A pre-designed biomanufacturing facility with advance planning permission is the latest carrot devised by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ireland in its efforts to attract international biopharmaceutical manufacturing projects.

The European Commission is reviving a push for a common patent policy by asking for input of ideas from industry and stakeholders - a move that would renew a fierce debate that has spanned more than three decades.

The UK's stem cell community has reacted with collective dismay at the final confirmation that Hwang Woo-suk's claims to have generated patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines were fraudulent. Nuala Moran takes a look.

The concept of angel investing - in which individuals devote both their time and money to nurturing young companies - has evolved over the past decade from an unknown or poorly understand phenomena in many parts of Europe to an established form of finance.

Spanish researchers have developed a technology that allows even the tone deaf to pick music with the right rhythm and tempo to keep the mass swaying.

For some it was like a very bad Greek tragedy, for others a hoax more naive than the Piltdown man. But Hwang Wo-suk's fall from grace puts the UK on level terms with South Korea in the race to generate embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos.

Venture capital firms used to moan that business angels were unprofessional and hard to work with. But Europe's new breed of angel investor networks appears anything but that, says Mary Lisbeth D'Amico