A pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.

The Science Network’s first show is a seminar featuring the world’s pre-eminent embryonic-stem-cell researchers, including Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep, and Jamie Thomson, who isolated the first embryonic stem cell.

A protein deep in the ear is a key factor for normal hearing and could be used to help develop treatments for deafness, US researchers believe.