US academic is suspended for using the Chinese word for ‘um’ because it sounded like a racial slur Greg Patton lectured on use of ‘filler words’ at University of Southern California He mentioned the Chinese expression ‘neige’ (pronounced ‘nee-gah’) He was placed on administrative leave while the university ‘review the situation’ By Caroline Graham In … Read more
A former Cambridge University research fellow who worked in a top secret government laboratory has been jailed for sending fake poison to Theresa May. Christopher Doyle, 54, was today sentenced to two years and 10 months behind bars for posting the white powder to the then prime minister in 2018 and also for making indecent … Read more
Cell engineering company Horizon Discovery Group hit by lockdown decline in academic research work The firm is headquartered in Cambridge, but makes its products in Colorado CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that could potentially cure genetic defects Horizon’s earnings fell by over 40% in April compared to the same month in 2019 By Harry Wise … Read more
Professor Sarah Gilbert said it would not be safe for them to do a so-called ‘challenge trial’ of Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate An Oxford academic today dismissed the idea of deliberately infecting volunteers with Covid-19 to test the university’s experimental vaccine because no treatment currently exists to keep patients safe. Hopes of ending the Covid-19 … Read more
The University of Cambridge has spoken out in support of one of its lecturers who was hit by a wave of abusive messages and death threats for tweeting ‘White Lives Don’t Matter’. Dr Priyamvada Gopal, 51, who teaches in the Faculty of English at Churchill College, took to the social media platform on Tuesday evening to write: … Read more
Fury as academic defends pulling down statues on Radio 4 and tells the station that actions by Black Lives Matter protesters could be seen as an ‘energising source of hope’ An academic defended toppling statues on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day Professor Tina Beattie’s comments provoked anger among some listeners Beattie claimed the … Read more
Private schools plan to ignore Government advice and open at the start of September ‘come what may’ Private schools plan to defy official advice and open at the new academic year Some fee-paying schools are organising their own track and trace systems One governor at a leading private school said headteachers are ‘furious’ with the … Read more