It wasn’t all bad

Oxford University has been named the best in the world, knocking five-time champion the California Institute of Technology into second place. In total, the UK took 91 of the top 980 places in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and three in the top ten. Cambridge is ranked fourth, below Stanford University, but above Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton, while Imperial College London comes in eighth.

A 26-year-old British pilot has become one of the youngest women in the world to captain a commercial airliner. Last week, Kate Mcwilliams, who works for easyjet, captained a flight from Gatwick to Malta with Luke Elsworth – who earlier this year became Britain’s youngest commercial pilot, at 19. Mcwilliams joined the air cadets at 13, started her flight training on her 19th birthday, and joined easyjet as a first officer in May 2011. She has now passed the airline’s command course to become a captain, flying Airbus 319s and 320s.

We may not be able to enjoy their dawn chorus, but it turns out that fish also wake up with a song in their hearts. A study has found that an array of fish songs pour forth at dawn and dusk, from the “ba-ba-ba” of the batfish, to the foghorn sound produced by the black jewfish, and the grunting of the terapontid. Fish also sing to attract a mate. Indeed, the love song of the male plainfin midshipman is so loud, it can be heard by humans. It’s not very melodious, however: it is said to resemble the noise of a windscreen wiper.