Latest research news

IVF 'needs more research'
The health of test-tube babies and their mothers should be tracked more closely to ensure that the growing use of assisted-fertility techniques is safe, scientific and ethical advisers said yesterday. Twenty-six years after Louise Brown became the first test-tube baby, a working group of the Government-funded Medical Research Council said evidence that procedures were safe was "relatively weak".
The Guardian

$1bn survey unravels mysteries of the deep
A billion-dollar survey of the world's oceans has so far pinpointed 38,000 marine species - and identified new fish at the rate of two a week. The census of marine life, a concerted effort by hundreds of scientists from more than 70 nations, is in effect the first hi-tech inventory of life in the so called "blue planet". Oceans cover 70 per cent of the globe. But marine scientists have been pointing out for years that the surface of Venus has been better mapped than the world under the oceans.
The Guardian

Daylight is key to good night’s sleep for babies . . . and parents
Nanny knew best: a walk in the park in the afternoon helps babies to sleep better at night. The reason may be that exposure to light makes a baby’s biological clock develop more quickly, said Dr Yvonne Harrison, a psychologist from Liverpool John Moores University who carried out the research. By providing parents with light meters attached to a small teddy bear, she found that babies who were good sleepers were exposed to twice as much light between noon and 4pm as were the poor sleepers.
Times

Fossils reveal Britain's largest dinosaur
Fossil hunters on the Isle of Wight have uncovered bones belonging to Britain's biggest dinosaur. Using the neck bone as a guide, palaeontologists believe the creature was at least 20 metres long and weighed around 50 tonnes. "That makes it the biggest dinosaur ever found in Britain," said Darren Naish, who studies predatory dinosaurs at Portsmouth University.
The Guardian

Chocolate provides sweet solution to persistent cough
Theobromine, an ingredient in chocolate, could be used to stop persistent coughs, researchers from Imperial College, London said yesterday. The compound, which comes from cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping persistent coughs than codeine, now considered the best cough medicine.
Independent

Coca-Cola plans 'will bleed hills dry'
Plans by the drinks giant Coca-Cola to bore into the Malvern hills to quadruple its supply of mineral water could have a catastrophic effect on plants and wildlife, environmental campaigners said yesterday. The company wants to expand production of its bottled water from 2.6 million gallons a year to 11.3 million gallons.
Daily Telegraph

Want to be able to tell a real art from a forgery? Do the maths
Scientists have created a computer that can tell the mathematical difference between a genuine work of art and a forgery by analysing features invisible to the human eye, paving the way to a new method of art fraud detection.
Independent