Pleading for accuracy in trial reporting
Last week, Mariska Bot and colleagues published a clinical trial in JAMA whereby they randomized overweight or obese adults with subsyndromal depressive symptoms to placebo, micronutrients (400 mcg folic acid, 800IU vitamin D, 30 mcg selenium, 100 mg calcium, and 1412 mg DHA+EPA), micronutrients plus behavioural activation or placebo plus behavioural activation. Their primary outcome was cumulative onset of...
Teaching science on the Southern ice
The Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (PCAS) is an internationally unique programme jointly developed by the University of Canterbury and Antarctica New Zealand. PCAS is a 14-week, in‐depth, multi‐disciplinary programme of study that critically examines contemporary scientific, environmental, social and political debates focused on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
Every year, PCAS attracts graduate students from a diverse...
Exploring the microbiome and its relationship with infant health
For the past several years, through the NUTRIMUM study, Te Puna Toiora | UC’s Mental Health and Nutrition Research group has been investigating the effect that micronutrient supplementation, and maternal depression and anxiety can have on infant development. One of the aspects of interest in this research has been the collection of microbiome samples from mothers and infants, in...
The Amazon is on fire! Can it save itself?
74,000 fires have been burning for more than 30 days across the nearly one million hectares of Latin American Amazon comprising the world's largest tropical rainforest. The fires have burnt through the territory of more than 400 distinct indigenous peoples, who have supplied world markets with natural resources for more than five centuries and, in turn, received the ‘curse...
