1,000 fatal opioid related overdoses just in the UK each year, with a significant proportion of these being witnessed by other people who use drugs, family members and loved ones.

The Whale, The Torpedo And Cruelty To Animals,

A brief history of the use of electricity in medicine and the development of the pacemaker.

With the popularity of dark matter and dark energy as blanket terms for 'this is weird and we don't understand it but we are studying it, ain't science awesome?' in physics, it was only a matter of time before it caught on elsewhere.

So we have dark lightning and the life sciences made sure they caught the wave, migrating non-coding DNA (factual = booooring) from the colloquially misunderstood blanket term 'junk DNA' to the cooler and edgier 21st century 'Dark Genome'.

In America, science is as polarized as politics. Corporate scientists, like at pharmaceutical companies, are criticized for working at unethical companies while academic scientists are criticized for 'chasing funding' rather than helping people.

Like many stereotypes, those images started with a kernel of truth.  So if you ask most people if the pharmaceutical industry can self-police its advertising policies, they will reply it is not possible, an outside force must do it.  But then if you ask people who are skeptical of medicine, they will say the FDA is also controlled by pharmaceutical companies. 
Most countries have an established system for self-regulation of pharmaceuticals advertising.

When you read studies about embryogenesis and the cellular and molecular mechanisms used by cells to assemble into layers or clusters of epithelial cells, you often see the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model.

Stowers Institute for Medical Research Associate Investigator Matt Gibson, Ph.D., uses a different star, Nematostella vectensis, for his lab's paper on embryology.

Tissues comprised of epithelial cells shape the body not only of simple creatures but also of mammals, where they line every body cavity from lung to intestine and form hormone- and milk-secreting glands. Unfortunately these cells have a dark side too - over 80% of human cancers, carcinomas, are of epithelial origin.