BWB Text: Edge of Life

The gap between rapid scientific progress and patchy public understanding faces unprecedented challenges. Leading research scientist Mike Berridge explores this troubled ground from a rare vantage point. His descriptions of stunning new advances in human health are offset by hard questions about society's capacity to keep pace. Exploring these issues brings us into contact with hotly contested public health issues, such as cancer treatment, sugar consumption and water fluoridation.This is not just an exposition of public health matters that are often mired in misinformation: it is also a heartfelt plea to place robust and impartial science at the heart of our policy decisions and our thinking for the future.