Some pathologies are like fiends, lurking in shadows, often unseen, and certainly under-recognised. Non-fatal strangulation (NFS) is one of those. Although there’s nothing new about NFS as an act of violence and control, it is only recently that we as clinicians have understood what makes it unique. All around the world, legislation is falling into…

  We’re all talking a good deal about the immune system these days. Explaining the difference between T cells and B cells to our parents, elaborating on the nuances of the cellular versus humoral response to our friends. Most of the cell lines are getting a good rap. Thank goodness for adaptive immunity, we opine…

On board the Pequod, the great Nantucket whaling ship captained by a “grand, ungodly, god-like man”, were thirty crewmembers. A pastime among them was attempting to understand their leader and his tyrannical descent into madness. For us to read Moby-Dick, the main cause is obvious; the mighty plot that drives the narrative. Captain Ahab, whose…

One of the more dangerous catchphrases of the last four years has been the outcry of ‘fake news’. By sowing seeds of doubt into the recesses of readers’ psyches whenever a public statement is at odds with a powerful figure’s own determined narrative, trust in those charged with bringing truth to the populace is undermined….