- Nothing to pay
- No deductions from your compensation
- Access to UK's leading personal injury solicitors
- Excellent claim success rate
- Friendly, supportive and genuine staff
- Impartial legal advice without any cost or commitment
This requires Flash
Don't underestimate British scientific work on tinnitus or any other condition
05/08/2008
we do science better than we do sport
Since I regularly write about and keep a close eye on industrial illness compensation claims, I consider it my professional obligation to keep up to date with all the latest scientific developments relating to potential new treatments and cures for illnesses from VWF to tinnitus, to asbestos lung cancers such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.
I am also something of a patriot. Although, for me, this doesn't take the form of flag waving, madly following Johnny Wilkinson's latest injury scare or decrying the growth of the European Union, it does mean that I am proud to be British and welcome anything that enhances our reputation on the world stage.
These two things together mean I was very pleased to hear that the UK now only falls behind the US in the number of academic scientific studies it publishes. In fact, around 9% of such studies published worldwide are reckoned to come from the UK. Considering that there are hundreds of countries in the world this is some achievement.
So, perhaps, in a year in which any home nation football team failed to qualify for the European Championships, Andy Murray could not be said to have registered a real impact at Wimbledon and our cricketers continue to struggle against a superior South African team, we should all take a break from bending over our microscopes to lift our chins.
And why not discard that football jersey next time you take a holiday to Spain or France and instead put on a lab coat emblazoned with the Union Jack. Or put on a t-shirt with "Stephen Hawking", "Richard Dawkins", or "John Cockroft" stencilled onto the back.
For where Wayne Rooney, Tim Henman and Andrew Flintoff have consistently failed, our scientists have succeeded, making such an impact in their fields that they are considered to be, indisputably, among the very best in the world.
Yeah sure, Bobby Moore and the boys may have won some competition called the World Cup back in 1966, but British Nobel Prize winner Ronald Ross just happened to discover the epidemiology of malaria and, in the process, perhaps prevented millions of deaths. Oh, and he happened to be successful poet, playwright and painter too. Who on earth is Fred Perry?
And its not like we're just publishing studies for the hell of it. Ours are consistently of a world-class standard, being among those most cited internationally.
What's makes it even more remarkable about where we rate in the table of quality scientific papers published is that we have managed to resist the advances of China.
Science minister Ian Pearson comments, "The competitive salaries and state of the art research environments offered by China will undoubtedly attract international researchers to its shores. And this in turn will increase China's output and research impact further.
"However, the UK will not be left behind. I am confident the UK will continue to punch above its weight, retain its excellent research base and continue to be the destination of choice for leading international researchers. "
So, when the Beijing Olympics come around and we're once again treated to the site of a breathless and despondent Paula Radcliffe being overtaken by a Chinese runner, be consoled that we're still winning the battle of the brains.
And the great thing about science is that everyone's a winner. If the Chinese, French, Germans or whoever discover a cure for tinnitus, mesothelioma or VWF, it's not likely we're going to begrudge the fact they got there first.
So, sure, Wayne Rooney you're quite good at kicking an inflated pig's bladder round a bit of rectangular turf. But only if you can become a great polymath like Ronald Ross and come up with some important scientific work on tinnitus or some other illness will I wear your name on my shirt.
