Brazil Microsoft deal blocked by court
Magistrates have blocked Brazil's education ministry's purchase of 233,000 Windows-programmed personal computers from Microsoft following the revelation that the education minister's brother, Marco Antonio Costa Souza, is Bill Gates's chief legal adviser in Brazil.
Cool winner for Planck microwave mission
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council has awarded a £2 million contract over two years to Southwest company SEA (Group) Ltd for the development of cooling instrumentation for the European Space Agency's Planck mission to map the cosmic microwave background.
Bone graft spin-off attracts investor
3i, the venture capital company, has invested £3 million in ApaTech, a spin-off orthopaedic implants company from Queen Mary, University of London, to develop commercially a range of advanced bone graft materials.
Kent catches eye of New York market
Ophthalmologists and researchers at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Retina Research Macula Foundation are using an optical tomograph developed by the University of Kent with public funds and patented in 1998.
www.ukc.ac.uk/physical-sciences/aog
Catholic university founds a bank
A Chicago university has launched its own online bank. DePaul University, the largest Catholic college in the US, with 22,000 students and 2,000 staff, has extended the credit union and affiliate credit card idea to a full-service financial institution.
Young animators liven up campus art
The work of young animators who attended a summer club, run by the University of Teesside in coordination with Middlesbrough council's arts development team, will be shown at the university's International Animation Festival early next year.
Big German university adds data capacity
Germany's biggest university, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich, has deployed NetVault Bakbone software to back up more than 300 gigabits of data daily. The university has 62,000 registered students, 800 professors and 10,000 employees.