PHOTO: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY


WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT? Prostate cancer cell, SEM


www.mddus.com OUT THERE


CHOC CHOMPING Roses chocolates outperformed Quality Street in terms of popularity on hospital wards, according to a tongue-in-cheek study named recently as one of the BMJ’s all-time festive favourites. The median survival time for a sweet was 51 minutes, with an initial rapid “grab” phase. Nursing staff and healthcare assistants were identified as the biggest consumers, followed by doctors. Researchers called for more frequent chocolate deliveries to ensure all ward staff benefited equally.


DOG DOSH A dog owner plans to pursue


her dream career in medicine after training her husky to pose for pictures. Grumpy Anuko’s steely glare has taken social media by storm, notching up almost 37,000 Instagram followers and millions of YouTube views. He’s been showered with gifts, earned modelling jobs, and has helped her raise £20,000 in the process.


DOC DRIVERS Doctors are apparently the third worst drivers by profession, according to a recent report. Insurers 1st Central analysed claims in 2015 and found medics were amongst the most accident-prone, just behind solicitors and accountants.


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WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT? Stumped? The answer is at the bottom of the page Pick: DVD - The Theory of Everything


Directed by James Marsh. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Maxine Peake.


HE’S known as the man who beat the odds to survive motor neurone disease and pioneer the study of black holes, using that instantly recognisable computerised voice to communicate his brilliant ideas. But not so much is known about the private life of physicist Stephen Hawking and his complex marriage to first wife Jane which ended in divorce after 30 years when he left to be with his nurse (played by Peake). This intimate


study of the great man’s private life benefits from a subtle performance from Redmayne while Jones is a fierce and determined Jane. Redmayne impresses with his moving, vulnerable portrayal of the professor who we see physically deteriorate and distort over the course of two hours. The film, based on Jane’s memoir, charts the choppy course of their marriage which developed into a sort of open relationship. It shows the “friendships” developed by both partners and delicately explores all the frustration, depression and passion along the way.


Book Review: A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie


By Kathryn Harkup, Bloomsbury, £9.99, paperback, 2016


Review by Jim Killgore, associate editor


IN 1921 a review of a book published by a first-time novelist appeared in The Pharmaceutical Journal, which declared: “This novel has the rare merit of being correctly written”. Not exactly fulsome praise but it was a cherished compliment for the writer – a young Agatha Christie. The book was The Mysterious Affair at Styles and first introduced the


famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was Christie’s curiously accurate account of how strychnine was used in a murder that earned the praise of the scientific journal, assuming that the author must have some pharmaceutical training or the help of an expert. Indeed, Christie was something of an expert when it came to drugs and poisons, having trained as an apothecary’s assistant when she volunteered as a hospital nurse during World War I. Her extensive


chemical knowledge is the subject of a fascinating book by research chemist and science writer Kathryn Harkup, which was shortlisted in the 2016 BMA Medical Book Awards. Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than


any other method and in each of the 14 chapters of A is for Arsenic, Harkup takes a different novel and investigates the poison(s) the murderer employed – considering the origin of the substance, its development and use throughout history, how it interacts with the body to kill (or cure) and how it is obtained, administered and detected. Harkup writes: “Christie never used untraceable poisons; she carefully checked the symptoms of overdoses, and was as accurate as to the availability and detection of these compounds as she could be.” The book is a delight of fascinating facts and stories including


real-life murder cases that inspired some of Christie’s plots, such as that of Glasgow socialite Madeleine Smith, accused of putting arsenic in her lover’s cocoa when he refused to break-off their relationship and threatened to expose private letters. Smith was found ‘not proven’ in the murder trial but she lived out her life under suspicion. The book details succinctly how various poisons act to disrupt the


body’s basic biochemistry resulting in characteristic symptomology and fatal decline. Arsenic for example is particularly efficacious producing symptoms similar to those of food poisoning, cholera and dysentery. These and other such unsettling facts make for an excellent read.


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