This article explores the potential for the greater infusion of well-being concerns into the teaching of history in UK HEIs. Drawing upon results from a survey of over 100 current undergraduates in one UK History department, alongside a scoping study of well-being provision provided by history departments or their equivalent in about ninety UK HEIs, this article considers ways in which well-being can be promoted through the teaching and learning strategies of historians. The article discusses the meaning of the term ‘well-being’ and asks why historians have sometimes been reluctant participants in the ‘eudaemonic turn’. The negativity bias of history as an endeavour, and the potential for understanding the past to enhance or diminish an individual's sense of well-being is discussed, as is the value of historicising the concept of well-being itself. The case for integrating well-being as a key element in the degree-level study of history is made, and the article concludes by urging all HEI history practitioners to consider the value of curricular infusion and mapping the design and delivery of their modules onto the New Economics Foundation's ‘five ways to well-being’.

Although often presented as an essential, ahistorical or innate psychological entity, the notion of a ‘scientific mind’ is ripe for historical analysis. The growing historical interest in the self-fashioning of masculine identities, and more particularly the self-fashioning of the nineteenth-century scientist, has opened up a space in which to probe what was understood by someone being said to possess a ‘scientific mind’. This task is made all the more urgent by the recently revived interest of some psychologists in the concept and the highly gendered and culturally conditioned understanding of the scientific mind displayed in some contemporary debates. This article contributes to that task, and fills a rare gap in Darwin studies by making the first detailed exploration of Charles Darwin's understanding of the scientific mind, as revealed in the psychological self-analysis he undertook in his ‘Recollections of the development of my mind and character’ (1876), and supplemented in his Life of Erasmus Darwin (1879). Drawing upon a broad range of Darwin's published and unpublished works, this article argues that Darwin's understanding of the scientific mind was rooted in his earliest notebooks, and was far more central to his thought than is usually acknowledged. The article further delineates the differences between Darwin's understanding and that of his half-cousin Francis Galton, situates his understanding in relation to his reading of William Whewell and Auguste Comte, and considers what Darwin's view of the scientific mind tells us about his perspective on questions of religion and gender. Throughout, the article seeks to show that the ‘scientific mind’ is always an agglomeration of historically specific prejudices and presumptions, and concludes that this study of Darwin points to the need for a similarly historical approach to the question of the scientific mind today.

The macular carotenoids lutein (L), zeaxanthin (Z) and meso-zeaxanthin (MZ) accumulate at the macula, where they are collectively referred to as macular pigment (MP). Augmentation of this pigment, typically achieved through diet and supplementation, enhances visual function and protects against progression of age-related macular degeneration. However, it is known that eggs are a rich dietary source of L and Z, in a highly bioavailable matrix. In this single-blind placebo-controlled study, L- and MZ-enriched eggs and control non-enriched eggs were fed to human subjects (mean age 41 and 35 years, respectively) over an 8-week period, and outcome measures included MP, visual function and serum concentrations of carotenoids and cholesterol. Serum carotenoid concentrations increased significantly in control and enriched egg groups, but to a significantly greater extent in the enriched egg group (P<0·001 for L, Z and MZ). There was no significant increase in MP in either study group post intervention, and we saw no significant improvement in visual performance in either group. Total cholesterol increased significantly in each group, but it did not exceed the upper limit of the normative range (6·5 mmol/l). Therefore, carotenoid-enriched eggs may represent an effective dietary source of L, Z and MZ, reflected in significantly raised serum concentrations of these carotenoids, and consequentially improved bioavailability for capture by target tissues. However, benefits in terms of MP augmentation and /or improved visual performance were not realised over the 8-week study period, and a study of greater duration will be required to address these questions.

The diagnosis of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in a medical officer working in a metropolitan Australian neonatal intensive care unit led to a contact investigation involving 125 neonates, 165 relatives, and 122 healthcare workers with varying degrees of exposure. There was no evidence of nosocomial tuberculosis transmission from the index case.

Disaster diplomacy is an evolving contemporary model that examines how disaster response strategies can facilitate cooperation between parties in conflict. The concept of disaster diplomacy has emerged during the past decade to address how disaster response can be leveraged to promote peace, facilitate communication, promote human rights, and strengthen intercommunity ties in the increasingly multipolar modern world. Historically, the concept has evolved through two camps, one that focuses on the interactions between national governments in conflict and another that emphasizes the grassroots movements that can promote change. The two divergent approaches can be reconciled and disaster diplomacy further matured by contextualizing the concept within the disaster cycle, a model well established within the disaster risk management community. In particular, access to available health care, especially for the most vulnerable populations, may need to be negotiated. As such, disaster response professionals, including emergency medicine specialists, can play an important role in the development and implementation of disaster diplomacy concepts.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:53–59)

This article surveys the fiercely contested posthumous assessments of John Stuart Mill in the newspaper and periodical press, in the months following his death in May 1873, and elicits the broader intellectual context. Judgements made in the immediate wake of Mill's death influence biographers and historians to this day and provide an illuminating aperture into the politics and shifting ideological forces of the period. The article considers how Mill's failure to control his posthumous reputation demonstrates both the inextricable intertwining of politics and character in the 1870s, and the difficulties his allies faced. In particular, it shows the sharp division between Mill's middle and working class admirers; the use of James Mill's name as a rebuke to his son; the redefinition of Malthusianism in the 1870s; and how publication of Mill's Autobiography damaged his reputation. Finally, the article considers the relative absence of both theological and Darwinian critiques of Mill.

This article examines the isomorphic connections between the scientific and political ideas of William Lovett and the National Association for the Political and Social Improvement of the People. It demonstrates that, far from being a mere coincidental device, distinct from his politics, Lovett's scientific ideas helped shape the internal structure of his political radicalism. The same was also true of the National Association more generally. Concepts and assumptions derived from phrenology and physiology served the heuristic function of stimulating the construction of analogous systems which directed and conditioned the version of political radicalism which Lovett and the National Association propagated. This suggests that in the mid-nineteenth century the importance of the organic sciences was more politically subtle than previously thought and that a reconciliation of the ideas of George Combe with political radicalism was possible. This insight is compatible with recent historiographical trends, and opens up new vistas for the study of science in radicalism.