12 Jun 2014
Dundee ranked best in UK for Biological Sciences
The University of Dundee has been ranked best in the UK and top internationally outside the USA for Biological Sciences in a key measure of the QS World University Rankings. Dundee has maintained its top position in the UK in the assessment of biological sciences research measured by citations per paper, the most commonly used general measure of quality and impact for scientists. The University is placed at 9th in the world, highest of any institution outside of the United States. Professor Mike Ferguson, Dean of Research at the College of Life Sciences at Dundee, said, “I’m delighted that Du...
12 Jun 2014
‘Loo Tour de Britain’ to raise money for changing facilities in Arbroath
Arbroath man Grant Speed will next month undertake a gruelling, five-day 370 mile cycle to raise funds for changing facilities for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities in his hometown. Grant has seen the difficulties his sister Lois faces finding suitable toilet and changing facilities when she takes her daughter Kelsey and son Kein out for the day. Inspired by the work of PAMIS, the University of Dundee-based charity campaigning for ‘Changing Places’ toilets to enable anyone to access facilities in comfort and safety regardless of the difficulties they face to be installed ...
11 Jun 2014
Breakthrough in understanding swarming potato blight spores
Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen have made a breakthrough in understanding how the microbial spores which cause potato blight are so effective at infecting plants. Phyophthora infestans is a highly destructive plant pathogen. It was the cause of the infamous Irish potato famine in the nineteenth century and remains to this day a significant global problem with associated costs estimated at $3billion around the world every year. Key to the success of the pathogen is the dispersal of free-swimming cells called zoospores. Infection is spread through water by the release of these tiny s...
11 Jun 2014
2014 Dundee International Book Prize shortlist announced
Ten debut novelists from the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States are in the running for this year’s Dundee International Book Prize. The judging panel of broadcaster Kirsty Lang, writer Neil Gaiman, publisher Scott Pack, literary agent Felicity Blunt and writer and critic Stuart Kelly will now cast their eyes over the shortlist, selected from more than 400 entries from across the globe. The entrants are competing for a publishing deal with Cargo Publishing and £10,000, the largest cash prize for unpublished work in the UK. Extracts of the top ten will shortly be published in print ...
10 Jun 2014
Impact of evolutionary ‘handshake’ demonstrated
An international team of scientists, including a University of Dundee researcher, has shown how a single evolutionary ‘handshake’ between plants and bacteria helped create the world as we know it today. Bees pollinate plants in return for nectar, ants protect trees in return for housing, and our own bodies house bacteria that help us digest our food. These types of beneficial relationships, called mutualisms, are at the heart of the world’s biodiversity. Now the team, led by researchers from VU University in the Netherlands, has discovered how to reconstruct the ancient history of these...