science wire

A new trial will find out if a smartphone app that sends activities and tips to parents can help improve toddlers' language and communication skills. The trial, which will be carried out by researchers in the School of Education at Durham University, will involve parents and guardians of 1,500 children.

Durham University has been recognised as a global leader in Arts and Humanities in a prestigious international league table.

The Primate and Predator Project based in the Soutpansberg mountain range of South Africa, aims to better understand the ecology of local species and the threat that human activity poses to their conservation.

Archaeologists from Durham University in the UK have become the first UK team to excavate inside the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

They are known as 'kissing bugs' and they spread a disease that rarely makes the headlines but infects up to seven million people worldwide.

Durham scientists play key role as construction starts on world's largest telescope (20 July 2017) Construction work has begun on the world's largest visible to infrared telescope - and Durham University is playing a key role.

Female sports fans struggle to be taken seriously and feel they are regarded as being less committed than male fans, according to research by Dr Stacey Pope , who answers some questions about her findings below.

Durham University's Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) is taking part in the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition for the first time with an exhibit entitled Modelling the Invisible.

First real-time measurements of Earth's surface displacement during major earthquake (6 July 2017) A team of researchers led by the Department of Earth Sciences has collected the first real-time measurements of Earth's surface displacement during a major earthquake, as published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers at the University's Durham Energy Institute (DEI) are exploring the Earth's geothermal energy potential.

Durham University's outstanding achievements in science have been recognised with a series of awards.

This week, it will be ten years since the smoking ban for enclosed workplaces in the UK came into force.

Crucial that Brexit talks resolve issue of UK/EU citizens' rights, expert says (21 June 2017) As Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU continue, one of the key areas for discussion will be citizens' rights.

Britain had a secret ban on communists in government service from the 1920s to the 1940s and ran an extensive programme of covert surveillance of civil-service workers suspected of being communists, according to new research published in the journal American Historical Review. The research, by Dr Jennifer Luff from Durham University's Department of History , has found evidence of a wide-spread policy of surveillance and action against suspected communist workers in government dockyards, ordnance factories, and other industrial sites.

Professor Claire Warwick appointed Chair of Russell Group research committee (14 June 2017) Durham University's Professor Claire Warwick has been appointed as Chair of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research (PVCR) Committee of the prestigious Russell Group.

Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri manillensis), originally from Asia and now found in London. Credit: Tim Blackburn Islands and mainland coastal regions are the world's hotspots for alien plant and animal species, according to new research. An international team of researchers, led by Dr Wayne Dawson in Durham University's Department of Biosciences , has provided the first global analysis of established alien species.

The seventeenth Century Scottish soldiers, who were imprisoned and died in Durham following the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, were commemorated with a series of events in the City on Friday 12 May 2017.

A selection of Durham University experts who are available for comment to the media in the lead-up to, and during, the upcoming 2017 General Election is listed below Durham University operates over two campuses.

Leopard populations in part of South Africa are decreasing in greater numbers and at a greater speed than expected, due in large part to illegal killing by humans according to new findings. A research team led by Dr Samual Williams , an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology , conducted a long-term study of the leopard population in the Soutpansberg Mountains in South Africa and found that leopard density (the number of leopards per 100 km2) had decreased by 44% between 2012 and 2016 and by 66% since 2008.

As part of the So Much More campaign, we celebrate our Staff Volunteering and Outreach. DURHAM University is inviting more charities and good causes to benefit from its staff volunteering programme.

UK shale gas extraction could be reduced by limited space to develop wells (3 April 2017) Only a quarter of the shale gas contained in one of the UK's largest reserves might be recoverable because of limited space to develop the wells needed to extract it, according to new research.

Iconic research centre confirms Durham's international position in space science (8 March 2017) Durham University has reaffirmed its position as a world leading centre of research in astronomy and cosmology with the opening of the new £11.5m Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics.

Durham University has achieved its highest ever number of subjects in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2017 , with eight in the Top 50 and three in the Top 10.

Spectacular light show celebrates new Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics (1 March 2017) Stunning images of the cosmos will be projected on to one of Durham City's newest landmarks to celebrate its official opening next week (9,10,11 March).

Durham University is a partner in a new £7.5m Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse launched by the UK Home Office and led by Barnardo's.

Although voice-hearing is often associated with severe mental illness, it can be an important aspect of people's religious or spiritual life.

The majority of primate species worldwide are now threatened with extinction, according to an international group of primate conservation experts who are calling for urgent action to protect the world's dwindling primate populations.

One branch on the tree of life is a bit more crowded today as a team of scientists have revealed what a bizarre group of cone-shaped sea creatures actually are, as reported in Nature . Known as hyoliths, these extinct marine creatures were long believed to belong to the same family as snails, squids and other molluscs, but the researchers have shown that they are instead more closely related to brachiopods - a group which has a rich fossil record but with only a few living species known today.

Cosmologists at Durham University have helped put together the world's largest digital survey of the visible Universe.

Two-thirds of head teachers in England now use the Teaching and Learning Toolkit , developed by Durham University and the Sutton Trust, to inform how best to spend their pupil premium funding, according to a recent survey.

Durham University will welcome a House of Commons Select Committee to the region, reflecting its growing relationship with UK Parliament.

Researchers at Durham University are aiming to unpack the issues behind the legal, constitutional and economic implications of Brexit.