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Editor's choice

Researching research

Frontiers

The month in research

Editorials

Childhood intelligence and being a vegetarian
Do bright children grow up to make healthy choices? Marcus Richards discusses some provocative recent research

Protection of sex workers
Decriminalisation of prostitution could restore public health priorities and human rights argue Michael D E Goodyear and Linda Cusick

News

Access all areas

news bites

Education

Peer review: it's not personal
Peer review is central to scientific publication but can sometimes be disheartening. Sundip D Udani and colleagues explain how it works

Uninsured in America: problems and possible solutions
Failure to ensure access to health care for all lies at the heart of the US failure to achieve value for money, says Karen Davis

Laboratory medicine in primary care: Paraprotein management
W Stuart A Smellie and Gavin P Spickett explore best practice in the investigation and monitoring of paraprotein bands in blood or urine, look at the pitfalls, and provide a summary of guidance

A patient with abdominal pain

Picture quiz: Headache, visual blurring, and gynaecomastia

Careers

Medical marriages: good or bad?
Martina Esisi looks at marriage between doctors-the benefits and the pitfalls-and gives tips on how to make it work

Confabulating house officer
Lilantha Wedisinghe experienced a rare disease because of a lack of her mum's cooking

Learning advanced trauma life support abroad
With a shortage of ATLS course spaces in the UK, William Wraight went to the United States, and Sherilyn Tay travelled to Singapore

What more proof do you need?
Some hospitals in the United Kingdom have started testing their own candidates who apply for foundation year posts. Neel Sharma investigates

Valuable training in South Africa
Adam Reid describes the benefits of surgical training in rural Zululand

People

An outspoken neuroscientist
Susan Greenfield is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Oxford; director of the Royal Institution; author of many bestselling popular science books; and a leading neuroscience researcher with hundreds of papers to her credit. And she has presented television programmes and documentaries. Balaji Ravichandran attempts to understand what drives her

Papers

Caffeine in pregnancy and birth weight: randomised double blind trial
Kirsten Patrick looks at a recent randomised controlled trial that sought to find out whether caffeine intake in pregnancy affects length of gestation and birth weight

Life

Bringing home lessons from abroad
Establishing a strong personal rapport through peer education can make a difference to clinical practice, thinks Ying Wu

Racing medics
Ever thought about working at the race track? Rebekka Stiasny shares her experiences

Losing a loved one
Juggling personal obligations with studying at medical school can be tough but worth it, says Jasia Khan

Studying under fire
Laith K Qassim AlRubaiy describes studying medicine in the middle of war torn Basra, in Iraq, between April and July 2003

Are white coats going out of fashion?
Do white coats still have a place in modern medicine as we practise it today? Iqbal Naveed Khan thinks so

Get ahead by volunteering
Voluntary work may provide opportunities to develop a broad range of skills and interests, but what's out there, and how do we fit it in? Lorna Gibson explains

On the front line: It's about motivation
Amir Shroufi attempts to answer that question which puzzles most of us-what motivates doctors to work "on the front line"?

Reviews

A bridge over troubled waters

Social medicine

The interrogation

Obliged to participate

Eyespy