The UK government has got together with a number of companies to set up a £10m initiative to encourage students from around the world to study in the UK. The Dorothy Hodgkin postgraduate awards will fund over 100 PhD students from India, China, Hong Kong, Russia and the developing world. BP is one of the companies to participate in the scheme. According to Nick Butler, BP's group vice president for policy development, BP is not expecting to benefit directly from the students, but is interested in encouraging excellence in the developing world, where it expects to grow substantially in coming years.

DeCODE genetics, an Icelandic population genetics company, has isolated two obesity genes, as part of an alliance with Merck, the US pharma company. DeCODE identified the genes by analysing genetic and clinical data from 17 000 people who took part in its obesity programme in Iceland. DeCODE researchers say that one of the genes regulates how the body stores and uses energy while the other is linked to appetite regulation.