science wire

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, in partnership with Natural England and The Guardian , is inviting the public to name animal species which have so far only been recorded in Latin.

A University of Manchester researcher has been awarded more than £150,000 by a leading eye-research charity to examine the genetic causes of glaucoma - one of the chief causes of preventable blindness in the UK.

A study of feral chickens, reported in this week's Current Biology , suggests an evolutionary battle between what's good for old roosters and what's good for their hens - which would benefit from sex with younger, more potent males.

Toby Dickens and Andy Marshall of St John's College are second year engineering students, Karl Williams, also at St John's, is studying history, while Queens' College's Becky Kiff is a Natural Scientist.

New MA in Christianity & The Arts 23 Jun 2010, PR 139/10 A new MA in Christianity & The Arts was launched last night by Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King's and Dr Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery.

BERKELEY — Following a national search, the University of California, Berkeley, has chosen the world renowned, New York City-based design firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) to design the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA).

Specialists in the analysis of archaeological fish remains are in danger of becoming as extinct as the ancient species they study, the UK's zooarchaeological community has warned.

On June 18, 1940, the Prime Minister first addressed Parliament, then the British nation, during one of the darkest and most uncertain moments of the Second World War. The Battle of France was coming to an end, the Battle of Britain was about to begin. The country stood alone against the might of a German offensive that had swept much of Europe before it.

An international research team has mapped out an accurate chronology of the kings of ancient Egypt using a radiocarbon analysis of short-lived plant remains from the region.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has thrown up challenges for researchers at Oxford and Kentucky Universities. Using Google Maps they have settled scores on whether the term 'football' or 'soccer' is preferred across the world and kicked off a debate about which nation likes to talk about football the most. They discovered that of all the teams in the World Cup, Algeria has the highest proportion of user-generated references to football.

A cataclysmic "Great Event" is approaching which will occur in or around the year 2014 and determine the course of the rest of the 21st century, according to a startling new thesis published this week.

Cambridge, Mass. June 17, 2010 - Russian cities and regions whose Jewish populations bore the brunt of the Holocaust have seen lower economic growth and wages ever since, according to a detailed new analysis of seven decades of Soviet and Russian data. These same areas have also tended to resist political reform, exhibiting greater popular support for Communist candidates since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Previously unseen Jane Austen manuscripts available online 16 Jun 2010, PR 121/10 A new digital edition funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is making publicly available for the

The dictionary in the age of the internet, slang words and the Americanisation of the English language will all be on the agenda as more than one hundred of the world's top dictionary scholars arrive in Oxford this week.

An archaeology project, aimed at uncovering some of Sheffield´s water-powered past, is being showcased at an open day hosted by the University of Sheffield´s Department of Archaeology this weekend.

Media academic and cultural commentator Andy Medhurst makes an appearance on the new BBC television series Rude Britannia this week, but it's all in the best possible taste.

Cambridge, Mass. June 14, 2010 - Political theorist Eric Nelson, whose work has traced the history of republicanism from the ancient Greeks and Romans through the Renaissance to the present day, has been named professor of government at Harvard University.

Aiden Cope is studying PPS (Politics, Psychology and Sociology) at Wolfson College. He's a mature student, who was financially independent from the age of 16, and qualifies for maximum support from Student Finance and from Cambridge.

BERKELEY — At a century-old Buddhist temple in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, seven elderly Japanese American artists appeared recently in a once-in-a-lifetime performance of music, dance, and theater.

Beginning in a backyard in 1961, Canyon Cinema went on to become one of the world's leading distributors of avant-garde independent films, coordinating a network of otherwise unpaid artists.

The space and astronomy worlds have June 13 circled on the calendar. That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the sample return capsule of the agency's technology demonstrator spacecraft, Hayabusa, to boomerang back to Earth.

Cambridge University Library has announced visionary plans to become a digital library for the world - following a £1.5m lead gift pledged by Dr Leonard Polonsky. Home to more than seven million books and some of the greatest collections in existence, including those of Newton and Darwin, the Library will begin digitising its priceless treasures to launch its Digital Library for the 21st Century.

The last letters of Captain Scott and his companions will return to public display as one of the world's most important collections of polar artefacts is officially opened by TRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex on June 8.

Cambridge, Mass. June 3, 2010 - Malika Zeghal, who has examined the changing relationship between Islam and governments across the Middle East, has been appointed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life at Harvard University, effective July 1, 2010.

The University of Cambridge will take members of the public back and forward in time next week to look at the life of Oliver Cromwell and the future of spinal cord repair during two free afternoon lectures.