A study of birds on Pacific islands shows conclusively that the formation of new species is a gradual and not a sudden process, according to biologists from the UK, France, Australia and the USA writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (28 May issue).

The `founder effect` theory, a controversial idea among biologists, says that speciation occurs suddenly due to a small influx of colonists founding new populations, in the process creating many new gene combinations

“It is not too much to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star” (Arthur Eddington 1926)

Following a press conference this morning (Monday 27 May 2002) in Paris, the European Space Agency confirmed the establishment of the Eddington Mission as part of its new Science programme. Astronomers, led by Professor Ian Roxburgh of Queen Mary, University of London, proposed the mission in 2000, and the Eddington Satellite is to be

Giving birth is clearly a high-stress experience. But usually it involves positive stress, which helps the woman cope with the exigencies of delivery and prepares the baby for a life outside the mother’s womb.” These are the words of Siw Alehagen from Linköping University, Sweden, who has written a dissertation about fear, pain, and stress hormones in women giving birth. Among other things, she has performed studies during actual delivery, a method that few researchers have dared to attempt anywhere

On Friday, May 31, Anders Eklund, Department of Radiation Sciences, Medical Technology, Umeå University, Sweden, will defend his dissertation evaluating a new and simpler instrument for measuring the pressure of eye fluids, a key risk factor in glaucoma. Anders Eklund has a master’s in engineering and works at the Unit for Medical Technology and Informatics, Northern Sweden University Hospital. He has further developed and assessed a new type of sensor based on vibration technology. His work has targ

Researchers from the University of East London (UEL) have embarked on a project to investigate the ecology of the atmosphere, one of the last great frontiers of biological exploration on Earth. In an eighteen-month pilot project launched today, a team of microbiologists led by Dr Bruce Moffett aims to discover whether airborne microbes play an active role in forming clouds and causing rain to fall.

The researchers are using a revolutionary `cyclonic cloud catcher`, based on vacuum cleaner te

When you are sent to do a bit of work experience in the office of a university science department you don’t normally expect much more than a bit of boring filing and some tedious photocopying. So those that turned up to the University of Warwick’s Physics department recently were a bit shocked to be taken to a small black room and dropped into a virtual reality four dimensional hypercube.

Instead of dreary photocopying the work experience kids were used to help University of Warwick physicis