news 2018

An investigation by scientists at King's College London into why some people suffer tooth erosion while others don't has found that it's not just what they eat and drink, but how they eat and drink, that increases their chances of developing the condition. The research, reviewed in the British Dental Journal, identifies the risk factors and damaging habits associated with the consumption of acidic foods that result in the loss of tooth enamel and dentine, known as erosive tooth wear.

The fossil Waptia from the Burgess Shale, Canada. New Oxford University research suggests that the mineralogy of the surrounding earth is key to conserving soft parts of organisms, and finding more exceptional fossils like the Waptia. Image credit: Yale University Fossils that preserve entire organisms (including both hard and soft body parts) are critical to our understanding of evolution and ancient life on Earth.

A scientist from the University of Bristol is part of an international team that has shown that the changing topography of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere during the last Ice Age forced changes in the climate of Antarctica, a previously undocumented inter-polar climate change mechanism. The new research co-authored by Dr William Roberts from Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences and led by the University of Colorado Boulder has been published in the journal Nature .

The ozone layer is recovering at the poles, but unexpected decreases in part of the atmosphere may be preventing recovery at lower latitudes. Global ozone has been declining since the 1970s owing to certain man-made chemicals. Since these were banned, parts of the layer have been recovering, particularly at the poles.

Man-made earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA, are strongly linked to the depth at which wastewater from the oil and gas industry are injected into the ground, according to a new study led by the University of Bristol. Oklahoma has been a seismic hotspot for the past decade, with the number of damaging earthquakes — including the magnitude 5.

Artefacts revealed by melting ice patches in the high mountains of Oppland shed new light on ancient high-altitude hunting. Town-dwellers needed mountain products such as antlers for artefact manufacture and probably also furs James Barrett Climate change is one of the most important issues facing people today and year on year the melting of glacial ice patches in Scandinavia, the Alps and North America reveals and then destroys vital archaeological records of past human activity.

The body of an elephant calf lies on the side of a remote highway in the north of Peninsular Malaysia - the East-West Highway is flanked by two wildlife refuges, Royal Belum State Park and the Temengor Forest Reserve. It is stories like this in the Malaysian media that are of increasing concern to wildlife experts.