Gen Abbas said the move would have "no significant effect" on Pakistan's anti-terror efforts.

BBC: Pakistan: US aid cut will not harm fight against terror

Meanwhile, others have found no significant effect, either on the likelihood of developing the illness in the first place, or on your chances of surviving it.

BBC: Positive thinkers 'avoid cancer'

As I discussed in March, the most recent set of studies by economists indicates that hospital mergers have no effect on the quality of care, but do have a significant effect on the price that hospitals charge.

FORBES: Goal of the NYU-Continuum Hospital Mega-Merger: Raising Prices

Working with the geneticists' favourite animal, the fruit fly Drosophila, Dr Gibson has pinpointed a series of so-called cryptic variations that have no effect on a protein's structure, but can nevertheless, if the circumstances are right, have a significant effect on the individual they belong to.

ECONOMIST: Genetics gets more complicated