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Through the ages, walking has been a stable characteristic of the human condition. Of recent, however, it is under threat, Ian Roberts, of the Institute of Child Health, London, examines the twentieth century trend toward less walking, exploring its origins and the cultural, biological and health-related ramifications of the decline of the pedestrian.
Xenotransplantation continues to present daunting scientific hurdles but there is now a genuine prospect for clinical application. There are also significant and unknown risks. We call for a moratorium on all human xenotransplantation and offer a strategy for balancing the ethical, medical, scientific and societal demands of xenotransplantation prior to human clinical trials.
When we see the results of clinical trials, we look unwittingly at a drama in which the desperation and hopes of the research subjects are only present in the codification of the results. Consequently, it is easy to overlook the suffering of those involved and to feel little sympathy for them. The advent of AIDS has meant that many aspects of medical practice, including the design of clinical trials, are being scrutinized with renewed vigor.
This latest installment in a series of commentaries examining funding issue in biomedical research,focuses on the role of the Medical research Council(MRC)—the largest funding agency in the United Kingdom. George Radda, Chief Executive of the MRC, describes how funding decisions are made and priorities identified and considers future developement for the MRC.
In 1992 the US Congress created the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), placing it within the NIH, one of the foremost bio-medical research establishments world-wide. The OAM is currently funded to the tune of $40 million per year. Although alternative and unconventional medicine attracts considerable attention (and finances) from the public in Western societies, many within the established medical and research communities are outwardly cynical and dismissive of alternative medical practices. We have asked Wayne B. Jonas. Director of the OAM, to discuss what the OAM hopes to achieve and how it is going about it.