In a landmark event organised by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), an altruistic kidney donor and her recipient were brought together publicly for the first time in the UK to talk about their experience of living-donor transplants. This follows on from the first paired altruistic kidney transplants which took place earlier this year. read more

Four experts in the field of animal research spoke to journalists about how a better system for the regulation of research on animals could improve both the quality of this research, and the welfare of the animals involved. read more

In this joint briefing with the Society for General Microbiology, experts spoke to journalists on the important role which micro-organisms play in cycles of gas exchange, and whether the technology of microbial management can be applied to the problem of climate change. read more

Hugh Montgomery, this year’s Royal Institution Chrismas Lecturer, spoke to journalists about his forthcoming lecture series which focuses on the capacity of the human body to endure extreme physical hardship. read more

The Science Media Centre invited geneticists and clinicians to brief journalists on the rapidly moving field of predictive genetic testing, including the reliability of ready-made testing kits, and the ethical issues raised by the possibility of testing for a disease that is currently untreatable. read more

Experts involved in a five-year project to increase levels of Omega-3 consumption through innovative farming techniques spoke to journalists about the science behind the enrichment of food in this way. read more

Leading systems biologist Dr Leroy Hood spoke to journalists about the possibility that personalised healthcare might become commonplace in the next 20 years, allowing the prediction and prevention of many medical conditions. read more

The Science Media Centre invited the authors of a new report by the Nuffield Council of Bioethics to brief journalists on the conclusions of this report, which looked at how and when the Government should intervene to improve public health. read more

Journalists were invited to meet with scientists from the Medical Research Council’s tissue bank, established 2 years ago, which holds samples of brain and other tissue vital for human disease research. read more

Amid reports that the UK will fail to meet its targets for reducing carbon emissions, and ahead of the Government’s announcement of its carbon capture and storage competition, experts in this field came to the SMC to discuss how it works, what strategies are available, and how it can be deployed on a wider scale. read more

Experts from the UK Energy Research Centre discussed the findings of their comprehensive review of so-called ‘Rebound Effects’, in which energy-saving tactics lead to a false sense of security when it comes to environmentally friendly behaviour, and may end up having the opposite effect. read more

The Science Media Centre teamed up with a number of veterinary experts to brief journalists on developments in veterinary medicine and surgery, including whether any these advances can be applied to human medicine. read more

Monoclonal antibodies are great for treating cancer and other diseases, unless of course they act on healthy cells elsewhere in the body. However, researchers have found a way to target antibodies to specific sites using UV light – these findings were presented at the Science Media Centre. read more

Dr Craig Venter is one of the world’s leading genome scientists, who is at the forefront of research in genomics and molecular biology and whose findings could have major implications for science. He agreed to come to the Science Media Centre to discuss his work. read more

To coincide with World Arthritis Day 2007, the Arthritis Research Campaign announced a £2.2 million two-year study amied at finding some of the genes associated with arthritis. The scientists who are to receive the funding came to the Science Media Centre to explain why the research is needed and how they will go about it read more

To mark the Women Deliver conference on saving the lives and improving the health of women and babies around the world, the Lancet held a press conference on its latest papers in this series. read more

The Met Office held a briefing at the Science Media Centre on the anniversay of the devastating storm of 1987, which decimated large parts of the south-east of England. They discussed the storm from the perspective of the Met Office, as well as what changes have occured in forecasting since then and what the future might hold. read more

To mark the anniversary of the first major nuclear accident in the UK, the SMC invited leading experts to brief journalists on what happened, what has been discovered about the accident since, and the implications for current and future UK nuclear power stations. read more

Researchers at the Peninsula Medical School at Exeter University presented a major new research paper on the effectiveness of invidiually tailored herbal medicines. read more

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) announced a milestone for the UK in organ transplantation: the first paired kidney transplantation, in which donors and recipients who do not match are paired with others in the same situation, allowing more patients to benefit. read more