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Tom Ireland

Journalist & editor

Author: Tom Ireland

How bacteria make it rain; and using psychedelics to treat trauma

February 7, 2019March 13, 2019 Tom Ireland

The first of two articles for the BBC Focus end of year special – ‘Radical Ideas to Expand Your Mind’ – explored how microorganisms known as ‘ice-nucleation active bacteria’ can affect the weather. Read More »

Interview with Dame Georgina Mace on the crisis of global biodiversity loss (The Biologist)

January 8, 2019January 8, 2019 Tom Ireland

Scientists have failed to expressed the urgency of species loss in the way they have for climate change, says UCL’s professor of biodiversity and ecosystems Dame Georgina Mace.

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Pop-up science labs and hipster biotech (The Guardian/ Observer)

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 Tom Ireland

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I spent time with a community of biotech entrepreneurs working out of shipping containers in the middle of London’s Shepherd’s Bush Market. Read More »

What is Cannabis oil and can it be used as medicine? (BBC Focus)

August 22, 2018August 30, 2018 Tom Ireland

Following a series of high-profile legal cases involving parents using cannabis oil to treat their children’s epilepsy, and with shops like Holland & Barrett now selling ‘cannabis-based’ oil, I did a Q&A for BBC Focus to clarify what this product really is and whether using it as medicine is a good idea.

In cold blood: How therapeutic hypothermia can save lives

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 Tom Ireland

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History is littered with miraculous tales of people surviving hours without a pulse in extremely cold conditions. My latest article for BBC Focus explores how this has inspired medics to induce hypothermia in patients suffering strokes, heart attacks, and even multiple gunshot wounds in order to help stave off death.

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Interview with DIY gene-editing maverick Josiah Zayner for The Guardian

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 Tom Ireland

Zayner

I interviewed biohacker Josiah Zayner, who recently became one of the first people in the world to conduct DIY gene therapy on himself. Our wide-ranging conversation covered lots of ground, from his own bedroom experiments with poo, to the problems with clinical trials, to humans with tails and the future of us as a species. Read More »

Understand antibiotic resistance (BBC Focus)

August 22, 2017February 19, 2018 Tom Ireland

As part of the BBC Focus ‘instant expert’ series, I explored how microorganisms develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs, what we can do to stop it – and what the world will be like if we don’t. Read More »

Should we resurrect the wooly mammoth? (BBC World/Sky News appearance)

February 20, 2017February 24, 2017 Tom Ireland

No, of course not. And it probably isn’t going to happen anyway. Read More »

Who wants to live forever? (BBC Focus)

January 31, 2017February 1, 2017 Tom Ireland

In the small town of Comfort, Texas, an audacious ‘Timeship’ is being built to cryogenically freeze thousands of human bodies, in the hope they will be revived by a future civilisation. Could such an idea ever work?Read More »

The art of saving lives (BBC Focus)

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016 Tom Ireland

I spoke to photographer Reiner Riedler about his 2015 project The Lifesaving Machines, which involved him documenting the enormous, expensive, and sometimes eerie machines built to help keep us alive. Read More »

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