The European starling – long known as a virtuoso songbird and as an expert mimic too – may also soon gain a reputation as something of a “grammar-marm.” This three-ounce bird, new research shows, can learn syntactic patterns formerly thought to be the exclusive province of humans.
Led by Timothy Q. Gentner, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, a study published in the April 27 issue of Nature demonstrates that starlings have the capaci
Researchers at the University of Manchester are testing a secret herb in a bid to stop the severe hot flushes that besiege breast cancer patients on hormone treatment.
Professor Alex Molassiotis, of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, says the herb – one of the mint family, found in any kitchen – is thought to stop the hot flushes and night sweats which can be so bad that some women have to change their clothes three or four times a night.
It is tradition
UK expertise is being exported to North America to help prevent a unique type of red squirrel dying out in as little as 30 years time.
Researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England, working with The University of Arizona in the US, have developed a special computer model which in time will pinpoint the biggest threats to the rare Mount Graham Red Squirrel.
Details of the model are published in the academic journal Biological Conservation.
T
Supporting learning for blind and visually-impaired children in schools is the goal of a system that offers collaboration, data exploration, communication and creativity based on a common software architecture. Already interfaces and application prototypes are being tested.
Partners in the IST programme-funded MICOLE project, the teams responsible are working in close contact with national and local associations and organisations of visually-disabled persons, as well as schools. The
A new small business that helps public sector bodies and charities engage with disadvantaged young people is being given a cash boost by the University of Bradford (Thursday 27 April 2006).
The University’s graduate enterprise unit, Think Business@Bradford, will award £1,000 in cash and support to ‘Maximum Impact’ – a new company that aims to help charities and public sector bodies (such as social services, education, health and the probation service) communicate more effecti
The neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) are reported to have a previously unknown ability to regulate the immune system and suppress inflammatory conditions of the CNS.
This was published by scientists at Lund University in Sweden in an article in the journal of Nature Medicine. This pioneering discovery paves the way for future therapeutic targets for inflammatory and degenerative diseases of CNS like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.
It
This sequence of images, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows on area on the near side of the Moon, on the edge of the Mare Humorum basin.
AMIE obtained these raw images on 13 January 2006 from a distance ranging between 1031 and 1107 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution between 93 and 100 metres per pixel.
The imaged area is located at longitude 45.7º West and latitude between 30.5º and 24.5º South. The
In response to a growing demand for sharpened census data, GeoVille Information Systems has developed ‘real-world population’ maps based on Earth observation, under a contract named EO-STAT awarded by ESA, which can assist the private and public sector in fields such as geomarketing, market research, business location analysis, risk assessment and transport and urban planning.
GeoVille, an Austrian company specialising in geo-information, and Tele Atlas, the largest manufacturer of roa
Biophysicists at the Institut Curie/CNRS, in collaboration with CNRS and University Pierre et Marie Curie physicists and biologists, have just demonstrated the remarkable elasticity of chromatin, the DNA-protein complex that makes up the chromosomes. Observed by nanomanipulation of individual DNA molecules, this resilience facilitates the work of the enzymes that “read” the genetic material and of those that repair it if damaged. When alterations – mutations – remain in the DNA, there is a risk that
The University of Surrey has marked the launch a new range of degree programmes in Media Engineering with the opening of a purpose-built laboratory to provide students with access to professional quality audio-visual studio production facilities.
Integrating a traditional degree in electronics and computing with an understanding of modern digital systems engineering for music, video and computer graphics production, Media Engineering should be of interest to anyone with an interest in
New research by Dr John Aggergaard Larsen, Research Fellow at the European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey suggests that overseas-trained nurses working in the UK experience racist or xenophobic discrimination that often works through subtle ‘little things’ occurring in everyday interaction. The research, which is based on in-depth interviews across England and Wales, and was presented at the BSA Conference 2006 on 22 April 2006, reveals that this can have severe co
New research shows how topping up the levels of a hormone found in the gut could help reduce the appetite and increase activity in overweight and obese people.
The study now being pre-published online in the International Journal of Obesity shows how the team from Imperial College London gave injections of oxyntomodulin to fifteen overweight but healthy volunteers from Hammersmith Hospital, and monitored how this affected their food intake, and levels of activity.
Pro
For the first time, ecologists have been able to show that molecular variation in one gene may affect the growth of a population in its natural habitat. Research Professor Ilkka Hanski, University of Helsinki, and Dr Ilik Saccheri, University of Liverpool, UK, discovered that the population growth of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) is affected by the allelic composition of the phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) enzyme. The result challenges previous views according to which all
Scientists of the University of Jaen, members of the ‘Peptides and peptidases’ research group of the Faculty of Experimental Sciences, are working on the protective effects exerted by olive oil on an animal model of diabetes and on the role of the different components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (SRAA). This is the first study of its kind that is carried out in Spain.
Diabetes is one of the world’s most serious health problems. This chronic disease occurs when the pancrea
A research group of the Animal Nutrition Unit at Zaidín Experimental Station, which is owned by the Higher Board of Scientific Research, located in Armilla (Granada), have demonstrated that leguminous plants can have beneficial effects on the body. Amongst others, eating these foods can reduce the probability of suffering cancer of the colon, as they reduce the replication ratio of tumour cells.
In collaboration with scientists at Milan University, who had already demonstrated the ben
Henar Hevia Pérez, researcher in the area of Genic Therapy and Hepatology at the Applied Medicine Research Centre (CIMA)of the University of Navarra, has discovered the protective role of the methylthioadenosine (MTA) molecule in an in vivo inflammation model. The doctor has recently defended her PhD thesis at the Faculty of Sciences.
According to the biochemist, the inflammatory component is key in the development of many diseases, including those affecting the liver and, therefore, of
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