On the radar

The pick of the science news...

Virus attack

From HIV and winter vomiting bugs to hepatitis and swine flu, viruses are seldom far from the headlines.

This evening as part of an ongoing European Molecular Biology Organisation conference at Trinity College Dublin, researchers will give a series of five-minute “reports from the front” on the latest in how viruses attack the immune system and what we can do about it. Chaired by this reporter and Prof Cliona O’Farrelly, the event starts at 6pm in the Science Gallery.

Then tomorrow at 6pm, virologist and flu expert Prof John Oxford will talk about Viral Infections: Past, Present and Future Challenges at the same venue. Both events are free and open to the public, book at sciencegallery.ie

Space strawberries

Scientists at Purdue University have found a strawberry cultivar that’s no diva and could be a perfect passenger in space. The Seascape strawberry is a small plant, it provides a good fruit yield with only 10 hours of light per day and it would need little input from crew to keep it going.

“The idea is to supplement the human diet with something people can look forward to,” says researcher Cary Mitchel (above, centre). “Fresh berries can certainly do that.”

The results are published online in Advances in Space Research.

Quote:"If this marks the end of an organisation that for more than 20 years has been the vehicle for the Prince of Wales' interference in policy and restricted the development of evidence-based medicine, then the public has everything to gain, however this has come about"

Ellen Raphael, Director of the UK charity Sense About Science, on the closure of The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, of which Prince Charles was president. There is currently a fraud investigation at the Foundation.