news 2012

18 Dec 2012 Their work on a 50 million year old lizard skin identified the presence of teeth (invisible to visible light), demonstrating for the first time that this fossil animal was more than just a skin moult. This was only possible using some of the brightest light in the universe, x-rays generated by a synchrotron.

The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Northern Europe made cheese more than 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, published today in Nature. By analysing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery pierced with small holes excavated from archaeological sites in Poland, the researchers showed that dairy products were processed in these ceramic vessels.

An insight into the properties of fullerene is set to open the door to a new class of electronic acceptors which can be used to build better and cheaper organic solar cells. Organic solar cells have advanced a great deal since they were first invented nearly 20 years ago, but the fullerene component has remained largely the same and this has had a braking effect on the evolution of the technology.

A new catalyst developed by a team led by Oxford University scientists could be the key to creating small, long-lasting fuel cells for powering mobile devices. The catalyst can directly convert methanol into hydrogen at the relatively low temperature of 150 degrees Celsius and, crucially, generates no detectable amount of carbon monoxide (CO) - a poison that damages fuel cells and gives them a short lifespan.

Scientists at Imperial College London have developed a system to quickly detect trace amounts of chemicals like pollutants, explosives or illegal drugs. The new system can pick out a single target molecule from 10 000 trillion water molecules within milliseconds, by trapping it on a self-assembling single layer of gold nanoparticles.

Scientists at the University of Bristol, together with collaborators at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, have solved the structure of an enzyme that breaks down carbapenems , antibiotics 'of last resort' which, until recently, were kept in reserve for serious infections that failed to respond to other treatments.

New imaging technology has revealed how the molecular machines that remodel genetic material inside cells 'grab onto' DNA like a rock climber looking for a handhold. The experiments, reported in this week's Science , use laser light to generate very bright patches close to single cells. When coupled with fluorescent tags this 'spotlight' makes it possible to image the inner workings of cells fast enough to see how the molecular machines inside change size, shape, and composition in the presence of DNA.

Because of its intriguing properties graphene could be the ideal material for building new kinds of electronic devices such as sensors, screens, or even quantum computers. One of the keys to exploiting graphene's potential is being able to create atomic-scale defects - where carbon atoms in its flat, honeycomb-like structure are rearranged or 'knocked out' - as these influence its electrical, chemical, magnetic, and mechanical properties.

Researchers have identified a new means to eradicate malaria infections by rapidly killing the blood-borne Plasmodium parasites that cause the disease. Malaria causes up to 3 million deaths each year, predominantly afflicting vulnerable people such as children under five and pregnant women, in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

18 Oct 2012 The University of Manchester researchers, who were funded by the charities Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and Cancer Research UK, have shown that, when used in conjunction with radiotherapy, the new drug is potentially four times more likely to lead to long-term survival than radiotherapy alone.

The conventional wisdom would be that one of the products of this enzyme's activity is a chemical 'second messenger' that binds to and activates the channel. However, years of research had previously failed to find compelling evidence for such a straightforward mechanism." —Professor Roger Hardie, lead author of the study from the University of Cambridge's Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience Fly eyes have the fastest visual responses in the animal kingdom, but how they achieve this has long been an enigma.

Scientists from the University of Leeds have discovered enough water vapour to fill Earth's oceans more than 2000 times over in a gas and dust cloud which is about to collapse into a Sun-like star. The research, led by Professor Paola Caselli, is the first detection of water vapour in a ‘pre-stellar core’, the cold, dark clouds of gas and dust from which stars form.

Studying land-based birds is tough enough, but studying seabirds that spend much of their time over, on, or under water presents a new set of challenges. In this week's Journal of the Royal Society: Interface a team led by Oxford University scientists describes how new technologies and techniques made it possible to follow an important British seabird, the Manx Shearwater.

New models are being developed to predict how changing land use in the tropics could affect future climate, air quality and crop production. Is this change in land use resulting in unwelcome side-effects on ground-level ozone?" —Professor John Pyle Ozone has a dual personality best described as "good up high, bad nearby": the atmospheric gas is both vital - and potentially fatal - for our health.

A low-cost new material that could lead to innovative technologies to tackle global warming has been discovered by scientists at The University of Nottingham. The porous material, named NOTT-300, has the potential to reduce fossil fuel emissions through the cheaper and more efficient capture of polluting gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).

Melvyn shows how small molecules could help crack a big problem Chemistry undergraduate Melvyn Ansell's JRA project looked at small molecules to help solve one of the world's biggest problems - the environmental impact of CO2 emissions. The chemistry department at the University of Sussex is currently conducting research into clean fuels technology, looking at ways that greenhouse gases can be manipulated (eg conversion of CO2to other molecules) to mitigate their effect on global warming.

A way of printing lasers using everyday inkjet technology has been created by scientists. The development has a wide range of possible applications, ranging from biomedical testing to laser arrays for displays.

Organic farming is generally good for wildlife but does not necessarily have lower overall environmental impacts than conventional farming, a new analysis led by Oxford University scientists has shown. The researchers analysed data from 71 studies published in peer-reviewed journals that compared organic and conventional farms in Europe.

One of the first stages of developing the new renewable energy source under an industrially relevant environment. Until now, no inexpensive molecular catalyst was known to evolve H2 efficiently in water and under aerobic conditions.

An international research team, led from the University of Leeds, has found that a common anti-angina drug could help protect the heart against carbon monoxide poisoning. Animal studies have shown that the anti-angina drug ranolazine can significantly reduce the number of deaths from arrhythmias – irregular or abnormally paced heartbeats – that have been triggered by carbon monoxide.