Issue 8: Michaelmas 2009
Cambridge Editorials
Thinking Clearly About Morality
The definition of morality has, for many people, been thrown into question. In today’s secular world which is no longer guided by religious leaders, texts or even personal interpretations of faith, on what basis should we delineate moral guidelines? What society construes as ‘moral’ has indisputably ...
International Features
Legislating Value: Opportunities and Pitfalls in the Bid for a Sustainable Future 
Despite the recent economic downturn, more goods and services were produced in 2008 than any other year in human history. Individuals in the developed world have access to a vast array of goods and services that in previous centuries only the wealthiest could have hoped to enjoy. Much of this economic activity affects...
Developments in Gene Therapies for Hearing Loss
Approximately ten per cent of the world’s population is affected by impaired hearing resulting from the degeneration of mechanosensory cells in the inner ear [1]. Until twenty years ago, an external hearing aid was the only therapeutic option for the hearing-impaired. This device, which filters and amplifies sound, is...
Scientists Get Research Tips From Cells: How RNAi Became a Cutting Edge Tool in Modern Genetics
Genetics is the backbone of modern biological research. Sequencing genomes has provided insight into evolu- tionary conservation and divergence between entire organisms down to the level of single domains within proteins. Proteins are the functional output from gene sequences, and are the structural support and functional u...
Cambridge Features
In 2008, 221 out of 223 nations surveyed reported a greater proportion of male than female births [1]. However, Sen et al have shown that female foetuses are more likely to survive from conception to birth [2], and significant de- creases in the proportion of male births have been observed following stressful situatio...
Type II Diabetes Epidemic in India
We all probably know at least one person who has diabetes, but arguably we never worry about it to the same extent as cancer or cardiovascular disease. Perhaps this is because diabetes rarely causes death directly, or because we assume it is curable since most dia- betics seem fairly healthy (incidentally, it is treatable, ...
Plants and Patents: The Future of Conservation or an Enticement to “Biopiracy”?
In March 2005, the European Patent Office revoked a patent held by W. R. Grace for the extraction of a pesticide from berries of the neem tree, calling the patent application an act of biopiracy [1]. The berries of this tree have been used as an insecticide, fungicide and contraceptive by villagers in India for over 2000 ye...
The Media: Scientists Can’t Live with Them, nor without Them
The media continues to misreport, misunderstand, mis- quote and exaggerate science, creating quite a stir in the scientific community. Why do they do this? Perhaps out of ignorance, lack of specialisation or, dishearteningly, just to sell a few papers. It is somewhat ironic that one of the few channels avail- abl...
Alzheimer’s - Not Just Another Disease
“Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most”[1].Mark Twain’s words aptly echo the innate fear many of us harbour. Dementia, the progres- sive and usually severe loss of brain function, has over 100 different causes; Alzheimer’s Disease alone accounts for 50-70% of all cases. It is a d...
Editorials
Radical Science: 150 Years of Evolutionary Theory
Charles Darwin once wrote that it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is the most adaptable to change. And since this year marks the 200th anniversary of the English naturalist’s birth and one hundred and fifty years since On the Origin of Species took global bookstores by ...