Today's papers

End of the filling in a puff of gas
A new treatment for tooth decay that does away with the needle, drill and filling could soon revolutionise a visit to the dentist. A controlled blast of ozone gas is used to kill bacteria in cavities, allowing saliva to strengthen damaged teeth naturally. The pain-free technique was developed by scientists at Queen’s University, Belfast.
( Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail )

Farming reforms slow decline of rare butterflies
Some of Britain’s rarest and most spectacular butterflies have increased in number for the first time in decades thanks to schemes that encourage farmers to restore their natural habitats, says a three-year study by Butterfly Conservation.
( Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Times )

British Library staff mount second strike
Staff at the British Library’s Document Supply Centre in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, are going on strike tomorrow and Friday after rejecting a 4 per cent pay offer.
( Independent )

This is Britain’s answer to Einstein… but have you heard of him?
Tomorrow is the centenary of the birth of one of our greatest and most neglected physicists, Paul Dirac.
( Daily Telegraph )

Dons’ inventions belong to us, says Cambridge
Cambridge University is risking a serious rift with some of its leading scientists over proposals to seize control of the rights to their academic work.
( Independent )

College lecturer survives 100ft cliff fall after losing his way in fog
A college lecturer was described as very lucky to be alive yesterday after he fell 100ft down a cliff and lay seriously injured for 15 hours before being rescued. Lewis Moncrief, 35, from Alston, Cumbria, was discovered unconscious by rescuers on the Scottish isle of Canna.
( Times )

Academics are lured home to Kinshasa to plug brain drain
An International Organisation for Migration project is paying academics from the Democratic Republic of Congo who used their skills to escape to the West to return home for short stints to transfer their knowledge to today’s students.
( Times )

Two rare atlases traced by police
Two rare 17th-century pocket atlases have been recovered by the police weeks after they were stolen from the British Library and Cambridge University Library.
( Times )

Scottish reef under threat after 2 million years
One of the world’s rarest and most spectacular marine reefs, which has been growing in a Scottish loch for more than 2 million years, is set to be given official protection after fears that it may disappear.
( Times )

‘I had no idea that madness in the Islamic world had gone so far’
V. S. Naipaul, at 70, speaks about his controversial career and reveals that ‘for the first time in my life, I’m doing nothing’.
( Times )
* Interview with V. S. Naipaul in this Friday’s edition of The THES

Global warming is threat to aggressive capercaillie
Britain’s largest game bird could become extinct in the UK because of global warming, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said yesterday.
( Times )

A magical birth in Egypt
A mud brick has given archaeologists a vivid glimpse of the magic and rituals used 3,700 years ago in ancient Egypt to protect a princess and her baby during childbirth. The brick was found inside the palatial residence of a Middle Kingdom mayor’s house just outside Abydos, in southern Egypt, by Dr Josef Wegner, associate curator of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and colleagues from Egypt.
( Daily Telegraph )

Medieval ship to be abandoned on riverbed
A medieval ship, described as one of the most exceptional finds since the Mary Rose, is to be abandoned on the riverbed where it was found so building work for a new arts centre can be completed.
( Times )

Gallic poem may hold the key to Astrix the Celt
An early Gallic poem that could shed light on the cultural origins of the French nation and its relationship with Britain is mystifying France’s most eminent researchers.
( Times )

Clearing out the cobwebs
Broke and dowdy, the British Museum is fighting to make itself as relevant as the Tate Modern.
( Times )

Nobel prizewinnning biochemist dies
Biochemist Archer Martin, who along with  R. L. M. Synge won a Nobel prize in 1952 for pioneering work on liquid-liquid partition chromatography, has died aged 92.
( Independent )

Historian of medicine dies
Oswei Temkin, the historian of medicine who insisted on the importance of ethics and ideas in the development of new practices, has died a few weeks short of his 100th birthday.
( Times)

Geographer dies
Jim Taylor, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society from 1958 and honorary fellow since last year, has died aged 76.
( Times )

‘He’s sex mad and paints women’
Robert Lenkiewicz, the painter, philosopher and serial seducer who died this week, was known for his anarchic spirit and macabre obsessions.
( Daily Telegraph, Times )

Mathematician Schwartz dies
Laurent Schwartz, who has died aged 87, was the ideal of the French intellectual. The undisputed master of his subject, everywhere respected as a very great mathematician, he had been a student at the Ecole Normale Superieure and became a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique.
( Guardian )