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Episode details

Radio 4,14 Feb 2013,28 mins

Coronavirusl: Horsemeat: Blackbirds; DNA

Material World

Available for over a year

Quentin Cooper looks at the coronavirus that has been transmitted from one individual to another in the UK. Professor Maria Zambon, an expert virologist at the Health Protection Agency, and Ian Jones, Professor of Virology at Reading University, discuss these latest infections, what is being done to find out more and why coronaviruses are being so closely studied. Will science be able to trace the sources of horsemeat that have illegally entered the European food chain? Chris Smart from Leatherhead Food Research explains more about DNA identification of potentially contaminated meat. Another use for DNA could be as a data storage device. Dr. Nick Goldman from the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge tells Quentin Cooper how. And Davide Dominoni from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology has found that city dwelling blackbirds are ready to reproduce earlier than their rural counterparts - and it appears to be because of increased light exposure.

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