news 2010

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 9.05
Antarctic ice sheet on brink of change
A project to map part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has shown that the region may be on the threshold of change. Scientists from the University have mapped the ice-covered, largely unexplored landscape from the air.

Earth Sciences - 30.04
’Rock clock’ sheds new light on size and frequency of Yellowstone super-eruptions
A volcanic super-eruption in America's Yellowstone National Park two million years ago was actually two smaller eruptions 6,000 years apart, new research has revealed. Scientists at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) and Washington State University in the USA have used a ‘rock clock' dating technique to more precisely determine when volcanic rock samples from the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff were created.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 22.03
Plants may absorb more carbon dioxide than previously thought
By Simon Levey Thursday 22 March 2012 The capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to absorb carbon dioxide emissions from human activity may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change , which looks at how plants react to environmental change.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 28.02
Oldest fossilised forest revealed
An international team, including a Cardiff University researcher, who previously found evidence of the Earth's earliest tree, has gone one step further. The research team has now unearthed and investigated an entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 1.02
Plant invasion triggered ice ages
They may have looked more like a green carpet than a forest but the first land plants really did change the world. New research led by scientists from Oxford University and Exeter University has shown that the invasion of the land by plants in the Ordovician Period (488-443 million years ago) cooled the climate and triggered a series of ice ages.

Business/Economics - Earth Sciences - 10.01
Poorly targeted aid and lack of capital leaves small businesses struggling following natural disasters
New research from the University of Warwick suggests the way foreign aid is distributed following a natural disaster in developing countries does little to help small firms recover. Economists are calling for a reassessment of the way aid is distributed in low-income countries hit by disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

Earth Sciences - Environmental Sciences - 26.11.2011
Discoveries provide evidence of a celestial procession at Stonehenge
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of two huge pits positioned on celestial alignment at Stonehenge. Shedding new light on the significant association of the monument with the sun, these pits may have contained tall stones, wooden posts or even fires to mark its rising and setting and could have defined a processional route used by agriculturalists to celebrate the passage of the sun across the sky at the summer solstice.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 10.10.2011
Solar variability helps explain cold winters
Monday 10 October 2011 Adapted from a press release issued by the UK Met Office Watch a video of Professor Joanna Haigh explaining solar variability Research led by the Met Office has shed new light on a link between decadal solar variability and winter climate in the UK, northern Europe and parts of America.

Earth Sciences - Architecture - 23.09.2011
CT scanning shows how ants build without an architect
Novel use of CT scanning technology has allowed researchers at the University of Bristol to create a four-dimensional picture of how ants build their nests.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 13.09.2011
SPICE project announced at British Science Festival
Preparations are underway for a unique test of engineering technology that could open up new ways to reduce atmospheric temperatures caused by climate change, and complement conventional measures to reduce carbon emissions.

Physics/Astronomy - Earth Sciences - 7.09.2011
Where does all the gold come from?
Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after the Earth was formed.

Earth Sciences - Medicine/Pharmacology - 19.07.2011
Ancient footprints show human-like walking began nearly four million years ago
Computer simulation was used to predict the footprints that would have been formed by the likely printmaker, a species called Australopithecus afarensis Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that ancient footprints in Laetoli, Tanzania, show that human-like features of the feet and gait existed almost two million years earlier than previously thought.

Life Sciences - Earth Sciences - 6.07.2011
The rise and rise of the flying reptiles
Pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the time of the dinosaurs, were not driven to extinction by the birds, but in fact they continued to diversify and innovate for millions of years afterwards. A new study by Katy Prentice, done as part of her undergraduate degree (MSci in Palaeontology and Evolution) at the University of Bristol, shows that the pterosaurs evolved in a most unusual way, becoming more and more specialised through their 160 million years on Earth.

Physics/Astronomy - Earth Sciences - 15.06.2011
A step closer to solving one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics?
A step closer to solving one of the biggest mysteries in fundamental physics? Experts may be on the cusp of an important breakthrough in the study of neutrinos following the exciting results released today (15 June 2011) of an international T2K neutrino experiment in Japan involving the University of Sheffield.

Environmental Sciences - Earth Sciences - 3.06.2011
Frozen fjords found under Antarctic ice
Scientists have uncovered a landscape of deep fjords in Antarctica, carved by millions of years of ice movement. University researchers say the discovery, in a part of East Antarctica roughly the size of France, gives valuable insight into how the ice sheet formed.