Jennifer Appleton

Jennifer studied for a degree in Veterinary medicine at the Royal Veterinary College until she realised her true passion lay in scientific writing. Her preferred subject area still lies within the realms of veterinary science with a special interest in zoonotic diseases.

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Fairtrade: what does it mean?

Everday in the UK over nine million cups of fairtrade tea, six million cups of fairtrade coffee and 2 million fairtrade chocolate bars are sold.

Ethical snack breaks are clearly a popular treat.

The fairtrade foundation launched fairtrade fortnight 2011 by announcing that sales of fairtrade products had soared by 40 per cent in 2010 – to an estimated retail value of 1.17 billion pounds.

Fairtrade fortnight runs from the 28th feb to the 13th march. City University Environment Officer Dawn White told us a little more about what the College is doing during the two-week period.

Melanoma are the most deadly form of skin cancer

Researchers are developing a nanoparticle that targets melanomas, the most deadly form of skin cancer, and also highlights other cancerous tissue in the body.

The new cancer targeting method was developed by Ulrich Wiesner, professor of materials science at Cornell University in the USA.

The nanoparticles used are tiny spheres surrounded by an organic dye molecule. This is coated with a nontoxic polymer that helps the nanoparticles remain in the body. Continue reading »

The 'sit and wait' method of hunting seahorses adopted led to the evolution of their classic curvy shape

The alien-like creature that is the seahorse is infamous for its odd body shape and its reversal of gender roles when procreating. Now Sam Van Wassenbergh and his colleagues at the University of Antwerp in Belgium claim to have figured out how this obscure creature developed its horse-like head and S-shaped frame.

Evolved from the pipefish, a straight-bodied, somewhat snake-like fish; the seahorse has developed a curvier frame, which scientists now say is designed to aid their hunting methods. Seahorses are able to successfully attack prey at longer distances in comparison to it’s snakier relative. Both fish feed on small shrimp, using their equine like heads to strike and snouts to devour the tiny marine creatures.

The window to more than just the soul

With the technology surrounding facial recognition coming on in leaps and bounds over the past ten years, its applications could be widespread.

Today, facial recognition technology is being used by various organisations attempting to combat passport fraud, support law enforcement, identify missing children, and minimise benefit fraud.

Research led by Dr. Alice O’Toole at The University of Texas at Dallas’ School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is evaluating how well these rapidly evolving recognition programmes work. “Casinos have been some of the first users of face recognition software,” Dr O’Toole said. “They obviously want to be able to spot people who are counting cards and trying to cheat the casino.”

The researchers at Texas University are comparing the rates of success for the software to those of good old fashioned human assessment. “The government is interested in spotting people who might pose a danger,” Dr O’Toole said. “But they also don’t want to have too many false alarms and detain people who are not real risks.”

More accessible applications are being developed; soon each of us could have our own facial recognition device. Dr Phil Tresadern and his team at the University of Manchester have developed software for mobile phones that can track your facial features in real-time. The researchers hope that ultimately this application will be able to tell who the user is, eventually replacing the need for protective passwords on mobile phones.

“Existing mobile face trackers give only an approximate position and scale of the face,” said Dr Tresadern, lead researcher on the project. “Our model runs in real-time and accurately tracks a number of landmarks on and around the face such as the eyes, nose, mouth and jaw line.

“A mobile phone with a camera on the front captures a video of your face and tracks twenty-two facial features. This can make face recognition more accurate, and has great potential for novel ways of interacting with your phone.”

Face verification is already used in laptops, webcams and the Xbox 360 Kinect but this is the first time the technology is being used with such sophistication in mobile devices such as smartphones.

With the world of social networking playing a major part in many people’s lives, soon it may be possible – with the use of a specialised camera on a mobile phone – to identify people and be linked to their online profiles, be it Facebook or Twitter.

You may think it is a scary thought that strangers will be able to find out about your life merely by pointing a phone at you in the street. Or this may be enticing, an idea that makes social networking a bit more real, bringing us out from behind the computer screens.

Picture courtesy of Nicko va

Species under threat: can Atlantic cod survive the rise in seawater temperature?

Our traditional seaside treat may be under threat if the much-loved cod can’t handle a rise in seawater temperature. The effects of climate change on animals and plants are common topics of discussion; in particular the economic implications of a possible decrease in fish stocks. With an increase in temperature, cold-water dwelling fish may find a future rise in temperatures a struggle. Cod prosper in cold water and are therefore a perfect test subject when investigating the impact of rising temperatures on fish.

A new study conducted at the National Institute of Aquatic Research in Denmark fitted more than 2000 cod from eight different North Atlantic fish stocks with advanced temperature gauges. The mini thermometers recorded the temperature of the water surrounding the fish once an hour over a one-year period, in order to determine the temperature of the water in the Northeast Atlantic that the cod are frequenting.