news 2014

Oxford's law students have held their first moot court competition that specifically focuses on issues affecting people with disabilities.

Scientists report a new method for establishing whether chemical compounds are safe for human use without "in vivo" testing, based on so-called "molecular initiating events" at the boundary between chemistry and biology.

Press release issued: 3 November 2014 Heinrich events, in which large masses of icebergs rapidly broke free from ice sheets during the last ice age, are thought to have influenced global climate by interrupting ocean circulation patterns with a large influx of freshwater. However, new research from the University of Bristol suggests the variations in the height of the ice sheet that happen in these events might also influence global climate.

22 Aug 2014 New research by a team of UK and European-based astronomers is helping to solve the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year. The supernova, a giant explosion of a star and the closest one to the Earth in decades, was discovered earlier this year by chance at the University of London Observatory.

Scientists studying the social media activity in the immediate aftermath of Lee Rigby's murder have found that messages loaded with racial tension and hate were far less likely to spread than those infused with love. By collecting half a million tweets related to the attack via Twitter, academics from the University's Collaborative Online Social Media Observatory ( COSMOS ) were able to statistically model how the public reacted and have published their findings in the international peer-reviewed journal Social Network Analysis and Mining.

As Ireland marks the millennium of the Battle of Clontarf - portrayed as a heroic encounter between Irish and Vikings which defined the nation's identity - new research argues that our main source for what happened may be more literary history than historical fact. This was more than a literary flourish, it was a work of a superb, sophisticated and learned author Máire Ní Mhaonaigh The standard account of the Battle of Clontarf - a defining moment in Irish history which happened 1,000 years ago this week - was partly a "pseudo-history" borrowed from the tale of Troy, new research suggests.