In a new report published today the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) sets out the findings of a review it has commissioned that evaluates both the needs of non-academic employers for highly skilled social scientists, and the extent to which social science PhD-holders in such employment are using the skills and knowledge developed during their doctorate.
The sustained development of a highly skilled workforce is essential to underpinning the quality of social scientific research
With recent announcements of potential impending water shortages, everyone is being urged to do their bit to avert further draconian measures. Yet, according to OFWAT, the government’s water industry regulator, less than 30 percent of households in the UK have metered water supply. The other seventy percent can use as much water as they want, with few limits in a normal year and not that many at the moment given the current drought. So is it time for universal water metering? Dr Jonathan Chenow
Mystery is surrounding the huge declines of birds that migrate thousands of miles from Africa to the UK and Europe each spring.
Scientists fear that their dwindling numbers – well over 50 per cent down in some cases – may be a warning of widespread environmental damage, which could soon affect man as well.
Climate change, drought and desertification in Africa, and massive pesticide use on African farmland may all be to blame for the declines of once common UK birds such
With an annual output of 127 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables, India lies second in the world producing country rankings, after China. Since the end of the 1990s, it has been eyeing up the export markets, in the hope of gaining in international visibility and repute. However, yields are still low, and most of what is produced is either consumed in India or lost as a result of poor postharvest management. Moreover, barely 2% of the fruit and vegetable crop is processed, and India accounts for
The ESA Concurrent Design Facility has completed fifty design studies and reviews since its opening as an experimental facility in 1999. Work is now under way to make the software developed for this facility available to European space industry and space organisations.
Many candidate space missions now take advantage of the concurrent engineering capabilities offered by the Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) at ESA-ESTEC to reduce the duration of their preliminary design study from the seve
EUREKA project E! 2314 O’SCREEN reverses the traditional screening process used to discover potentially active new pharmaceutical compounds. Testing single, targeted molecules rather than tens of thousands it promises vastly increased efficiency in drug discovery.
Until now, new molecules with the potential to be developed as drugs have been discovered by screening thousands of candidate new molecules and developing those showing potential activity in some therapeutic area. But the pr
New funding, to extend the mission of ESA’s venerable solar watchdog SOHO, will ensure it plays a leading part in the fleet of solar spacecraft scheduled to be launched over the next few years.
Since its launch on 2 December 1995, The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has provided an unprecedented view of the Sun – and not just the side facing the Earth. Two teams have now developed techniques for using SOHO to recreate the conditions on the far side of the Sun. The new f
For a decade now, ESA satellites have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth’s surface. Worldwide fire maps based on this data are now available to users online in near real time through ESA’s ATSR World Fire Atlas.
The ATSR World Fire Atlas (WFA) – the first multi-year global fire atlas ever developed – provides data approximately six hours after acquisition and represents an important scientific resource because fire is a major agent of environmental change.
Scientists at Keele University in Staffordshire have found that drinking a well-known mineral water regularly could reduce the levels of aluminium in the bodies of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Ten individuals with Alzheimer’s were asked to drink up to 1.5L per day of the mineral water, Volvic, for five days as part of their everyday diets. For eight out of ten it resulted in a reduction in their body burden of aluminium.
There is a link between human exposure to alu
A recent Finnish study identifies a low-penetrance gene defect which predisposes carriers to intracranial tumors called pituitary adenomas. In particular individuals carrying the gene defect are susceptible to such tumors which secrete growth hormone. Excess of growth hormone results in conditions called acromegaly and gigantism.
Identification of this gene defect using DNA-chip technologies is an example how genetic research can tackle more and more demanding tasks, such as identificati
Selfishness is not necessarily the best survival trait for microorganisms, according to researchers studying the comparative effectiveness of ‘cheating’ and ‘cooperating’ strains of yeast.
Writing in the journal Nature today, the team reports that studies of lab-grown yeast populations suggest the benefits of cheating are eventually counterbalanced by the costs. This contradicts classic evolutionary theory, which states that in a competition for common resources the long-term win
The licensing offer regards the conception and creation of a construction kit for modular microsystem components building on the Match-X concept developed by…
The invention constitutes the conceptualization of a vacuum trepan, which enables a spot specific, gentle and reversible removal of the epithelium….
The invention consists of an electrochemical measuring cell with redox mediators for measuring very low concentrations. Nevertheless, by means of desinging…
The invention consists of an electrochemical measuring cell with redox mediators for measuring very low concentrations. Nevertheless, by means of designing…
Recovery of carbohydrates from aqueous media is a difficult separation problem, due to their large, irregular and multivalent structure and their low…
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