News and Opinion

Three stories in the Leicester Mercury over the last two days highlight the rise of rickets among people of South Asian origin. Dr Peter Swift, consultant paediatrician at Leicester Royal Infirmary said they are seeing one or two cases a month of children with severe bone deformities, and that "substantial numbers" of children have infantile and adolescent rickets. "I think there's still tremendous ignorance in Leicester about this very serious problem," he says. The disorder, largely eradicated in the 1970s but prevalent in Victorian times, is largely caused by vitamin D deficiency, mainly because of a lack of sunlight. 90% of vitamin D is made in the body from sunlight and 10% comes from food, such as oily fish, fortified margarine, evaporated milk, eggs and fortified cereal. The same problem has been recognised in Bradford, where every child under two will be offered free vitamin D to tackle the problem at a cost of £50,000. "The evidence is that someth

The Times Higher Education Supplement reports that it is becoming necessary for Universities to teach counter-creationism in their biology courses. http://tinyurl.com/ewznq Creationism - the belief that the biblical story of creation is scientific fact - is beginning to make inroads into the science curricula of UK universities, The Times Higher can reveal. Leeds University plans to incorporate one or two compulsory lectures on creationism and intelligent design into its second-year course for zoology and genetics undergraduates next Christmas. At Leicester University, academics already devote part of a lecture for third-year genetics undergraduates to creationism and intelligent design. In both cases, lecturers intend to present the controversial theories as fallacies irreconcilable with scientific evidence. But that these alternatives to evolution have been proposed for formal discussion has sparked concern among the UK science community. We at LSS have heard from a contact at Leices

In this lovely summer weather it's nice to take a break to get away from serious matters and enjoy the weather, but meanwhile the world carries on its chaotic way. This week I have a miscellany of loosely connected topics. ====== On Sunday 11th I will be holding a discussion at Secular Hall on Countering Creationism. This wil take the form of a display of creationist literature (often very well printed in full colour) and point out the misrepresentations and even lies in it, and how it is often difficult to counter their claims without having specialised knowledge. In this connection Judge Jones , from the Dover 'Intelligent Design' trial, has been speaking about how he has needed police protection. ===== On another local note, the Leicester Muslim Academy is now under way. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, having been disgracefully forced out of the Netherlands to the US has a new book out The Virgin Cage. In the Preface she speaks of the need for an Islamic Reformation. She writes: &quo