Today’s physics news: Monday, 9 August 2010

Coalition comes out in favour of graduate tax
Graduates face paying thousands of pounds more for their degrees after the Government announced that a tax on future earnings was its preferred option for university funding.
Times
THE

Space station repairs ‘only partial success’
Two astronauts have carried out an eight-hour spacewalk to try to repair a cooling system on the International Space Station but were only partially successful.
BBC
Telegraph 
 
Chris Huhne says new nuclear plants on track for 2018
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has insisted the government is fully behind the opening of a new nuclear power station in eight years’ time.
BBC

Human race ‘must colonise space or face extinction’, warns Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking has warned that unless the human race colonises space within the next two centuries it will disappear forever.
Daily Mail 
 
Stars in their eyes: How to get children excited about space
Getting children excited about space doesn’t have to be rocket science. It’s about being engaging and enthusiastic, TV physicist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock says.
Independent 
 
Rethinking Einstein: The end of space-time
Physicists struggling to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics have hailed a theory – inspired by pencil lead – that could make it all very simple
New Scientist