Issue 29
23 July - 27 August 1996
STAFF NEWSPAPER OF IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Media mentions
Flying syringes
It may be possible for mosquitoes to carry a vaccine against malaria, the front page of The Times (8 July) reported this month. Professor Bob Sinden at Imperial College has been granted a patent on this concept along with Professor Julian Crampton at Liverpool University. The Times described the genetically engineered mosquito as a 'flying hypodermic syringe' which would transfer a protein through its saliva when biting humans and animals and immunise them against malaria. Professor Sinden commented: "We are exceedingly excited by the research. It's eminently logical, and we are confident we can make it work." Other biting and blood sucking insects could be used to carry vaccines against many other diseases if the research is successful. Not surprisingly, there was plenty of interest from the national media. CBS, the BBC World Service, the Pharmaceutical Journal and Radio Four's Today programme and Science Unit were among those who contacted the College press office to talk to Professor Sinden.
Mission: possible
Following the explosion of the Ariane 5 rocket, scientists working on the Cluster mission have until November to draw up proposals for a replacement mission. In the New Scientist (13 July) Professor David Southwood, head of the Physics Department, said all options will have been studied and costed by then. He is the chair of the European Space Agency's Science Programme Committee and believes that another mission will have to be sacrificed if the Cluster mission is replaced. He is reported as saying: "Something or other will have to give." Professor Southwood was also interviewed on the Nine O' Clock News (10 July).New Scientist (13 July) reported the deep disappointment felt by Cluster mission scientists, despite their familiarity with the relatively high failure rate of launches. Professor Andre Balogh, reader in the Space and Atmospheric Group of the Physics Department, was closely involved with the mission and saw Ariane 5 explode 40 seconds after the launch. He commented that he knew it was a possibility: "But I had given no structured thought to what would happen in the eventuality".
Labour plans for the NHS
Dr Diana Winstanley, Management School, contributed to the Radio Four Today debate (20 May) about the problems facing any government attempting to make efficiencies in the health budget. Dr Winstanley suggested that the way forward is "to get people to be willing to be more flexible in their working ... rather than saying you just cut managers, because if you actually redesign the work, you'd find that you need fewer people to do that job." She also pointed out that potential benefits of a Labour administration's policies could be some time in coming as "a lot of services will require considerable organisational development."
(c) Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, 1996
Last Revised: 23 July 1996