May episode of BioPOD is out. BioPOD is the official podcast of the School of Biological Sciences, produced and presented by enthusiastic student volunteers.
In this episode, BioPOD visited the Edinburgh International Science Festival, found out about inbreeding in beetles and a fly that's threatening fruit crops, spoke to an Honorary Professor about his 30 year long career in science as well as taking one last trip to Millport's research station.
BioPOD

CIIE member Prof Professor Paul Sharp, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London).

Professor Paul M Sharp FRS is a Professor of Genetics and Alan Robertson Chair of Genetics at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh.

The Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Jeremy Farrar as the Trust’s new Director.

Professor Farrar is an outstanding clinical scientist who has built a reputation as one of the world's leading figures in the field of infectious disease. He is currently Professor of Tropical Medicine and Global Health at Oxford University, Global Scholar at Princeton University and Director of the Wellcome Trust's Major Overseas Programme in Vietnam.

Scientists are a step closer to developing vaccines for a range of diseases that affect 200 million people, mainly in tropical south-east Asia, Africa and Central America.

Researchers studying infections caused by parasitic worms – which lead to diseases such as elephantiasis and river blindness – have shown how these can shut down a part of the immune system that might otherwise fight sickness. Preventing this immune reaction enables the infection to persist, causing chronic illness.

It may be an old wives' tale to say that starving a fever is an effective remedy – but now scientists have shown that plentiful food can accelerate the spread of infections.

Scientists studying bacterial infections in tiny water-fleas have discovered that increasing their supply of food can speed up the spread of infection. They carried out the study to better understand factors that affect how diseases are transmitted.