News Archive: April 2018

Reefs that experience high frequency temperature variability most likely to resist coral bleaching

As scientists and conservationists race to work out the best way to conserve the world’s coral reefs, a new study reveals why some reefs appear to be more resistant to coral bleaching during ocean warming events and calls for higher-resolution data to be collected.

Publication date: 30 April 2018

Research helps net £90 million for schools

Research from Bangor University showing the effectiveness of extra funding to schools has enabled the Welsh Government to increase funding levels to schools in order to tackle poverty in Wales. The collaborative research commissioned by GWE and ERW, two school improvement services providers, provided Welsh Government with evidence on which to base its decision to increase funding to schools under the Pupil Development Grant funding by a further 90 million in 2018-19. Educationalists , psychologists , social scientists , and legal experts who have amassed vast experiences of working with schools, pupils and children, worked together to conduct a comprehensive review of how poverty could be affecting educational achievement in Wales.

Publication date: 30 April 2018

How can we communicate all that nature does for us?

As a conservation professor I believe people need to understand why protecting nature matters to them personally. Appealing to human self-interest has generated support for conservation in Switzerland, for example, where the government protects forests partly because they help prevent landslides and avalanches , or among communities in Botswana which conserve wildlife partly because of the value of trophy hunting. But this understanding risks being obscured by unhelpful arguments over terminology.

Publication date: 27 April 2018

Students turn Bangor University campus into a game

Bangor University campus will be turned into a big game this Friday.

Publication date: 26 April 2018

Bangor appears in UK Top 10 League Tables

Bangor University is among the top 10 universities in the UK for six subjects taught at the university according to the Complete University Guide for 2019. The University appears third in the Wales University table, coming equal 62nd overall in the first free-to access complete ranking of all the UKs universities.

Publication date: 25 April 2018

Bangor weightlifters bring home the gold

Bangor University students secured podium positions at the British University and College Weightlifting Championships which took place at St Mary’s University, Twickenham recently.

Publication date: 25 April 2018

#ITSFORUS EVENT

Join Internationals Go Green and Source to Sea Productions for an event celebrating what we can do to make an environmental difference! The #itsforus event will feature booths, free giveaways, fun games, and the premier of a short film about how you can save money and the planet!

Publication date: 24 April 2018

Bangor deliver fourth successive Varsity win

For the fourth year running, Bangor University have won Varsity - the annual sporting extravaganza against Aberystwyth University - with an overall final score of 33-10 to Bangor.

Publication date: 21 April 2018

Student Led Teaching Awards 2018

The seventh annual Student Led Teaching Awards ceremony was held Friday 20th of April and celebrated the high standard of teaching and pastoral support in Bangor University.

Publication date: 21 April 2018

WhatUni Awards Success for Bangor University

Bangor University has been chosen as the best in the UK for its Students’ Union Clubs & Societies as well as its Student Accommodation in this year’s WhatUni.com Student Choice Awards . The University was also placed third in the UK in the University of the Year category and second in the UK for Courses and Lecturers .

Publication date: 20 April 2018

Conservation through religion? Scientists confirm that sacred natural sites confer biodiversity advantage

Sacred natural sites (SNS) are found all over the world. They are thought to play an important role in conservation but until recently there was little systematic investigation of this claim. Now, new research published in the journal Biological Conservation by an international and multidisciplinary team, led by the University of Ioannina and including Bangor University, has shown that there is a notable conservation benefit to SNS. The researchers of the project, known as THALIS-SAGE, chose for their study the region of Epirus, in north-western Greece, that is host to numerous sacred groves protected through religion for hundreds of years.

Publication date: 20 April 2018

School of the Year 2018!

The School of Welsh wishes to thank all of its students who nominated the school in this year’s Student Led Teaching Awards. In the grand ceremony held in Pritchard Jones Hall last Friday night, the School of Welsh was named SCHOOL OF THE YEAR 2018 .

Publication date: 20 April 2018

Can a brain injury change who you are?

Who we are, and what makes us “us” has been the topic of much debate throughout history. At the individual level , the ingredients for the unique essence of a person consist mostly of personality concepts. Things like kindness, warmth, hostility and selfishness. Deeper than this, however, is how we react to the world around us, respond socially, our moral reasoning, and ability to manage emotions and behaviours. This article by Leanne Rowlands , PhD researcher in Neuropsychology at the School of Psychology was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 20 April 2018

Major Coffee chain’s interest in Biobased and compostable plastic coffee cup lids

With 2.5 billion takeaway coffee cups being used in Britain each year, there are almost as many plastic lids being thrown away. Scientists are working with industry in to develop a new compostable plastic, which will withstand the hot liquids and can be specially moulded for coffee cup lids.

Publication date: 20 April 2018

Learned Society of Wales appoints four Bangor Fellows

The Learned Society of Wales has this year named four academics from Bangor University among the new Fellows elected to the Society from across the arts, humanities, sciences and public service sectors. Election to Fellowship is a public recognition of academic excellence, and LSW Fellowship is keenly competed. Fellows are elected following a rigorous examination of their achievements in their relevant fields.

Publication date: 19 April 2018

How do you cut back in order to save up?

The interest we can get on bank accounts is key to our ability to save up, according to financial expert, Dr Gwion Williams from Bangor University's Business School . In 2017, families across Britain only managed to save up 3% of their monthly income on average, the lowest rate in half a century. On the whole, one in four families managed to save only £95.

Publication date: 19 April 2018

Workshop on migration, protest and institutional responses in Western Europe, 1960s-1980s

The School of History and Archaeology is running a workshop on Monday, 30 April, which is addressing migration, protest and institutional responses in Western Europe in the 1960s-1980s.

Publication date: 18 April 2018

Flushed with success: How the National Trust plans to stop energy going down the drain.

Over the past 18 months the National Trust has spent almost half million pounds at Penrhyn Castle on projects to create sustainable energy and hot water - yet much of this energy goes to waste - simply flushed down the drain. To combat this the team at Penrhyn Castle, in collaboration with Bangor University and Trinity College Dublin, are embarking on an exciting new heat recovery project to make use of the huge amount of hot water that usually goes, quite literally, to waste.

Publication date: 17 April 2018

The muse returns at Harvard

Many students at Bangor University’s School of Welsh have taken advantage of the University’s international partners in order to study abroad. One of their Professors has followed their example.

Publication date: 16 April 2018

Hen Blant Bach wins Silver in International Film & Television Award

A programme, of which Bangor University was an integral part, has won a Silver Award in the 2018 New York Festivals International Film and Television Awards . Hen Blant Bach , a production by Darlun production company won the Award in the Community Portraits documentary category. The series was a new factual format for S4C, and followed the social experiment which brought older people and nursery children together to share their day care. The programmes documented the transformative positive effects that can be brought about by bringing these two groups together.

Publication date: 12 April 2018

Supercontinent formation may be linked to a cycle of supertides

Earth’s crust is made up of fractured slabs of rock, like a broken shell on an egg. These plates move around at speeds of about 5cm per year – and eventually this movement brings all the continents together and form what is known as a supercontinent. The last supercontinent on Earth was Pangaea , which existed between 300-180m years ago. This collection and dispersion of the continents is known as a supercontinent cycle, and the world now is 180m years into the current cycle. It is predicted that the next supercontinent will form in about 250m years, when the Atlantic and Pacific oceans both close and a new ocean forms where the large Asian plate splits. This article by Mattias Green , Reader in Physical Oceanography at the School of Ocean Sciences was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 12 April 2018

Macsen gets more talkative

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting more intelligent by the day. By now many people in Wales have devices such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Now that can answer spoken questions about the weather, news, and other useful facts. They can even respond to a voice asking them to turn on the light, switch on the power, or similar skills. Unfortunately, these only work if spoken to in English, but we are a step nearer getting a similar system in Welsh with our own digital personal assistant Macsen, due to work done at Bangor University, aided by a grant from the Welsh Government. To begin with Macsen could only respond to simple commands, but now it can answer questions, and go to the most popular articles in the Welsh Wikipedia to find relevant information. It can read out the first paragraph of an article, or the news headings, using a Welsh synthetic voice.

Publication date: 10 April 2018

FfitCymru and Bangor University getting the nation fit and healthy

Bangor University’s expertise will be seen on S4C over the next few weeks as an innovative new show, FfitCymru, is broadcast. The show will follow 5 member of the public as they introduce significant changes to their lives in order to lose weight and develop their fitness. What sets this show apart from countless other similar programmes is that viewers will be able to choose and follow whichever participant they identify with the most and then follow the same fitness regimes and utilise the same recipes so that they too benefit.

Publication date: 10 April 2018

New styles of strikes and protest are emerging in the UK

The image of strikers picketing outside factory gates is usually seen as something from the archives. Official statistics show an almost perennial decline in formal strikes. In the month of January 2018 there were 9,000 recorded working days lost due to strikes – a tiny fraction of the 3m recorded in January 1979. This article by Emma Sara Hughes , PhD Candidate in Employment Relations, Bangor University and Tony Dundon , Professor of HRM & Employment Relations, University of Manchester was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 10 April 2018

Bangor University Student successes in LifeStart challenges

Two Bangor University students have been successful in recent ‘LifeStart Challenges’, winning substantial sums of money and valuable experiences. Bangor University is one of only 12 universities taking part in LifeStart – a new challenge platform developed by Virgin StartUp. LifeStart aims to help students find their edge and achieve greater career and financial success by helping them learn critical enterprise and financial skills through participation in prize-winning Challenges.

Publication date: 10 April 2018

Internationals Go Green! – Beach Clean 2018

A team of 50 international students from all over the World took part in a Beach Clean in Cricieth recently. This was organised by the International Student Support Office at Bangor University as part of their Sustainability Project: Rhyngwladol Wyrdd!/Internationals Go Green! together with The North Wales Wildlife Trust.

Publication date: 9 April 2018

AI like HAL 9000 can never exist because real emotions aren't programmable

HAL 9000 is one of the best-known articifical intelligence characters of modern film. This superior form of sentient computer embarks on a mission to Jupiter, along with a human crew, in Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is currently celebrating its 50th year since release. This article by Guillaume Thierry , Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Prychology was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article . For more on Stanley Kubrick and 2001 read: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/latest/stanley-kubrick-s-films-all-had-one-thing-in-common-jewishness-36122

Publication date: 9 April 2018

Tesni wins Bronze!

Tesni Evans, a Bangor University Local Athlete Bursary winner, has added a Bronze medal to Wales’ tally at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, beating Nicol David of Malaysia in a thrilling encounter on the Gold Coast.

Publication date: 9 April 2018

‘Bangor team’ member wins Wales’ first Commonwealth Gold

Wales’ first Gold medal in the Commonwealth Games has just been secured by one of Bangor University’s Commonwealth Games team. Gareth (Gaz) Evans, a member of Bangor University staff working at the University’s Canolfan Brailsford , has just secured gold in the men's weightlifting in the 69kg category, lifting 299kg.

Publication date: 6 April 2018

Bangor University wins Welsh Language Award

Bangor University has won a national award for the best use of Welsh in Human Resources. The Award, sponsored by Cymraeg Gwaith, was presented at the Wales Cymru HR Awards at a glittering black tie event, organised by the Wales HR Network.

Publication date: 5 April 2018

The English language is the world's Achilles heel

English has achieved prime status by becoming the most widely spoken language in the world – if one disregards proficiency – ahead of Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. English is spoken in 101 countries , while Arabic is spoken in 60, French in 51, Chinese in 33, and Spanish in 31. From one small island, English has gone on to acquire lingua francastatus in international business, worldwide diplomacy, and science. This article by Guillaume Thierry, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the School of Psychology was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article .

Publication date: 4 April 2018

University Flag

The University Flag is being flown in tribute to the memory of Dr Ian Lucas, a former member of staff in the School of Ocean Sciences. His funeral is today.

Publication date: 3 April 2018