News: July 2018

British Science Association | July 2018 newsletter

Publication date: 30 July 2018

Older people helping to grow the Welsh economy

With more people living and working in Wales past the age of 65 years, the contribution that they make to the Welsh economy is growing.

So say health economists from the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation (CHEME) at Bangor University in their report Living well for longer: The economic argument for investing in the health and wellbeing of older people in Wales launched today (30 July 2018).

Publication date: 30 July 2018

New perspectives on Wales at North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History Conference

International academics and students of Welsh history converge on Bangor University this week (25th to the 27th of July), as the University hosts the 12th biennial North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH) Conference of 2018

Publication date: 24 July 2018

NRN-LCEE Events

Publication date: 20 July 2018

Unused £321m trapped on dormant Oyster cards – and time may be running out to get it back

It is 15 years since Transport for London (TfL) launched the Oyster card on London’s buses and tube trains, but Oyster hasn’t had a very happy birthday.

Instead of cake, candles and raised glasses, news broke that money trapped on dormant Oyster cards amounts to £321m, a princely sum that has effectively been loaned, interest-free from the public to TfL. This “mountain of cash” exists as credit on cards that haven’t been used for at least a year – either lost, damaged, abandoned, or stashed away.

This article by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, Professor of Business History and Bank Management, and Prachandra Shakya, PhD Candidate; both of Bangor Business School, was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 17 July 2018

Bangor University Professor Discovers "Lost" Kubrick Screenplay

Professor Nathan Abrams, a Kubrick expert at Bangor University, has discovered a 1956 screenplay by Stanley Kubrick which was believed to have been lost. Titled Burning Secret, it was an adaptation of Viennese novelist, Stefan Zweig's 1913 novella of the same name.

The novella is told from the perspective of a twelve-year old Jewish boy. He is befriended by a suave but predatory baron at an Austrian holiday spa resort as a means of seducing his married mother. The child acts as an unwitting go-between for his mother and her would-be lover making for a disturbing story with sexuality and child abuse churning beneath its surface.

Publication date: 16 July 2018

Pristine Antarctic fjords contain similar levels of microplastics to open oceans near big civilisations

In the middle of the last century, mass-produced, disposable plastic waste started washing up on shorelines, and to be found in the middle of the oceans. This has since become an increasingly serious problem, spreading globally to even the most remote places on Earth. Just a few decades later, in the 1970s, scientists found the same problem was occurring at a much less visible, microscopic level, with microplastics.

This article by Alexis Janosik, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of West Florida; David Barnes, Data Interpretation Ecologist, British Antarctic Survey; James Scourse, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Exeter, and Katrien Van Landeghem, Senior Lecturer in Marine Geology, Bangor University was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 16 July 2018

Brain Cancer stem cells manipulated on a ‘lab on chip’ for first time

As the first stage has been achieved in a new European research collaboration to combat two of the most aggressive brain cancers (www.sumcastec.eu), academic and industry  participants are meeting at Bangor University this week (11-12 July) to discuss the next steps.

Publication date: 11 July 2018

Codi’r To music project brings harmony to homes and social value to schools and communites

An economic evaluation of the value of Sistema Cymru - Codi’r To, a musical initiative in two schools in Gwynedd, reveals that the value of the project extends far beyond the playing of musical instruments and has brought a greater harmony to many of the households involved.

The Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis conducted by Bangor University’s Centre for Health Economics & Medicines Evaluation (CHEME) placed monetary values on all aspects of the benefits deriving from Codi’r To activities with pupils in the two schools and found that every £1 spent generates a social value return of £6.69.

Publication date: 10 July 2018

Theresa May was right to reimpose collective ministerial responsibility – it's the only way to govern

It lasted for 48 hours. Two days after Theresa May told Conservative ministers that they must adhere to the convention of collective responsibility and support the agreed Brexit plan, the prime minister had to accept the resignation of her Brexit secretary, David Davis, and foreign secretary, Boris Johnson.

In his resignation letter, Davis wrote that he did not support the new agreed strategy and was following the collective responsibility convention in resigning.

Collective responsibility only concerns ministers in government serving within the cabinet. Dating back to the 18th century, it is a constitutional convention which holds that members of the cabinet should support all governmental decisions. While it’s a convention rather than a legal requirement, ministers are nonetheless expected to show a “united front” for all government actions and policies.

This article  by Stephen Clear, Lecturer in Law, School of Law, was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Publication date: 10 July 2018

Bangor University awarded grant to reveal contents of 17th century Mostyn letters

Three thousand rare letters surviving from the 17th and 18th centuries are to be made available to the international scholarly community following a new research award from the Marc Fitch Fund.

Bangor University’s Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates has been awarded the £40,000 grant to digitise and research an exceptional collection of letters kept in the library of Mostyn Hall in Flintshire.

Publication date: 9 July 2018

Medical education in north Wales

Bangor University has welcomed the Welsh Government’s announcement that it plans to expand medical education across Wales, which includes new opportunities to study in north Wales.

From 2019, through collaboration between Cardiff and Bangor Universities, students will be able to undertake the entirety of their undergraduate medical degree in north Wales.

Publication date: 9 July 2018

Public Lecture by Prof Agustin del Prado, Basque Centre for Climate Change

Publication date: 5 July 2018

Some of the world’s poorest people are bearing the costs of tropical forest conservation

Global conservation targets should not be met at the cost of the world’s poor. The first study to evaluate a policy aiming to compensate local people for the costs of conservation has revealed that, despite good intentions, the poor have lost out.

Tropical forests are important to all of us on the planet. As well as being home for rare and fascinating biodiversity (like the lemurs of Madagascar), tropical forests lock up enormous amounts of carbon helping to stabilise our climate. However tropical forests are also home to many hundreds of thousands of people whose lives can be affected by international conservation policies.

Multilateral donors such as the World Bank have made clear commitments that those negatively impacted by their projects should be compensated. This includes those affected by conservation projects such as those intended to slow climate change by preventing tropical deforestation (a scheme known as REDD+ or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Researchers have, for the first time, studied one such compensation scheme in depth and revealed it to be inadequate.

Publication date: 5 July 2018

Researching changes to our Arctic Ocean

Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences is leading one of 12 major research projects to have successfully bid to carry out crucial research in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet- the Arctic.

The joint-funding for the work comes to the University from the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the Changing Arctic Ocean project.

Dr Yueng-Djern Lenn, a Senior Lecturer in Physical Oceanography at the School of Ocean Sciences is to lead the new three-year research project with partners and collaborating institutions. The aim is to increase understanding of how changes within our oceans might affect the quantity of phytoplankton produced in the Arctic Ocean.

Publication date: 3 July 2018

UK and Germany combine forces to fund crucial Arctic science

Natural Environment Research Council- changing Artic Ocean Media release

For the first time, the UK and Germany have joined forces to investigate the impact of climate change on the Arctic Ocean.

The UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) have jointly invested almost £8 million in 12 new projects to carry out crucial research in one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. The new projects start today and join the existing NERC Changing Arctic Ocean research programme, which aims to better understand – and predict – changes to the Arctic marine environment and ecosystems.

Publication date: 3 July 2018