news 2011

Birmingham particle physicists are today trawling through the data from particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider that could indicate the existence of the Higgs boson. Against the regular backdrop of results from known processes, proton-proton collisions have produced considerable fluctuations that have intrigued scientists working at the ATLAS project in CERN.

When reading direct quotations, the brain 'hears' the voice of the speaker, say scientists. It is a finding long accepted as evident but never scientifically investigated, according to researcher Christoph Scheepers from the University of Glasgow. Now a team from the University's Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi) has established that reading direct speech activates 'voice-selective areas' of the brain.

A team led by scientists at UCL, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and AVI BioPharma, have made an important breakthrough in the development of a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Together with the MDEX Consortium, chaired by Professor Francesco Muntoni (UCL Institute for Child Health), the group show in a paper published in The Lancet today that a gene-based drug treatment was effective in restoring the dystrophin protein that is missing in sufferers of DMD, in seven out of 19 trial participants.

Researchers have taken another step forward towards the understanding of wonder material graphene. Research institutes and universities around the world are already looking at ways to build devices such as touch-screen phones, ultrafast transistors and photodetectors. Now the new findings promise to accelerate that research, and potentially open up countless more electronic opportunities.

Why were people offended when BBC broadcaster James Naughtie mispronounced the surname of the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt' Why is it much easier for bilingual speakers to swear in their second language' Why are people offended by swear words ' but not euphemisms' New research from the University of Bristol sheds light on these issues and how they might help to answer the much-debated question: does the language you speak affect the way you thi

A fossil from north-eastern China has revealed that terrestrial reptiles were giving birth to live young at least as early as 120 million years ago. The newly discovered fossil of a pregnant lizard proves that some squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes) were giving birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, in the Early Cretaceous period - much earlier than previously thought.

In urban fox families, mothers determine which cubs get to stay and which must leave while fathers have little say in the matter, new research by biologists at the University of Bristol has found. In a world of increasing urban sprawl, red foxes have successfully established themselves in our very backyard.

Scientists have found that ancient footprints in Laetoli, Tanzania, show that human-like features of the feet and gait existed almost two million years earlier than previously thought. Many earlier studies have suggested that the characteristics of the human foot, such as the ability to push off the ground with the big toe, and a fully upright bipedal gait, emerged in early Homo , approximately 1.9 million years-ago.

Players of the game rock paper scissors subconsciously copy each other's hand shapes, significantly increasing the chance of the game ending in a draw, according to new research. A study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that even when players lose out by drawing a game, they can't help themselves from copying the hand gestures of their opponent.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham are set to monitor brain reactions when exposed to images of food in a study which will provide an insight into the difficulties of weight and diet control faced by young diabetes patients. Brain reactions to pictures of different types of food will be compared between teenagers who are a healthy weight, teenagers who are obese, and teenagers who have type 2 diabetes.

Computer simulation was used to predict the footprints that would have been formed by the likely printmaker, a species called Australopithecus afarensis Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that ancient footprints in Laetoli, Tanzania, show that human-like features of the feet and gait existed almost two million years earlier than previously thought.

A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists at the University of Bristol. Their experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law. This historic discovery is described in a paper published today.

Suicide rates among people with mental illness in England and Wales have fallen over the last decade, latest figures show. The 2011 Annual Report published today (Tuesday, 19 July) by The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry (NCI) into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness reveals: Patient suicides have fallen from a peak of 1,315 in 2004 to 1,196 in 2008.

The solitary and mysterious lives of British otters are being uncovered by Cardiff scientists - thanks to help from the public. Otters were already understood to use scent as their main means of communication. However, little was known about what information was communicated or the social functions of the scent.

Scientists at the Universities of Glasgow and Southampton have uncovered a new method for culturing adult stem cells which could lead to the creation of revolutionary stem cell therapies for conditions such as arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

The genome of a dry rot fungus has revealed how it can cause severe damage to buildings. The findings could help in the development of biofuels and may explain how conifer forests evolved. In 2007 the US Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute sequenced Serpula lacrymans in order to see if the way it breaks down cellulose in wood could be harnessed for biofuel production.

A protein molecule that 'glues' cells together and so has a key role in cancer is also responsible for many other important functions of cells, a new study has found. University of Manchester scientists say their unexpected findings are important because they could lead to a better understanding of why some cancer cells are difficult to eradicate in patients and lead to new cancer treatments.

Tiny chemical particles emitted by diesel exhaust fumes could raise the risk of heart attacks, research has shown. University scientists have found that ultrafine particles produced when diesel burns are harmful to blood vessels. They can increase the chances of blood clots forming in arteries, leading to a heart attack or stroke.

A University of Warwick physicist has produced a galaxy sized solution which explains one of the outstanding puzzles of particle physics, while leaving the door open to the related conundrum of why different amounts of matter and antimatter seem to have survived the birth of our Universe. Physicists would like a neat universe where the laws of physics are so universal that every particle and its antiparticle behave in the same way.

Fresh research into glaciers could help scientists better predict the impact of changing climates on global sea levels. Scientists have shown for the first time that the terrain beneath glaciers influences how much glacier melt contributes to fluctuations in sea levels. Researchers say the study will improve their understanding of how ice sheet movements have affected sea levels in the past.