Alex Polizzi

Available for over a year

David Cameron has said that the time has come to stigmatise those fathers who are not willing to support their children, both financially and emotionally. So, is it time to tackle those 'dead beat-dads' who are not interested in shouldering their responsibilities? Women are still under-represented in the surgical specialties despite having been in the majority qualifying from medical school for the last 15 years. We hear from two consultant surgeons, to try and find out why they believe only 7% of surgeons are female. Forget Tulip Fever, for most of the nineteenth century, Britain was firmly in the grip of the lesser known 'Fern Fever'. And as botany was considered to be a suitable scientific pursuit for women, they were at the forefront of the craze, writing and illustrating much of the popular literature that sprang up around it. Jane Garvey went to meet Dr Sarah Whittingham, the author of a new book on the subject, at Chelsea Physic Garden.