news

Law - Career - 10.07.2014

I’ve been working like a dog: revisiting a 1960s study of the working class
The Beatles' song A Hard Day's Night was released 50 years ago today. Its runaway success in the charts overlapped with a major sociological study of the newly-affluent working class that features in Lennon and McCartney's lyrics. Cambridge historian Dr Jon Lawrence discusses what this study reveals about perceptions of class identity in 1960s Britain.

Law - Social Sciences - 07.05.2014

Personal circumstances often not disclosed in repossession cases
New research has found that the personal circumstances of defendants in home possession cases are often not disclosed to judges. Yet judges who were ed by the researchers said that knowing about personal circumstances - such as problems caused by age, mental infirmity, dependent children, and an inability to understand the proceedings - could have a major bearing on their judgement.

Economics / Business - Law - 11.04.2014

Sharing = Stealing: Busting a copyright myth
CREATe Martin Kretschmer, Professor of Intellectual Property law and Director of CREATe College of Social Sciences Consumers copy and share digital files. This has been blamed for a potentially catastrophic decline in certain markets. But why do consumers copy? And is it as economically harmful as often thought? CREATe, the UK research centre for copyright, has put a decade of evidence to the test by reviewing studies published between 2003 and 2013.

Life Sciences - Law - 28.03.2014

Can police seize your dirty undies? DNA collection rights questioned
  Professor Jeremy Gans 03 8344 1099 0423 399 549 The rights of police to secretly collect suspects' discarded DNA material remains dangerously unregulated in Australia, a University of Melbourne analysis has determined. Laws designed to manage the collection of DNA samples direct from a person's body are largely silent on the collection of discarded bodily material, such as saliva on cigarette butts or abandoned chewing gum.

Computer Science - Law - 28.10.2013

Mobile phone use may pose significant security risks for companies
New research suggests that companies are leaving themselves open to potentially serious security and legal risks by employees' improper use of corporate mobile devices. Experts from the University of Glasgow looked at a sample of mobile phones returned by the employees from one Fortune 500 company and found that they were able to retrieve large amounts of sensitive corporate and personal information.

Law - 09.10.2013

New University of Minnesota study shows Twin Cities charter schools underperform traditional public schools and continue to be highly segregated by race and income
New University of Minnesota study shows Twin Cities charter schools underperform traditional public schools and continue to be highly segregated by race and income Media Note: about the report, Myron Orfield at (612) 625-7976 ( orfield [a] umn (p) edu ) or Thomas Luce at (612) 625-5344 ( tluce [a] umn (p) edu ).

Economics / Business - Law - 09.10.2013

An experiment puts auditing under scrutiny
Unique study reduces pollution in India while calling conventional auditing markets into question. The structure of the auditing business appears problematic: Typically, major companies pay auditors to examine their books under the so-called "third-party" audit system. But when an auditing firm's revenues come directly from its clients, the auditors have an incentive not to deliver bad news to them.

Law - Life Sciences - 25.09.2013

Male fruit flies sleep around but females keep it in the family
Male fruit flies like to have a variety of sexual partners, whereas females prefer to stick with the same mate - or move on to his brothers. An Oxford University study of mating preferences in fruit flies ( Drosophila ) has found that males and females respond to the sexual familiarity of potential mates in fundamentally different ways.

Law - Health - 12.09.2013

Impact of helmet laws on head injuries
UAlberta study shows that mandatory helmet laws decrease head injuries among cyclists of all ages. New research from the University of Alberta shows that bicycle helmet legislation is having the right kind of impact on head injuries. Research from professors Donald Voaklander and Duncan Saunders and PhD candidate Mohammad Karkhaneh in the U of A's School of Public Health shows that mandatory helmet legislation decreases head injuries in multiple age groups.

Law - 03.09.2013

Charities could be exposed by equality legislation
CHARITIES could be left exposed and are ill-equipped to address the complex legal questions generated by the Equality Act 2010, according to a new study by the University of Liverpool's Charity Law & Policy Unit. The year-long  project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust , found that although charities are aware of the legislation they may not understand how it affects them, potentially leaving them open to a challenge that threatens their charitable status.

Law - Administration - 08.08.2013

The science behind solving serious crime
King's MSc students are studying insect behaviour to help solve murder cases King's has been at the cutting edge of forensic science for many years, working closely with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to develop innovative techniques and test new methods to collect and analyse evidence in criminal cases.

Physics - Law - 31.07.2013

Universal Law for Light Absorption in 2D Semiconductors
From solar cells to optoelectronic sensors to lasers and imaging devices, many of today's semiconductor technologies hinge upon the absorption of light. Absorption is especially critical for nano-sized structures at the interface between two energy barriers called quantum wells, in which the movement of charge carriers is confined to two-dimensions.

Life Sciences - Law - 06.06.2013

Professor Kaye discusses implications of DNA evidence ruling by Supreme Court
After attending the oral arguments in Maryland v. King, a case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with DNA evidence, Penn State Dickinson School of Law professor and preeminent expert on DNA and statistical evidence  David Kaye  predicted that the lower court ruling would be overturned.

Life Sciences - Law - 06.06.2013

Law professor discusses implications of DNA evidence ruling by Supreme Court
After attending the oral arguments in Maryland v. King, a case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with DNA evidence, Penn State Dickinson School of Law professor and preeminent expert on DNA and statistical evidence  David Kaye  predicted that the lower court ruling would be overturned.

Law - 15.05.2013

Almost a quarter of jurors confused about rules on internet use during a trial, according to new research
Almost a quarter of jurors (23 per cent) are unclear about the rules surrounding internet use during a trial, according to preliminary research led by Professor Cheryl Thomas (UCL Laws).

Law - 29.04.2013

Decoding ’noisy’ language in daily life
Study shows how people rationally interpret linguistic input. Suppose you hear someone say, "The man gave the ice cream the child." Does that sentence seem plausible? Or do you assume it is missing a word? Such as: "The man gave the ice cream to the child." A new study by MIT researchers indicates that when we process language, we often make these kinds of mental edits.

Law - Linguistics / Literature - 11.04.2013

Unpublished DH Lawrence manuscript discovered, revealing a blistering attack on 1920s misogyny
PA 111/13 An unpublished manuscript by DH Lawrence attacking a particularly abhorrent form of 1920s sexism has been discovered in an archive in New Zealand. Dr Andrew Harrison, Lecturer in English Literature at The University of Nottingham, found the manuscript among the papers of John Middleton Murry, which were recently acquired by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

Law - 05.04.2013

Investigating child abuse: how interview training really matters
Gathering evidence from children about alleged sex abuse is problematic. Research shows that when ers are trained in a protocol that favours open-ended questions more cases lead to charges and more charges lead to prosecution. The quality of forensic ing practices is of utmost importance if the right of both child victims and innocent suspects are to be protected.

Mechanical Engineering - Law - 21.03.2013

Personality clue to ’wind turbine syndrome’
Public concern about new technology infrastructure like mobile phone masts has been shown to trigger reports of ill health... and recently even the new 'green' technology of wind turbines has been blamed for medically unexplained non-specific symptoms. But now, for the first time, a study by psychologists, engineers and built environment experts at The University of Nottingham , has found no link between the 'measured' level of noise from small and micro wind turbines and reports of ill health.

Law - 10.12.2012

Are jurors influenced by special courtroom measures?
Alleged adult rape victims are not disadvantaged in court if they choose to give evidence behind protective screens or via video links, according to new research. The study, jointly led by the University of Leeds and University of Nottingham, is the first of its kind in the UK to examine the impact of the use of technology and special measures in adult rape trials on juror decision-making.