Science: Update

EL NInO, the periodic shift in Pacific Ocean circulation that can cause violent weather, does have some benefits. It promotes reproduction of tropical forest trees, say scientists at the University of Michigan. In today's Science magazine they report that in 1998, a major El Nino year, trees in the world's second-largest tropical rainforest in Borneo began producing seeds - a rare event.

But the scientists warn that illegal logging is destroying the forest - which could have a global effect, because timber exports from Borneo are worth about pounds 6bn annually, and provide 80 per cent of the plywood used in American homes.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) potatoes that could have prevented the Irish potato famine have been developed in Canada. They may be 150 years too late, but the GM tubers - resistant to the fungal blight that devastated the Irish harvest of the 1840s - would be useful for modern farmers, too.

After all the rows of the past two years about whether GM potatoes are safe to eat, the University of Victoria researchers are also feeding them to rats. "Preliminary animal testing in rats shows they are harmless," said William Key, team leader.

IBM IS to spend $100m (pounds 62.5m) developing a "Blue Gene", a computer that will try to work out how proteins - the building-blocks of life - fold after they are made. It will incorporate a million simple processors working in parallel. Possible uses include new drug design, and better understanding of disease processes.

THE LAST Stars column of the 1990s will appear in next week's Science page. It will, of course, continue in 2000.