As to Jesse, even more thanks are in order. I apologise profusely and will be more vigilant in the future.

I’m just about finishing my undergraduate degree (last exam on thursday, hence my lack of posting). After that I’m going to be working on an industrial-funded PHD in nanocrystalline diamond solar thermal power, so nanophysics is something I’m fascinated about. It’s amazing watching the physicists in my department fiddling with what looks like just solutions, which are actually growing tiny nanowires.

I don’t know much about asbestos, but it is simply not true that the thalidomide tragedy was “inherently unpredictable.” At the time thalidomide was first marketed in the 1950s, new drug compounds were not legally required to be tested for their teratogenicity, and so typically weren’t. Had thalidomide been tested in a pregnant animal model, its propensity for causing birth defects would have been quickly discovered as it has teratogenitic effects in a number of species, including rats an mice.

Welcome aboard, TJ – rest assured that our readers are pretty sharp at spotting when we make mistakes!