Today’s physics news: Wednesday, 5 May

SNP and Plaid Cymru champion a green revolution
Both the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties are passionate advocates of action against climate change, writes the Guardian, but other areas of their science policies are sketchy
 
Guardian 
 
Universities and colleges go on strike over swingeing funding cuts
Thousands of students in colleges and universities are expected to be affected by ‘widespread disruption’ today as planned protests take place over cuts and possible job losses

The Guardian
The Times
BBC  
 
African rocks record ancient magnetic field
Scientists have managed to push back the date for the earliest known presence of a magnetic field on Earth by about 250 million years using evidence seen in tiny iron minerals that are aligned inside ancient dacite rocks from the Barberton mountains in South Africa.

BBC News 
 
Mission Mars: six men to spend 520 days in 1,000sq ft capsule
Wanted: six men to spend up to two years together in cramped quarters pretending to be astronauts for Russian Mars 500 project
 
The Telegraph 
 
Space manifesto proposes economic take-off
Plans to help the next government launch Britain’s economy on a multi-billion pound journey into space were set out by industry chiefs today.

The Independent