Ground-breaking discovery finally proves rain really can move mountains
A pioneering technique which captures precisely how mountains bend to the will of raindrops has helped to solve a long-standing scientific enigma.
School of Earth Sciences
Research on origins of life wins Three Minute Thesis prize
PhD researcher Sam Briggs successfully summed up his research into the chemical origins of life to win the University of Bristol’s Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges postgraduate students to present years of work that go into a PhD thesis in just three minutes.
World’s greatest mass extinction triggered switch to warm-bloodedness
Mammals and birds today are warm-blooded, and this is often taken as the reason for their great success.
Amphibians bounce-back from Earth’s greatest mass extinction
Ancient frog relatives survived the aftermath of the largest mass extinction of species by feeding on freshwater prey that evaded terrestrial predators, University of Bristol academics have found.
Flawed analysis casts doubt on years of evolution research
Years of research on the evolution of ancient life, including the dinosaurs, have been questioned after a fatal flaw in the way fossil data is analysed was exposed by scientists from the universities of Reading and Bristol.
Ancestor of arthropods had the mouth of a penis worm
Fresh evidence from a series of expeditions to North Greenland have led palaeontologists to solve an age-old mystery about a distinctive group of arthropods.
Ancient tiny teeth reveal first mammals lived more like reptiles
Pioneering analysis of 200 million-year-old teeth belonging to the earliest mammals suggests they functioned like their cold-blooded counterparts - reptiles, leading less active but much longer lives.
Fate of turtles and tortoises affected more by habitat than temperature
Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research.
Crystal movement under Mount St Helens may have indicated 1980 eruption was likely
A study of how crystals moved in magma under the Mount St Helens volcano before the 1980 eruption may have signalled that an eruption was probable. Scientists say that similar measurements may indicate the possibility of eruption in some other, well-studied volcanoes, but caution that this is not a technique which could be applied to every volcano.
Bristol scientists shine light on tiny crystals behind unexpected violent eruptions
In a new study of volcanic processes, Bristol scientists have demonstrated the role nanolites play in the creation of violent eruptions at otherwise ‘calm’ and predictable volcanoes.