Magnets, love and humour

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 13

Magnets, love and humour

The seemingly incongruous use of magnets to diagnose malaria is the first item in “8.8. C. Science Magazine” (Concert programme. 7.30 tonight). Red blood cells are red because they contain the iron-rich molecule haemoglobin. Like iron filings, haemoglobin is attracted to magnets, albeit rather weakly.

Now it has been discovered that red blood cells infected with malaria are attracted more strongly than normal cells. This principle

has been used for extracting infected cells from blood. It could be used in clinics for diagnosing malaria in people who are only very mildly infected or in laboratories for research towards a malaria vaccine. In love The Victorian poet and novelist, George Meredith, was an author who found it hard to win recognition in his lifetime, though novels such as his "The Egoist" were later highly acclaimed. It was Meredith's failure to find a readership and the consequent lack of income that bore heavily upon his marriage and these factors were powerful contributions to the marriage's eventual failure. Meredith's wife. Mary, was the daughter of the writer, Thomas Love Peacock, and she was already a young widow with a child when Meredith first met her in 1847. The gradual breakdown of their initially sunny marital relationship developed as their personalities proved to be ill-matched and they failed to cope with stress and adversity. Meredith refashioned this personal love tragedy in his sonnet series, “Modern Love.” “George Meredith in Love” (Concert programe. today at 8.15 p.m., tomorrow at 8.20) is a two-part dramatisation that traces the story of that relationship, drawing on Meredith's fictional writings to illustrate events. Spoof In Michael Wilson's most original, gothic horror rugby comedy “Bloodsports’’ (National programme, 8.45 tonight), the All Blacks are playing Transylvania. Because of the rugby boycott by the rest of the world, the Transylvanians are the only team who will play the All Blacks. So it is that the "Blacks” find themselves unwittingly at Dracula’s Castle preparing to play a collection of disguised monsters and vampires. This spoof E tribute to the gothic or movie while making some sharp observations about rugby and the New Zealand attitude to it. The ending is a fine example of radiophonic farce, with the final football match New Zealand v. the monsters, and the evil Count’s supposed downfall.

Listening