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A research team, led by Jane Stuart-Smith of the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow has been awarded £235,000 by the Leverhulme Trust to study the evolution of speech in the city over the course of the past century. The project is now asking members of the public to come forward with their own examples of audio recordings, particularly from before 1980 and especially involving teenagers and women.

Experts at the University of Glasgow have discovered how plants survive the harmful rays of the sun. UV-B wavelengths are the most powerful part of the daylight spectrum and are potentially damaging both to humans and plants. However, plants rarely show signs of damage because they have evolved a way of protecting themselves from the sun's harmful rays by making their own chemical sunscreen in their leaves.

New research shows that the health of the city's most deprived residents could be impaired before they are even born. Experts from the University of Glasgow examined blood samples of 239 people from Glasgow's most deprived and most affluent areas, and found significant differences in levels of methylation in their DNA.

SCIENTISTS at Cancer Research UK's Beatson Institute have created the first 3D structure of a key protein that protects against the development of cancer, according to research published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The team used high-tech X-ray analysis to map out the structure of a protein called c-Cbl - and showed that it changes shape when it is switched on.

New research led by a team at the University of Glasgow shows that a good indicator of how long individuals will live can be obtained from early in life using the length of specialised pieces of DNA called telomeres. Telomeres occur at the ends of the chromosomes, which contain our genetic code. They function a bit like the plastic caps at the end of shoelaces by marking the chromosome ends and protecting them from various process that gradually cause the ends to be worn away.

Scientists from the University of Glasgow have made a major step towards understanding the genetic make-up of a parasite which causes the flesh-eating disease leishmaniasis. The disease is spread by sand flies and threatens about 350 million people in 88 countries, including Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan and parts of China.

There has been a significant increase in the amount of negative reporting of disability issues in the print media, according to a new study by the University of Glasgow. The report, commissioned by disability equality organisation Inclusion London, compared print media articles from 2004/5 and 2010/11 and found a reduction in the proportion of articles which describe disabled people in sympathetic and deserving terms.

Men develop type 2 diabetes at a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than women, according to new research by clinical academics at the University of Glasgow. The research, carried out with colleagues from the Scottish Diabetes Research Network , helps explain why men have higher rates of diabetes in many parts of the world.

Lee Cronin [mp4] Scientists at the University of Glasgow say they have taken their first tentative steps towards creating 'life' from inorganic chemicals potentially defining the new area of 'inorganic biology'. Professor Lee Cronin, Gardiner Chair of Chemistry in the College of Science and Engineering, and his team have demonstrated a new way of making inorganic-chemical-cells or iCHELLS.

Facial expressions have been called the "universal language of emotion," but people from different cultures perceive happy, sad or angry facial expressions in unique ways, according to new research from the University of Glasgow. Facial Recognition [mp3] Scotsman: Happy or sad face? Depends on your culture Fifteen Chinese people and 15 Caucasians living in Glasgow took part in the study.

A major discovery by archaeologists working in Perthshire will cast new light on understanding of the earliest history of Scotland. Broch Discovery [mp3] A team from the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project have uncovered near the village of Dunning an exquisitely preserved Iron Age broch filled with evidence of early between the Picts and the Roman Empire.

When it comes to speech, the human brain has two main tasks: to articulate it and to understand it. For many years psychologists have debated whether these two functions use the same regions of the brain. Now scientists at the University of Glasgow, Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics have found the answer.

Searching the internet might seem simple, but applying a little bit of economic theory to information retrieval can shed some light on the best search strategies to adopt, according to researchers. Leif Azzopardi from the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow took production theory from microeconomics and applied it to the process of searching the internet, or any other database system.

A new study of the DNA of people living in Glasgow suggests that earning less than the average wage and eating an unhealthy diet could accelerate the ageing process. The study, conducted by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, compared the length of telomeres in blood samples taken from 382 Glaswegians from the most and least deprived parts of the city.

When reading direct quotations, the brain 'hears' the voice of the speaker, say scientists. It is a finding long accepted as evident but never scientifically investigated, according to researcher Christoph Scheepers from the University of Glasgow. Now a team from the University's Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi) has established that reading direct speech activates 'voice-selective areas' of the brain.

Scientists at the Universities of Glasgow and Southampton have uncovered a new method for culturing adult stem cells which could lead to the creation of revolutionary stem cell therapies for conditions such as arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Diseases of the immune system such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis could be treated by a gas produced naturally by the body, scientists at the University have found. Autoimmune disease occurs when a person's immune system attacks his own body. It is a major global health problem and it is vital that better treatment is found.

A major literary discovery has been made in Sir Walter Scott's library at Abbotsford House. The Grotesquiad was recently uncovered by the Faculty of Advocates during efforts to catalogue Sir Walter's collection. Gerard Carruthers and Rhona Brown of the University's College of Arts have identified the author as James Beattie (1735-1803), who is known to have written a poem of this title, long thought to be lost.

A new study by scientists has revealed that time spent sitting down is a diabetes risk factor in South Asians independent of how much they exercise. Approximately one-quarter of UK South Asians over the age of 55 have type 2 diabetes. The study, conducted by researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, screened 1,228 South Asians of Indian and Pakistani descent for blood glucose levels, waist size, time spent sitting down and physical activity levels.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have shown that when parts of our vision are blocked, the brain steps in to fill in the blanks. The team from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology conducted a series of experiments that showed how our brains predict what cannot be seen by drawing on our previous experiences to build up an accurate picture.