Staff writer, with CNA
Tabloid corrects ‘China’ error
British tabloid the Daily Mail has corrected an error in a report about director Luc Besson’s new action thriller, which it originally wrote was being filmed in “Taipei, China.” The paper referred to the filming location three times as “China” in its article on Tuesday, which immediately drew comments of protest from Web users. The corrected version reads: “You can take the girl out of America... But Scarlett Johansson, 28, proved you can’t take America out of the girl — even when that girl is filming an action thriller in Taiwan.” According to Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, it spent nearly half a year arranging for Besson to shoot his film Lucy in Taipei. Once filming is completed, the Taipei Film Commission will brief the press on what led Besson to decide to shoot in Taiwan, the culture department said.
Mold puzzle uncovered
A team of researchers based in Taiwan and the US have discovered how gray mold infects crops and flowers, a significant step in finding methods to prevent the common plant infection. It took researchers two years to determine how Botrytis cinerea, the causative agent of gray mold, suppresses immunity genes, said professor Huang Hsien-da (黃憲達), vice dean of Biological Science and Technology at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu City. They infected over 200 plant species including orchids, an important crop in Taiwan, Huang said, before concluding that B cinerea uses RNA interference to “hijack” host RNA and make it susceptible to infection. The study was published in this month’s issue of Science. The discovery is the first time that scientists have successfully gained insight into the mechanism behind infection, Huang said.