The IRFU has enlisted the aid of a cutting-edge healthcare company based in Cork to ensure its players are in top physical shape for next month’s World Cup.

Irish scientists have signed a €4.8m research deal with a British pharmaceutical company to develop new drugs which target the gut and treat symptoms of autism.

Senior journalists at The Sun expressed a mixture of relief and anger as their three-year “ordeal” ended when they were cleared of paying public officials for scoops, including titbits on the princes William and Harry.

A stream of “gossip and tittle-tattle” about Prince William and Harry’s time at Sandhurst was leaked to The Sun by greedy public officials, a court heard.

A festival with a difference is to be held in a Co Cork town which aims to get more children interested in science and turn it into a hub for research and innovation.

THE announcement last week of a €50m Government and industry research investment for the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre of food and medicine underlines its growing status as a national centre for food and medicine research excellence.

A Cork-based food and health research facility is to receive €50m in funding from the Government and private industry, with more than 100 jobs to be created by the investment.

A Cork-based research centre is to benefit from a €50m cash injection.

An editor at The Sun has been charged in connection with the investigation into illegal payments to police and other public officials.

Cork City Hall was converted into a technology nirvana yesterday as leaders from life sciences, technology education and investment took to the stage to plan for Ireland digital future.

Ask any cut-and-thrust surgeon about a hard day’s work and he or she is likely to say something like: “It was bedlam today.

CECILY Brennan’s punchy paintings of angry red limbs torn up with eczema are so convincing that staff from UCC’s Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) praised their accuracy.

Five employees of The Sun, a serving Surrey Police officer, a serving member of the armed forces and a Ministry of Defence employee were arrested in Britain today over allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials.

SIX senior level Cork-based food researchers have been named in the top 20 of 15,000 specialist authors in a global list compiled by the global ratings agency, Thomson Reuters Science Watch.

STOMACH illnesses are the biggest cause of people arriving into hospitals, but drugs are not working to improve patients’ lives, a conference in Killarney heard yesterday.

THE next president of University College Cork is due to be named today, over a week later than originally planned.

THE Government must continue funding education and research in science properly, a leading academic told UCC graduates yesterday.