The latest issue of Physiology News, which I edit, is now up online.
I wouldn’t usually plug it so blatantly – I would simply plug it marginally more sneakily, of course – but this issue contains two articles that may be of interest to more than just physiologists.
One, on p 16, is by Dr Peter Wilmshurst, the British cardiologist who is (still) being sued by American medical devices company, NMT Medical. You can read some of the history of the case here – or for more detail you could try the BMJ.
In the new article, Wilmshurst describes some of what he and his family have been through in the last few years. It is a sobering account, and should remind us that reform of the English libel law, while much discussed, is not yet with us.
The second article, on a somewhat happier subject, is a personal appreciation, by one of his early PhD students, of the life and work of Robert “Bob” Edwards, the IVF pioneer who recently won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. It starts on p 18, straight after the Wilmshurst article, and is accompanied by some wonderful photographs.
Bob Edwards can also be seen on the magazine cover. You might enjoy guessing what all the components of the cover image show.
I never knew there was so much in it!
The Wilmshurst case is shocking – and shows how the libel laws in the UK can be exploited cynically by a foreign company.
Yes, agreed, Henry. As articles on the case point out, NMT Medical are not suing the online cardiology magazine/website that published the “words complained of”. I believe that they asked for the article to be taken down, but that the website, presumably protected by US First Amendment rights, refused.
Re Physiology News, we like to think it does a pretty good job for a quarterly society magazine produced by volunteer enthusiasts (like me) and with next to no paid-for content.