Today’s physics news: Friday, 16 July

Treasury cutbacks ‘could mean game over’ for British science
Deep cuts to science funding proposed by the Treasury would provoke a catastrophic and irreversible crisis threatening economic growth and the country’s capacity for effective government according to the Royal Society

The Times 
 
Graduate tax and private colleges at heart of higher education blueprint
Private universities will flourish and struggling institutions will be allowed to fail, if the coalition has its way with the future of higher education
 
Guardian
Times
Independent
THE 
 
Mercury’s youngest volcano found
Scientists analysing data from Nasa’s Messenger spacecraft say they have located some of Mercury’s most recent volcanic activity.
BBC

Iran scientist: CIA offered me $50m to lie about nuclear secrets
An Iranian scientist who says he was abducted and taken to the United States by the CIA returned to Tehran yesterday to a hero’s welcome and claimed that he had been pressured into lying about his country’s nuclear programme.

Independent 
 
NASA seeks rover that goes all night
$1.5 million awaits the winners of a new NASA competition for a solar-powered rover that can drive through an alien night
 
Nature