Today's news

Graduates won't need lifetime to pay loan
Higher education minister Alan Johnson writes that from 2005, students will begin repaying their loans when they reach a salary of £15,000 with the rate then linked to their income. He states that most loans are paid within 10 to 15 years, a pattern that a recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report does not expect to change.
(Daily Express)

DNA statue suggested for Trafalgar plinth
Royal Society president Lord May writes that it would be fitting if the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square could be home to a sculpture that commemorates the UK's leading role in the development of modern genetic science, marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery by researchers in Cambridge and London of the structure of DNA. He suggests that the double helix structure of the DNA molecule has aesthetic beauty and could be incorporated into a novel and eye-catching design.
(Times)

Glastonbury tower yields secret of age
Experts at the National Trust, which completed a £515,000 restoration of St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor in Somerset yesterday, have discovered marks in the stone that date the building to 1430. The two carved dashes by a Wessex craftsman, match those found on a nearby church, St Cuthberts in Glastonbury, which has been accurately dated using documents.
(Independent)