He’s owl right
This young owl fell out of its nest at the University farm and was ringed and returned by a licenced bird ringer from the school of biology. If the bird is recovered in future, the number held on the British Trust for Ornithology database will indicate how far it has moved and how long it has survived.

How to create great web pages
Daunted at the prospect of writing website content? If so, help is at hand from the press office’s new guide to creating great webpages; ‘Web style’. This jargon-free guide outlines key rules for producing excellent content, including finding your audience, keeping things simple, constructive criticism, using verbs to engage your readers and how to edit copy. Illustrated examples show how to cut clutter, improve accuracy and keep your site up-to-date and easy to use. There are tips to help you improve navigation, maintain accessibility and ensure your pages are seen by the widest possible audience by using meta tags. ‘Web style’ will put you in control of your content, speed up development time and offer more to your readers. ‘Web style’ is available at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/web/

Award for teaching excellence
Professor of medical education Deborah Murdoch-Eaton has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship worth £50,000. The NTF scheme recognises and rewards teachers and learning support staff in higher education for excellence in teaching. See http://www.ntfs.ac.uk/

‘Batcane’ launch
Biologist Dean Waters’ Ultracane, inspired by the way bats navigate, will be commercially launched on July 14 in Birmingham. The cane, developed by Sound Foresight Ltd, uses ultrasonic echoes which bounce off objects around the user, feeding signals back to enable the user to ‘see’ their surroundings (see Reporter 484).

Ladies give generous donation
Leeds Ladies’ Club presented acting Vice-Chancellor Professor David Sugden with a cheque of £1,250 for the University on 8 June to mark the centenary.

New courses for deaf tutors
Deaf sign language tutors will benefit from state-of-the-art teaching methods in a project being trialled at Leeds. The project, which it is hoped will roll out across the UK, will provide language teaching and the chance to gain higher-level qualifications. More

Heading in the write direction
Forty pupils from schools in Leeds were presented with a book of their own creative writing at the University in June. The book is the result of a creative writing project involving Year ten children in four schools across the city in which they worked with Leeds-based poet James Nash and PGCE students. The project, run by the school of education, targeted pupils who demonstrated motivation and modest potential, but who were unsure whether they would consider higher education. Based on practical rather than text- book learning, pupils spent time on the University campus as well as in the classroom. More

Neutron boost for White Rose
The White Rose Consortium’s efforts to bring the most powerful neutron scattering facility in the world to the region has been boosted by the backing of a Commons Select Committee. The £1bn joint bid, in conjunction with Yorkshire Forward, to host the European Spallation Source was recommended for government backing in the committee’s report. The neutron source would be visited by thousands of scientists a year to conduct research. A planning application has been made to build the ESS at a site in Selby, North Yorkshire. More

Award for safer anaesthetics
Professor of anaesthesia Phillip Hopkins has been awarded £589,711 by the Department of Health to develop screening for a potentially fatal genetic condition triggered by general anaesthetics. Between one-in-2,000 and one-in-10,000 people are at risk of developing malignant hyperthermia as a reaction to commonly used anaesthetics. Patients at high risk have to travel to the national testing centre at St James's University Hospital for a muscle biopsy. Professor Hopkins hopes to develop a less invasive and more reliable DNA test for the condition.