Celebrities frequently give medical advice and people often follow it. Whether motivated by good intentions or financial rewards, celebrities can generate much publicity for health campaigns by virtue of their visibility, public interest, and perceived newsworthiness. Steven Hoffman an assistant professor, and Charlie Tan a medical student, both at McMaster University, have attempted to find out why we seem so keen to follow their lead.
Sniffer dogs are often seen in airports, but Cliff, the beagle from Amsterdam, is more at home in a hospital. Cliff has been trained to sniff out the bacteria clostridium difficile, which is highly infectious and can cause outbreaks of diarrhoea on the ward. Scientists at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam studied how effective Cliff was, and found that he can sniff out Clostridium difficile infections in stool samples and even in the air surrounding patients in hospital [...]
Fit to Fly? from Martin Freeth on Vimeo.
This film supports the campaigning work of the charity Medical Justice. All too often asylum seekers and refugees are locked up without proper medical care or diagnosis.
Fatal Alchemy from Martin Freeth on Vimeo.
Miracle beauty products may be a staple Christmas present today, but they’re not a recent invention. Diane de Poitiers, a French noble woman and mistress of Henry II of France, tried to use gold to preserve her looks – in alchemical law, gold was immutable, and alchemists and apothecaries created various potions to pass this gift onto their customers. For Christmas, the BMJ has made a film about a French research team’s investigations of Diane’s remains, and its discovery that [...]
StickyTape X-rays from Martin Freeth on Vimeo.
New research provides evidence for an observation first described over 50 years ago – that peeling sticky tape emits x-rays. Hear the authors discuss their work and see the phenomenon in action.
Maisie & George Trailer from Martin Freeth on Vimeo.
The NHS is one of Britain’s largest contributors to our carbon footprint. This film is about the impact of climate change on babies born today, and how the NHS can reduce its carbon footprint.
Awarded a Nobel Prize for using lasers to control and cool atoms, producing the Bose-Einstein condensation, Bill Phillips is eager to hear about new theories from young scientists like Hannah Venzl. An exciting dialogue develops between them on a boat trip on Lake Constance as they dream up new collaborative experiments in the quantum world.
Overly aggressive treatment is estimated to cause 30 000 deaths among Medicare recipients alone each year. Overall, unnecessary interventions are estimated to account for 10-30% of spending on healthcare in the US, or $250bn-800bn (£154bn-490bn; €190bn-610bn) annually. This video features Shannon Brownlee, acting director of the New America Health Policy Program and author of Overtreated: How Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, David Himmelstein, professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health, and Vikas [...]
That Beethoven suffered from deafness is well known, but how did the progression of the condition affect his composition? In this video the Isolo string quartet demonstrate how his style changed over time. Read about the science behind the video in the paper, Beethoven’s deafness and his three styles, http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7589.
Alice Stewart was one of Britain’s foremost epidemiologists. However her recognition came late in her career, having spent her life fighting the establishment’s enshrined views. In the 1950s when she started her work, x-rays were routinely used in foetal monitoring. It was Stewart who first showed the link between the practice and childhood leukemia. She went on to look at the effects of low-level radiation exposure – uncovering the true adverse effects of chronic exposure, and thus earning herself the [...]
Community led total sanitation may not sound like the most cutting edge medical science, but the potential impact of this initiative is huge. Contact with faeces spreads human disease, and this technique helps villagers around the world understand how the practice of open defecation means that they’re, literally, in the shit.
To experience a French village in an entirely new way, go to : www.labastidevivante.fr
Explore this site to view a selection of recent projects or get in touch to discuss new commissions.
The Mars Corporation produces pet food as well as chocolate. This is an insight into their pet research centre near Waltham.
This half hour film is a detective story, following a group of innovative British engineers based in Tring as they travel to Greence to crack open the secrets of the ancient and now famous Antikythera Mechanism. Produced in partnership with Tony Freeth and Images First. 5 MINUTE TRAILER ONLY. MAIN FILM AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
The Centre for Vision in the Developing World, led by Josh Silver, are developing new and more fashionable ‘adaptive eyewear’ for young people in the developing world. Millions of short-sighted kids who cannot afford Western-style glasses will be able to benefit from educationfor only a few dollars, when otherwise they would be excluded. FILM IN PRODUCTION
‘Hermaphrodites’, now known as intersex people, have always existed. In most countries, even where gay and transgender people have been accepted, they face much prejudice. This is a 20 minute promo/pilot for a major global documentary on the subject, focussing on the science, natural historyt and mythology behind this subject. The idea came from American film makere, Fernando Llorente.
We enlisted Nick Currey’s graphic genius to turn a potentially dull (though very important for science) subject into a delight. You never realised you might actually want to watch four short films about the ‘international chemical identifier’!
