Higher fees planned for ‘prestige’ degrees
Plans for students to pay higher tuition fees for degrees at more prestigious universities are being drawn up by the government.
(Times)
Youngest siblings graduate from Warwick
The youngest-ever brother and sister duo to attend university, Iskander, 15, and Noraisha, 19, received their maths degrees from Warwick University yesterday. Their sister Sufiah won a place at Oxford aged 13, but ran off in her third year two years ago to escape the “living hell” imposed by her father.
(Daily Mail, Times, Guardian)
Education secretary condemns Israeli sackings
Estelle Morris yesterday joined the growing condemnation of an academic who sacked two professors for being Israeli. Professor Mona Baker, of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, dismissed the pair from two journals she privately edits as part of an international boycott.
(Daily Mail)
School science puts pupils off for life
Science lessons at GCSE are so boring that young people are being put off the subject for life, a report by MPs has warned.
(Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Times, Telegraph)
University president appointed first female prime minister in South Korea
Chang Seng, president of Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, has been appointed South Korea’s first woman prime minister.
(Financial Times, Times, Daily Telegraph)
Ethical soul-searching at US business schools
American business schools are reassessing the ethical components of their courses after President George Bush highlighted the need for them to instil principles into their students in the wake of corporate scandals in the US.
(Financial Times)
Scientists build deadly polio virus from internet recipe
A synthetic virus has been created from scratch by US scientists in an attempt to prove how easy it would be for terrorists to create deadly germs for biological weapons. Researchers at the State University of New York assembled a man-made version of the polio virus, using DNA and a genetic blueprint for the pathogen that is available through the internet.
(Times, Daily Mail, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Science)
Buffy helps in fight against real terror
US security experts reckon watching TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer will help with the threat of a biological warfare attack. Extremists trying to spread terror should be viewed as Buffy-style vampires, says the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
(Daily Mirror)
Bingo helps to fight off mental decline
Playing bingo can improve the accuracy and speed of short-term memory and help to reverse some of the effects of ageing, according to new research from the Centre for Visual Cognition at Southampton University.
(Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph)
Filter could save millions from arsenic poisoning
Millions of deaths from arsenic poisoning could be prevented following the launch this weekend of a filter that will prevent the deadly chemical reaching water supplies. Professor Fakhrul Islam, a chemist at Rajshahi University in Bangladesh, will launch the filter at a conference in Dhaka.
(Financial Times)
Mothers not helped by holding stillborn baby
Encouraging women who have had a stillbirth to see and hold their dead baby does not help the grieving process in many cases, a team of psychiatrists from St George’s Hospital Medical School has found.
(Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent, The Lancet)
Mutation could be clue to a ‘thin pill’
A molecular switch that tells the body to store or burn fat has been discovered by scientists at Rockefeller University in the US, providing a new target for research into drugs to fight obesity.
(Times, Science)
Meerkats follow Marxist doctrine
A professor has concluded that meerkats of the Kalahari subscribe to Marxist doctrine: “to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities”.
(Science, Daily Telegraph)
Prostate vaccine developed
British scientists at St George’s Hospital Medical School have developed a vaccine against prostate cancer.
(Daily Mirror, Daily Mail)