Gene research project wins £45m boost
The world's largest study of the links between genes and disease is to go ahead with £45 million initial support from the government and charity the Wellcome Trust. BioBank UK will analyse DNA samples from 500,000 middle-aged volunteers and relate their genetic inheritance to their medical records.
(Financial Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph)
The truth about cousin couples
The offspring of marriages between first cousins are not at great risk of genetic disease, according to new research by American geneticists.
(Times)
Red-bricks join forces in South Korea
Three of Britain's leading red-brick universities , Manchester, Nottingham and Warwick, have formed an alliance to attract more students from South Korea. The universities have opened a joint office in Seoul to help them compete against US colleges.
(Financial Times)
Love blossoms at book clubs
Book discussion clubs are becoming the new dating agencies as single people shun bars and nightclubs in favour the "latte literati". Shops and libraries report an enormous rise in attendances at reading groups, where people gather to discuss a pre-selected text over a cup of coffee.
(Daily Telegraph)
Auld slang rhymes
The Scots tongue, already incomprehensible to many south of the border, is about to become even more abstruse with the emergence of a new form of Scottish rhyming slang, researchers say.
(The Guardian)
College to arm eco-warriors
Britain's eco-warriors now have the chance to qualify in the art of environmental activism at university. Sixteen campaigners have been accepted for the UK's first course in environmental justice, which starts in Edinburgh this week. The year-long course is run jointly by Friends of the Earth and Queen Margaret University College.
(The Guardian)
Don't keep up with the Bridget Joneses
A Newcastle professor has concluded that many "career girls" would be happier if they stayed at home and had children. James Tooley, in his new book Mis-Education of Women, argues that careers, instead of liberating women from the "drudgery of domesticity", are in fact making many of them miserable by imposing drudgery of a different kind.
(The Daily Mail)
Age limit removed to allow judges in their 20s
The first judges to be appointed while they are still in their 20s could join the bench by the end of the year. The lord chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, will announce today that the minimum age requirement for the judiciary is to be abolished.
(The Independent)
Bacteria send messages to ailing colonies
British scientists have detected bacteria pasing information to each other, even when separated by a plastic wall. The discovery could throw new light on the spread of anitbiotic resistance in hospitals. (The Guardian)
Baritone attacks babes who have taken class out of classical music
One of Britain's leading opera singers is to launch an outspoken attack on classical crudity. Sir Thomas Allen will tell the annual dinner of the Royal Philharmonic Society next week that the use by record companies of sexy women in provocative outfits to try to increase sales of classical works is dumbing down his art form.
(Independent)
Economists attack Brown arithmetic
Leading economists will today tattack chancellor Gordon Brown's budget arithmetic, saying his growth forecasts of 2-2.5 per cent this year and 3-3.5 per cent next year are too optimistic. The Ernst and Young Item Club and the Centre for Economics and Business Research say in reports published today that this is too high.
(Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Financial Times)
Tennant's plan for RA adds to calls to quit
Artists at the Royal Academy have stepped up their calls for the resignation of Sir Anthony Tennant as chairman of the institution's trust over plans to put it on a more commerical footing.
(Times)
MBA for Europe's managers
Warwick Business School in the UK, the University of Mannheim in Germany and Essec in France are to launch the first MBA programme tailored specifically for the European market in September.
(Financial Times)
Can you archive the net?
The British Library is contemplating the need for a permanent internet archive, and has asked IBM to design a pilot digital store.
(Times)