news 2011

Scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Southampton have developed important new insight into climate sensitivity - the sensitivity of global temperature to changes in the Earth's radiation balance - over the last half million years. Climate sensitivity is a key parameter for understanding past natural climate changes as well as potential future climate change.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of two huge pits positioned on celestial alignment at Stonehenge. Shedding new light on the significant association of the monument with the sun, these pits may have contained tall stones, wooden posts or even fires to mark its rising and setting and could have defined a processional route used by agriculturalists to celebrate the passage of the sun across the sky at the summer solstice.

Eating fruit such as apples could be up to four times more damaging to teeth than carbonated drinks, according to a new study led by Professor David Bartlett at the King's Dental Institute. Published in the Journal of Dentistry , the study looked at links between diet and tooth wear at several sites in the mouth, in more than 1,000 men and women aged 18 to 30.

Monday 10 October 2011 Adapted from a press release issued by the UK Met Office Watch a video of Professor Joanna Haigh explaining solar variability Research led by the Met Office has shed new light on a link between decadal solar variability and winter climate in the UK, northern Europe and parts of America.

Predictions of the ground-level pollutant ozone will be more accurate in future according to research published today (25 September) by environment scientists at research centres including the University of Birmingham Geoscience. Ozone is formed in the atmosphere when volatile organic compounds like isoprene - which is emitted by some plants - react with nitrogen oxides from car engines or industry.

Novel use of CT scanning technology has allowed researchers at the University of Bristol to create a four-dimensional picture of how ants build their nests. Ant nests are some of the most remarkable structures in nature. Their relative size is rivalled only by our own skyscrapers but there is no architect or blueprint.

Mineral inclusions discovered in diamonds prove that surface rocks can be subducted into the deep part of the Earth's mantle. The isotopic composition of the diamonds confirms that recycling of crustal materials, including carbon, extends into the lower mantle. The theory of plate tectonics is at the centre of our understanding of how the Earth works.

Preparations are underway for a unique test of engineering technology that could open up new ways to reduce atmospheric temperatures caused by climate change, and complement conventional measures to reduce carbon emissions. The test, the first of its kind in the UK, is expected to take place in the next few months, it was announced today at the British Science Festival in Bradford.

An international team of scientists, led by Stephen Barker of Cardiff University, has produced a prediction of what climate records from Greenland might look like over the last 800,000 years. Drill cores taken from Greenland's vast ice sheets provided the first clue that Earth's climate is capable of very rapid transitions and have led to vigorous scientific investigation into the possible causes of abrupt climate change.

Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after the Earth was formed. During the formation of the Earth, molten iron sank to its centre to make the core.

Research finds Greenland glacier melting faster than expected A key glacier in Greenland is melting faster than previously expected, according to findings by a team of academics, including Edward Hanna from University of Sheffield. Hanna, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, was part of a team of researchers that also included Sebastian Mernild from the Los Alamos Laboratory, USA, and Professor Niels Tvis Knudsen from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

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.

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.

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.

Pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the time of the dinosaurs, were not driven to extinction by the birds, but in fact they continued to diversify and innovate for millions of years afterwards. A new study by Katy Prentice, done as part of her undergraduate degree (MSci in Palaeontology and Evolution) at the University of Bristol, shows that the pterosaurs evolved in a most unusual way, becoming more and more specialised through their 160 million years on Earth.

by Simon Levey 17 June 2011 Research from the UK and Japan indicates that subatomic particles called neutrinos may have a previously unseen form of identity-shifting property. Announced this week, these results could one day help scientists explain why the universe contains matter, but very little antimatter.

A step closer to solving one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics? Experts may be on the cusp of an important breakthrough in the study of neutrinos following the exciting results released today (15 June 2011) of an international T2K neutrino experiment in Japan involving the University of Sheffield.

Where did all the matter in the universe come from? This is one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics and exciting results released from the international T2K neutrino experiment in Japan could be an important step towards resolving this puzzle. The T2K neutrino experiment has been conducted by a multinational team and the University of Liverpool's Professor Christos Touramanis from the Department of Physics has project managed the UK team.

Scientists have uncovered a landscape of deep fjords in Antarctica, carved by millions of years of ice movement. University researchers say the discovery, in a part of East Antarctica roughly the size of France, gives valuable insight into how the ice sheet formed. The global team of researchers say the find will also improve their understanding of how ice in the region might melt if ocean temperatures rise.

Scientists have unlocked more secrets about our evolutionary past by using new techniques to extract information from the fossilised teeth of our ancient human ancestors. By testing the tooth enamel of 19 hominids found in cave sites in South Africa, a new study involving researchers at the University of Oxford provides surprising evidence of how individuals dating back more than 2 million years once lived.