Mark Walport will be nobody’s fool as he becomes the government’s chief scientific adviser on 1st April. Walport, who headed the Wellcome Trust for a decade and succeeds John Beddington, wants a starring role for scientific evidence in policymaking. He has cited the environment and the ageing population as areas he plans to get stuck into. He’ll be setting out his stall at a conference at the Royal Society on 18th April, called “Future directions for scientific advice in Whitehall.”
Organised by Cambridge University’s Centre for Science and Policy (www.casp.cam.ac.uk), it will feature speakers from the department for environment, food and rural affairs, and from the government’s “nudge unit” (the Behavioural Insights Team). It will also discuss whether civil service reform will lead to a more comfortable relationship between science and government.
The question of whether human genes can be patented takes centre stage in the US Supreme Court on 15th April, when the Association of Molecular Pathology challenges the validity of US patents held on breast cancer genes by Myriad Genetics. While lawyers argue whether the patents amount to a legally indefensible dominion over nature, cancer charities will picket the court in protest at Myriad’s monopoly. Myriad holds European patents on breast cancer testing but does not currently enforce them in the UK, enabling the NHS to get away with offering its own tests. For now.
The two-week Easter holiday looms, along with the alarming prospect of bored, chocolate-fuelled children. I am torn between the delightfully soggy London Wetlands Centre (www.wwt.org.uk), which promises an Easter eggstravaganza on how egg-laying is part of nature’s life cycle, and the Royal Observatory Greenwich (www.rmg.co.uk), whose daily interactive family show, “From Atoms to Aliens,” will teach youngsters how to search for aliens. I’m always partial to a planetarium: it’s the perfect spot for a surreptitious parental snooze.
Organised by Cambridge University’s Centre for Science and Policy (www.casp.cam.ac.uk), it will feature speakers from the department for environment, food and rural affairs, and from the government’s “nudge unit” (the Behavioural Insights Team). It will also discuss whether civil service reform will lead to a more comfortable relationship between science and government.
The question of whether human genes can be patented takes centre stage in the US Supreme Court on 15th April, when the Association of Molecular Pathology challenges the validity of US patents held on breast cancer genes by Myriad Genetics. While lawyers argue whether the patents amount to a legally indefensible dominion over nature, cancer charities will picket the court in protest at Myriad’s monopoly. Myriad holds European patents on breast cancer testing but does not currently enforce them in the UK, enabling the NHS to get away with offering its own tests. For now.
The two-week Easter holiday looms, along with the alarming prospect of bored, chocolate-fuelled children. I am torn between the delightfully soggy London Wetlands Centre (www.wwt.org.uk), which promises an Easter eggstravaganza on how egg-laying is part of nature’s life cycle, and the Royal Observatory Greenwich (www.rmg.co.uk), whose daily interactive family show, “From Atoms to Aliens,” will teach youngsters how to search for aliens. I’m always partial to a planetarium: it’s the perfect spot for a surreptitious parental snooze.
