HERO
IT IS not often that hero status is bestowed on a tiny, hopping bug, so let’s hear it for the snow flea. Nursing Standard (Aug 28) says an “antifreeze protein” in the insect could help to preserve organs used in transplants. The process of transforming snow fleas into organ-coolers involves a degree of scientific wizardry too complex to detail here. Suffice to say that the chances of a patient receiving a new heart in good time could soon be increased. Good news for patients; bad news for bugs.
...AND VILLAIN
WHIZZY and interactive, they said. But classroom technology all comes to naught when lessons are reduced to bullet points. So says Roger Higton, an ICT co-ordinator who argues in The Times Educational Supplement (Sept 1) that “the student will glaze over within the first 30 seconds” if taught with endless presentations. American academics, meanwhile, fear that rather than learning to write using sentences, “children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials”.