Watch the clock

MOST heart attacks occur in the morning. Depression and suicidal thoughts peak in the middle of the night. Travelling across time zones makes people feel out of sorts. While these appear to be different observations, there is one interesting phenomenon common to them all: a clock that constantly ticks inside of us.

Most disease maps unreliable

Why is accurate mapping important? Accurate mapping helps quantify global burden of infectious diseases, assess the likelihood of disease outbreaks and explore the propensity of disease emergence and evolution. It also acts as a tool of international biosurveillance. What motivated you to do the study? Interviewee:  B. Katherine Battle

Swine flu tamed?

High BP, tobacco are top killers

DISEASE patterns are changing world over. Deaths from infectious diseases, poor nutrition and maternal and child illnesses, which used to be the key global killers two decades ago, are down. More people today die of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure and due to tobacco and alcohol consumption. This is one of the key findings of a study on the global burden of disease, published in The Lancet on December 13, 2012.

Why we are bugged

I am sure most of us have not come across the word “zoonosis”. Speak about AIDS, SARS, bubonic plague and swine flu, the word acquires affinity. And then talk of dengue and malaria, it acquires an ominous urgency. Zoonosis is a collective noun for such—and some lesser known—infections that have jumped over from animals to humans. These infections are the subject of David Quammen’s book Spillover.

Illogical formula

THE hue and cry in recent months over failure to protect the interests of drug trial victims has finally forced the government to act. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Union health ministry has drafted a formula to compensate drug trial-related injuries and deaths.

‘People share more personal information with health apps than with doctor’

The health apps currently available on smartphones produce limited data. What could be the privacy issues with the limited data? Interviewee:  Deborah Estrin

My genetic profile

In the early years of this century, companies such as deCODEme and 23andMe launched personal gene profiling services, heralding the era of consumer genetics. Their operations are subjects of investigation of Danish science writer Lone Frank’s new book, My Beautiful Genome. The investigation allows Frank to come to terms with a few personal demons: a family history of depression, alcoholism and breast cancer.

Future shock

It is a definite recipe for disaster, barely short of apocalypse. Thousands may die, millions get affected, and assets worth billions of dollars get destroyed. As human-induced greenhouse gases increase, so will extreme weather events like floods, heat waves and droughts.

Ethics on trial

Nine-year-old Rani is unhappy. She has to stay away from her mother Janki Patel, who is taking part in a clinical trial at a centre 10 kilometres from her house at Bapu Nagar in Ahmedabad. “I do not like these trials. They take my parents away,” says Rani.