Tag Archives: science

Lincoln professor discovers ‘The Fantastic Mr Feynman’

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Richard FeynmanA revealing documentary film by a Lincoln professor will tell the incredible life story of one of the 20th century’s most extraordinary scientists, Richard Feynman.

Coinciding with what would have been his 95th birthday; ‘The Fantastic Mr Feynman’ celebrates the brilliance of the Nobel Prize winning physicist, and explores the reality of his curious relationship with the world around him.

The film is produced and directed by Dr. Christopher Riley, Visiting Professor of Science and Media at the University of Lincoln, and was created in conjunction with The Open University. It will premiere this weekend on BBC2.

It honours the man renowned for his pioneering work on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, and for his contributions to the theory of quantum electrodynamics, which revolutionised the field of physics.

In 1965, Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics; however it was his insatiable curiosity about the world in general that made him a truly unusual character, and that Dr Riley brings to light in his latest documentary.

Throughout his life, Feynman rejected authority and refused to conform, preferring instead to follow his passions – from bongo playing to biology, from poetry to painting, from computing to cracking safes. In his dying days, as a maverick investigator on The Challenger shuttle disaster inquiry, he even confronted the Washington establishment to reveal the truth about what had gone wrong.

Dr Riley said: “The work Richard Feynman did – putting the finishing touches to a theory which remains the most successful law of nature yet discovered, ranks him as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.  But as I found while making this new documentary about him for the BBC, his curiosity knew no bounds, and his passion for explaining his scientific view of the world was highly contagious.”

Dr Riley’s documentary draws on rich archive footage, which includes interviews with Feynman himself, together with revealing new interviews with his closest friends and family. Dr Riley also spoke to Feynman’s children and his sister, Joan, as well as personal friends and leading scientists to provide an exclusive insight into the physicist’s life.

Dr Riley continued: “Getting to glimpse Feynman’s genius through those who loved him, lived and worked with him, I grew to regret never having met him; to share first-hand what so many others described as their ‘time with Feynman’.

“But as Richard Feynman said himself, before his death in the late 1980s, he’d told so many stories that he wouldn’t ever really go away. And I hope this new film about him has contributed in a small way to bringing all those stories he told to a new generation.”

In his own words and those of the people that knew him best, ‘The Fantastic Mr Feynman’ tells the story of a man recognised as one of the most captivating communicators in the history of science. It will premiere on BBC2 this Sunday 12th May at 9pm.

Story credits:

Elizabeth Mitchell - PR OfficerElizabeth Mitchell - PR Officer
E-mail: emitchell@lincoln.ac.uk
Telephone: 01522 837650

 

 

University of Lincoln research: Land animals kept fish-like jaws for millions of years

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Right lateral aspect of the skull of a juvenile specimen of Orobates pabst. Credit: Dr Amy Henrici, Research has confirmed how early land vertebrates, which evolved from fish, developed weight-bearing limbs and other adaptations long before their feeding systems adjusted to a vegetation-based diet.

Now, for the first time, fossil jaw measurements have demonstrated this gap in evolutionary development.

Scientists from the University of Lincoln (UK), the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Oxford (UK), examined the lower jaws of 89 fossils of early tetrapods (four-footed animals) and their fish-like predecessors.

The fossils ranged in age from about 300 to 400 million years old and the team were interested in how the mechanical properties of the jaws of these animals differed through time.

They used 10 biomechanical metrics to describe jaw differences. One of these, called mechanical advantage, measured how much force an animal can transfer to its bite.

Dr Marcello Ruta, from the School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, said: “Our study is the first of its kind to address changes in biomechanical properties of the lower jaw across the transition from fish to land vertebrates using a diverse range of extinct species. This work paves the way to in-depth analyses of the rates of evolutionary transformation in other anatomical structures during this major episode in vertebrate history. It also lays the foundations for integrative research that explores themes as diverse as the origin of the first terrestrial food webs, the impact of acquisition of new structures on the diversification of major animal groups, and patterns and processes of functional change.”

So it turns out that just moving into a new environment is not always enough to trigger functional adaptations.

The team discovered that the mechanical properties of tetrapod jaws did not show significant changes in patterns of terrestrial feeding until some 40 to 80 million years after the four-legged creatures initially came out of the water. Until then, tetrapod jaws were still very fish-like, even though their owners had weight-bearing limbs and the ability to walk on land.

In the paper, which has been published in an early online edition of the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology, the authors say the results may be explained by an earlier hypothesis: a shift from gilled to lung breathing in later four-footed animals was necessary before they could adapt their jaw structure to eating plants.

This finding suggests tetrapods may have shown a limited variety of feeding strategies in the early phases of their evolution on land.

Lead author Dr Phil Anderson, from the University of Massachusetts, said: “The basic result was that it took a while for these animals to adapt their jaws for a land-based diet. They stayed essentially fish-like for a long time.”

Dr Matt Friedman, lecturer in palaeobiology at the University of Oxford, said: “The thing that is really interesting is that the diversity of jaw function didn’t really take off until around the origin of amniotes – creatures that lay hard-shelled eggs on land rather than being tied to water for reproduction like fishes and amphibians. It is in amniotes and their closest relatives that we see the first evidence for dedicated herbivory – until that point tetrapods had basically been carnivores. So this means it took at least 50 million years of evolution after the origin of features like limbs, fingers and toes before tetrapods achieved dietary diversity that began to resemble what we see today.”

The statistical methods developed in this work could be used in future studies of more subtle biomechanical patterns in fossil animals that may not be initially clear.

The paper ‘Late to the Table: Diversification of Tetrapod Mandibular Biomechanics Lagged Behind the Evolution of Terrestriality’ Philip S.L. Anderson, Matt Friedman, Marcello Ruta can be viewed at http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/03/22/icb.ict006.abstract

Story credits:

Marie Daniels - PR OfficerMarie Daniels - PR Officer
E-mail: mdaniels@lincoln.ac.uk
Telephone: 01522 886244

 

Annual conference celebrates pioneering postgraduate research at the University of Lincoln

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Postgraduate Student Conference at Riseholme Park

Postgraduate students will be exhibiting their work in a celebration of research across the University of Lincoln, as it hosts its seventh Annual Postgraduate Student Conference.

The conference, which will showcase discoveries being made, applied and critiqued by current postgraduate research students, will take place on Thursday 18th April at the Riseholme Park Conference Centre within the University’s Riseholme Park Campus.

Throughout the conference, postgraduate students will present a multitude of innovative research projects to delegates, through presentations, displays and art exhibitions. The one-day event will be opened by a key note speech from Distinguished Professor of Social Research, Stephen McKay, which will provide important insight into ‘The Craft of Research: A View from the Social Sciences’.

The conference will also include a series of workshops and instructive Q&A panel sessions, hosted by Professor Mike Neary, the University of Lincoln’s Dean of Teaching and Learning and Director of The Graduate School.

Professor Neary said: “We are looking forward to celebrating the research undertaken by our postgraduate students here at the University of Lincoln. The conference seeks to demonstrate that the spirit of research is not the preserve of any particular subject or discipline, but is what all researchers share in common and constitutes what is essential about higher education – ‘the idea of the University’.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Scott Davidson, added: “Research is what distinguishes universities from other kinds of educational institution and here at the University of Lincoln we actively promote the excitement and value of research endeavour to all our students. Among our postgraduate students there is a truly astounding range and depth of high quality research and we are looking forward to seeing this showcased at our Annual Postgraduate Student Conference.”

The Annual Postgraduate Student Conference is part of Postgraduate Week 2013, which takes place from Monday 15th – Friday 19th April, as a celebration of the entire postgraduate community at the University of Lincoln. This year’s programme includes presentations, advice sessions, career and library workshops and evening debate opportunities regarding “The Future of Academic Publishing”. The week will conclude with an evening drinks reception and quiz night, hosted at the Graduate School.

The University’s Graduate School promotes the development of postgraduate activity and champions the interests of postgraduate students throughout the University. The University of Lincoln is currently home to over 1,300 postgraduate students.

The Annual Postgraduate Student Conference is open to all staff and students at the University of Lincoln, and will take place from 9am to 5pm on Thursday 18th April, with registration open from 8:30am. For more information, and to register for your free place, visit: www.postgraduateconference2013.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk.

If you would like further information regarding the conference or Postgraduate Week, please contact the Graduate School at graduateschool@lincoln.ac.uk.

Story credits:

Elizabeth Mitchell - PR OfficerElizabeth Mitchell - PR Officer
E-mail: emitchell@lincoln.ac.uk
Telephone: 01522 837650

 

 

Lincoln blue tits provide insight into climate change

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A blue titResearchers believe that the size of birds’ nests created in response to changing weather patterns may be partly to blame for reproductive failures over the last two years.

An article in the April edition of The Biologist, the Society of Biology’s magazine, explains that birds produce different sized nests depending on the weather.

Written by Dr Charles Deeming, senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln and a Fellow of the Society of Biology, the article explains that nests are far more than just a way to hold eggs and chicks.

Dr Deeming said: “Over the past few years scientific interest in nests has increased, with studies ranging from nest composition, construction behaviour and thermal properties to the use of nests as potential signals to mates. We’ve realised that the factors affecting nest construction are far more complex than we had previously understood.”

Dr Deeming’s studies of great tits and blue tits breeding in nest boxes at the University’s Riseholme Park campus have shed light on how nests are built and how they function.

He found that individual birds can build extremely different nests each year. Cold weather on the days the bird was adding lining to the nest meant they built heavier nests than when the weather was warmer. This suggests that an important function of the nest is to keep the bird warm while it sits on the eggs. Once the nest is lined, the female will lay the first egg, which will be incubated for around two weeks. This means a larger, warmer nest will be important for keeping the bird warm if the weather is cold.

However, as climate change brings more unpredictable weather patterns the way birds construct nests will be affected. In both 2011 and 2012, for example, early spells of warm weather were followed by much lower temperatures.

At Riseholme, this seems to have had devastating effects on reproductive success. Birds building in these early warm periods are likely to construct a light, poorly insulated nest. If the weather subsequently turns cooler, having a poorly insulated nest may have an adverse effect on their reproductive success.

Birds use a wide range of materials in their nests, from moss to sheep’s wool, and their availability may also be altered by climate change. Certain plants may go extinct in local areas, so some species could lose a key nesting material.

Dr Mark Downs, chief executive of the Society of Biology, said: “Climate change will have a large effect on our ecosystems and our food production, and Dr Deeming’s is one of many studies demonstrating that the effects will be complex and difficult to predict. It is essential that we continue to study how organisms adapt to climate change and how we can best mitigate its effects.”

Dr Deeming concludes: “Much more research is needed to determine how local climate affects nest construction. Only then will we start to understand how climate change is likely to affect nest building, and hence reproductive success.”

Story credits:

Marie Daniels - PR OfficerMarie Daniels - PR Officer
E-mail: mdaniels@lincoln.ac.uk
Telephone: 01522 886244

 

Ultrasonic sounds of the rainforest

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A katydidResearch aimed at developing ultrasonic microphones with insect-like sensitivity is to continue in the rainforests of Colombia and Ecuador.

Following the discovery of a previously unidentified hearing organ in the South American bushcrickets’ ear, a scientist from the University of Lincoln (UK) will now study the role of this Auditory Vesicle in hearing sensitivity.

Dr Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, from the University’s School of Life Sciences, aims to understand how bushcrickets or katydids pick up on ultrasonic frequencies in their natural environment. The insects communicate using the highest-pitched calls in nature (130-150 kHz), which are not detected by humans. The male produces sound by rubbing its wings to attract distant females.

He said: “This animal can detect ultrasonic signals even at long distances. The problem is that at such high frequencies the sound travels in very short wavelengths which get diffracted, meaning the sound gets weaker as more obstacles are in the dispersive path. However, the bushcricket’s small ear is still able to detect this fading ultrasonic energy at long distances. I want to test how the bushcrickets manage to do that in a field environment. The fluid in the katydid ‘cochlea’, which I named the Auditory Vesicle, is the key element in the hearing process. We want to investigate why this is the case and the first step is testing its sensitivity in their natural environment and revealing the chemical composition.”

In mammals, hearing relies on three stages: an eardrum collecting sound, a middle ear impedance converter and a cochlear frequency analyser. Dr Montealegre-Zapata recently demonstrated that the bushcricket’s ear performs these steps in the hearing process, something previously unknown in insects.

The calls of the bushcricket are theoretically not suited for long-range attraction, as ultrasound suffers excess attenuation in rainforest environments. Therefore, the insect’s ears must have evolved to achieve sufficient sensitivity at such frequencies.

Dr Montealegre-Zapata said: “I want to find out how these insects mitigate the effects of sound degradation and how the female ear is structurally and functionally organised to detect distant calling males. The small ear will be used as a biological microphone to detect the sensitivity and hearing range of the female. In the future we want to produce microphones that work like this.”

The ears of these ultrasonic insects are extremely sensitive and have a clear size and sensitivity ratio advantage over equally responsive microphones.

In particular, condenser microphones (used in hearing research, plus the automotive and music industries) are expensive, mechanically fragile, susceptible to humidity and not very sensitive.

By constructing network analogues between mechanical (insect) and electrical (microphone) systems, this project can advance research into the design and construction of ultrasensitive microphones with unusual broad frequency responses.

Dr Montealegre-Zapata has received a grant from National Geographic for the field work, which will be carried out in collaboration with Dr Heiner Römer from the University of Graz, Austria.

A further grant from The Royal Society is being used to buy ultrasonic sensitive testing equipment for use in the research, which will be carried out at the Natural National Park Gorgona, Colombia.

Another aspect of the project to identify the auditory vesicle’s fluid composition is being undertaken by the University of Lincoln’s Dr.Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez.

Dr Montealegre-Zapata’s research will also feature in a new biology book for students published by National Geographic Learning.

Story credits:

Marie Daniels - PR OfficerMarie Daniels - PR Officer
E-mail: mdaniels@lincoln.ac.uk
Telephone: 01522 886244