science wire

Learning to ’talk things through in your head’ may help people with autism
Teaching children with autism to 'talk things through in their head' may help them to solve complex day-to-day tasks, which could increase the chances of independent, flexible living later in life, according to new research from Durham University, the University of Bristol and City University London.

Scientists produce world’s first magnetic soap
A University of Bristol team has dissolved iron in liquid surfactant to create a soap that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery could be used to create cleaning products that can be removed after application and used in the recovery of oil spills at sea Scientists from the University of Bristol have developed a soap, composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water, that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution.

Climate balancing: sea-level rise versus surface temperature change rates
Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, according to a team of University of Bristol and Penn State climate scientists.

Verandas and egg shell examination could improve hen welfare
New research to help farmers improve the health of free-range hens has found verandas for the birds and the early scrutiny of eggshells could improve their welfare.

Promoting legal capability in the UK
A new framework, produced by the Personal Finance Research Centre (PFRC) at the University of Bristol and Law for Life, aims to improve public legal education so that more people are aware of their legal rights when faced with law-related issues in everyday life, such as consumer complaints, discrimination at work or debt problems.

Computer models that predict crowd behaviour could be used to prevent the spread of infections at mass gatherings
Understanding the movement and behaviour of crowds is essential to minimising health hazards at mass gatherings (MGs).

¤3.5m for research into volcanic unrest
A collaborative research project that could significantly improve our understanding of the processes behind volcanic unrest and our ability to forecast its outcomes has been awarded almost ¤3.5 million by the European Commission. The project - 'Volcanic unrest in Europe and Latin America: Phenomenology, eruption precursors, hazard forecast, and risk mitigation (VUELCO)' - is coordinated by Jo Gottsmann from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences.

Chinese fossils shed light on the evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors
Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in the Earth's history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from S

Balancing the womb
The study by academics at the University of Bristol suggests a new mechanism by which the level of myosin phosphorylation is regulated in the pregnant uterus.  The researchers, Claire Hudson and Prof

What are the prospects for sustaining high-quality groundwater?
Intensive agriculture practices developed during the past century have helped improve food security for many people but have also added to nitrate pollution in surface and groundwaters. New research has looked at water quality measurement over the last 140 years to track this problem in the Thames River basin.

Can science predict a hit song?
Most people remember listening to the official UK top 40 singles chart and watching the countdown on Top of the Pops, but can science work out which songs are more likely to 'make it' in the chart? New research has looked at whether a song can be predicted to be a 'hit'. The paper, to be presented at an international workshop this week, argues that predicting the popularity of a song may well be feasible by using state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.

Chemists find new way to break amide bonds
Researchers in the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry have found a way to accelerate the breakdown of amide bonds. The work, published in Angewandte Chemie, features as the lead highlight in the American Chemical Society's C&ENews this week.

Researcher awarded ¤500,000 as part of European project to enable effective climate policy
Dr Simon O'Doherty of the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry has been awarded ¤500,000 as part of InGOS, a European project to monitor emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases and improve the observational infrastructure.

EURO 2012 could hit school exam results
School students who take their GCSEs during a major international football tournament - such as the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship - get worse exam results than they would in a football-free summer.

¤4.3million project to examine history of the transatlantic slave trade
Two University of Bristol archaeologists are part of EUROTAST, a new European-funded network which will bring together an unprecedented range of young researchers to examine one of the most traumatic chapters in world history: the transatlantic slave trade.

Carbon cycling in the terrestrial biosphere was much smaller during last ice age than in today’s climate
A reconstruction of plants' productivity and the amount of carbon stored in the ocean and terrestrial biosphere at the last ice age is published today. The research by an international team of scientists greatly increases our understanding of natural carbon cycle dynamics. A reconstruction of plants' productivity and the amount of carbon stored in the ocean and terrestrial biosphere at the last ice age is published today.  The research by an international team of scientists greatly increases our understanding of natural carbon cycle dynamics.

UN warns cassava virus, first identified by Bristol researchers, nearing an epidemic in Africa
A virus that attacks the cassava plant - estimated to be the world's third most important staple crop - is reaching epidemic proportions in parts of Africa, UN scientists warned today.

Bristol archaeologist publishes book on the gold of Ancient Panama
A lavishly-illustrated book on the pre-Columbian goldwork of Panama has been published by Nicholas Saunders, lecturer in the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Researchers awarded grants to help sick babies and children
Three leading research teams at the University of Bristol have been given more than £400,000 in grants to carry out studies which aim to help reduce the suffering of sick babies and children.

New protein structure expands nature’s repertoire of biomolecules
A new, artificial protein structure has been made by a team of University of Bristol chemists, biochemists and mathematicians, a paper reports this week.

UK scientists come together to help feed the 7 billion
The Universities of Exeter and Bristol, in partnership with Rothamsted Research have officially joined forces to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing humanity: how can we sustainably feed a growing population? The Food Security and Land Research Alliance launches at the House of Commons today amidst reports that the world population is on the brink of reaching seven billion.

Research into energy flow features on the cover of Nature Chemistry
'Energy flow maps' which provide new insight into how chemical reactions work are described in a paper by David Glowacki and colleagues at the University of Bristol in the November.

Could hypertension drugs help people with Alzheimer’s?
Within the next 20 years it is expected the number of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) will double from its current figure of half a million to one million. A new study has looked at whether certain types of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, also called hypertension, might have beneficial effects in reducing the number of new cases of Alzheimer's disease each year.

Cichlid male nannies help out, especially if they’ve been sneaking
Subordinate male cichlid fish who help with the childcare for the dominant breeding pair are occasionally actually the fathers of some of the offspring they help to rear, according to new research from the University of Bristol published today in PLoS ONE. This sneaky paternity increases the subordinate fish's investment in the offspring in their care.

Engineering team heads to Antarctica to explore hidden lake
Next week a British engineering team heads off to Antarctica for the first stage of an ambitious scientific mission to collect water and sediment samples from a lake buried beneath three kilometres of solid ice. This extraordinary research project, at the frontier of exploration, will yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets, and will provide vital clues about the Earth's past climate.

Wild plants are good for pollinators
A new study has shown that encouraging strips of wild plants at the edges of fields is important for supporting bees and other important pollinators. The research by academics at the University of Bristol has shown that enhancing the size of wild features in landscapes could be important for making sure that insect pollinators can exist within an agricultural landscape that faces increasing pressure for yield.  The paper is published online in PLoS One .

Familiarity increases the fullness that children expect from snack foods
New research, led by psychologists at the University of Bristol, has found that children who are familiar with a snack food will expect it to be more filling. This finding , published (online ahead of print) in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , is important because it reveals one way in which children over-consume snack foods and increase their risk of becoming overweight.

A simple screening programme can prevent fractures
A University of Bristol study has found a simple 15-minute screening programme for women at risk of osteoporosis can reduce their chance of fracture by half.

Research grant to study Lewy body disease
Researchers at the University of Bristol's Dementia Research Group have been awarded a grant to investigate the different forms of amyloid-? (A?) in Lewy body disease and its association with other diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The grant of over £80,000 has been awarded by local charity BRACE for the project "Contribution of A? to Lewy body disease".  BRACE funds research into Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

£300,000 for new study into the origin of AIDS
£300,000 has been awarded to the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, along with a further £1.5million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for a joint research project to investigate why the HIV virus only emerged in the 1970s despite entering the human population many decades earlier.

Project to tackle most common food poisoning bacteria
Twelve projects, bringing together researchers from across disciplines, will study Campylobacter in the food chain, from field to plate. Together, the projects cover a comprehensive range of questions about Campylobacter, which is the leading cause of food poisoning in the UK. The projects, funded through a joint call for proposals managed by BBSRC , the Food Standards Agency and Defra , will use a total of over £4 million funding to find out more about the organism that causes over 300,000 cases of food poisoning a year in England and Wales, and how best to control it.

Why we need plant scientists
'Plant scientist' should take its rightful place beside 'doctor', 'lawyer' and 'vet' in the list of top professions to which our most capable young people aspire, according to a hard-hitting letter by an international group of botanists and crop scientists published today.

Getting inside the mind (and up the nose) of our ancient ancestors
Reorganisation of the brain and sense organs could be the key to the evolutionary success of vertebrates, one of the great puzzles in evolutionary biology, according to a paper by an international team of researchers, published today in Nature.