From today's UK papers

THE GUARDIAN

Four anthropologists from the Universitry of Michigan in the US have thrown the story of human origins into confusion with the claim that new evidence shows that modern humans could have partly descended from the neanderthals, the hulking creatures who held Europe during the ice ages.

A newly discovered protein that stops the Aids virus from entering cells could be the basis for a new generation of drugs against HIV, researchers from the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard have reported.

THE INDEPENDENT

A team from the University of Massachusetts has found that the evolutionary diversity of beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands may cause them to sing different courting songs.

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Eric Wright of the University of Dundee medical school, an expert on the effects of low-level radiation, has cast doubt on a link between depleted uranium shells and leukaemia in soldiers who served in the Balkans.

THE TIMES

Fear of debt is deterring many children from poor families from going to university, the Commons Education Select Committee heard.

MISCELLANY

Genes play a bigger role than way of life in the onset of coronary heart disease, a study of 100 twins by Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital and Leeds University suggests ( Daily Telegraph , Times ).

The world's largest study, by Helsinki University Central Hospital, of the controversial measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) has categorically ruled out any link to autism and serious bowel disorders ( Daily Mail , Times ).

Scientists from the Oregon Regional Primate Research Centre have created the world's first genetically modified monkey ( Financial Times , Guardian , Independent , Daily Mail , Daily Telegraph , Times ).

A gene that explains why some people wake abnormally early and fall asleep equally prematurely has been pinpointed for the first time, scientists at the University of Utah have announced ( Financial Times , Times ).