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Although stress doesn’t cause cancer, experiments in the laboratory do suggest that stress hormones might be implicated in the progression of tumours. A British team has been trying to understand this mechanism better – so they might boost the chances of chemotherapy working. They are also analysing how exercise and pampering sessions can reduce stress hormones in women with breast cancer.

Can graphic design save your life? That’s the question posed by a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London. Exhibits include a tombstone from a British campaign to improve awareness of HIV/Aids in the 1980s and pill packets created by an Israeli designer using simple shapes and colours to help reduce errors when medicines are dispensed. Colour alone can also influence. The world’s ugliest colour - a sludgy brown – has been used on cigarette plain packaging, to discourage smoking.

Some babies are born early because the foetal sac that surrounds them in the womb is damaged. The fluid-filled bag protects the growing foetus – as long as its two membranes remain intact. Researchers in London are analysing the mechanism that can cause it to rupture – in the hope that damage can eventually be repaired, to saves babies’ lives.

(Photo: Happy cancer woman survivor in front of mirror for make-up. Credit: Getty images)