Latest Durham University Stories

The Yangtze River in China is 40 million years older than was previously thought, according to new research.A study of minerals by a team led by Durham University reveals that the Yangtze River began to cut the Three Gorges area around 45 million years ago, making it much older than previously believed.The Yangtze River, the third-longest river in the world, has played a central role in the development of Chinese culture, and the Three Gorges, which separate the Sichuan Basin in the west from...

A collaboration between the University of Leeds, Durham University and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is looking at "˜printing' pills to order, to create safer and faster-acting medicines.It should also bring new drugs to market faster, so patients can benefit more quickly from medical advances.The research, led by Dr Nik Kapur from the University's Faculty of Engineering, is set to revolutionize a process which has remained unchanged for over a thousand years.GSK has developed a way of printing...

Thousands of people who are partially-sighted following stroke or brain injury could gain greater independence from a simple, cheap and accessible training course which could eventually be delivered from their mobile phones or hand-held games consoles, according to a new study.The new research has found that a computer-based technique developed and assessed by Durham University improved partially-sighted people's ability to 'see' better. It may eventually improve and broaden the portfolio of...

Researchers at Durham University have drawn up new maps to show the competing claims of Argentina and the UK for resources in the South Atlantic and Southern Oceans.The publication of the maps follows the discovery of oil south of the Falkland Islands by a British company, Rockhopper Exploration, and a series of historical arguments about sovereignty and the rights to resources in the South Atlantic.Argentina and Britain went to war over sovereignty of the Falklands in 1982, and despite the...

Modern-day Chinese pigs are directly descended from ancient pigs which were the first to be domesticated in the region 10,000 years ago, a new archaeological and genetic study has revealed.An international team of researchers, led by Durham University (UK) and the China Agricultural University, in Beijing, say their findings suggest a difference between patterns of early domestication and movement of pigs in Europe and parts of East Asia.The research, published today (Monday, April 19) in the...

Scientists have found a massive galaxy in the early Universe creating stars like our sun up to 100 times faster than the modern-day Milky Way.The team of international researchers, led by Durham University, described the finding as like seeing "a teenager going through a growth spurt".Due to the amount of time it takes light to reach Earth the scientists observed the galaxy as it would have appeared 10 billion years ago "“ just three billion years after the Big Bang.They found...

Scientists have found evidence of a catastrophic event they believe was responsible for halting the birth of stars in a galaxy in the early Universe. They report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.The researchers, led by Durham University's Department of Physics and funded by the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society say the massive galaxy, SMM J1237+6203, underwent a series of blasts trillions of times more powerful than any caused by an...

'While shepherds watched' was the first carol to cross over to the Church of England from the secular, folk tradition and carol singers might be surprised to hear that it used to be commonly sung to the tune 'Cranbrook', better known as 'Ilkley Moor' ('On Ilkla Moor baht 'at'') according to research by a hymn expert from Durham University.The tune used in most church services today is one of many variations used over the 300-year history of this much-loved carol according to Professor Jeremy...

Environmental scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Durham University have employed a novel combination of geological and model reconstructions of wetland environments during a 10,000-year period to address spatial variations in sea-level history and provide quantitative estimates of subsidence along the east coast of England.The findings indicate that glacial rebound "” the rise or fall of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial...

The world's largest species of monkey 'chooses' mates with genes that are different from their own to guarantee healthy and strong offspring, according to a new research study.The results obtained from mandrills, a species closely related to humans, support the disputed theory that humans are attracted to those with a dissimilar genetic make up to maintain genetic diversity.Female mandrills are more likely to reproduce with males whose genes are complementary, possibly because they 'smell...