news 2011

Whether you are playing poker or haggling over a deal you might think that you can hide your true emotions. But telltale signs can reveal that you are concealing something, and now researchers at Oxford University and Oulu University are developing software that can recognise these 'micro-expressions' - which could be bad news for liars.

Scientists are developing a computer that can read vast amounts of scientific literature, make connections between facts and develop hypotheses. Ask any biomedical scientist whether they manage to keep on top of reading all of the publications in their field, let alone an adjacent field, and few will say yes.

A new analysis from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, at UW Bothell, shows evidence that charter elementary schools outperform traditional public schools in math and reading, and that charter middle schools excel in math as well. Economists Julian Betts and Emily Tang reviewed 40 high-quality studies of charter school achievement and analyzed the results.

Scientific equipment belonging to an Enlightenment figure has been found in an archaeological dig at the University. The eighteenth-century items, including laboratory apparatus and brightly coloured chemicals, almost certainly were the property of Joseph Black. Black was Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh and is best known for his discovery of carbon dioxide gas.

An historical study of the development of irregular verbs in the hundreds of Romance languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Catalan has revealed how these structures survive. Experts have also examined why they are learned by successive generations despite 'making no sense' or, apparently, having any function in the language.

A major literary discovery has been made in Sir Walter Scott's library at Abbotsford House. The Grotesquiad was recently uncovered by the Faculty of Advocates during efforts to catalogue Sir Walter's collection. Gerard Carruthers and Rhona Brown of the University's College of Arts have identified the author as James Beattie (1735-1803), who is known to have written a poem of this title, long thought to be lost.

PASADENA, Calif.—Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have conducted experiments confirming which of three possible mechanisms is responsible for the spontaneous formation of three-dimensional (3-D) pillar arrays in nanofilms (polymer films that are billionths of a meter thick).

Citations matter for authors. Being cited by one's peers is the chief indicator of an article's quality and worth. In the sciences, citations fuel a reward system of promotion, tenure, grants and editorial board positions. And if prestige is measured in an economy of citations, why not publish in open-access journals with broader readerships? Free online access to academic journals increases readership, according to a new study, but it produces no more citations, undermining a key claim of the open access movement.

Cutting down a virtual redwood with a virtual chainsaw may lead you to save trees by recycling more paper. That finding is an example of how real-world behavior can be changed by immersing people in virtual reality environments - a notion that is at the heart of work under way in Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

Launched as a reaction to the lack of outlets for challenging contemporary writing, a Cambridge-based journal is finding favour in the very places it aims to be the antidote for. One year on from its birth and with the fifth issue soon to be released, the Cambridge Literary Review continues to gain prominence, with a strong write up in the Times Literary Supplement and copies on sale in the Tate Modern bookshop amongst others.

Why are some words short and others long? For decades, a prominent theory has held that words used frequently are short in order to make language efficient: It would not be economical if 'the' were as long as 'phenomenology,' in this view. But now a team of MIT cognitive scientists has developed an alternative notion, on the basis of new research: A word's length reflects the amount of information it contains.

Art 04 Feb 11 The title page of the Cabinet of Love, which appears unannounced at the end of The Works, a copy of which is held in the Bodleian. Credit: Bodleian Libraries An Oxford University academic has explained the secret behind the success of two of the best selling volumes of poetic miscellanies in the 18th Century - a series of pornographic poems were hidden at the back of the book.

Art 28 Jan 11 The crossing out of words visible in Swift's letters was actually done by Swift himself, Dr Williams has found. Image with kind permission of the British Library Board An Oxford University academic has applied digital image analysis to intimate letters sent simultaneously by Jonathan Swift to two women, with some surprising results.

New research has uncovered a forgotten chapter in the history of the Bible, offering a rare glimpse of Byzantine Jewish life and culture. The study by the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) at King's College London, in collaboration with Cambridge University researchers, suggests that, contrary to long-accepted views, Jews continued to use a Greek version of the Bible in synagogues for centuries longer than previously thought.