How scientists are untangling the mystery of developmental disorders There are between 6,000 and 8,000 known rare diseases, many of which affect children’s development. One pioneering project is showing how, 17 years since the first draft of the human genome, our...
Genetic diagnosis is getting ever more sophisticated. But as doctors uncover diseases that are hereditary, who needs to know? Shaun Raviv explores the rights – and duties – of doctors, patients and families. In 2007, a middle-aged British man shot and killed his wife....
More and more people are donating organs, but demand still far exceeds supply. What can the world learn from the country that does it best? Download or stream this story via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, SoundCloud. Five years ago, Sergio Cobos was just trying to stay...
Meet the scientists finding out how we can defeat our inner trolls and build more cooperative digital societies. On the evening of 17 February 2018, Professor Mary Beard posted on Twitter a photograph of herself crying. The eminent University of Cambridge classicist,...
The cause of Alzheimer’s disease has troubled the science world’s best detectives. Michael Regnier asks: can such a mystery really be solved if we gather enough clues? The King of Crete demanded that, to atone for the death of his son, the city of Athens send him...
In Finland, people whose sickness is linked to certain buildings fear being labelled as mentally ill, while scientists search for evidence that their condition is ‘real’. In early September 2011, when the weather in Finland had begun to turn its back on summer and...
An early halt to a trial of deep brain stimulation for depression reveals little about the treatment but more about the changing nature of clinical trials. Some medical experiments are more daunting than others. The one that neurologist Helen Mayberg came up with to...
From 1932 to 1968, hundreds of tonnes of mercury seeped into the clear waters of Minamata Bay, Japan, causing health and environmental problems still felt today. As the first global treaty on mercury finally comes into force, what have we really learned from this...
Aching, throbbing, searing, excruciating – pain is difficult to describe and impossible to see. So how can doctors measure it? John Walsh finds out about new ways of assessing the agony. Listen to or download an audiobook of this story...
A network of compassionate volunteers caring for their terminally ill neighbours is allowing more people in Kerala, India, to end their days at peace and at home. Jeremy Laurance meets the man leading the movement. Thirty years ago a young anaesthetist, newly...
Most of us would rather not think about what happens to our bodies after death. But that breakdown gives birth to new life in unexpected ways, writes Moheb Costandi. Listen to or download an audiobook of this story on SoundCloud and iTunes. ...
A campaigning doctor has helped make Mongolia a better place to die than many much wealthier nations. Andrew North met her to find out how. What comes to mind when you think of Mongolia? My answer, probably like many people’s, was vast empty space, those signature...
Bringing genetics into medicine leads to more accuracy, better diagnosis and personalised treatment – but not for all. Carrie Arnold meets families for whom gene testing has led only to unanswered questions. AnneMarie Ciccarella, a fast-talking 57-year-old brunette...
Now we can treat it without making other symptoms worse Half of people with Parkinson’s disease experience hallucinations, paranoia and delusions. Mary O’Hara reports on a new hope. One night without warning, Jay Sagen leapt from his bed and grabbed the quilt, then...
Every day, hundreds of Israeli volunteers drive ill Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to hospitals in Israel. Shaul Adar joins them on the road and learns why they see their neighbourly help as a step on the journey to peaceful coexistence. At 6.30am,...
The pain and sorrow of bereavement is supposed to get easier to bear as time passes. But what if it doesn’t? Psychiatrists call it 'complicated grief' – and it can be treated. Andrea Volpe reports. After Stephanie Muldberg’s 13-year-old son Eric died of Ewing’s...
Sue Armstrong meets Pan Pantziarka, whose son George had Li–Fraumeni syndrome and lived with cancer from early childhood. One of the bleakest moments in Pan Pantziarka’s long struggle with Li–Fraumeni syndrome was when doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London...
When discussing death, the words we choose can speak volumes. In the 1970s and 1980s, Susan Sontag wrote about the metaphors that surround TB, AIDS and cancer, arguing that their use can add to the suffering of patients, stigmatising them and encouraging...
How do you tell someone that they’re seriously ill, or even dying? Chrissie Giles explores how doctors learn and how they deal with the stress and trauma, for both their patients and themselves. Listen to or download an audiobook of this story...
Meet the donors, patients, doctors and scientists involved in the complex global network of rare – and very rare – blood. Listen to or download an audiobook of this story on SoundCloud and iTunes. His doctor drove him over the border. It was quicker that way: if the...
When one Romanian doctor became ‘father’ to 16 HIV-positive orphans in 1999, many thought there was no hope for them – or for the thousands of other children infected. What followed was something of a miracle. Geta Roman tells their story. Dr Paul Marinescu has chosen...
An extra from “I saw things children shouldn’t see” – surviving a troubled childhood Love is not enough for a child to get over a difficult start in life. Lucy Maddox asks: what is? The importance of feeling connected to others is common to the findings of many...