Articles Archives

Health & Medicine

Establishing the first set of guidelines for breast cancer management in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Specialised centres that monitor breast cancer patients can help improve disease outcomes by recording patient information and by helping to implement centralised guidelines for disease management. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is no accurate data on breast cancer patients, nor any centralised guidelines. Dr Lejla Hadžikadić-Gušić, a breast surgical oncologist, […]

Behavioural Sciences

Political technology mystifies science communication for general public

Why are scientific organisations so hesitant to communicate information on their large-scale projects to the public, and how can they improve? The answers to this question are explored by scientist, communicator, and essayist Dr Michel Claessens, teacher of science communication at the University of Brussels and spokesperson for the ITER project on nuclear fusion from 2011 to 2015. Claessens discusses […]

Physical Sciences

Exploring transitions to chaos in complex systems

Previously, Dr Alberto Robledo of Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) showed how transitions to chaos in nonlinear systems can be expressed in the language of statistical mechanics. Additionally, in his studies he shows how the same mathematical laws can link these transitions to the behaviours of different types of complex systems. His results may lead to […]

Physical Sciences

Obtaining Tsallis entropy at the onset of chaos

Tsallis entropy aims to extend traditional statistical mechanics, but some physicists believe the theory is incompatible with the fundamental principles of thermodynamics. Dr Alberto Robledo of Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) shows for the first time how Tsallis entropy can explain natural phenomena that turn out to be surprisingly linked to the transitions from regular to […]

Biology

Evolutionary theory: Debating the origins of our DNA

For over a decade, Mr Shaojie Deng of Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, China, has been formulating and more recently presenting his new evolutionary theory to the academic world. Over time his thought processes too have evolved with his most recent manuscript centring around the stable complex model as an explanation for the evolution of enzymes and […]

Health & Medicine

Pathbreaking method leads to optimised mRNA production

The COVID-19 pandemic placed mRNA at the centre of biopharmaceutical research, as mRNA is now being developed for cancer therapy, protein replacement therapy, and infectious diseases. That is why, worldwide, the need to produce mRNA on a large scale has increased dramatically. The currently used method is quite costly, limiting the scale-up of mRNA production. Dr Rok Sekirnik and colleagues […]

Arts & Humanities

Transgressing gender and genre: Isabella Whitney’s appropriation of London

The poet Isabella Whitney is considered the first professional female writer in England to have had secular poetry published under her own name. Dr Stefani Brusberg-Kiermeier, professor of English literature at Hildesheim University, Germany, explores how Whitney presents herself as a respectable female poet in a male-dominated era by ‘appropriating’ the city of London, irrevocably weaving herself into its history […]

Arts & Humanities

Defining the rule of law in terms of liberty and equality

The relationship between liberty, the individual freedom from social oppression and restrictions, and equality, which entails providing equal rights and opportunities to all segments of the population, is intricate and often disputed. Isabel Trujillo, professor in legal philosophy at the University of Palermo, Italy, explores this relationship in the context of the rule of law – the notion that all […]

Health & Medicine

Neuromodulation – the future of diabetes treatments

The treatments for type 2 diabetes are limited in breadth and effectiveness. Medications have side effects, and many patients forget to take their medications regularly. An alternative treatment option that does not require daily compliance could provide better outcomes and is more likely to be used by patients. Dr Jonathan Waataja of ReShape Lifesciences in California, USA and colleagues have […]

Health & Medicine

Rethinking a tenet of cancer risk assessment for low radiation doses

Science isn’t perfect, but it does theoretically correct itself, and in the process even overturns keystones to fields of knowledge. However, such shifts don’t occur without pushback, especially from individuals and organisations with something to protect. The Health Physics Society, which is dedicated to radiation safety, produced a documentary that exposes a history of scientific errors, profound bias, professional self-interest, […]