Today’s physics news: Friday, 19 February

Shadow science minister defends ‘major science cuts’ comment
In a reply to Roger Highfield’s blog piece about comments the shadow science minister made last week, Afriyie MP has written, “These cuts are inevitable because Labour has already announced them. Realistically – and I regret this – I am not in a position to promise that a Conservative government would immediately reverse them.”

New Scientist

Yvo de Boer resigns as top UN climate official
Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, says he will resign after nearly four years in the post.  His departure takes effect from 1 July, five months before 193 countries are due to reconvene in Mexico for another attempt at a global deal on climate.

Guardian
BBC

US firm drops libel action against Henrik Thomsen
Radiologist Henrik Thomsen has expressed relief as a libel suit, launched against him after he criticised  GE Healthcare’s best-selling contrast agent Omniscan, has been dropped.

Guardian

Iran’s rapid scientific growth
Iran is showing the fastest scientific growth of any country with scientific output growing eleven times faster than the world average.  The findings emerge in a survey of the number of scientific publications listed in the Web of Science database.

New Scientist: