news 2010

Study finds food in early life affects fertility The reproductive success of men and women is influenced by the food they receive at an early stage in life, according to new research by the University of Sheffield. The research, which was published online this month (17 December 2010) in the journal Ecology, is the first study of its kind to show that early life food can have a serious influence on the life-long fertility of individuals.

You only live once: our flawed understanding of risk helps drive financial market instability Our flawed understanding of how decisions in the present restrict options in the future means that we may underestimate the risk associated with investment decisions, according to new research - News release Our flawed understanding of how decisions in the present restrict our options in the future means that we may underestimate the risk associated with investment decisions, according to new research by Dr Ole Peters from Imperial College London.

While in the early 1990s, an average of 1.5 articles linked to HIV/AIDS could be found in every issue of the main broadsheet newspapers, levels of coverage have dropped to below 0.5 articles per newspaper issue since 2008. Coverage in French and US-based newspapers has decreased particularly dramatically during this period.

In 1953, Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau published his groundbreaking book The Silent World , which has since sold five million copies and captured the imagination of generations of armchair adventurers. While breathtaking in its pioneering approach and imagery, it fell short on one minor detail: the underwater world is anything but silent.

May 2010 saw the launch of the largest-ever research project on Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK. Professor David Gordon, Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research , describes the scope and background of this new study, which it is hoped will make a major contribution to tackling the problems of poverty and deprivation in 21st-century Britain.

Science | Environment Pete Wilton | 18 Nov 10 A recent expedition to the Indian Ocean returned with a new species of squid and a haul of strange and unusual creatures netted from the deep. I asked the expedition's Principal Scientist, Alex Rogers from Oxford University's Department of Zoology, about the team's bumper catch and what these deep-sea animals can tell us about ocean ecosystems, biodiversity and mitigating man's impact on our oceans.

These news items have previously appeared on the University of Edinburgh website and are archived here for reference. Please note that some of the links referenced in news items may no longer be active.

Media coverage of the UN's Copenhagen summit on climate change in 2009 'under-reported' the climate science, according to a new study published by Oxford University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ). It finds that most journalists reported extensively on 'the drama and minutiae of the negotiations' but that in the balance between capturing the drama and explaining the essential background to climate change, the science received scant coverage.

Evidence of an intense warming period in the Universe's early history, described as a form of "cosmic climate change", has been found by an international team of astronomers. The findings, shortly to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, were made by researchers measuring the temperature of gas that lies in between galaxies.

Study shows how ancient plants and soil fungi turned the Earth green A new breakthrough by scientists at the University of Sheffield has shed light on how the Earth's first plants began to colonise the land over 470 million years ago by forming a partnership with soil fungi. The research, which was published today (2 November 2010) , has provided essential missing evidence showing that an ancient plant group worked together with soil-dwelling fungi to `green´ the Earth in the early Palaeozoic era, nearly half a billion years ago.

Science 28 Oct 10 A Tasmanian lizard has evolved to give birth to more male or more female offspring depending on climatic conditions, Oxford University scientists have discovered. The snow skink ( Niveoscincus ocellatus ) is a small lizard that lives in both the warm lowlands and cooler highlands of Tasmania.

Science Pete Wilton | 15 Oct 10 Normally we think of metals in our water supply as a bad thing, but when it comes to trace amounts of metals welling-up from the ocean's depths we should count ourselves lucky that they appear. That's because metals such as iron and zinc are essential to all kinds of marine life - they act rather like a 'fuel' that powers ocean ecosystems.

The Sun's activity has recently affected the Earth's atmosphere and climate in unexpected ways, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature . The study, by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Colorado, shows that a decline in the Sun's activity does not always mean that the Earth becomes cooler.

Study sheds new light on how the Sun affects the Earth's climate New study reveals that Sun's activity has recently affected the Earth's atmosphere and climate in unexpected ways The Sun's activity has recently affected the Earth's atmosphere and climate in unexpected ways, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature .

Liverpool, UK - 6 October 2010: Geologists at the University of Liverpool are excavating a two-million-year-old World Heritage Site in Tanzania to understand how climate variations may have contributed to early human evolution. Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine on the edge of the Serengeti Plain, East Africa, and is home to some of the world's most important fossil hominins.

Science 05 Oct 10 The first detailed measurements of current extinction rates for a specific region have shown that birds are the best group to use to track the losses. The study also reveals Britain may be losing species over ten times faster than records suggest, and the speed of loss is probably increasing: the losses from England alone may exceed one species every two weeks.

Science Cath Harris | 04 Oct 10 New genome research at Oxford University could change the way scientists view our evolution. The relationship and emergence of the three 'domains' of life - the three founding branches of the Tree of Life to which all living cells belong - has been much disputed. Two of these domains, Bacteria and Eukaryotes (which includes all animals, plants and fungi) are familiar but less is known of the third: these organisms are collectively called the Archaea.

University of Sussex ecologist Mike Hutching's study of rare orchids has provided a powerful source of data for studying climate change, according to new research. Professor Hutchings' collection from the Castle Hill National Nature Reserve was used in research published today (Wednesday 22 September 2010) in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Ecology.

Reflecting sunlight from the Earth by geoengineering would undoubtedly cool the climate, but would different countries agree on how much to reflect? Research by climate scientists at the University of Bristol shows that the impact of geoengineering would be felt in very different ways across the world.

Researchers have discovered key plant enzymes that normally make the energy stored in wood, straw, and other non-edible parts of plants difficult to extract. The findings can be used to improve the viability of sustainable biofuels that do not adversely affect the food chain.