Vitamin pills are a waste of money
Vitamin pills are a waste of money and have no effect in combating disease, cancer or any other illness, while wider use of cholesterol-lowering drugs would reduce the number of deaths dramatically, a study has shown. The £21 million study was led by Rory Collins, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford University. (Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Mail)
Inquest into death at sea of Cambridge students
An inquest into the deaths at sea of three Cambridge University students was told yesterday by four students who had previously crewed the same boat that they had received little training and were not even told how to make an SOS call. (Telegraph)
Who really turned Anne Frank over to the Nazis?
Dutch government historians disclosed yesterday that two new theories about who betrayed the 15-year-old Jewish girl and her family to the Nazis in Amsterdam are so compelling that they are reopening their investigation. (Guardian, Independent)
Private tuition claim puts Blair back in firing line
Tony’s Blair’s family was thrust back into the spotlight last night with politically damaging claims that the prime minister paid for private tutors to help his teenage boys. (Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Mail, Mirror, Express)
Liverpool honours its football manager
Liverpool Football Club's manager Gerard Houllier has become Doctor Hou after being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Liverpool for services to the city. (The Sun)
Early humans not as smart as we thought
The first human ancestors to migrate from Africa almost two million years ago may have been much less intelligent than is generally thought. Fossils found in Georgia by a team from the Georgian Academy of Sciences in Tbilisi reveal that the brains of homo erectus, the first early human known to have left Africa for Europe and Asia, were often up to 25 per cent smaller than previous research suggested. (Times, Telegraph, Independent)
Gene breakthrough on cancer
Scientists at Stanford University in the US have found that by turning off one gene they can trick cancer cells to self-destruct, a finding that could pave the way towards new treatments. (Telegraph)
Specialist schools to get cash boost from unions
Amicus, the biggest manufacturing union, will today become the first trade union to invest in state specialist schools in a move that will infuriate teaching unions. (Financial Times)
Art and music squeezed out of primary schools
Art and music are being squeezed out of primary schools by the government’s testing regime, according to a report by Cambridge University academics. (Guardian)
History is not bunk, but most historians are
Simon Jenkins bemoans our loss of a sense of history that enables us to set events in context and make sound judgements. (Times)
Architects avoid own creations, says Prince
The architectural establishment accused the Prince of Wales yesterday of being ridiculous in suggesting that architects live in beautiful 18th-century houses while building modern monstrosities for others. (Times)
Turkish plant hunter dies
Turhan Baytop, the Turkish plant hunter who collected more than 10,000 specimens, has died at the age of 82. (Telegraph)