Series 5: Prog 08: 24/05/09

This week Adam Walton hears about research into the DNA of rygrass in Wales. There's news of a project to develop synthetic blood. We tell the story of fossil Ida, and meet the author of a new book on climate change

Grass genome

In recent years, scientists have spent a great deal of their time mapping genomes. The complex world of genetics and DNA occasionally hits the headlines - and, famously, the mapping of the Human Genome was completed in 2003. A new project announced by Aberystwyth University has been given 1.6 million pounds to map the genome of ryegrass. To explain the significance of the project, and Aberystwyth's long association with the study of ryegrass, Adam is joined by Dr Ian Armstead of the university's Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences

Synthetic blood

Pioneering work, led by a scientist from Wales, to develop synthetic blood that can be used safely for transfusions, has recently been given financial backing, which may lead to human trials in about three years time. Money from medical charity The Wellcome Trust and the Blood Transfusion Service, will pay for research which could provide unlimited supplies of a synthetic "type O negative" blood. This could overcome current shortcomings with blood donations and problems of infection. Professor Marc Turner who is leading the project at Edinburgh University explains the details.

Climate Change

So far this year Charles Darwin has been dominating the scientific headlines and media, as the world marks his 200th birthday, and the 150th anniversary of his book On The Origin Of Species. In the same year that Darwin published his most famous work, one of his contemporaries, the physicist John Tyndall was busy establishing the principles of what we know today as greenhouse gases and their effect on the atmosphere . Tyndall's work marks an origin point in the still raging debate about climate change. A new book by Professor Mike Hulme, of the University of East Anglia, reflects on the science and our response to the science, of climate change.

Fossil makes the headlines

A 47 million year old fossil which has been nicknamed "Ida" has been causing a stir, and making news headlines across the world, as a possible "missing link" in the story of humans. Darwinius Masillae is a 53cm long fossil of a primate and possibly the best preserved of its type. Biologist and writer Colin Tudge explains its importance.

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