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of their daughter particles, with highprecision. The detector is scheduled to bemoved to the collision point of the collider inFebruary 1999.

Animal rights protesterends hunger strike[MUNICH] Imprisoned British animal rightsactivist Barry Horne has ended a 68-dayhunger strike intended to force the Britishgovernment into concessions on the use ofanimals in research. Horne stopped his strikein a York hospital and accepted treatment lastSunday after receiving a new proposal fromthe government.

The plan involves the government’sAnimal Procedures Committee becomingmore independent, and collaborating moreclosely with the Associate ParliamentaryGroup for Animal Welfare, which includesmembers of animal rights organizations.Militant activists had threatened to kill tenBritish scientists involved in animal researchif Horne died (see Nature 396, 505; 1998).

German X-ray satellitereturns its last data [WASHINGTON] The long-lived GermanROSAT X-ray satellite made its finalobservations last week, after eight years of

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California’s teachingassistants suspendstrike and agree to talk[LONDON] A planned strike by teachingassistants at all nine campuses of theUniversity of California was averted lastweek when state legislators brokered a 45-day cooling-off period for talks betweenrepresentatives of the 6,700 assistants anduniversity authorities.

But the assistants say they are stillprepared to strike unless talks planned tostart this week result in recognition of theirmembership of a labour union.

The assistants, who are mainly graduatestudents with some teaching responsibilities,are demanding the right to collectivebargaining for pay and conditions. Theuniversity has so far refused to accept this,claiming that teaching assistants are studentsand not employees. Teaching assistants,however, claim that some professors getthem to teach core undergraduate courses.

South African ministerhits out at former official[CAPE TOWN] South Africa’s Minister of Arts,Culture, Science and Technology, LionelMtshali, has accused his departed director-

general, Roger Jardine, of belonging to a“cabal lurking in the woods” that isattempting to impose the African NationalCongress’ agenda on the arts and culture (seeNature 396, 298; 1998).

In a lengthy statement, Mtshali accusedthe cabal of trying to hold the NationalHeritage Bill hostage, and deniedresponsibility for the breakdown in relationsbetween Jardine and one of the minister’s twodeputies, Musa Xulu. Mtshali alsovehemently denied accusations thatschoolteachers in the former Kwazuluhomeland (of which he was educationminister) were required to belong to theInkatha Freedom Party.

Particle detector goeson line soon in Japan[TOKYO] Belle, a detector intended to explainthe mysterious imbalance between matterand antimatter in the Universe, is nearingcompletion at Japan’s High EnergyAccelerator Research Organization (KEK) inTsukuba, Ibaragi Prefecture.

Work began in 1994 on the precisionparticle detector to study B-mesonsproduced by KEK’s new electron–positroncollider, called KEK B-factory. Belle willdetect and measure the decay vertices of B-mesons, as well as the energies and momenta

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studying high-energy emissions in space.ROSAT’s High Resolution Imager, one ofthree main instruments, was irreversiblydamaged in September when it scanned tooclose to the Sun (see Nature 395, 826; 1998).

Mission managers used the imager’sremaining supply of xenon gas to reactivateanother instrument, the Position SensitiveProportional Counter (PSPC), which hadexhausted its own gas supply in 1994. Duringa final two days of observations, the PSPCreturned data on Supernova 1987a and otherselected astrophysical targets. Launched in1990, ROSAT was designed to last only 20months.

UK power from biomasshelps meet carbon target[LONDON] The country that gave cricket to theworld has scored another first for the use ofthe fast-growing willow tree, a variety ofwhich is used to make cricket bats — it isusing it to produce electricity. Last week JohnBattle, the energy and industry minister, laidthe foundation stone for Britain’s first‘significant’ power station to be fuelled bybiomass.

The power station, to be built in Yorkshire, will turn 42,000 tonnes a year of specially grown willow, as well as agricultural and forestry wastes, into

8 megawatts of electricity, sufficient to heat8,000 homes. Battle said that, in addition to contributing to sustainable developmentby using a renewable resource, the stationwould help to meet national andinternational carbon reduction targets.

Europe’s researchersget high-speed network[LONDON] Research organizations incountries in northern Europe last weeklogged into an exclusive high-speed Internet ring that can carry 155 megabits of information per second.

The network, known as TEN-155, willeventually connect research organizations in16 European countries. Countries insouthern and central Europe are expected tojoin next year. The project has been partlyfunded by the European Commission aspart of the fourth Framework programmeof research.

Magnetoresistanceattracts German prize[MUNICH] During a television spectacular last week, Germany’s president, RomanHerzog, awarded the new DeutscheZukunftspreis ( the ‘German Future Prize’) to Peter Grünberg, a scientist at the Institute

of Solid State Physics in Jülich, for hisdiscovery of ‘giant magnetoresistance’. This property can be used to help developsensors that can read very compact data oncomputer hard disks.

In an attempt both to show the ‘fun’ side of science to the public and to stress “theimportance of innovative research”, the prize, worth DM500,000 (US$300,000), was awarded at the German Theatre in Berlin amid musical and acrobatic displays.Grünberg’s selection from a shortlist of four was dramatically revealed when thewinner’s envelope was opened on stage.

CorrectionA recent article on neutrino studies beingcarried out with the SuperKamiokandedetector at the Kamioka Observatory,Institute for Cosmic Ray Research,University of Tokyo, stated that Monbushohas been asked for a budget increase from¥5 million to ¥10.4 billion for a project todetect neutrinos (see Nature 339955, 107; 1998).The second figure should have read ¥1.04billion.

The article was also incorrect in statingthat the Long Baselines Neutrino OscillationExperiment will send neutrinos through a250-kilometre underground tunnel;neutrinos can pass through the Earthwithout the help of a tunnel.

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