THIS PAST week saw British scientists lauded for a successful phase 1 vaccine trial. A working vaccine may be available by the end of 2020. Unfortunately deploying a global immunisation programme may prove to be harder than producing the vaccine. Although the United Nations is pushing all countri...

THERE is a paradox in philosophy, one popularly referred to as Buridan's Ass. It tells the story of a donkey that is equally hungry and thirsty, and placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. The paradox assumes the ass will always go to whichever is closer, and therefor...

COLUMNIST Mandy Wiener has written an opinion piece for News24 entitled: 'The case for lifting the cigarette ban' Her central thesis is that the 'prohibition on smoking tobacco merely drives the practice underground'. While Wiener appears to grasp some of the health arguments being touted by the...

THAT A HydroxyChloroquine vs Chloroquine controversy continues to rage, and one of the theories as to why Covid-19 patients may be getting starved of oxygen despite medical interventions, appears to have been debunked as nothing more than in silica research, hasn't stopped Dr Tim Noakes going out...

AT THE START I should caution readers that the scientific literature is littered with controversies and that the very basis of scientific proof, for any proof worth its salt, a proof must not simply be demonstrable by its authors, but subject to further experimentation by peers. In other words, f...