news

Do spiders use their web as a computer? New research, led by the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, will look at spiders' webs to investigate their computational capabilities and based on this research they will develop new sensor technology to measure vibrations and flow. Spiders' webs have evolved over hundreds of millions of years and can be surprisingly complex.

Infertility is taking its toll on relationships in Ghana. New research shows Ghanaian women who have problems conceiving are more likely to experience relationship breakdown. The first long-term study of its kind, carried out by Dr Jasmine Fledderjohann, of Lancaster University, focused on information from 1,364 women.

Our genes play a significant role in how anxious we feel when faced with spatial and mathematical tasks, such as reading a map or solving a geometry problem, according to a new study by researchers from King's College London. Spatial skills are important in everyday life, from navigation to assembling flat-pack furniture, and have also been linked to success in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professions.

England has one of the lowest levels of post-16 mathematics engagement among developed countries, according to international comparisons. This is despite the fact that mathematics qualifications such as A-level maths are linked to higher salaries, as reported in new research. In 2011 the Secretary of State for Education called for the 'vast majority' of young people to be studying mathematics up to 18 by the end of the decade.

What could be learnt about the world if you could read the news from over 100 local newspapers for a period of 150 years' This is what a team of Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers from the University of Bristol have done, together with a social scientist and a historian, who had access to 150 years of British regional newspapers.

The discovery of the shape and binding capability of epidermal cells could explain how skin maintains a barrier even when it is shedding. The discovery of the shape and binding capability of epidermal cells could explain how skin maintains a barrier even when it is shedding. Our study is also helping us to see how the cells that make up our skin can switch on a mechanism to make a kind of glue, which binds the cells together, ensuring that our skin maintains its integrity.

A unique two-year research project to better identify the cardiac function of monochorionic twins with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) has been unveiled by St Michael's Hospital and Bristol's Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRICBristol) today [Thursday 17 November]. Funded by The Capella Foundation , a charity that helps increase awareness of medical complications during pregnancy, the project will seek to find out how the syndrome develops and identify ways to improve survival outcomes.

The first step on a new path to quantum supremacy has been proposed by a mathematician from the University of Bristol. Quantum computers are a new type of computing device that use the principles of quantum mechanics to do things that standard computers cannot do. Large-scale quantum computers are predicted to dramatically outperform current supercomputers for tasks ranging from simulating quantum-mechanical systems to cracking cryptographic codes, and could be used to design new drugs and novel materials.

A scientist has shown mathematically that the dynamics that govern swarms and bird flocks may also govern the properties of things like magnets. The researcher from Imperial College London has developed a mathematical equation to understand more about motility. This phenomenon refers to the ability of individual birds, insects or cells to actively influence the overall shape of swarms, flocks and human tissue.

A link between handedness and mathematical skills exists but is more complex than thought, according to a study by the University of Liverpool. The relationship between handedness and mathematical abilities is controversial. Some studies have claimed that left-handers are gifted in mathematics, and strong right-handers perform the worst in mathematical tasks.

Knowing that there is a small chance of getting a painful electric shock can lead to significantly more stress than knowing that you will definitely be shocked, finds a new UCL study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The study found that situations in which subjects had a 50% chance of receiving a shock were the most stressful while 0% and 100% chances were the least stressful.

Researchers have built the first biologically realistic mathematical model of how the brain plans and learns when faced with a complex decision-making process. By combining planning and learning into one coherent model, we've made what is probably the most comprehensive model of complex decision-making to date Johannes Friedrich Researchers have constructed the first comprehensive model of how neurons in the brain behave when faced with a complex decision-making process, and how they adapt and learn from mistakes.

It has long been argued that women are under-represented and marginalised in relation to men in the world's news media. New research, using artificial intelligence (AI), has analysed over two million articles to find out how gender is represented in online news. The study, which is the largest undertaken to date, found men's views and voices are represented more in online news than women's.

Scientists have discovered how the distinctive piebald patches seen in black and white cats and some horses are formed in the womb. Their insights could shed light on medical conditions that occur early in development, such as holes in the heart, which are caused by cells not moving to the right place as an embryo develops.

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.