The pick of the science news
Blindness study
US and Italian researchers are making tremendous strides with their work on gene therapy to address a rare, but severe, inherited form of blindness, which is known as Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors report the effects of injecting a modified virus containing a gene involved in retinal function into the eye.
Of the 12 patients (aged eight to 44 years), all showed improved vision in dimly lit environments, and children responded with the greatest overall improvements.
Virtually Mars
Would you fancy a 520-day round-trip to Mars without leaving the Earth’s surface? The European Space Agency has put out the call on its website for volunteers to take part in a simulation of a trip to the red planet, including 30 days on the Martian surface.
To make up the six-person crew and backups, the ESA is looking for candidates aged between 20 and 50 who are motivated, in good health, no taller than 185cm, can speak English or Russian, have a background in life sciences, medicine or engineering.
See esa.int/callmars500
The sweet smell of good behaviour
If you want to promote ethical behaviour, go for a clean-smelling environment, according to a study from Brigham Young University that tested participants in rooms with or without a few spritzes of citrus-scented glass cleaner. People in the fresh-smelling rooms were more likely to exhibit fairness with money and show a charitable spirit, according to the research, to be published in Psychological Sciences.
“Companies often employ heavy-handed interventions to regulate conduct, but they can be costly or oppressive,” said lead author Katie Liljenquist. “This is a very simple, unobtrusive way to promote ethical behavior.”
The quote
“It was not just one moment of weakness – the degree of manipulation of the goodwill of people, particularly fellow scientists, made it more"
– Dr Alan Colman, on the sentencing for fraud of stem-cell researcher Woo Suk Hwang (Nature Magazine)
By numbers
15
The number of minutes of near-total sensory deprivation that triggers hallucinations, according to UK research on 19 healthy volunteers
12
The estimated length, in metres, of a Jurassic pliosaur whose fossilised skull remains were found at Weymouth Bay in England
Claire O’Connell claireoconnell@irishtimes.com