Director sacked
Susan Greenfield has been told she is losing her job as director of the 211-year-old Royal Institution in London, the world鈥檚 oldest independent research body. The RI says it can no longer afford a full-time director. Greenfield, however, alleges sexual discrimination.
Cleopatra鈥檚 guard
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Heavy eye make-up worn by Ancient Egyptians may have helped protect against eye infections. When a lead-based substance found in Egyptian make-up containers was applied to human cells, it boosted production of the immune-stimulating molecule nitric oxide (Analytical Chemistry, ).
Constructive cricket
Crickets are usually known for destroying plants, but a newly discovered species has been filmed pollinating an orchid on the Indian Ocean island of R茅union. After drinking one flower鈥檚 nectar, it moved on to another with lumps of pollen stuck to its head. This solves the mystery of how is pollinated ().
Doomsday clock reset
The 鈥淒oomsday clock鈥�, which reflects the level of threat of nuclear war, was due to be adjusted on 14 January. In 2007, when the Bulletin of the Atomic 杏吧原创s鈥� clock was last changed, is was moved to 5 minutes to midnight 鈥� 2 minutes closer to doom than before.
Drink and be happy
The extreme alcohol intolerance experienced by about 40 per cent of east Asians may soon be treatable. People in this group produce a faulty version of the enzyme ALDH2: this causes toxic acetaldehyde to accumulate when they drink alcohol. Now the molecule Alda-1 has been shown to repair damaged ALDH2 (Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, ).