Climate change efforts 

The UK government published its long-promised Climate Change Bill in November. It's claimed as the first in the world to make carbon emission reduction targets legally binding. Targets are to cut CO₂ emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050, and 26 to 32 per cent by 2020, against 1990 levels. The bill arrived as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a final synthesis of its reports this year, which it hopes will spur international agreements for negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol at a December conference in Bali, Indonesia. 

UK security checks for overseas students 

Non-EU postgraduate students wishing to study science or engineering in the UK will now have to undergo extra security checks. The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) has already met criticism (Chemistry World, March 2007, p14). 

Low-intensity MRI reaches brain 

An ultra-low field (ULF) magnetic imaging technique has advanced towards its first images of the human brain. The apparatus uses microtesla magnetic fields, where conventional MRI scanners use more powerful (and expensive) magnets that can produce fields of a few tesla. It relies on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS), reported US physicists (see website).

Go Figure 

30.5 billion tonnes of domestic and industrial sewage were pumped into China's 3900-mile Yangtze river last year: a new record, said Hu Jiajun, a spokesman for the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, who was quoted by state media.