Can We Be Sure Polypropylene Mesh Causes Infertility?

Does Diarrhoea Causes Cataract? Can Cataract be Prevented by Aspirin?

Loss of transparency of the lens is termed cataract which is one of the commonest causes of blindness throughout the world. This major health problem appears to be much commoner in many developing countries such as India and Pakistan, where it causes visual disability at a substantially earlier age and several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this higher prevalence in these areas. Re...

Can We Be Too Careful?

Just to be sure.

I read with interest the recently published online article by Hasegawa et al. It was the title which first triggered my interest, including the phrase ‘double blind’. Wow, a double blinded study on acupuncture! This is of course the ‘highest’ level of research one can achieve in randomised controlled trials, and consequently highly appreciated among acupuncture researchers. However, it has been...

Cancer risks and radiation exposure from computed tomographic scans: how can we be sure that the benefits outweigh the risks?

T HE INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPUTED TOmographic (CT) scanner ushered in a new era of internal medicine diagnosis. Conditions that once required laparoscopy for diagnosis could now be diagnosed on the radiology reading board. The previously opaque anatomy of the living brain could now be visualized. The best part was that the test was “noninvasive,” fast, and painless. With the exception of patien...

Thinking Machines: Can There Be? Are We?

Artificial intelligence researchers predict that _thinking machines_ will take over our mental work, just as their mechanical predecessors were intended to eliminate physical drudgery. Critics have argued with equal fervor that _thinking machine_ is a contradiction in terms. Computers, with their foundations of cold logic, can never be creative or insightful or possess real judgment. Although m...