We are cool, Conservatives to tell students
Iain Duncan Smith is to lead the Conservative Party on a “live and unplugged tour” of Britain’s universities. Shadow ministers will try to persuade students that Conservatives can connect with young people and to shed their image as the party of the rich, geriatric and uncool.
( The Guardian )
Scientists challenge MMR fears
A Daily Telegraph straw poll of 52 autism experts shows that 92 per cent do not believe autism is linked to the controversial MMR vaccine.
( The Daily Telegraph )
Gene therapy breakthrough
Scientists have discovered a technique that could revolutionise cancer treatment. Researchers at the University of York “knocked out” aggressive genes carried in a virus linked to cervical cancer. The treatment could kill cancer cells without giving patients serious side-effects.
( The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent )
Study shows NHS staff crisis
National Health Service hospitals in central London are losing nursing staff at a rate of up to 38 per cent a year, a study from the King’s Fund think-tank has warned.
( Financial Times, The Independent, The Times )
Counselling hinders recovery
Counselling does not help the survivors of traumatic events, according to Dutch researchers. It has no positive effect and can hinder recovery, say the Amsterdam University researchers in The Lancet .
( The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph )
Babies see the light
Scientists at the University of Arkansas, US, have detected the brain activity of unborn babies. They detected a response to light shone through the abdomens of pregnant women, it was reported in The Lancet .
( The Times, The Daily Mail, The Independent )
Left is best for cradling
Researchers today say that the instinctive cradling of babies on the left is due to the way women’s brains are organised for interpreting faces and emotions. The findings by Sussex University researchers are being presented to the British Psychological Society Conference, which is being held at the university.
( The Daily Telegraph )
Teens like advice but ignore it
Teenagers like being given advice about their health but rarely act on it, according to researchers at the Health Promotion Research Unit, London. Their findings are reported in the British Medical Journal .
( The Daily Telegraph )
Super spuds sought
A team of scientists from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth has been awarded a £1.2 million grant from the Food Standards Agency to unlock the secrets of the perfect spud. The team will design a computer system to identify quality in various strains of potatoes.
( The Times )
Heart resuscitation plans criticised
Government plans to make electric shock resuscitators publicly available in places such as railway stations are a waste of time, according to Scottish researchers. The study, reported in the British Medical Journal , looked at out-of-hospital cardiac arrests due to heart disease from 1991-98.
( The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph )
Eating habits connected to the thighbone
Scientists from Bradford University have discovered that an ancient human thighbone, discovered by archaeologists from Sheffield University, gives an insight into what our ancestors ate. The find from the leg of a woman who died about 8,000 years ago shows that she was almost exclusively a carnivore.
( Financial Times )