Eastern Canadian producers can now benefit from a new wheat cultivar with increased tolerance to Fusarium head blight, a fungal disease which has cost the Canadian agri-food industry hundreds of millions of dollars.

The new line, a soft red winter wheat often used for pastries, exhibits nearly four-times fewer mycotoxins when exposed to the fungus, than other wheat varieties on the market. The level of mycotoxins present in wheat can greatly affect yields, as well as grade and market value.

Researchers at the University of Leeds have rescued the BBC Domesday Project, preserving it for future generations. The CAMiLEON Project has developed software that emulates the obsolete BBC computer and videodisc player on which the original system ran.

The BBC Domesday project was conceived by the BBC to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the 1086 Domesday book. It formed a social snapshot of life in the UK during the mid eighties. Information was recorded on two virtually indestructible i

A researcher at Aston University in Birmingham has become the first in the UK to investigate a new type of vaccination delivery that could revolutionise how we are protected against diseases including flu, hepatitis and, most excitingly, cancer.
Dr Yvonne Perrie from the School of Life & Health Sciences has received a research grant from The Royal Society for a brand new project to investigate the potential of delivering DNA vaccines by mouth.

“The patient would be given a small solutio

The findings of this research published on 30th November 2002 in The Lancet suggest that targeting the underlying cause of asthma—rather than treating symptoms of the disorder—could be more effective in reducing severe asthma attacks.

Asthma affects 5.1 million people in the UK and leads to an estimated 1,500 deaths per year, however current treatment methods, based on an assessment of symptoms and a measurement of lung function may not be the most effective.

Asthma is known to be

Results of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that the antibiotic azithromycin could be an effective treatment option for children with cholera.
Cholera is a major public-health problem which is greatly under-reported; children are most affected by this bacterial disease which causes severe diarrhoea resulting in dehydration. Around 5000 deaths from cholera were reported to the WHO in 2000, probably a severe underestimate as Bangladesh—where over 200,000 people are infected with t

Authors of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that targeting the underlying cause of asthma—rather than treating symptoms of the disorder—could be more effective in reducing severe asthma attacks.

Conventional treatment for people with asthma relies on assessments of symptoms and simple measures of lung function. however, increased concentrations of microscopic cells called eosinophils cause the inflammation of airways in the lung that lead to asthma symptoms; eosinophils