Wealthier Oxford colleges offer ‘better education’
Undergraduates at wealthy Oxford colleges such as Christ Church and St John’s have a significantly better educational experience than those at poorer colleges such as St Peter’s, St Edmund Hall and Pembroke, the Oxford students’ union said yesterday. The university’s advice to applicants that colleges are “all alike” masks “massive inequalities felt by students”, the union says in a report.
( The Daily Telegraph )
Abnormal embryos may yield useful stem cells
Embryos may yield useful stem cells even if they are abnormal, according to animal experiments carried out by John Gurdon and colleagues at the Wellcome Cancer Research Institute in Cambridge. Their results were reported this week in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
( Financial Times )
‘Apes need legal guardians’
Two Harvard professors are leading a movement to have the rights of primates recognised under US law. Steven Wise and Laurence Tribe are campaigning for courts to appoint legal guardians for apes, protecting them from cruelty.
( The Times, The Independent )
Britain hots up
Global temperatures in January, February and March this year have been the warmest recorded, scientists announced yesterday. Geoff Jenkins of the Met Office’s Hadley Centre announced the data at the launch of a new government forecast of climate change in Britain. Across Britain, average annual temperatures will rise by 2C to 3.5C by the 2080s.
( The Times, Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail )
Big bang cut down to size
Two American scientists have claimed that the “big bang” was not such a big deal. Similar events occur roughly every trillion years, and the universe’s life is made up of a cycle of big bangs, according to Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok of Princeton University, whose paper is published in the journal Science .
( The Independent )
Streaming children is ‘demoralising’
Grouping children by ability makes no difference to their results and can demoralise those in low sets, according to research. A report by Sue Hallam of the Institute of Education gives support for mixed-ability teaching.
( The Times )
Booker gets makeover
The Booker prize’s new sponsor, The Man Group, has raised the prize value from £20,000 to £50,000 for the winner. It will now be known as the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The makeover could see American authors competing for the award by 2004.
( The Times, Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph )
New chief for science association
Roland Jackson, acting head of the Science Museum in London, is to become chief executive of the British Association for the Understanding of Science.
( Financial Times )
Employees yet to find balance
The long-hours culture, managers’ lack of experience in handling different working patterns and lack of leadership are holding up progress in giving employees a better work-life balance, according to a report from the Institute of Employment Studies.
( Financial Times )
It pays to be tall
Men who are above average height at age 16 earn more later in life, say University of Pennsylvania researchers.
( The Guardian )