From today's UK papers

Financial Times

A new material created at the University of Leipzig combines the mechanical properties of rubber with the electric properties of a liquid crystal, paving the way for new designs of nanomachines.

Propulsion technology under development at Johns Hopkins University in the United States could lead to the development of more efficient hypersonic missiles.

A team at Lancaster University has been able to track air pollution by analysing butter from different parts of the world.

The Guardian

Teenagers taking GCSEs and A levels in geography and biology might not be able to complete their exams because of restrictions to field trips caused by foot-and-mouth disease.

A team of academics is to visit the bottom of the ocean to determine whether species are localised or live in similar environments the world over.

The Independent

The University of Western Sydney has admitted that it buried 10,000 books, including rare and antique editions, because it could not afford storage costs.

The Times

University alumni associations are appointing alumni as career mentors for students and recent graduates.

Gary Schwartz and Linda Russek, of the University of Arizona's Human Energy Systems Laboratory, say their research shows that mediums are in touch with the spirit world.

Miscellany

The story of human evolution has become even more entangled with the discovery in Kenya of a new species of "flat-faced" hominids who lived about 3.5 million years ago. ( Guardian , Independent , Daily Telegraph , Times )