News: November 2017

British Science Association | newsletter

Publication date: 29 November 2017

Nominations for the Drapers Medal 2017/18

Publication date: 28 November 2017

The future of agriculture in Wales: the way forward

Dr Prysor Williams, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the University’s School of Environment Natural Resources and Geography is one of the authors of a report on the vision for Welsh agriculture, launched by Welsh Government today (27 November 2017).

Amaeth Cymru the future of agriculture in Wales: the way forward, has been authored by Amaeth Cymru, a group whose membership covers a spectrum of interests, including farming unions, levy bodies, government, academics and industry experts.

Publication date: 27 November 2017

Exploring the economics of sight-saving technology

Over two million people in the UK are living with sight loss. This will double to nearly four million people by 2050 as the population ages and underlying causes like obesity and diabetes increase. This places huge pressure on NHS eye care services. 

The 2016 Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) report highlighted that sight loss is estimated to cost over £28 billion to the UK economy.

Research into new sight-saving technology could improve the lives of people at risk of sight loss and provide saving to the NHS and wider economy.

Two researchers from Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation CHEME,  are co-investigators on the optical coherence tomography (OCT) study, which has been awarded £1.3 million of funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme. 

Publication date: 23 November 2017

Different types of alcohol elicit different emotional responses

Different types of alcohol elicit different emotional responses,  but spirits are most frequently associated with feelings of aggression, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

Publication date: 22 November 2017

Publishing workshop with Cambridge University Press, Monday 27th November, 2–3pm

Publication date: 22 November 2017

Step taken on the road towards a more effective TB vaccine

Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infection and is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The results of a collaboration between researchers from Bangor University led by Professor Mark Baird and Dr Juma’a Al Dulayymi, and Southampton University, led by Dr Salah Mansour, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA could drive new advances in vaccine development for tuberculosis through the intelligent design of novel lipid based therapies.

Publication date: 21 November 2017

Bangor University opens the first nuclear research institute in Wales

The first nuclear research institute in Wales has opened at Bangor University.  The Nuclear Futures Institute has been established with funding from the Welsh Government’s Sêr Cymru programme, which is helping to attract world leading researchers to Wales, with funding also coming from the European Regional Development Fund and from the University.

Publication date: 16 November 2017

Blue Planet II: can we really halt the coral reef catastrophe?

The third episode of the BBC’s Blue Planet II spectacularly described a series of fascinating interactions between species on some of the most pristine reefs in the world. These reefs, analogous to bustling cities, are powered by sunlight, and provide space and services for a wealth of marine life.

This article by John Turner, Professor & Dean of Postgraduate Research, School of Ocean Sciences was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 15 November 2017

Exercise training alone does not lead to weight loss in females in the medium term

New research from Bangor University has shown that exercise training alone does not lead to weight loss in women.

Publication date: 15 November 2017

Impact Workshop: Engaging with Policy & Decision-makers

Publication date: 15 November 2017

World War One U-boat partnership project gets green light from Heritage Lottery Fund for Wales’ Year of the Sea, 2018

The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced a grant of £409,700 for the Royal Commission’s partnership project: Commemorating the Forgotten U-boat War around the Welsh Coast, 1914-18.  Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, over the next two years the project will use the latest imaging techniques to reveal underwater wrecks from the Great War, and will support coastal communities around Wales to tell their previously untold stories about the Great War at Sea.

Publication date: 15 November 2017

Ernst & Young consultants conduct ‘Autonomous Everything’ workshop with BBS students

Bangor University alumnus Peter Bellamy, who now works for leading worldwide consultants Ernst & Young in New York, recently returned to Bangor Business School to deliver a workshop to business students on ‘Autonomous Everything’.

Publication date: 14 November 2017

Lecturer Alys Conran’s debut novel named Wales' Book of the Year 2017

Creative Writer and Lecturer Alys Conran is the stand- out winner at this year’s Wales Book of the Year/ Llyfr y Flwyddyn, winning a hat-trick of Awards, scooping not only the one of the main prizes, the English Book of the year Award, a specially commissioned trophy designed and created by the artist Angharad Pearce Jones, and a £4000 prize, but also winning the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award English fiction Award and the People’s Choice Award, all for her debut novel Pigeon.

Publication date: 14 November 2017

Research Visions: A photography competition for Staff and Postgraduate Researchers

Publication date: 13 November 2017

forestry@bangor Triumph in National Forestry Student Competition

Bangor Forestry Students Association (BFSA) were awarded £4,000-worth of the latest forestry technology at the recent National Forestry Student Conference, held at Moulton College in October 2017. 

Publication date: 10 November 2017

PGR Event

Publication date: 9 November 2017

Why Holocaust jokes can only be told by a Jewish comedian

When Larry David joked about chatting up women in Nazi concentration camps recently he caused a minor storm of outrage.

David has joked about the Holocaust before. In the comedy show he co-created, Seinfeld, an entire episode is devoted to Schindler’s List. In his own show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, he plays Wagner (a favourite composer of Adolf Hitler) to a co-religionist who accuses him of being a self-hater. He invites a cast member of the reality show Survivor to meet a Holocaust survivor and they proceed to argue over who had it worse off. Many suggested David’s jokes weren’t in good taste, that he had crossed a line this time. But had he?

This article by Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies at the School of Ctreative Studies & Media was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 9 November 2017

Melting ice sheets will have global impact on ocean tides

Whilst it is widely accepted that sea level is rising because of the melting of the massive sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, a new paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JC013109/abstract), by scientists at Bangor University in collaboration with Harvard and Oregon State Universities in the US, and McGill University in Canada, shows that the impact of the melting of these ice sheets will go far beyond just changing water levels. It could have further reaching impacts on global climate.

The new results show that sea level does not increase uniformly across the globe in response to melting of the polar ice sheets. In fact, sea level changes in response to ice loss are highly spatially variable, especially close to the retreating ice sheets. The new results, which are obtained with a numerical model of the global tides, show that the tidal changes due to ice sheet collapse and associated sea level changes will be highly variable and affect a number of different important processes. 

Publication date: 8 November 2017

Want to become self-compassionate? Run a marathon

Unsurprisingly, running a marathon is tough. It takes months of training before runners even make it to the starting line and this preparation can, at times, feel like punishment. The marathon runner in training can often be found limping around with blisters, sore muscles and blackened or lost toenails. Not, perhaps, an image we might naturally associate with the idea of “self-compassion”.

A relatively new concept, self-compassion has been hailed as a more robust alternative to self-esteem. While compassion refers to the demonstration of sympathy and concern for others in times of suffering, self-compassion entails showing this same understanding to ourselves.

This article by Rhi Willmot, PhD Researcher in Behavioural and Positive Psychology, at the School of Psychology, was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 3 November 2017