science wire

Inspiring others in Adult Learners' Week
Now, he has just submitted his PhD at Plymouth University and is planning a career in the world of research and teaching.

Podcast: heights and sounds from the Imperial Festival

Researchers to compete in finals of national microbiology competition
Sussex researchers to compete in finals of national microbiology competition Two researchers from the University of Sussex have made it through to the finals of a national microbiology competition.

Emeritus chemistry professors awarded honorary degrees

’Polluted’ stellar graveyard gives glimpse of our Solar System after Sun’s implosion
Research indicates the existence of Earth-like planets in dead solar system through latest chemical analysis techniques Is there another recipe for life? The chemistry can tell us Jay Farihi By chemically sampling the atmospheres of two dead stars in the Hyades cluster 150 light years away, researchers at Cambridge and NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the building blocks for Earth-sized planets formed around the stars while they lived.

Building protocells from inorganic nanoparticles
Researchers at the University of Bristol have led a new enquiry into how extremely small particles of silica (sand) can be used to design and construct artificial protocells in the laboratory. The work is described in an article published.

Triple celebration for Faculty’s three new Fellows
03 May 2013 Three University of Manchester scientists have been elected Fellows of The Royal Society, it was announced today (Friday).

Early career reseachers decend on parliament
Last month the House of Commons hosted a group of early career researchers, including 16 from Imperial, who presented their science to politicians.

New device could make diagnosing disease as simple as breathing
A range of diseases and conditions, from asthma to liver disease, could be diagnosed and monitored quickly and painlessly just by breathing, using gas sensing technology developed by a Cambridge spin-out.

The discovery of the structure of DNA
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the famous edition of Nature , which revealed the secrets of DNA and detailed the physical and chemical basis of how characteristics are passed down through the generations.

UK Catalysis Hub opens
Scientists from Cardiff and other partner universities have launched a new centre for research into catalytic research - the study of materials which speed up chemical reactions.

£1.1 Million grant for Chemistry
Dr Alex Cowan from the Department of Chemistry has been awarded a five year EPSRC Fellowship totalling £1.1M to explore the reduction of carbon dioxide by catalysts using sunlight as the energy source (photocatalysts) to produce chemical fuels in a form of artificial photosynthesis.

Nanoscopic cages for big applications
Scientists have developed a new type of nanoparticle with potential applications in chemistry, biology and medicine.

Plants provide blueprint for cheap green energy
The process by which plants convert energy from the sun's rays into chemical ‘fuel' has inspired a new way of generating clean, cheap, renewable hydrogen power which could solve looming problems with the UK's energy infrastructure.

Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

£4.5M awarded for regenerative medicine development
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded £4.5 million, as part of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and British Heart Foundation 's (BHF) £20 million investment in the development of regenerative medicine therapies.

Further potential insight into the complex neuropathology of Down’s syndrome
Researchers at the University of Bristol have revealed new insight into the function of a key protein attributed to impaired learning and memory in Down's syndrome.  The findings, published online in Nature Cell Biology , offer further molecular insight into how the reduced level of this key protein termed 'sorting nexin-27' [SNX27] may contribute to learning and memory problems associated with Down's syndrome.

Quantum carotenoids - how pigment’s ’dark state’ helps turn light into energy
Scientists at the Universities of Glasgow and Toronto have finally uncovered the mechanism by which carotenoids – the same pigment that gives carrots an orange colour – help chlorophyll turn light into useful chemical energy. Carotenoids are important light-absorbing pigments in photosynthesis and their role in absorbing light and transferring it to chlorophyll to be turned into energy has been extensively studied for 60 years.

Manchester leads the way in graphene membrane research
University of Manchester graphene researchers have been awarded a £3.5m funding boost that could bring desalination plants, safer food packaging and enhanced disease detection closer to reality.

Who or what is LUCA?
Is there an evolutionary starting point and a primordial organism from which all modern life descended? Over billions of years life has diversified and adapted to Earth's changing environment.

New system to improve DNA sequencing
A sensing system developed at Cambridge is being commercialised in the UK for use in rapid, low-cost DNA sequencing, which would make the prediction and diagnosis of disease more efficient, and individualised treatment more affordable.

Liverpool Chemist receives Royal Society Professorship

Sussex chemist takes her research to Parliament

Plants and patterning: how shapes are made
A Cambridge Science Festival lecture on Wednesday (13 March 2013) will look at how plants grow through repeating patterns and discuss what we can learn from them in developing smart materials.  

Consortium wins graphene research funding
The University of Liverpool's Stephenson Institute is part of one of the successful research projects to receive funding to enhance the ‘manufacturability' of graphene, one of the thinnest, strongest and most conductive materials known to man.

Liverpool/Manchester Consortium wins Graphene Research Funding
The University of Liverpool's Stephenson Institute is part of one of the successful research projects to receive funding to enhance the ‘manufacturability' of graphene, one of the thinnest, strongest and most conductive materials known to man.

Shape changing technology coming soon
A new project aims to ensure that the next generation of computer and mobile display surfaces will extend beyond the rigid, flat surfaces which people are familiar with and allow users to physically push, pull, bend, fold or flex the display.

Sweet news for stem cell’s ‘Holy Grail’
Stem cells have the unique ability to turn into any type of human cell, opening up all sorts of therapeutic possibilities for some of the world's incurable diseases and conditions.

Are chemicals damaging the health of male otters?
A new report has highlighted serious concerns for the health of otters in the UK. The otter is one of the country's best loved predator species, but research indicates that they may not be in the best of reproductive health. The report, co-authored by the Cardiff University Otter Project and CHEM Trust (Chemicals, Health and Environment Monitoring Trust), raises the question as to whether modern chemicals - particularly endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) - could be to blame.

Inventor’s Corner: Refining oil extraction
Oil refineries take crude oil from drilling pipelines and extract its useful constituent parts – gas, petrol, aircraft fuel and engine oil – using a series of heating and cooling steps. Professor Sandro Macchietto and PhD student Francesco Coletti (both Chemical Engineering) have devised a way to increase the efficiency of this complex process.

Imperial-Tsinghua workshop tackles healthcare challenges
Research group leaders from Tsinghua University in China and their College counterparts came together at Imperial at the end of January to identify tools and technologies to tackle current healthcare challenges.

Breakthrough study models dying stars in a lab
If a fridge magnet with this strength was sitting in the Science Museum in central London, everyone with a pacemaker would have to move outside the M25." —Matt Pang A team of scientists has successfully reproduced conditions in one of the most hostile environments in the galaxy, enabling them to find out more about how atoms behave in these extreme settings.

Identity of mystery marine pollutant
Scientists at Plymouth University appear to have identified the ‘mystery’ waxy oil-like substance which has been polluting seabirds along the south coast of the UK.

Leeds joins partners in £170m European drug development project
Chemists at the University of Leeds will join a £170 million pan-European project, bringing together university researchers and pharmaceutical companies to develop the next generation of drugs.

Government funds projects to reduce cost of Carbon Capture technology
Three projects based on Imperial research will share almost half of £20 million new funding from the UK Government to reduce the cost of low carbon energy.

Liverpool chemists awarded £4.2M research funding
Two scientists from the University of Liverpool have been awarded prestigious research grants from the European Research Council (ERC).

£12.9m for UK Catalysis Research Centre
In an exciting joint venture, scientists from UCL will play a leading role in the development of a UK catalysis research hub.

How ants handle rush hour
Scientists at the University of Sussex have discovered how ants respond to heavy traffic to and from the nest. Ants, like humans, form complex transport networks – and, like humans, they can end up in traffic jams that cause unwelcome hold-ups. However, unlike humans, ants do not have managers to oversee traffic organisation.

Universities Minister tours chemical labs
State-of-the-art facilities for chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Leeds were showcased this week during a visit by the Minister for Universities and Science. The Rt Hon David Willetts MP was given a tour of the Institute of Process Research and Development (iPRD), which aims to bridge the gap between academic research and its application in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

APT group moves to Liverpool
The Antimicrobial Pharmacodynamics and Therapeutics (APT) group has joined the Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology within the Institute of Translational Medicine from the University of Manchester.

CASTEP achieves $30 million in sales
When CASTEP came along, for the first time you could learn something about the system before the system is even made." —Mike Payne CASTEP, based on the research of Mike Payne of

Grants awarded to two researchers for work reducing our reliance on fossil fuels
Two Imperial researchers have been awarded grants by national research councils to help advance sustainability and combat reliance on fossil resources.

Efficient gas separation
A new polymer developed by researchers at Cardiff may lead to more efficient large-scale separation of gas mixtures for chemical engineering and energy generation.

Lunar library could unlock origins of life
Understanding how life evolved in our Solar system by studying the chemistry of meteorites that have smashed into the Moon's surface will be the focus of research, which begins this week. Scientists from the Imperial College London, along with academics from Birkbeck College and University College London, aim to understand in more detail the organic chemistry inside rock fragments on the Moon, which are like a “lunar library” – an unspoilt source of geological information spanning billions of years.

Analytical chemistry award for Sussex professor

New treatment could combat deadly chemical agents
An enzyme treatment which could neutralise the effects of lethal chemicals responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people across the world has been developed by experts at the University of Sheffield. Organophosphorus agents (OP) are used as pesticides in developing countries and acute poisoning is common because of insufficient control, poor storage, ready availability, and inadequate education amongst farmers.

Molecular machine could hold key to more efficient manufacturing
The artificial molecular machine developed by David Leigh FRS and his team in the School of Chemistry is the most advanced molecular machine of its type in the world.

DNA -- updated book credits Nottingham’s role in scientific breakthrough of the century
PA 05/13 The crucial work of Nottingham researchers in one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th-century has been officially recognised for the first time. Almost 60 years after scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick first unveiled the structure of DNA — the now iconic double helix — a new annotated and illustrated edition of a book written by one of the famous duo finally gives proper to the role of Nottingham researchers in paving the way to the discovery.

Tribute: Felix Weinberg
Felix Weinberg , Emeritus Professor of Combustion Physics died on 5 December 2012 at the age of 84.

Imperial congratulates staff recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list

Sussex chemist features in Royal Institution Christmas Lecture

Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics
A coherent pathway which starts from no more than rocks, water and carbon dioxide and leads to the emergence of the strange bioenergetic properties of living cells, has been traced for the first time in a major hypothesis paper in Cell this week.

Mini profile: Terry Rudolph
Ever since being introduced to quantum physics as an undergraduate, Professor Terry Rudolph (Physics) has pondered its mysteries, even getting up in the small hours to think of new ways around problems.

How to get fossil fuels from ice cream and soap
18 Dec 2012 Writing in PNAS , the researchers have shown that the emerging field of synthetic biology can be used to manipulate hydrocarbon chemicals, found in soaps and shampoos, in cells. This development, discovered with colleagues at the University of Turku in Finland, could mean fuel for cars or household power supplies could be created from naturally-occurring fatty acids.

New world-leading Manchester lab to tackle global cost of corrosion
17 Dec 2012 The AkzoNobel Laboratory of Corrosion Protection at The University of Manchester is the result of a five-year landmark strategic partnership between the largest global paints and coatings company and one of the UK's top universities.

Stem cell “sticky spots” recreated by scientists
Randomly distributed sticky spots which are integral to the development of stem cells by maximising adhesion and acting as internal scaffolding have been artificially recreated by experts from the University of Sheffield for the first time. Using synthetic foam type materials to mimic the natural process - known as the extracellular matrix or ECM - scientists, from the University of Sheffield and University of California San Diego, created the random stickiness required for stem cells to properly adhere.

Storing gas in vegetables
A team led by the University of Liverpool and South China University of Technology is investigating the viability of storing gas in 'bioclathrates' formed from fungi and vegetables.

British team embark on ambitious Antarctic mission
In December 2012 a team of British scientists, engineers and support staff, led by Martin Siegert of the University of Bristol, will drill through 3km of solid ice into subglacial Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica.

Scientist awarded €150K prize for non-invasive cancer tests