news

Chemistry - Physics/Astronomy - 15.02
New molecule discovered in fight against allergy
PA 51/12 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a new molecule that could offer the hope of new treatments for people allergic to the house dust mite. The team of immunologists led by Amir Ghaem-Maghami and Professor Farouk Shakib in the University's School of Molecular Medical Sciences have identified the molecule DC-SIGN which appears to play a role in damping down the body's allergic response to the house dust mite.

Physics/Astronomy - Mathematics - 13.02
Rapunzel, Leonardo and the physics of the ponytail
New research provides the first mathematical understanding of the shape of a ponytail and could have implications for the textile industry, computer animation and personal care products. From Leonardo Da Vinci to the Brothers Grimm, the properties of hair have been of enduring interest in science and art.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Physics/Astronomy - 7.02
Zinc path key to cancer treatment
The body's control mechanisms for delivering zinc to cells could be key to improving treatment for some types of aggressive breast cancer. New research by King's College London and Cardiff University has identified the switch which releases zinc into cells, with important implications for a number of diseases.

Physics/Astronomy - 3.02
Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600 million year drought, say
Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analysing individual particles of Martian soil.

Physics/Astronomy - 27.01
Quantum physicists shed new light on relation between entanglement and nonlocality
New research from the University of Bristol may disprove a long-standing conjecture made by one of the founders of quantum information science: that quantum states featuring 'positive partial transpose', a particular symmetry under time-reversal, can never lead to nonlocality.

Physics/Astronomy - 25.01
Wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies revealed
Wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies revealed Astronomers from Durham University have helped find the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe and the most massive galaxies found today.

Physics/Astronomy - 22.12.2011
New Particle at the Large Hadron Collider Discovered by ATLAS Experiment
Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Lancaster University, analysing data taken by the ATLAS experiment, have been at the centre of what is believed to be the first clear observation of a new particle at the Large Hadron Collider.

Physics/Astronomy - Mathematics - 16.12.2011
First hints of the Higgs boson?
Physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have received an early Christmas present. Using apparatus partly designed in Bristol, the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) collaboration has presented the first tentative evidence of the Higgs boson.

Physics/Astronomy - 13.12.2011
Search for Higgs boson at an “exciting beginning”, Durham University expert says
Search for Higgs boson at an “exciting beginning”, Durham University expert says The search for the Higgs boson is at a "very exciting and positive beginning", according to a Durham University physics expert.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Physics/Astronomy - 13.12.2011
Scanning strategy could help heart disease
Patients with life-threatening heart valve disease could be helped with alternative scanning techniques that provide greater insight into the condition. University researchers used an imaging technique that could help predict which patients will need open heart surgery to replace their heart valves.

Physics/Astronomy - 7.12.2011
Rapidly Spinning Core Inside Ageing Stars
An international team of astronomers, including scientists from the University of Birmingham, has looked deep inside some old stars and discovered that their cores spin at least ten times as fast as their surfaces.

Physics/Astronomy - Life Sciences - 30.11.2011
Microscopic worms could hold the key to living life on Mars
The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that if humanity is to survive we will have to up sticks and colonise space. But is the human body up to the challenge? Scientists at The University of Nottingham believe that Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), a microscopic worm which is biologically very similar to the human being, could help us understand how humans might cope with long-duration space exploration.

Physics/Astronomy - 28.09.2011
Dying ’monster’ star discovered
The final throws of one of the largest and rarest stars in our galaxy have been discovered by astrophysicists using the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The discovery will enable research into the evolution of stars, and provide invaluable insight into their explosive deaths.

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.

Electroengineering/Microtechnics - Physics/Astronomy - 31.08.2011
Scientists observe smallest atomic displacements ever
UCL scientists are part of an international team which has developed a novel X-ray technique for imaging atomic displacements in materials with unprecedented accuracy. The team has applied the technique to determine how a recently discovered class of exotic materials - multiferroics - can be simultaneously both magnetically and electrically ordered.