Today's news

Oh Mum! Please don’t come with me to university
Parents are getting more involved in every aspect of students' lives, from attending open days to sitting in on their lectures and interviews, according to a survey by The Times Higher . One student tells of a fellow fresher whose mum stayed in her room for the first week of term.
( The Daily Telegraph )

Genius who unravelled DNA dies
Francis Crick, acclaimed as the greatest British scientist of the past century for his role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, has died at the age of 88. He had been suffering from colon cancer.
( The Times , The Daily Telegraph , The Guardian , Financial Times , The Independent )

Gene puzzle of acne is solved
The genetic recipe of the bug that causes acne vulgaris , the scourge of teenagers around the world, has been discovered, the journal Science reports today.
( The Times , The Daily Telegraph )

Minuscule machines, big dangers
New regulations are needed to protect human health and the environment from the unknown threats that might be posed by nanotechnology, a government advisory panel recommended yesterday.
( The Times , The Guardian , Financial Times )

Animal extremists’ hate list
Article on animal extremists’ hit list, which includes the names of scientists to be attacked at their homes. Top of the list is Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences.
( The Times )

Lobster liberators boiling mad
A group calling itself the Lobster Liberation Front has attacked a lobster fisherman’s boat and pots in Dorset.
( The Times , The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian )

Terror laws for animal rights extremists
Animal extremists are to be prosecuted under the same laws used to bring al-Qaeda suspects to trial.
( The Times , The Daily Telegraph , The Guardian )

Animal testing - the facts and the figures
The reality of vivisection in the UK.
( The Independent )

Troops will guard Oxford animal lab
Soldiers are to guard Oxford University’s £18million scientific laboratory against animal rights extremists, it will be announced today.
( Daily Mail )

Humans are sentient too
Peter Singer on how violent animal liberation activists undermine the ethical basis of the animal rights movement.
( The Guardian )

Islamic Colleges links scrutinised
Allegations of links between two British Islamic colleges and fundamentalist political movements are being taken very seriously, the Charity Commission said last night.
( The Times )

Disaster at sea
Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe that scientists are linking to global warming.
( The Independent )

Museum’s secret floors archaeologists
Two Roman floors dating from the 4th century have been discovered on the site of a £3million museum on the Isle of Wight days before it is due to open. The floors had been buried in a protective blanket of sand and concrete by Victorian workers following the discovery of the mosaics in the 1880s.
( The Times )

Science briefing
Includes research into the world’s worst mass extinction, which wiped out 90 per cent of living species 250 million years ago and research uncovering the secrets of athletic ability.
( Financial Times )

Nasa cuts
Article on Nasa’s plans to slash billions of dollars from existing programmes to fund its Moon-to-Mars extravaganza.
( Financial Times )