Thursday, February 8, 2007

Nostalgia for the Common Cold Unit

I have recently been having nostalgic thoughts about the Common Cold Unit. This was set up at the end of the Second World War to find a cure for the...er...common cold. They closed it down in 1990 because, although they could find plenty of causes for the common cold, they could not find a cure. Marek Kohn relates some of the details in an article called "Nasal Gazing".

I suppose you have to take your hat off to the common cold, if it is possible to doff one's cap to a random, mutating collection of viral infections. Modern science has managed to beat many diseases, but the simple common cold has remained unscathed.

I still seem to have the vestiges of one which has lasted well over a month. Nothing serious - just a underlying grogginess and stuffed up nose.

If you are at a loose end, you could do worse than look up some basic facts about the common cold.

That is all.

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