Today's news

Fees may bring on student brain drain
The prospect of higher tuition fees has led to a surge in the number of pupils thinking about studying in America and fears of an undergraduate brain drain.
( The Times )

Morgan heads for student fees clash
Rhodri Morgan, the man Downing Street tried to stop becoming Welsh first minister, is heading for a high-profile clash over student fees. Mr Morgan, who stepped into the job three years ago, is attempting to negotiate a complex formula that would limit the impact of fees on students in Wales.
( The Guardian )

Clarke to raise student grant income threshold
The family income threshold for students to qualify for the new university maintenance grants is likely to be raised to meet the government’s promise that 30 per cent of students will qualify for the award. Last month’s white paper proposed a threshold of £10,000.
( The Times )

MI6 intelligence lifted from lecturer’s article
Colin Powell’s much-vaunted case for war against Iraq suffered a setback yesterday when it emerged that chunks of British “intelligence” he invoked were copied verbatim from an old article by a young academic, Ibrahim al-Marashi, who lectures on Iraq.
( The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent )

Students cash in on human billboards plan
Instead of using their brains to better themselves, students are being encouraged to use their heads to alleviate debts. A creative marketing agency has embarked on an initiative to turn students’ foreheads into billboards. The agency, Cunning Stunts, is offering students up to £88.20 a week to wear a corporate logo on their head for a minimum of three hours a day.
( The Guardian )

Three bites are path to obesity
Cutting 100 calories a day from your diet – equal to three bites from a hamburger – would be enough to keep off the 2lbs that the average person gains in a year, according to a study by scientists at the University of Colorado. The findings are reported in the journal Science .
( The Times, The Daily Telegraph )

Obesity linked to thrifty gene
US scientists have linked obesity to a “thrifty gene” in our ancestors. The findings by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York appear in the journal Science .
( The Independent )

Electric kettles may damage health
The everyday habit of making a cup of tea may be contributing to a health problem that affects up to one in ten Britons. The government is to launch research into whether using boiled water from old-style kettles is worsening skin allergies through nickel leaching off exposed elements.
( The Guardian )

Peanut allergy test
A test that can detect peanut fragments as small as a dust particle was announced by government scientists yesterday, bringing hope to the 300,000 Britons who suffer from peanut allergy.
( The Daily Telegraph )

Babies born in England face greater health risk
English babies are more at risk of dying because of the standards of healthcare than babies in nine other European countries. The study is published in the British Journal of Obstetrics Gynaecology .( The Daily Telegraph )

Heart monitoring during labour under fire
Monitoring a baby’s heartbeat at the start of labour is no better than listening with a stethoscope and may even increase the chances that worried obstetricians will perform unnecessary Caesareans, according to researchers at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford.
( The Times )

Medieval historian dies
John Prestwich, the medieval historian who helped decode Enigma, has died aged 88.
( The Telegraph )