Today's news

Scots degrees look set to be a hit.. in Cairo
More than 500 Egyptian students have signed up to study for degrees from Scottish universities from a new campus in Cairo. And it is anticipated the initiative, run by Edinburgh-based Interactive University (IU), will be expanded to as many as 10,000 students over the next four years. Heriot-Watt, Queen Margaret University College and Napier universities, as well as Robert Gordon in Aberdeen, are all to offer programmes to Egyptian students in the new partnership between IU and the £30 million Future University in Cairo. The students, who will pay around £2500 a year for their courses, will use Scottish educational material via the internet and follow identical courses and exams to students in Scotland.
The Scotsman

Drowned student is found
The body of a law student who fell into rapids during a white-water rafting trip was found yesterday. Shenaz Kapoor, 22, went missing last Tuesday after her dinghy capsized in a flash flood in Thailand. The Dundee University student was spending a gap year in Thailand helping children orphaned in the 2004 tsunami.
The Mirror, The Daily Telegraph

Shanghai opens shelter for young internet addicts
Shanghai has opened mainland China's first shelter for internet addicts to help them bridge the gap between their virtual world and dysfunctional family homes. A survey by the China Youth Association for Network Development found 13 per cent of young people with access to the web are online for more than 38 hours a week - a level agreed among health professionals worldwide as indicating "internet addiction disorder". A separate study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences blamed internet addiction for 80 per cent of the failure rate among students.
The Guardian

HIV drug stops cervical cancer in lab test
A commonly used HIV medicine may also help prevent cervical cancer and could be developed into an anti-cancer cream, early laboratory tests by scientists suggest. Researchers at the University of Manchester said today that test-tube studies showed the drug lopinavir selectively killed human papilloma virus, the virus that causes cervical cancer, as well as HIV. Lopinavir belongs to a class of HIV drugs known as protease inhibitors. It is a key component of Abbott Laboratories Inc's best-selling pill Kaletra.
The Scotsman

Scientists cool on pain relief
Millions of people with chronic pain may soon be able to ease their suffering with cooling substances. Susan Fleetwood-Walker and Rory Mitchell from Edinburgh University have identified a protein called TRPM8 which, when activated, dramatically reduces pain. The molecule can be activated either by reducing temperatures or by using cooling chemicals such as menthol, the active ingredient in mint.
The Financial Times

Leaves shed new light on earlier arrival of spring
Conclusive evidence that spring is arriving significantly earlier across Europe than it did 30 years ago is published today. Scientists from 17 countries have collaborated in the world's largest phenology study - the recording of changes in annual events such as the flowering of plants in 21 countries - and describe in the journal Global Change Biology how climate change is affecting the seasons. Led by Dr Annette Menzel from the Technical University Munich in Germany and Dr Tim Sparks of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, the team concludes that spring arrives an average of six to eight days earlier than in the past.
The Daily Telegraph

So Watt's the big idea here?
Work on a striking new £6 million complex at one of Edinburgh's main university campuses is set to get under way next year. Heriot-Watt has unveiled plans for the UK's first purpose-built postgraduate centre. The three-storey complex will be built on the site of a former student union - long since demolished - at the Riccarton campus. Earmarked for a site next to the existing Coulson Building, the new building will boast a state-of-the-art lecture theatre, as well as study and seminar rooms, a reception and exhibition area, a cafe and a "social space".
The Scotsman

Letter
How the number of physical sciences graduates declined.
The Financial Times