news 2015

A new study led by the University of Oxford suggests that more insecticide-treated malaria nets (ITNs) and improved efficiency in net delivery are needed to achieve universal coverage and make serious headway on the path to the elimination of the disease. Currently, malaria net coverage remains well below the 100% universal coverage target.

Mariners have long spoken of 'walls of water' appearing from nowhere in the open seas. But oceanographers have generally disregarded such stories and suggested that rogue waves - enormous surface waves that have attained a near-mythical status over the centuries - build up gradually and have relatively narrow crests.

A mathematical problem underlying fundamental questions in particle physics and quantum physics is provably unsolvable, according to scientists at UCL, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - ICMAT and Technische Universität München. The findings show that even a perfect and complete description of the microscopic properties of a material is not enough to predict its macroscopic behaviour.

Swarming locusts interact with at least two of their neighbours when aligning themselves in order to march in the same direction, says new research led by Bath mathematicians. During swarming, locusts tend to move in the same direction as their neighbours, but then spontaneously switch direction together as a group, a behaviour also seen in other animal groups such as starlings and fish.

Academics from the University of Bristol will present new breakthroughs on two fundamental problems in Computer Science. These results will be presented at the world's leading international conference in computer science this week. The 56th annual IEEE symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2015) will take place in California from 18-20 October.

Uncertainty about climate change can, counter-intuitively, produce actionable knowledge and thus should provide an impetus, rather than a hindrance, to addressing climate change, researchers from the University of Bristol's Cabot Institute argue in a special issue of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions A, published this week.

A new study conducted by the University of Warwick links being born premature with low wages. Researchers have identified a link between being born preterm and decreased intelligence, reading and in particular mathematical ability and have highlighted an effect on earnings into adulthood.

Simple statistical software designed for electron microscope images can be used to improve pictures of everything from cells to the surface of Mars. The quality of images from digital cameras is affected by variations in their digital light sensors. Variations in sensitivity and even broken pixels in the sensors are a natural consequence of the microscopic scale of their fabrication.

Lancaster researchers have found that a cap masks the scale of violent crime against women in official statistics. Lancaster researchers estimate that violent crime is 60% higher than official figures suggest due to a cap, which means that a person can only be registered as a victim five times. This 60% increase is not evenly distributed, however.

The University of Nottingham has received £1.2m in funding for two research projects examining ways that teachers can boost maths confidence and numeracy rates in UK secondary schools. Both studies, involving 150 schools, and conducted with Durham University, will provide evidence to help narrow the achievement gap in maths, and pinpoint what hinders some students to learn.

Researchers have captured the first 3D video of a living algal embryo turning itself inside out, from a sphere to a mushroom shape and back again. The results could help unravel the mechanical processes at work during a similar process in animals, which has been called the "most important time in your life." This simple organism may provide ground-breaking information to help us understand similar processes in many different types of animals Stephanie Höhn Researchers from the University of Cambridge have captured the first three-dimensional images of a live embryo turning itself inside out.

New research harnessing fragmentary fossils suggests our genus has come in different shapes and sizes since its origins over two million years ago, and adds weight to the idea that humans began to colonise Eurasia while still small and lightweight. What we're seeing is perhaps the beginning of a unique characteristic of our own species - the origins of diversity.

A Lancaster University academic has been singled out in an international science journal for his far-reaching impact work on ship hatch designs. The weekly journal, Nature , has selected just 12 impact case studies for publication following the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), a rigorous assessment of research work undertaken by British universities.

The introduction of London's congestion charge led to a substantial reduction in the number of accidents in the city and a significant decline in the rate of accidents per mile driven. That is the central finding of new research by Professor Colin Green from Lancaster University Management School and colleagues, to be presented at the Royal Economic Society's 2015 annual conference later this month.

Professor Norman Fenton writes about his role co-presenting a forthcoming BBC Four documentary on climate change and the importance of three key statistics. I have the pleasure of being one of three presenters of a documentary called Climate Change by Numbers, to be screened on BBC Four on 2 March 2015.