Andy Coghlan

A revolution in mental health

On 29 Apr, Thomas Insel, director of worlds biggest funding agency for research into mental illness, advocated a major shift away from categorizing psychiatric disorders according to a persons symptoms. This approach has given people labels like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Insel, who heads the US National Institute of Mental Health, wants mental disorders to be diagnosed more objectively using a combination of genetics, brain scans that show abnormal patterns of activity, and cognitive testing.

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

• Updated 13:31 17 May 2011 by Andy Coghlan • For similar stories, visit the Cancer Topic Guide New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens.

China's struggle to clear the air

Beijings smog is the worst it has ever been. Michael Marshall and Andy Coghlan ask what can be done to cut the pollution

It's lights out for household classic

Energy-guzzling filament bulbs are a burnt-out case. Waiting in the wings are cheap, efficient replacements

World governments set out to slash wildlife crime

A global coalition has committed itself to stop the trade in illegal wildlife products, yet it has no strategy to cut demand for products like rhino horn

What's the beef? Cultured meat remains a distant dream

Yesterdays hype around the worlds first cultured burger could herald an era of environmentally friendly meat, but only if many challenges can be solved

Exercise is the best medicine

No pill provides the amazing range of health benefits that exercise does, as Andy Coghlan discovers

Grief and stress among those who care for lab animals

Evidence emerges of deep emotional trauma to those who have care for animals used for research and then have to kill them as humanely as possible

Gene therapy approved

They nearly lost him twice, says Kelly Gillion of her son Zeus, who was diagnosed with the potentially fatal condition ADA-SCID in the first weeks of his life. Until now the only commercial treatment for the condition has been a bone marrow transplant, and many die before a donor is found. But last week, a gene therapy to treat it was rubber-stamped for approval by a committee of the European Medicines Agency, potentially giving all patients in Europe access to a treatment that enables them to build lifelong immune systems with the help of transplanted genes

Here's to a Dry January

New Scientist staff have generated the first evidence that giving up alcohol for a month might actually be good for the health, at least in the short term. Many people who drink alcohol choose to give up for short periods, but there is no scientific evidence that this has any health benefits. So they teamed up with Rajiv Jalan at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health at University College London Medical School (UCLMS) to investigate. The liver plays a role in over 500 processes vital for functions as diverse as digesting food, detoxification and hormone balance. They find that a month of alcohol abstinence made a difference to their livers.