Today's news

Higher pass rate drops for first time since 2002
Rising pass rates for Scotland's flagship exam suffered a blip this year, according to results released today. Figures show that the proportion of Highers passed in 2006 was 70.8 per cent, compared with 71.2 per cent last year. And the harder Advanced Higher was also a tougher challenge, with the pass rate dropping from 74.5 per cent to 74.3 per cent. It is the first fall in national Higher success rate since 2002, when a new mix of coursework and final exam performance was fully introduced for Scotland's 17 and 18-year-olds.
The Times , The Scotsman

Ethnic origin 'influences career choice' graduates
University students with a Chinese background are four times more likely to want to pursue an investment banking career than their white counterparts, a survey showing the effect of ethnicity on graduates' career choices has found. Thirty-two per cent of students with a Chinese background said investment banking was their ideal industry compared with just 8 per cent of white students who were more interested in pursuing careers in the public sector. While 36 per cent of Chinese and 31 per cent of students with other Asian backgrounds were engaged in business-related degrees, only 15 per cent of white respondents chose the same option. The findings were revealed in a survey of 7,760 students which showed that ethnic background still has an important influence on both the subject undergraduates chose to study and the type of employer they viewed as ideal.
Financial Times

Parents of students price new buyers out of market
Rising house prices and increasing pressure on student accommodation are turning record numbers of parents into landlords who provide "handout homes" for their student children. A survey of Britain's 2.6 million second properties, published today, indicates that 83,000 of them were bought by parents for their children while at university, an increase of nearly a third since 2000.
The Times

Up there with the best
When humans start travelling to Mars, the next frontier in the space programme, their craft will require a terrific wallop to get there. But scientists at Nasa can tick developing more powerful rockets off their to-do list. The British have them in hand. Or, rather, a group of 34 young Britons aged 13 to 17 has come up with what some of Nasa's finest brains reckon to be solid steps in the right direction. Which is why they have found themselves spending 10 days as Nasa's guests at its centres in Florida and Houston, Texas. They are the winners of a competition that seeks to stimulate problem-solving and innovation among the next generation of British physicists.
The Guardian

Iranian scientists clone sheep
Scientists in Iran are hailing a technological breakthrough after producing what they claim is the Middle East's first cloned sheep. The sheep was delivered at Tehran's Royan Institute, a research centre specialising in fertility issues, after months of unsuccessful cloning attempts also involving cows and mice. It died minutes after being born before its creators had the chance to give it a name. But specialists say its birth represents a scientific landmark for Iran and will form the basis for other attempts to produce cloned animals.
The Guardian

Half of probiotic drinks fail bacteria health test
Half of all probiotic health drinks do not contain the healthy bacteria they claim on the label, a panel of microbiologists warned yesterday. Recognised brands made by Yakult, Danone, Muller or Nestle do not dupe consumers. But up to 25 products - many of which are sold via the web - do not contain the right bacteria, or contain it in too small quantities. The warning was made by Glenn Gibson, professor of food microbiology at the University of Reading, together with Dr Sandra McFarlane, a microbiologist at Dundee University, and Professor Christine Edwards, head of human nutrition at Glasgow University.
The Guardian , The Daily Telegraph , Daily Mail , The Independent

Around the world in 200 days
The longest animal migration distance ever recorded electronically is reported today by scientists, revealing how a little sea bird flies in a giant figure of eight to cover 40,000 miles in 200 days. The sooty shearwater, which spends 90 per cent of its life at sea, travels this vast distance annually in search of food and crosses the equator twice annually to cover the entirety of the Pacific. Scientists have long known that sooty shearwaters breed in New Zealand and Chile and migrate to feeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere. But the details of this extraordinary migration between the hemispheres are only now emerging from a study using electronic tracking tags to follow individual birds.
Daily Telegraph , The Guardian , The Times

Obituary
Professor Paul Cohn; London University mathematician.
The Independent