news 2010

University research has demonstrated nature's talent for cross-breeding plants to create new flowers. DNA analysis of wild evergreen rhododendrons in the Himalayas has suggested that hundreds of species of the plant could be derived from hybrids - cross-breeds between different species. Their findings may help explain the rich biodiversity of the natural world.

All kitted out and raring to go Scientists showcase state-of-the-art science vehicles and gear on the eve of record-breaking Antarctic expedition ? News Release Wednesday 8 September 2010 By Colin Smith Six-wheel drive mobile laboratories, a biofuelled ice vehicle that glides on skis, and the latest in wireless mobile sensors are on display today at Imperial College London, as a team of explorers and scientists makes final preparations for a record-breaking 3,600 mile scientific expedition across Antarctica, the driest and coldest continent on Earth.

A project to make conservation science accessible and relevant to conservationists and policymakers launches its first major synopsis of evidence, on bee conservation. For the first time, scientific knowledge and experience about how to conserve wild bees around the world has been brought together by conservation scientists led by Professor William J. Sutherland and Dr Lynn Dicks at the University of Cambridge.

Intervention lowers teenage drinking rates 26 Aug 2010, PR 181/10 Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King's College London, have found that a school-based, personalised intervention programme delivered by school staff can significantly decrease teenage drinking and binge drinking. A trial showed a 40 per cent reduction in teenage drinking rates in a group of pupils who took part in the intervention programme, and a 55 per cent reduction in binge drinking rates, relative to a control group.

The University of Cambridge's "Naked Scientists" are launching a new series of podcasts this week entitled "Naked Oceans". These monthly, half-hour podcasts, funded by the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF), investigate various topics of ocean science and conservation. They are presented by Helen Scales and Sarah Castor-Perry, both members of the Naked Scientists team and alumni of the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology.

Study finds deep, open ocean is vastly under-explored New research from the University of Sheffield has discovered that the deep open ocean, by far the largest habitat for life on Earth, is currently the most under-explored area of the sea, and the one we know least about.

The 318-million-year-old reptile footprints were found in sea-cliffs on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada. They show that reptiles were the first vertebrates (animals with a backbone) to conquer dry continental interiors. These pioneers paved the way for the diverse ecosystems that exist on land today.

Mountain marmots made bigger by climate change, says new study Marmots are waking up earlier from hibernation because of longer summers - News Release Longer summers are causing large mountain rodents called marmots to grow larger and get better at surviving, according to a 33-year study . The research, carried out by scientists at Imperial College London and collaborators in the UK and USA, looked at a population of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris), which are large ground-dwelling 'squirrels' that live at around 3000 metres in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

A UCL archaeologist is part of a team who have unearthed the earliest evidence of human occupation in Britain. Simon Parfitt was part of a team of archaeologists, palaeontologists and earth scientists from the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, UCL, and Queen Mary, University of London, who unearthed the new evidence at an archaeological dig in East Anglia.

Just as afternoon tea is traditional in England but not in France, different groups of meerkats have different ways of doing things, Cambridge zoologists have found. After studying meerkats in the Kalahari for the past 10 years, Dr Alex Thornton and colleagues from the Department of Zoology found that some groups of meerkats always got up later out of their sleeping burrows than their neighbours.

A new study, involving academics at the University of Sheffield, has accurately measured for the first time the current carbon cycles in the world. The research will enable scientists to make more accurate predictions concerning the impact of climate change in the future. The paper, which will be published today (5 July 2010) in the journal Science, used large amounts of remote sensing, climate and carbon data from around the world to assess Gross Primary Production.

Oil spills raise arsenic levels in the ocean, says new research Oil spills can increase levels of toxic arsenic in the ocean, creating an additional long-term threat to the marine ecosystem Oil spills can increase levels of toxic arsenic in the ocean, creating an additional long-term threat to the marine ecosystem, according to research published today in the journal Water Research.

Switching off your lights has a bigger impact than you might think, says new study Carbon emission figure used for policy analysis is 60 percent too low - News Release Switching off lights, turning the television off at the mains and using cooler washing cycles could have a much bigger impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power stations than previously thought, according to a new study published this month in the journal Energy Policy .

Leeds scientists have created the first convincing robotic fish that shoals will accept as one of their own. The innovation opens up new possibilities for studying fish behaviour and group dynamics. It provides useful information to support freshwater and marine environmental management, to predict fish migration routes and assess the likely impact of human intervention on fish populations.

From the collapse of the Doha Development Agenda to the ongoing impasse over climate change, the failure of governments to achieve real progress at the international negotiating table happens with depressing regularity. Now a new study suggests that one of the reasons why so many diplomatic discussions end up in a state of deadlock could be because most politicians are looking at the problem the wrong way round.

Two researchers at the University of Plymouth, have been awarded over £200, 000 to investigate how marine animals might, or might not, evolve to cope with living in a warm, high CO2 ocean. One of the first six projects to be funded by the UK’s first research programme to investigate the impacts of ocean acidification Professor John Spicer and Piero Calosi will work together with colleagues from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory to assess the impacts of ocean acidification on seabed ecosystems.

An attack by the Sunday Times on the veracity of climate change research has been withdrawn, with an apology, following a complaint by rainforest expert Dr Simon Lewis from the University of Leeds. In January, the Sunday Times claimed that UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had issued 'unsubstantiated' and 'bogus' threats about the vulnerability of the Amazonian rainforest to droughts caused by climate change.

It is less than one hundredth of a millimetre in diameter and has a delicately sculptured silica shell – meet Clipeoparvus anatolicus, a microscopic alga of a diatom genus previously unknown to scientists. Discovered by academics from the University of Plymouth in a crater lake in Turkey, the diatom was also found preserved in sediments dating back more than 1,500 years.

Hungry sharks, swordfish and other ocean predators have adopted different hunting behaviours depending on how much food is readily available. They use at least two particular methods to detect their next meal, according to research published online this week in Nature . An international research team, led by Professor David Sims of the Marine Biological Association Laboratory in Plymouth, UK, attached electronic tags to 55 individual fish from 14 different species of shark, tuna, billfish and ocean sunfish.

Climate change has led to masses of bizarre swimming crabs invading the North Sea - hundreds of miles from their usual home, new research has revealed. The exotic Henslow swimming crabs have moved from the warm seas off Portugal to the increasingly comfortable waters off Britain's east coast. Experts made the discovery while investigating an increase of the planktonic larvae of North Sea decapods - the microscopic offspring of shrimps and crabs.