WARWICK The Warwick Valley Gardeners will host a presentation by solar heating expert Pat Gallagher of Gallagher Solar Thermal on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Warwick.

It’s been a hive of activity at Davos as business leaders and politicians discuss some of the biggest global issues on the table in 2010. It’s clear from conversations and many of the sessions that carbon is still a burning issue here.

Researchers have developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel fuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the researchers engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria to produce biodiesel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids.

Researchers have discovered a potential new way to stimulate the immune system to prevent or clear a viral infection. By blocking the action of a key protein in the mouse immune system, they were able to boost immune “memory” in those mice — work that may one day help doctors increase the effectiveness of human vaccines designed to prevent viral infections.

Allergies and asthma are a continuing health problem in most developed countries, but just how do these ailments develop over the course of a childhood? In a population-based study designed to help answer this question, researchers in Norway found that 40 per cent — or two of five — of nearly 5,000 two-year-olds had at least one reported allergy-related disorder.

New research significantly improves our understanding of how insulin interacts with cells in the human body with implications for the treatments of diabetes.