News Archive

News Archive: August 2017

The oyster is their world- now they want you to consider the oyster

Aquaculture experts at Bangor University are hoping to initiate a sea-change in how oysters are considered and consumed at an international Oyster Symposium being held at the University (11-14 September). They hope that the event will encourage a rapid but sustainable increase in oyster production and consumption- at home and at oyster bars here in Wales and elsewhere.

Publication date: 30 August 2017

Funding to develop dementia researchers

In Wales there at 45,000 people living with dementia and the cost of illness has been estimated at £1.4 billion per year. The highest part of this cost is unpaid care by family and friends. Support services can be fragmented and difficult for people to access across health and social care sectors. Poor transport links and the risk of carers feeling more isolated and unsupported are particular challenges for rural areas. Researchers at Bangor University’s School of Healthcare Sciences have been awarded over half a million pounds in funding to undertake fellowships in dementia research. These fellowships, funded by Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales , aim to build capacity in health and social care research by supporting individuals to become independent researchers and to undertake high-quality research projects’.

Publication date: 30 August 2017

Funding to develop dementia researchers

Publication date: 30 August 2017

Developing new long-range micro backpacks for bees

A project to develop a new means of tracking bees in the landscape is progressing well according to scientists at Bangor University. An ecologist and a microsystems engineer are working together to develop micro-backpacks for bees that will enable the bees to be followed by small drones as they fly from plant to plant. This will enable scientists to learn more about where the bees collect nectar and what might be affecting their numbers.

Publication date: 29 August 2017

Women's Work in Music - Ensemble Cymru perform new music in Pontio

Publication date: 29 August 2017

Forget Jon Snow, watch the young women to find out how Game of Thrones ends

For Game of Thrones fans, the current series has been a bit of a mystery. As the television writers have picked up the storyline where author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice novels ended, there is, for the first time, no original text to refer back to. This article by Raluca Radulescu , Professor of Medieval Literature and English Literature, Bangor University was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article

Publication date: 25 August 2017

Bangor University at Festival No.6

Bangor University is excited to announce that academic staff and students from the Arts and Humanities will be hosting a range of events as part of this year’s special 6th anniversary of Festival No. 6 - a bespoke banquet of music, arts, culture and gastronomy which takes place over the weekend of the 7-10 September in the magical village of Portmeirion , Penrhyndeudraeth, home of the cult TV series The Prisoner . This year’s headliners at the Festival include Bloc Party, The Flaming Lips, and Mogwai, alongside special talks by Irvine Welsh and Maxine Peake.

Publication date: 22 August 2017

Landfill sites: not just a load of rubbish

Far from being a load of rubbish, landfill sites should be considered one of the great untapped resources in the search for new enzymes for biotechnology, and could fuel more efficient biofuel production. A new research paper in mSphere ( DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00300-17 ) by biologists at Bangor and Liverpool universities has for the first time identified the enzymes which degrade natural materials such as paper and clothing in landfill sites.

Publication date: 22 August 2017

Celebrating Women’s Work in Music

Two classical music concerts at Bangor University’s Pontio are set to be the highlight of the First International Conference on Women’s Work in Music (4-7 September) celebrating the achievements of women musicians. The Conference has been timed to mark the 40thanniversary of the death of Grace Williams (1906-77), one of the first professional Welsh composers of the 20th century to attain international recognition. The concerts on Monday, 4 September in Neuadd Powis at 5.45pm and Wednesday, 6 September at 7.30pm in Pontio’s Theatr Bryn Terfel will feature Grace Williams’s music and also include world premieres by leading British composers Nicola LeFanu and Eleanor Alberga.

Publication date: 21 August 2017

Life-saving technology one step closer with work from Chemists at Bangor University

A recently published paper outlines the results of a Welsh Government funded research project that takes the world a step closer to swift and easy diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB). TB is one of the world's deadliest diseases. Just two years ago, 10.4 million people around the world became sick with TB and there were 1.8 million TB-related deaths worldwide. In 2015, 35% of HIV deaths were due to co-infection with TB. Chemists at Bangor University have been working to develop quick and easy to use diagnosis kits that can be used to give an instant result (currently blood samples from the patient have to be sent to a laboratory, which takes far too long).

Publication date: 18 August 2017

Migrating birds use a magnetic map to travel long distances

Birds have an impressive ability to navigate They can fly long distances, to places that they may never have visited before, sometimes returning home after months away. Though there has been a lot of research in this area, scientists are still trying to understand exactly how they manage to find their intended destinations. This article was by Richard Holland, Senior Lecturer in Animal Cognition, School of Biological Sciences , was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 18 August 2017

Independent music labels are creating their own streaming services to give artists a fair deal

Music streaming services are hard to beat. With millions of users – Spotify alone had 60m by July 2017 , and is forecast to add another 10m by the end of the year – paying to access a catalogue of more than 30m songs, any initial concerns seem to have fallen by the wayside . But while consumers enjoy streaming, tension is still bubbling away for the artists whose music is being used. There is a legitimacy associated with having music listed on major digital platforms, and a general acknowledgement that without being online you are not a successful business operation or artist. This article by Steffan Thomas , Lecturer in Film and Media, at the School of Creative Studies & Media was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 18 August 2017

Bird-brained? Not at all: Reed Warblers reveal a magnetic map

We all marvel at those mammals, birds and insects who migrate long distances, and at their innate ability to reach a destination thousands of miles away. Scientists are still trying to unravel all the mechanisms involved. Now, one group of scientists believe that they have revealed one system being used by some migrating birds, and it reveals a fascinating ‘world-map’ that many of us would marvel at.

Publication date: 17 August 2017

Getting in the ‘Neural Groove’ - Prof Cross joins an illustrious list of Award Lecture winners

Prof. Emily S. Cross from Bangor University’s School of Psychology has been named as one of the winners of the British Science Association (BSA) prestigious Award Lectures that form part of the British Science Festival 2017.

Publication date: 16 August 2017

It’s fifty years since Sgt Pepper taught the band to play

This summer sees fifty years since Sgt Pepper taught the band to play as The Beatles released what is often cited as the first important concept album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ; an album that is generally understood as truly ground-breaking, and as one of those moments which changed (and perhaps even created) an art-form. It’s also fifty years (25-27 August 1967) since the Beatles visited Bangor, a visit which also proved to be a pivotal date in the history of the group.

Publication date: 16 August 2017

2017 NSS success for SENRGy!

The release of the 2017 National Student Survey (NSS) results has seen great success for the School of Environment Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGy). The School achieved a hugely impressive 94% overall satisfaction score; in a number of the school’s undergraduate subject areas achieved satisfaction scores that are amongst the best in the UK.

Publication date: 15 August 2017

Prestigious Lecture Award to Prof Johnson

Professor Barrie Johnson of the College of Natural Sciences joins a prestigious list of internationally renowned scientist invited to present the UK Mineralogical Society’s Hallimond Lecture . Prof Johnson is the only academic from Wales to have presented the lecture in the 46 years since its inception, and was nominated and selected by a panel for the Honour. His lecture will be published in due course in the Society’s Journal.

Publication date: 14 August 2017

Welsh language media could hold the solution to Wales’s democratic deficit

This article by Ifan Morgan Jones Lecturer in Journalism, School of Creative Studies and Media was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 11 August 2017

Emma Chappell is the Welsh Learner of the Year

It was a great pleasure to hear that Emma Chappell who attended Welsh for Adults classes at Bangor University and also works at the University in The Management Centre, is the Welsh Learner of the Year at the Anglesey National Eisteddfod this year.

Publication date: 10 August 2017

Satisfied students place Bangor University among top UK universities

Bangor University’s students have again given the University a resounding testimonial in the annual National Student Satisfaction survey, placing the University eighth among the UK’s non-specialist universities in the UK and second among Welsh Universities. The news follows hard on the heels of the University’s recent success in being awarded a Gold Standard in the UK Government’s new Teaching Excellence Framework, the only Welsh university to achieve this standard.

Publication date: 9 August 2017

Bangor University History student wins prestigious award

Congratulations to Ceiri Coker, a postgraduate student at the School of History and Archaeology , on winning the Dr John Davies Memorial Award at the National Eisteddfod of Wales 2017. The prize is awarded by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol for the best Welsh history dissertation presented through the medium of Welsh.

Publication date: 9 August 2017

Forest conservation approaches must recognise the rights of local people

Until the 1980s, biodiversity conservation in the tropics focused on the “fines and fences” approach: creating protected areas from which local people were forcibly excluded. More recently, conservationists have embraced the notion of “ win-win ”: a dream world where people and nature thrive side by side. This article by Sarobidy Rakotonarivo , Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Stirling and Neal Hockley , Research Lecturer in Economics & Policy, Bangor University was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 9 August 2017

Understanding our Oceans

Bangor University’s Schools of Ocean Science s, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in collaboration with company partner Tidal Lagoon Power are looking for a computer science student to help them build an autonomous vehicle that will answer questions that have bugged ecologists and fisheries scientists for years – how and where do fish swim? The new project being developed by SEACAMS, Bangor University and funded by KESS 2 aims to track small marine fish to understand where fish swim in a way that has previously only been applied to large sharks.

Publication date: 7 August 2017

‘Bodedern’s musical success

During the National Eisteddfod of Wales’s hymn-singing festival in Bodedern (Anglesey) broadcast on Sunday evening, August 6th, a former Bangor University School of Music doctoral researchers gained a resounding success. Dr Godfrey Wyn Williams from Pontcysyllte (nr. Llangollen) was awarded the Eisteddfod’s prize for composing an original hymn tune. Following several successes in local and regional festivals throughout Wales (inc. Eisteddfod Llandegfan, Llanrwst, Treuddyn, Mynytho, Bancffosfelen, Powys & Lampeter), Godfrey’s talent was given national recognition and a truly memorable performance during the televised cymanfa ganu .

Publication date: 7 August 2017

Bangor at the Ynys Môn National Eisteddfod

As the major provider of Welsh medium higher education, Bangor University is particularly active again in this year’s National Eisteddfod in Anglesey. Full details and news about the University’s activities at the Eisteddfod is available on the University’s website at: www.bangor.ac.uk/eisteddfod

Publication date: 2 August 2017

International delegates attracted to Bangor University’s Health Services Research Summer School

Delegates from as far as Canada, Qatar, Italy and Denmark attended Bangor University School of Healthcare Sciences residential summer school held recently.

Publication date: 2 August 2017

The Official Launch of a Toolkit for Promoting the Welsh Language in the Community

On Thursday, the 10th of August at 10 o’clock on Bangor University’s Stand in the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, Bodedern; A Toolkit for Promoting the Welsh Language in the Community was launched in the company of Alun Davies, Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language. The toolkit was created by Dr Rhian Hodges and Dr Cynog Prys, School of Social Sciences, in co-operation with Mentrau Iaith Cymru. The toolkit will include practical examples of ways in which to promote the Welsh Language in the community. These examples were collected across 8 communities in Wales as part of a research project funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.

Publication date: 2 August 2017

Auntie Glenda & her Dementia Friends – Launch Event

A new resource to raise awareness about dementia and created by school pupils at Ysgol Pentreuchaf, is to be launched as part of a celebration of the innovative ‘Auntie Glenda’ project. This takes place at Bangor University’s stand at the National Eisteddfod on Tuesday between 10-1.00. Dementia is a major public health issue in Wales and the research and teaching at Bangor University is focused on increasing support to those living with the condition. It is estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 people in Wales are currently living with dementia. Symptoms can vary according to the type of dementia but the condition can affect daily tasks, communication, senses and memory.

Publication date: 1 August 2017

Commemorating the centenary of the death of Hedd Wyn

Bangor University Archives & Special Collections is commemorating the centenary of the death of Hedd Wyn with an exhibition celebrating the life, work and legacy of the Welsh poet and soldier who died on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele on 31 July 1917. The exhibition is on display from June 5th until December 15th 2017 in the Council Chamber Corridor of the Main Arts Building. Items from the Exhibition wil also be available to be viewed at Bangor University's stand at the National Eisteddfod 2017 on Friday the 11th August.

Publication date: 1 August 2017

“I am not comfortable speaking in Welsh”

“ I am not comfortable speaking in Welsh ” – The linguistic dynamic in a bilingual workplace and a bilingual school. Arwel Williams and David Parry, two local research students in the School of Psychology at Bangor University are hosting a Welsh language event at Bangor University’s Stand at the National Eisteddfod at 10.00-11.00 on Monday August 7th.

Publication date: 1 August 2017