Moderate physical exercise protects men against benign prostatic hypertrophy, an American study has found (Archives of Internal Medicine 1998;158:2349-56). Over 30000 professional men were questioned about their exercise habits, and 1986were then followed up for eight years. Exercise was inversely related to subsequent symptoms and surgery for prostatic hyperplasia. Every little bit helps; men who walked between 2 and 3hours a week cut their risk of significant disease by a quarter.

American parents are clueless about the extent of their children's bad habits, according to one study of 200school students and their parents (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 1998;152:1137-9). The questionnaire survey found that parents substantially underestimated their children's smoking, drinking, drug taking, and sexual activity. Many were also unaware that their children carried weapons to school.

Before Archie Cochrane became an icon for medical researchers he was a schoolboy at Uppingham, a student at Cambridge University, a veteran of the Spanish civil war, and a prisoner of war doctor in Greece. Memorabilia from these years as well as published and unpublished papers, early film of field surveys in the Rhondda valleys of south Wales, and selected letters are archived at Llandough Hospital in South Glamorgan. It was here that Archie Cochrane developed his interest in epidemiology, and the …