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Musical sounds created by longitudinal vibrations within the Sun's atmosphere, have been recorded and accurately studied for the first time by experts at the University of Sheffield, shedding light on the Sun's magnetic atmosphere. Using state-of-the-art mathematical theory combined with satellite observations, a team of solar physicists from the University have captured the music on tape and revealed the harmonious sounds are caused by the movement of giant magnetic loops in the solar corona - the outermost, mysterious, and least understood layer of the Sun's atmosphere.

A new way of finding community structure within networks - anything from social networks such as Facebook, to transport networks, political voting networks, and protein interaction networks in biology - could help us understand how people are connected and how connections change over time. The new technique, developed by a team from the University of North Carolina, University of Oxford, and Harvard University, aims to be more realistic than conventional approaches, which only capture one type of connection or a network at only one moment in time.

Scientists have developed a new computational model to uncover gene regulation, the key to how our body develops - and how it can go wrong. The researchers, from The University of Manchester (UK), Aalto University (Finland) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Heidelberg (Germany), say the new method identifies targets of regulator genes.

A breakthrough discovery by experts at the University of Sheffield, which sheds light on mega-tsunamis on the Sun, is set to be revealed at the House of Commons next week (Monday 8 March 2010). Solar physicists from the University will discuss their discovery of solar Transition Region Quakes to an audience of MPs both from the House of Commons and the House of Lords at the House of Commons Marquee, after being selected by the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.