From today's UK papers

THE GUARDIAN

Children aged between five and eight who are taught in small classes are more likely to go on to apply for a university place, a study of US schools by Princeton University has revealed.

THE TIMES

Ilham Abuljadayel, a Cambridge-based researcher, claims to have achieved the biological equivalent of reversing time by perfecting a method of creating stem cells from adult cells, bypassing the ethical dilemma of "therapeutic cloning" that recently divided the House of Commons.

The well-preserved skeleton of an ape-like child nearly 3.5 million years old has been discovered in Ethiopia. One of the oldest finds of its kind, it will provide clues on the "missing link" between man and his ape ancestors.

Sanjida O'Connell reports that some scientists argue that we are in the middle of a mass, human-induced extinction and asks what implications this has for the future of evolution.

FINANCIAL TIMES

The Open University Business School, the United Kingdom's largest teaching institution, and online education company UNext.com are to collaborate on an online learning initiative.

MISCELLANY

As Oxford readied itself for bed last night, fellows at All Souls College were eating and drinking to excess in preparation to march around their college behind a wooden duck held aloft on a pole in the bizarre ritual of "hunting the mallard", which occurs once every 100 years.  ( Times, Daily Telegraph )