Lord Sainsbury launches nanotechnology study
Fears that nanotechnology could cause us all to dissolve into a grey goo will be addressed by new research from the Department of Trade and Industry. Science minister Lord Sainsbury has commissioned the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering to carry out the study, which will be led by Cambridge University professor Ann Dowling.
(Financial Times, Daily Mail, Guardian)
Patel case medical witness investigated by GMC
Professor Sir Roy Meadow, the key medical witness in the case of Trupti Patel, who was cleared of killing her three babies, is being investigated by the General Medical Council over concerns about evidence that he has given in previous trials. Professor Meadow, who is credited with formulating the theory of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, is a retired paediatric consultant at St James University Hospital in Leeds.
(Times, Daily Mail, Independent, Financial Times, Guardian)
LBS staff scoop management research cash
London Business School has outrun its UK competitors in scooping the latest handout of government cash for management research. LBS won five of the 17 fellowships in the first round of funding announced by the Advanced Institute in Management. The universities of Lancaster and Strathclyde received two fellowships each.
(Financial Times)
Iran’s students plan more protests
Iranian students yesterday said they would stage further pro-reform protests after a march by a few hundred students in Tehran on Tuesday became a spontaneous demonstration against the regime.
(Financial Times)
Scientists develop GM ‘protato’ to feed India’s poor children
The Indian government raised the global biotechnology stakes by saying it intended to feed "nutritionally enhanced" GM potatoes to poor children as early as next year. Scientists claim the potato, known as protato, contains at least a third more protein than normal tubers.
(Guardian)
Skulls of oldest modern humans found in Ethiopia
The oldest known fossils of modern humans have been discovered in Ethiopia. An international team led by researchers from the University of California, Berkley, found the skulls of two adults and a child dating from 160,000 years ago - 40,000 years earlier than the previous oldest remains of Homo sapiens .
(Financial Times, Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Independent)
Women turned on by help around house
Women feel more amorous towards their man if he helps out with the housework, according to scientists at the University of California.
(Daily Mail)
Obesity in Scotland ‘costs the NHS as much as smoking’
One in five Scottish adults is officially classed as obese, which is putting as much a strain on the health service in Scotland as smoking, a survey by Glasgow University found.
(Independent)
Morris wallpaper contains arsenic
Research by Aberdeen University on a sample of Victorian designer William Morris’ wallpaper has been found to contain copper arsenic salt, which created a green pigment and was also responsible for chronic illness and death.
(Independent)
Fish turned on by ‘piscine porn’
Fish can be turned on by watching the piscine equivalent of a pornographic film, according to research at the University of Fribourg. The Swedish scientists found male sticklebacks produced more sperm than usual when stimulated by viewing images of rivals courting female fish.
(Times, New Scientist)
Geneticist dies
Professor Brian Wilkins, a geneticist who worked on the replication and recombination of bacterial DNA, has died.
(Independent)