Discoveries need dollars

In Australia at the moment there is a real fear that our Government (who are supposed to be on the left side of that political line) is going to cut $400 million from medical research budgets. To protest this rallies are being run in most Australian capital cities to advertise the role of scientists in the community and to show all scientists that collectively we have a voice that can be heard, you just have to start shouting.

Arty farty photo of the rally taken by a friend of Thomas Tu, I'm not sure who

Exploding Head Syndrome - No pun required

This is an old post from my previous blog. Recently it has been seeing a lot of activity so I thought I'd play around with it a bit and re-post it here. Enjoy :)

Sometimes when searching for disease to write about a wonderful thing happens. The clouds part, cherubs descend, angels play intricate harp-based musical compositions, and a beam of light illuminates the link to a wonderful disease. This happened to me the other day, and now, without further ado, let me introduce you to Exploding Head Syndrome. Best. Disease. Name. Ever.

Acute Exploding Head Syndrome sufferer (screenshot from the 1981 movie Scanners)

Shoutout

I strongly suggest you go read two very good posts I came across today.

The first by my friend Thomas at Disease of the Week is about leprosy in all its glory and celebrating World Leprosy Day! He's a funny guy and leprosy is always fun to read about.

The second is by FoS blogger Emily Willingham. A great piece on woo and oversimplification of science in the media specifically referring to the 'link' between having your children's tonsils out and your children becoming overweight. Apparently this common surgery is extending the childhood obesity epidemic. Well not really.

I have nothing more today, just liked these posts and thought I would share them :).