PM makes stem-cell research vow
Prime minister Tony Blair last night vowed to make Britain the world leader in experiments on cloned human embryos. In a speech to the Royal Societ, where he called for greater support and funding for science in the UK, Mr Blair predicted that stem-cell research would lead to treatments for a wide range of conditions.
(Daily Mail, Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror)
Brown hints at cash boost for education
Gordon Brown gave a clear hint yesterday that education would be given another huge cash injection in next month’s government spending review. Delivering the Bevan Memorial Lecture at the University of Glamorgan, the chancellor said that investment in education was needed not just for social justice, but to improve the economy.
(Independent, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror)
Chancellor’s paper shuts after failing test of economics
The Edinburgh University News, whose news editor was once Gordon Brown, has ceased publication for first time in its 115-year history after running up debts of £10,500. Friends of Robert Louis Stevenson set up the newspaper and contributors have included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Steel of Aikwood who was an assistant editor, and Robin Cook who was an arts sub-editor.
(Times)
Ill health blights quality of life for aged in North
People living in the South of England enjoy many more years of healthy life than those in the North, according to an analysis of patterns of death and illness published yesterday. Alan Walker, director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Growing Older Programme at the University of Sheffield, called on the government to address the regional health inequalities.
(Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian­)
Deadly delay over breast cancer test
Surgeon Jonathan Roberts and colleagues at King’s College Hospital in London have raised alarm that a scheme to speed up breast cancer testing is putting lives at risk.
(Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, British Medical Journal)
Hawking book on prize shortlist
Professor Stephen Hawking has been shortlisted for the world’s most prestigious science book award, the Aventis Prize, for his book The Universe in a Nutshell, which has been criticised as incomprehensible to anyone without a mathematics or physics degree.
(Times)
Research casts doubt on stress-heart disease link
Stress is not bad for the heart according to a study by researchers from Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow universities. The report, published in the British Medical Journal, found that men in most professional occupations were more likely to report stress and symptoms of ill health, but fewer were found to have heart disease and their overall death rates were lower than men of other occupations.
(Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, Daily Mirror)
Clues from nutcracker chimps
Chimpanzees in an African rainforest use stone tools to open nuts in much the same way as our human ancestors, scientists have found. The findings from first archaeological investigation of a non-human species, by a team from George Washington University in Washington and Max Planck Institute in Germany, strengthens the behavioural links between mankind and our nearest surviving relations.
(Daily Telegraph, Times, Science)
Scientists find deposit of jade
American scientists have discovered what could be the world’s largest deposit of jade in central Guatemala. The team from the American Museum of Natural History in Texas and the University of California, say that the deposit was once mined by Olmecs, a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people.
(Times)
Bra tests for cancer
An electronic bra to test women for breast cancer could be available within three years. The bra, developed by scientists at De Montfort University in Leicester, uses electrical currents to detect abnormal and potentially cancerous cells.
(Daily Mirror)