Student BMJ April 1998 volume 6 Editorials 90 Making an issue of informed consent 91 Drug treatment in heart failure 92 MMR vaccination and autism 1998 News 94 UK medical students to join the global student community Medical lectures for Israeli students now on tape Melanoma vaccines developed Cholesterol screening is not worth while Female cycles synchronised Medical data transmitted from aircraft Celebrities influence the public Education 97 The body in space 99 Anna Donald on the future of the doctor 100 Spacial connections 102 You should know, you're a medic: How does cloning work? 103 Open for doctors 104 Net.Philes 105 Science, medicine, and the future: Alzheimer's disease 108 How to read a paper: Statistics for the non-statistician - different types of data need different statistical tests 111 Ethical dilemma: Should doctors reconstruct the vaginal introitus of adolescent girls to mimic the virginal state? Papers 115 Childhood energy intake and adult mortality from cancer: the Boyd Orr cohort study Life 121 Spaced out doctors 123 Planning your elective - Zimbabwe 124 Tales from an elective - AIDS babies 125 Overworked and underpaid 126 The not-so-secret diary goes into orbit 126 Out There Letters 127 Get informed about Global Health Less sniping, more cooperation Abortion - other issues Soundings 129 Therapy? 129 Clashing symbols Art & Reviews 130 The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity From Antiquity to the Present 130 Making Doctors: An Institutional Apprenticeship Personal view 131 Thomas comes home Minerva 132 Editor's choice There's water on the Moon, and a camera on Mars - the space age is upon us. It is all getting a little too close for comfort for Tamsin Radford, who has a disturbing vision of her future as a doctor in a hospital in orbit. The aliens she treats are oddly similar to the patients she sees in casualty on an average Friday night (p 126). A career in space medicine is more than the stuff of science fiction, as Philip Scarpa reveals in his experience of being a flight surgeon for the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) p 121. Space medicine is not the easiest specialty to find a job in at the moment, but the future looks bright. So, if you ever find yourself called to examine a patient on a space ship you can use Deborah Josefson's guide for reference (p 100). Before you approach the patient you need to brush up on your space physiology as it is easy to mistake the normal adjustments to the loss of gravity for something more serious. And remember to secure your patients in position, otherwise they will float away. All sorts of strange things happen to the body in space, and Terry Martin takes a look at the effects of noise, vibration and weightlessness (p 97). It's enough to persuade you that a trip into the vast unknown with the studentBMJ has to be better than the real thing. Front cover: An artist's impression of IRAS in orbit. Jet propulsion laboratory, NASA (See pp 97, 100, 104, 121, 126)