You might have noted that yesterday was ‘Blue Monday’ – lauded as the most depressing day of the year. You might also be aware that Blue Monday was actually the construct of a Sky Travel marketing campaign several years ago, and is complete pseudoscience. Still, it seemed like as good an excuse as any to throw together this graphic, which looks at some of the different classes of antidepressants, and to discuss a little of how they work.
If you’ve read any science news over the past day or so, you’ll have noticed it’s been dominated by stories about the discovery of a new antibiotic, teixobactin. There’s a reason that the scientific community is so excited by its discovery, but in truth, it’s the method which was used to discover it as much as the compound itself that’s drawn attention. Today’s graphic gives you a run-down of the key points.
It’s that time of year where a fair few of us (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) are probably suffering from a cold of some description. The common symptom, that of a blocked nose, is probably one of the most irritating, but thankfully, nasal decongestants exist to provide relief. But how do they work?
If you’re an asthma sufferer, you likely need at least one inhaler to keep your symptoms in check – or maybe even two different types. Commonly, those afflicted with asthma will have both a blue and a brown inhaler. Whilst the colours can vary, the purpose of the chemical compounds contained therein differ dependent on the particular inhaler.
The current ebola virus epidemic in West Africa has dominated the news in recent months, and in the past week, several medical organisations have announced their intention to commence trials with possible treatments for the virus in the coming months. Two of these treatments are the anti-viral drugs brincidofovir and favipiravir, chosen due to some promising data on their potential efficacy against the virus, as well as their non-prohibitive costs. Here, we take a look at them in a little more detail.
If you’ve ever needed a tooth out, or had surgery of any kind, chances are you’ll have experienced use of an inhalational anaesthetic. All of the compounds shown above can induce general anaesthesia, and a range have been utilised since the initial discovery of nitrous oxide in the mid-1800s. Often, intravenous drugs will be used for induction of anaesthesia, but inhalational agents may then be used to maintain this – this graphic looks at how the drugs in use for this purpose have varied over the years.
