#framework programme

Hunting Is Changing Forests, but Not as Expected

When it comes to spreading their seeds, many trees in the rainforest rely on animals, clinging to their fur or hitching a ride within their digestive tract. As the seeds are spread around, the plants’ prospects for survival and germination are increased.

But in many tropical forests, over-hunting is diminishing the populations of those animals, and, as a result, changing the make-up of the forests

High-Speed Quantum Memory for Photons

Even today, fast data transfer in telecommunication networks employs short light pulses. Ultra broadband technology uses optical fiber links through which information can be transferred at the speedof light. At the receiver’s end, the transmitted information has to be stored quickly and without errors so that it can be processed further electronically on computers. To avoid transmission errors,…

Way of Predicting Worsening Frailty in over 40s Men Discovered

Scientists from The University of Manchester have discovered how to predict worsening frailty in men over the age of 40.

Dr Agnieszka Swiecicka, a Clinical Research Fellow says frailty in men is less likely to get worse in 4 years if they have higher levels of the anabolic hormones vitamin D, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and its binding protein 3 (IGFBP3).

Also linked to a lower…

Cultivated Scallops Populations Develop Distinct Genetic Structure

‘Of the nine scallop populations studied, only one shows a marked geneticdifference from the others and that is the artificially cultivated type,’ reports Joseph I. Hoffman, head of the Molecular Behavioural Ecology research group. New breeds are cultivated in, for example, mesh cages in coastal waters. Now and then, young scallops escape through the mesh and are thereby able to impact on natural…

“Knitted Muscles” Provide Power

Developments in robot technology and prostheses have been rapid, due to technological breakthroughs. For example, devices known as “exoskeletons” that act as an external skeleton and muscles have been developed to reinforce a person’s own mobility.

“Enormous and impressive advances have been made in the development of exoskeletons, which now enable people with disabilities to walk again. But the…