Pupils from Westcountry schools used genetic processes commonly seen in TV crime dramas to help solve the mystery of who is sabotaging Devon’s very own Bake Off.
Year 9s from Devon, Dorset and Somerset got hands-on with scientists in University of Exeter Medical School laboratories in British Science Week, when they used state-of-the-art microbiology and DNA analysis techniques to unravel a scandal which had erupted in the “Great Bideford Bake Off”.
The scenario involved an outcry as the Westcountry’s most talented bread makers ended up with soggy bottoms as their loaves...
Growing up in tough conditions can make wild animals live longer, new research suggests.
Scientists from the University of Exeter found that male banded mongooses that experienced poor conditions in their first year had longer lives.
However, there was no difference in the number of offspring they fathered – suggesting those born into poor conditions “live slow, die old” while those with an easier first year “live fast, die young”.
Surprisingly, the males that fathered the most pups were those that grew up when conditions were highly variable. These males also lived...
LED street lighting can be tailored to reduce its impacts on the environment, according to new research by the University of Exeter.
The UK-based study found predatory spiders and beetles were drawn to grassland patches lit by LED lighting at night, but the number of species affected was markedly reduced when the lights were dimmed by 50% and switched off between midnight and 4am.
LEDs made up just 9% of the global lighting market in 2011, but forecasts suggest they will account for 69% by 2020.
This has led to concerns about their effects on plants and animals, and...
Researchers in Exeter are to receive £5m in funding to improve the early detection of cancers in GP surgeries, Cancer Research UK has announced. The CanTest is part of Cancer Research UK’s Catalyst Award which aims to help researchers deliver trailblazing progress in their field with long-lasting results. The CanTest team, led by Professor Willie Hamilton - from the University of Exeter will work with researchers in three UK sites and across the globe on a five year project that will help GPs to detect cancers in a primary care setting and reduce the burden of referrals. This research will...
Adults across Devon can learn a new skill for free in 2017 as part of Government research project looking at ways to improve mental health and wellbeing.
Devon County Council’s adult education service, Learn Devon, is offering free leisure courses in subjects including arts and crafts.
It is part of an England-wide project which aims to develop, deliver, share and evaluate educational approaches to support mental health.
The courses will be running at Learn Devon centres in Exmouth, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Tavistock and Bideford until July 2017, when the project ends...
The University of Exeter has been awarded £1.5 million by Wellcome to enable translation of findings from its world-leading research programmes into improvements in human health on a global scale.
The University has received the substantial grant from Wellcome’s Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) – the third time it has successfully applied for funds through the leading scheme.
The five-year award will be used to establish the Translational Research Exchange@ Exeter (TREE) – an innovative programme designed to build research links between biomedical and clinical...
New research reveals that just 12% of children in the South West are doing physical activity every day, with 50% of parents thinking that children should be properly fitness tested in schools.
Over half of the parents questioned are worried about obesity levels in children and think their children would benefit from more education around fitness in school. According to the research, by Premier Sport, 85% of parents think their children would benefit from more education around fitness and half of parents agree that children should be properly fitness tested in schools. Other key...
Retired holidaymakers are needed to take part in new research which aims to discover how giving up work has affected their tourism choices.
Academics from the University of Exeter Business School want to collect data on how people holidayed before and after retirement. They hope this will allow experts to better understand how tourism affects the wellbeing of older people, and how retirement leads to changes in the choice of location and holiday type.
The researchers are working with the charity Age UK Exeter to carry out the survey, which can also be completed online ....
A major new independent study¹ commissioned by The Prince’s Countryside Fund into the future of small family farms across the UK, has revealed a steep decline in numbers since the beginning of the century.
Over the last two or three decades, small family farms have experienced profound change. The report set out to explore the future for these farms by identifying the pace of change, investigating ways in which they might improve performance and viability as well as putting forward proposals for improvements to farm management, adjusting policies and bringing in new blood.
Scientists at the University of Exeter have developed a pioneering new technique that could revolutionise the surgical treatment of epilepsy.
The team of scientists, led by Dr Marc Goodfellow and Professor John Terry, have developed the ground-breaking new method that can identify the specific regions of the brain that trigger seizures in people with epilepsy.
The new technique is designed to help surgeons and neurologists measure the relative contribution to the occurrence of seizures made by different brain regions, and so determine the brain regions to remove that will...
