cutting edge

  • image - brown mosquito
    Feature

    Artemisinin and a new generation of antimalarial drugs

    1 July 2006

    Every year between one and two million people - mainly children - living in the tropics and subtropics die of malaria.

  • A chimney sweeper in 1850
    Feature

    Percivall Pott, chimney sweeps and cancer

    1 March 2006

    Over 200 years ago, doctor and writer Percivall Pott made the astute connection between soot and scrotal cancer, known then as the chimney sweep's cancer.

  • dronsfield pain image large
    Feature

    Pain relief: from coal tar to paracetamol

    1 July 2005

    Analgesics, ie pain-relieving drugs, fall into two categories: those that also reduce body temperature in fevers (antipyretics), and those that act mainly on the brain - typically morphine and diamorphine/heroin. Here we consider members of the first group, particularly those once designated 'coal tar analgesics'. Paracetamol, our most popular over-the-counter ...