One in ten babies born in Britain over the course of a year is to be monitored by scientists as they grow up, in the largest study to track the health and development of children.
About 100,000 children are to be enrolled from the autumn in a birth cohort study that will follow babies from late in pregnancy to reveal how genetic and environmental influences affect their progress.
Government funding for the £33.5 million project was announced yesterday by David Willetts, the Science Minister, as members of a seminal British study that became a worldwide model for such research begin to celebrate their 65th birthdays.
Since 1946, the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD), which has followed more than 5,000 people born in