Today's news

Blue-chip talent to help poor schools
Britain’s brightest graduates are to be invited to spend two years’ “national service” teaching in London’s roughest schools before heading off to lucrative jobs in the city.
(Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times)

Research funding cuts threaten jobs of 50 scientists
Up to 50 young British scientists face losing their jobs this autumn because the government agency that funds their work has cancelled a £10 million round of grants. The work of dozens of young researchers has been put in jeopardy by a £13.2 million hole in the budget of the National Environmental Research Council.
(Times)

Pleas for £4,000 student grants
Poor students should be entitled to grants of up to £4,000 a year MPs were told yesterday. A Commons select committee was told by Universities UK that thousands of young people were put of courses because of finance fears.
(Daily Mirror)

Harvard’s honours a degree harder
Harvard University is cracking down on “grade inflation” amid growing concern that the prestige of honours degrees is being degraded by the sheer number that are awarded.
(Times, Independent)

Revolutionary cancer pill denied to thousands of patients
A revolutionary cancer drug that could save thousands of lives is to be denied to patients in Britain. A study of chronic myeloid leukaemia shows that the new drug, Glivec, can eradicate the disease in seven out of ten sufferers, but the National Institute of Clinical Excellence says Glivec should be offered to a minority of sufferers with advanced disease.
(Daily Mail)
 
Smart room-mates can boost academic success
Students paired with successful room-mates tend to perform better in their own academic studies, according to a study by Dartmouth College in the US.
(Independent) 

Scientists create GM mosquito to avert 3m deaths
US scientists have genetically modified a malarial mosquito to block transmission of the world’s most dangerous plasmodium parasite that kills 3 million people in Africa and Asia each year.
(Nature, Guardian, Independent, Times)

Huge iceberg breaks free
eeAn iceberg bigger than the Isle of Wight has broken free from Antarctica and is heading towards busy shipping lanes, scientists warned last night.
(Daily Mail)

Maternity myths still rife
Research into attitudes to pregnancy, birth and life with a baby found that many women still believe old wives’ tales. Liz Mackay, senior lecturer in midwifery at Bell College in Lanarkshire, said that beliefs included eating lots of cheese would ensure a girl, which could actually pose a food poisoning risk from listeria.
(Daily Mail)

Gene clue to why women pick brains over brawn
Women are genetically programmed to pick brains over brawn when choosing a mate, scientists say. Geneticists at the University of Ulm in Germany say that by favouring intelligence over strength and looks, our female ancestors set in motion a process that, over thousands of years, has developed the modern human brain.
(Daily Mail, Independent)
 
Married men have less testosterone
Scientists have found that men who spend lots of time with their wives and children have lower levels of testosterone, the hormone that controls men’s aggression and sexual appetite, than bachelors.
(Daily Mail, Times)

Big bang could end life on Earth
An unstable star may be on the brink of an explosion that could wipe out all life on Earth, but not for hundreds of millions of years. Scientists in America say the star is just 150 light years away, meaning energy from the explosion could strip off the ozone layer, leaving Earth unprotected against ultraviolet radiation.
(Times)