ONCE a week, for six months, nurse clinician Hone Swee Mui would devote more than two hours after work to learn hairdressing. It was a skill she was moved to master after seeing the plight of her cancer patients. Bedridden or wheelchair-bound by their illness, they also suffered hair loss from their treatment, making it inconvenient for them to go to a salon, said the 58-year-old who...

THE superbugs have met their match, in the form of a new coating that attracts bacteria with a magnet-like feature and kills them without antibiotics. This is an alternative solution that could replace antibiotics, currently the main defence against bacteria.Building on the development of the coating, a similar anti-microbial solution that kills off bacteria and fungi without harming human cells...

AS THE number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases hits an all-time high, two research groups are working on a vaccine for a virulent strain of the disease. The most common causes of the illness, which typically produces fever, oral blisters and rashes in children, are two viruses: enterovirus 71 and Coxsackie A. Last week, the Health Ministry reported that a record-high number of...