Institute for Life Sciences

News

New study to reduce falls for people with Parkinson’s disease

13 May 2013

Scientists at the University of Southampton have begun a new study to evaluate the benefits of exercises and strategies for preventing falls among people with Parkinson’s disease.


Explaining neuroscience through fashion

5 April 2013

Neuroscientists from the University of Southampton have exchanged their laboratories for the catwalk for a unique project to explain neuroscience through fashion.


Credit Mark Witton Palaeoartist

A new pterosaur from the Isle of Wight

20 March 2013

Palaeontologists from the University of Southampton have made an exciting new discovery from the Isle of Wight – a completely new genus and species of small flying reptile, closely related to dinosaurs, called a ‘pterosaur’.


Explaining neuroscience through fashion

12 March 2013

Neuroscientists from the University of Southampton will be exchanging their laboratories for the catwalk for a unique project to explain neuroscience through fashion.


Stem cell breakthrough could lead to new bone repair therapies on nanoscale surfaces

11 February 2013

Scientists at the University of Southampton have created a new method to generate bone cells which could lead to revolutionary bone repair therapies for people with bone fractures or those who need hip replacement surgery due to osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.


Professor Richard Oreffo

Implants make light work of fixing broken bones

8 February 2013

Artificial bone, created using stem cells and a new lightweight plastic, could soon be used to heal shattered limbs.

The use of bone stem cells combined with a degradable rigid material that inserts into broken bones and encourages real bone to re-grow has been developed at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton.

Researchers have developed the material with a honeycomb scaffold structure that allows blood to flow through it, enabling stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow to attach to the material and grow new bone. Over time, the plastic slowly degrades as the implant is replaced by newly grown bone.


New kind of extinct flying reptile discovered by scientists

4 February 2013

A new kind of pterosaur, a flying reptile from the time of the dinosaurs, has been identified by scientists from the University of Southampton, the Transylvanian Museum Society in Romania and the Museau Nacional in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.


Bleached Staghorn Coral

How do corals survive in the hottest reefs on the planet?

1 February 2013

Coral reefs are predicted to decline under the pressure of global warming. However, a number of coral species can survive at seawater temperatures even higher than predicted for the tropics during the next century. How they survive, while most species cannot, is being investigated by researchers at the University of Southampton.


New dinosaur fossil challenges bird evolution theory

24 January 2013

The discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur from the Jurassic period challenges widely accepted theories on the origin of flight.


Pocillopora damicornis coral

How the purple and pink sunscreens of reef corals work

23 January 2013

New research by the University of Southampton has found a mechanism as to how corals use their pink and purple hues as sunscreen to protect them against harmful sunlight.