Winning margins in the Tour de France can be tight. In 2010 just 39 seconds separated the top two after more than 90 hours in the saddle. When every second counts, riders do all they can to gain competitive advantage, from aerodynamic carbon fibre bikes to the latest sports nutrition.
Now there could be a new, completely legal and rather surprising weapon for riders aiming to shave vital seconds off their time – beetroot juice. (more…)
*A University of Exeter biologist has discovered a ‘lost’ species of bat breeding on the Isles of Scilly.*
*A pregnant female brown long-eared bat is the first of its species to be found on the islands for at least 40 years.*
It was discovered by Dr Fiona Mathews, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter, a postgraduate student and a team from the Wiltshire Bat Group.
The Scilly Isles Bat Group called in Dr Mathews and her team to help them find out more about bats on the islands. The researchers set up a radiotracking study, with funding from the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to monitor the islands’ bat activity. (more…)
A leading academic at the University of Exeter has played a central role in compiling a report which could be vital for global efforts to tackle climate change.
Professor Catherine Mitchell, part of the University’s Energy Policy Group based in Cornwall, was one of only two experts from the UK to contribute to the ‘Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation’ (SRREN). (more…)
Research by experts at the University of Exeter has led to calls to create an international marine park to protect endangered sea turtles.
Scientists from the university’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation, based at its Cornwall Campus, worked with an international team to carry out satellite tracking of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Central Africa for the study. (more…)
A University of Exeter researcher has revealed how he discovered Apple iPhones and iPads are tracking every movement of their owners and storing it in a file on the device.
Dr Alasdair Allan, a Senior Research Fellow in the Astrophysics department, came across the find while looking at programmes on the iPhone with security expert, Pete Warden. (more…)
Nowhere celebrates its criminals like America. In books and on film, in fact and in fiction criminals sell.
The way people break the law has shaped American national identity just as clearly as any war according to research by University of Exeter historian, Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt.
His new book ‘Crime and the Rise of Modern America’ examines how crime and America are intertwined, defining each other. The research suggests that crime performs a role central to our understanding of America’s economic growth and its emergence as a super power. (more…)
Research by the University of Exeter has revealed that ants have a big impact on their local environment as a result of their activity as ‘ecosystem engineers’ and predators.
The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, found that ants have two distinct effects on their local environment. (more…)
