Author: Dr Richard Petty

Simon Fraser Campbell (1941- ) was awarded a knighthood in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List for services to chemistry. Unless you happen to be a medicinal chemist, you might not have noticed, but this is the man who discovered the major breakthrough drugs Istin amlodipine and Cardura doxazosin for…

Following the inevitable melt down of “Lucifer” over the next few weeks, violent electrical storms are predicted: these may well give rise to a further period of excessively hot weather in the UK. But today, hundreds of thousands of cold, damp, pink Brits will be stripping off on the beaches…

… the short answer is no, not directly. But prostates do tend to grow larger with advancing age, so much so that they can cause really annoying LUTS (lower urinary tract symptoms) – poor urinary stream, urgency, frequency, nocturia, hesitation and dribbling. Before surgery is given a thought, GPs…

Who the Heck is Saint Nick? In 828, during the rush to rescue the remains of antique Christian heroes from the iconoclastic clutches of new Muslim rulers, Venice captured most of Saint Mark. Some leftovers remained in Alexandria, most notably his head.[1] …

… But your willy will disappear, your nipples will invert, and your pussy will shrink to a twist of shrivelled petals. Yes, really. Garring Koro (literally “to shrink” in Indonesian dialect) is an epidemic disorder which is said to carry a significant mortality in China. It is confined to Asia:…

Most animals depend upon their pheromones – their airborne hormones – to orientate themselves within their environment and to communicate with other members of their own species. Pheromones are expressed by skin glands, in urine and faeces, and in vaginal secretions and exhaled breath. In addition to the main olfactory…

Only the female “little flies”, the mosca-itos, feed on blood – they require protein to make eggs. For energy, both sexes rely on the carb calories in nectar. Mosquitoes on evening patrol will find you by sight and smell. They can see you perfectly well: their large compound eyes pick…

I was three or four and I remember squatting in my underpants wearing dark goggles staring, mesmerised, at a vivid bright blue light which fizzed and popped loudly. The air smelt dangerously acrid. Being a compliant child, I sat quietly along with several of my peers in a semi-circle around…

A strand from Les Liaisons Dangereuses has the morally righteous Madame de Tourvel seduced by Le Vicomte de Valmont as a bet with his ex-lover La Marquise de Merteuil.  Valmont and Tourvel fall deeply and passionately in love. Merteuil is furiously jealous and forces Valmont to reject Tourvel. Tourvel retires,…

Is big still beautiful? Venus did not suddenly appear in ancient Greece only to be stolen by the Romans, to be venerated by emperors as the archetypal goddess of love and sex. Her origins were tens of millennia earlier, near enough 35,000 years ago in Northern Europe. Then she was…