science wire

Innovative composer appeals for iPad and iPhone owners to join him in music collaboration
Owners of Apple iPads and iPhones are invited to be part of an open ‘iOrchestra’ next week and perform a large-scale composition by a University composer.

Improving women’s participation in the public discourse
Research shows that female academic experts are seriously under-represented in the media, and this means that readers often lack a broader perspective on an issue, says a former journalist who monitors and studies female representation in the media.

King’s India Institute launch
King's College London held the official inauguration ceremony yesterday for its new India Institute, which is aiming to become the leading international centre for the study of contemporary India.

Abstracts wanted for Pediatric Research Day
Guidelines for reporting of child abuse, sexual assault Board chair and vice chair issue statement on questions about Paterno Alumni Town Hall meetings begin in Pittsburgh Panel discussion 'Responding to Child Sexual Abuse' set for Jan.

Prince Charles and Durham expert in Christmas Day documentary on composer of ‘Jerusalem’
Prince Charles and Durham expert in Christmas Day documentary on composer of ‘Jerusalem' A Durham music expert will star alongside Prince Charles in a Christmas Day programme about the composer of some of Britain's best known anthems.

Recognition for endangered species studies
As the climate changes, what factors allow some species to survive while others perish? Professor Mike Bruford, of the School of Biosciences, has been at the forefront of the international drive to solve this increasingly urgent question.

Ho Ho Ho with Plymouth University!
Under the brief 'explore, dream, discover’ linking to the 150th anniversary of the University’s School of Navigation roots, Kerryn Husk’s winning design was chosen by Vice-Chancellor Professor Wendy Purcell and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor David Coslett.

The man with the golden brain
What's the point of a brain? A fundamental question that has led Professor Daniel Wolpert to some remarkable conclusions about how and why the brain controls and predicts movement.

Brian Schmidt receives Nobel Prize in Stockholm

Staff recognised in university media awards

Winners announced in portable classrooms for the future comp
An international jury has deliberated over design ideas submitted to the Melbourne School of Design competition to revolutionise the humble re-locatable classroom, and the results are now in.

Putting a price on trauma
A study that has changed the way specialist trauma hospitals function such as St George, Royal Prince Alfred and the Royal North Shore has won Sydney Nursing School's Clinical Associate Professor Kate Curtis a prestigious Trans-Tasman award.

Adventures in science writing
For many scientists writing about science either in their spare time or as a career can seem attractive: but what does it take to be a successful science writer?

How will we remember them?
As we approach Remembrance Day, a Cambridge University project that looks at the role of memorials in conflict-torn communities is drawing to a close.

Australian Scientist Wins Major International Award
An Australian paediatric neurologist is one of five international scientists to win the prestigious L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award for her ground-breaking research into epilepsy.

Alice’s Wonderland inspires science’s Wondermind
Psychologists, inspired by Lewis Carroll's enduring stories of Alice in Wonderland, have developed an interactive website to help children learn about science and the human brain.

Shortlisted for inequality work
Cardiff Social Scientist Professor Teresa Rees CBE AcSS is on the first-ever shortlist for Research Fortnight's Achiever of the Year Award.

Four Young Tall Poppy Science Awards for University of Sydney

Yulyurlu: Lorna Fencer Napurrurla exhibition

Bonuses and risk not linked, says research
New research into the causes of the credit crisis has cast doubt on the alleged link between bonus payments and risk exposures in the UK financial sector.

Skolkovo Foundation and MIT to collaborate on developing the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology
Graduate research university part of new innovation center outside Moscow CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

Stanford’s John McCarthy, seminal figure of artificial intelligence, dies at 84
McCarthy created the term "artificial intelligence" and was a towering figure in computer science at Stanford most of his professional life.

Poll: Americans Believe U.S. Headed in Wrong Direction on Energy
AUSTIN, Texas — A poll released today by The University of Texas at Austin found less than 14 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction on energy. Of more than 3,400 consumers surveyed, 84 percent were worried about U.S. consumption of oil from foreign sources and 76 percent about a lack of progress in developing better ways to use energy efficiently and develop renewable sources.

Jubilee book depicts 50 years of LTH
Read about how a royal appointment to professor in a brown envelope nearly ended up in the bin with the junk mail in "50 år med LTH, en fingervisning om teknik" (Fifty years of LTH, a pointer on engineering).

LU researchers write their own cookbook
Green tea ice cream with bilberry sauce! This dessert has a positive effect on brain function and the recipe is exclusive to the Lund University cookbook.

Saul Perlmutter awarded 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
Saul Perlmutter, who led one of two teams that simultaneously discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe, has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, to be shared with two members of the rival team.

Berkeley Lab’s Saul Perlmutter wins Nobel Prize in Physics
BERKELEY, CA — Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California at Ber

Obama names Stanford physicist Benjamin Lev for honor
Benjamin Lev, who studies the behavior of quantum matter, will attend an Oct. 14 awards ceremony in Washington D.C. for early-career scientists.

2011 King’s Awards celebrated

Flood risk event streams research results online
PA 261/11 Today, live via the web from the Royal Society in London, flood risk managers and their professional partners, together with members of the public affected by flooding, can hear result

Awareness of ethnicity-based stigma found to start as early as second grade
Now, in a new report, researchers from UCLA show that youths from a range of ethnic-minority backgrounds have an added burden to contend with: ethnicity-based stigmatization. Even elementary school–aged children are aware of such stigmatization and, like older youths, they feel more anxious about school as a result.

Drawing ’integral’ to science learning
More should be done to encourage students to use their drawing skills in science education, researchers at The University of Nottingham say. In a paper being published in Science this week, academics say that although producing visualisations is key to scientific thinking, pupils are often not encouraged to create their own drawings to develop and demonstrate their understanding.

Common-law Marriage is myth created by 1970s press
The myth that co-habiting couples have the same legal rights as those who are married can be traced back to misleading press reports in the 1970s, according to research from the University of Warwick.

Scientists’ £3.9m project to develop gene therapy to prevent heart bypass graft failure
A team of scientists, cardiologists and heart surgeons from the University of Glasgow and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital has been awarded £3.9m for a study into how to prevent the failure of heart bypass grafts. The award was made by the Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation (BHF) to a team at the University's Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences led by Professor Andrew Baker.