Your trusty editor took a long break over Easter, hence the slow-down in posts lately. Time to make amends, with a quick news round-up.

A £4.5 million NHS Research Centre is to open at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

According to the press release.

“The Centre will trial new approaches and technologies to reduce human error and improve patient care, for example through the use of pharmacy robots to dispense medication, and the involvement of patients themselves in spotting and anticipating medical errors.”

The centre pools the talents of St Mary’s, Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College. The same trio form one of the UK’s Biomedical Research Centres, which pair universities and NHS centres to drive translational research.

In other news, Imperial scientists report an oral polio vaccine three times more effective than the standard vaccine.

Finally, you may remember that Nature Network London recently featured a controversial cosmology conference as Event of the Week. Delegates gathered together to discuss rival theories for the origins and evolution of the cosmos. Did the conference attendees put the Universe to rights? Find out in news@nature’s report on the meeting.