Professor Kostas Kostarelos* considers fact and fiction

*Chair of Nanomedicine and Head, Centre for Drug Delivery Research at the School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Since the pioneering vision of Professor Feynman in his now famous lecture ‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’, first delivered at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech in December 1959, Hollywood and scientific exploration at the nanoscale have been lending each other imagery and targets to achieve. Only five years after Feynman’s lecture, Harry Kleiner, managed to complete a script for the film ‘The Fantastic Voyage’.

• Studying Medicine in Australia
• Studying Medicine in New Zealand
• Studying Medicine in the UK
• Studying Medicine in the USA

The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada releases transformative report on medical education in Canada

On January 28th, 2010, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada released its report titled: The Future of Medical Education in Canada (FMEC): A Collective Vision for MD Education.

2010 marks the hundred-year anniversary of the Flexner Report - a study of medical education in the United States and Canada. Since that time, there have been countless changes in medical practice, Canada's healthcare system and population, and the availability of medical and pedagogical technologies. Yet there has been no comprehensive study of the Canadian system of medical education in 100 years. Until now.

It was a defining moment in cloning history. Dolly the Sheep had come into the world a few years previously, thanks to pioneering work of scientists in Scotland. Around the globe the race was on to make the next big breakthrough. When it finally came, the world looked on with curious fascination.

Once again scientists in Scotland had triumphed. The Edinburgh-based team, which had brought us the first animal to develop after nuclear transfer from an adult cell, had cloned another creature.

The lure of the beauty of the Caribbean isn't just for those seeking fun and relaxation. With over 60 medical schools listed in the International Medical Education Directory (IMED), the Caribbean has increasingly become the preferred destination for students seeking alternatives to their domestic medical schools.

The 25 most popular Caribbean medical schools are located on islands varying in size, demographic, and environment. Official languages of a majority of the region's islands/countries are English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamento. Well known tourist havens such as Aruba, Antigua, the Cayman Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, share a common bond with smaller islands including Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, in that each island is host to at least one medical school.

In the mid-1970s, in response to a limited number of US medical school seats, a young American, Charles R. Modica, founded the first private medical school in the Caribbean where instruction was in English – St. George's University – on the island of Grenada in the West Indies. The School initially drew all of it students from the United States.

To secure enough clinical training spots for its students, St. George's University developed affiliations with hospitals in the United States and then in the United Kingdom. The serendipitous hybrid training led to the University's internationally oriented curriculum and eventual development as a global center of higher education.

Canadian Students Travel to Australia for Medical Training

Barbara Bradshaw is in her bedroom, looking into an opened suitcase sitting on top of her bed. She walks across the room and carries over an arm full of medical books, placing them into the suitcase. She leaves the room and returns with a stethoscope, and it too goes inside the luggage.

Once she finishes up packing, Bradshaw hugs her husband, says goodbye to friends and family in Edmonton, and then boards a plane . . . to Australia. For four years.

Pursuing her lifelong dream to become a doctor, Bradshaw has enrolled in a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery program in Queensland – and she's not alone. Bradshaw, like hundreds of other Canadians each year, has taken a different route and decided to earn a medical degree abroad as in Canada, the number of applications to medical schools far outreaches the amount of spots available, creating a tough entry field for applicants.

As cancer rates soar worldwide, a major new Australian cancer research centre at the University of New South Wale in Sydney is aiming to cure childhood cancer and help adult cancer sufferers lead long and productive lives.

The new Lowy Cancer Research Centre (LCRC) was opened in May by the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Its 400 scientists are hoping to make the “leaps forward” in research needed to improve survival rates and quality of life by turning cancer into a manageable disease.

A "bionic eye" is no longer the stuff of science fiction. At the University of New South Wales (UNSW) a viable vision prosthesis - which can detect light, dark and patterns - will be ready for human implantation as early as 2012.