Science: Update

THE NATIONAL Institute for Medical Research claims a breakthrough in TB treatment. It has engineered a DNA vaccine - genetic material from the TB bacterium - that helps inoculated mice to overcome infection. "Mice treated with conventional drugs, then the vaccine, tested clear in a number of cases. Also the vaccine worked well against one drug-resistant bacterium," reports the Medical Research Council.

NASA, THE American space agency, plans to fire a huge copper bullet into the surface of a comet, gouging out a crater seven storeys deep. The Deep Impact project aims to find out more about what makes up the matter at the core of a comet.

When the Deep Impact spacecraft approaches the comet P/Tempel 1 on 4 July 2005, it will release a half-ton projectile that will strike the comet at a speed of 10 kilometres a second, resulting in the release of "pristine" ejecta from inside the comet into space.

Owing to a production error, the authorship of last week's article on the moon, `Stranger in the Night', was wrongly attributed. Apologies to David Whitehouse, who wrote the piece