From today's UK papers

Financial Times

Labour plans a radical expansion of its United States-style scheme for gifted children, with up to 150,000 of the brightest pupils linked to university-based talent academies.

There is truth in the old saying that people who live in damp conditions are more likely to suffer from colds, researchers at Turku University hospital in Finland have found.

After 30 years in the private sector, Vincent Watts, vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, is scathing about the funding of higher education. But Sir Alan Langlands says that after running the National Health Service, being vice-chancellor of the University of Dundee is a relief.

The Guardian

Climate scientists at the University of Florida believe they have the answer to the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilisation of Mexico - a drought that lasted 150 years.

The Times

Cambridge again topped the table as the country's outstanding university. (Full data in today's THES.)

Miscellany

Alexander Zhankov, a Russian professor on secondment to the centre for ecology and hydrology in Oxford, died after mistakenly swallowing highly toxic methanol, believing it to be pure alcohol, an inquest has been told. ( Guardian , Daily Telegraph )

Fears of a "brain drain" among Britain's most talented students have been intensified by growing numbers showing interest in studying in the United States. ( The Times , Daily Telegraph , Financial Times )    

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