£80million investmentinscience · capacity of local coastal managers and policy-makers to maintain the health of these critical ecosystems, if CO 2 emissions are allowed to continue

£80 millioninvestment in science

Life by numbers: systems biology

Celebrating 30 years of British Asian theatre

From the lab to the track:How science is transforming sport

Milton at 400

ISSUE TWO • SPRING/SUMMER 2008

Welcome to the spring/summer 2008 edition of Research News.This is a very exciting time for research at the University of Exeter. Having been crowned University ofthe Year 2007/2008 by Times Higher Education and firmly placed in the top 20 of UK universities, weare investing in research more than ever before to ensure we continue to compete with the very bestOver the next three years we will be investing £30 million in science, medicine and engineering.Including external funding we anticipate an investment of £80 million in the sciences by 2012. Thismajor investment will improve infrastructure: for example, the Geoffrey Pope Building, home to ourSchool of Biosciences, is undergoing a major redevelopment, to deliver state-of-the-art laboratoriesfor our academic staff and students. It also involves a number of new appointments, such as theresearch teams working alongside the Wave Hub project, which is being developed by the SouthWest of England Regional Development Agency.

To manage this investment and ensure it delivers what we need, we have devised a new sciencestrategy, which focuses on five themes:

Climate change and sustainable futures: The

University will significantly enhance its strengths in

climate change impacts and socio-economic

interactions. This builds on its world-leading research

in climate prediction, adaptation and mitigation, and

close liaison with the Met Office Hadley Centre.

Extrasolar planets: Exeter is establishing a centre for

cross-disciplinary research into the physics of planets

outside our solar system, which will be unique in the

UK. Bringing together mathematicians and theoretical

astrophysicists with observational astrophysicists,

researchers will directly test their predictions using

state-of-the-art equipment.

Functional materials: The University will bring

together world-leading expertise in engineering

‘smart’ materials and fundamental physics research in

photonics and nanomaterials to create innovative

new materials. Exeter’s £120 million science park

will capitalise on the high-tech industrial applications of

this work.

Systems biology: Already developing a world-class

reputation in biosciences, the University will make

further investment to provide state-of-the-art facilities

and new appointments to develop models of key

biological systems.

Translational medicine, personalised healthcare

and public health: Exeter is internationally recognised

for clinical and translational research in diabetes,

mood disorders and interventions to achieve

behavioural change for health. The University will

enhance novel research opportunities to accelerate

the translation of clinical research to health benefits.

building on existing areas of excellence

welcome

investing £80 million in science, medicine and engineeringUniversity of the Year 2007/2008

Research News is written and edited by Liz French, Sarah Hoyle and Esther White, Press & PR Office, University of Exeter.

Design and publication by the Design & Publications Office, University of Exeter. For comments on the magazine, including

suggestions for future issues, please contact the Press and PR Office on +44 (0)1392 262062 or [email protected]

Front cover image, DNA molecule, Pasieka/Science Photo library.

These themes build on existing areas of excellence and offer opportunities for interdisciplinary research. In

this edition, we explain how Systems Biology is bringing together expertise in biosciences, mathematics

and engineering to change the way we study life on Earth.

I hope you enjoy reading about the latest research from across the University.

Professor Roger Kain CBE, FBADeputy Vice-Chancellor – Research University of Exeter

The cutting blade of the barberof Fleet Street, the infamousSweeney Todd has captured theimagination of many writersthroughout history. Dr RobertMack, School of English, is noexception having written twobooks that examine Sweeney’sroots in reality.

The research outlines therelationship with urban and ruralfolklore and references theconsiderable number ofhistorical works that haveextended the life and times ofthe cannibalistic barber and

scurrilous pie maker. Thetransformation of the gruesometale into stage and film is alsoanalysed in his book SweeneyTodd, the Demon Barber of FleetStreet. Dr Mack’s book also hasan official tie-in with the TimBurton, Johnny Depp filmversion of Stephen Sondheim’smusical adaptation of the story.

The mechanisation of thenineteenth century was a majorfactor in developing murderousmyths of people gettingconsumed in the ever increasingcity landscape. Sweeney is a

fictional character developed outof the anxiety and increasingfears of the general public. DrMack explains, “The urban mythis also a rural myth as peoplemove from the countryside intoa fast moving metropolis. Thereis an anxiety about the citygetting beyond our humancontrol, finding that there isalmost too much for us toconsume. The common phraseabout being eaten up by the cityapplies here; barbers and piemakers are a literary examplefor this metaphor.”

Sweeney Todd goes head to head with academic

Researchers from theDepartments of Managementand Geography are examiningthe relationships between howpeople help the environment inand around the home, and whathappens to their environmentalcommitments when they go onholiday.

Initial findings from the surveywork have revealed that thosesampled can be divided intothree broad lifestyle categoriesaccording to theirenvironmental commitments.‘Very committedEnvironmentalists’ represented26% of those questioned, whoregularly participated inenvironmental actions both athome and on holiday.

Of the remaining sample, 52%were ‘Committed to HomeActions’ (from composting tobuying environmentally friendlygoods) but were reluctant tosave things like water or energywhen they were on holiday.

By contrast, 22% of thosequestioned were ‘Committed toSaving Energy and Water’ bothat home and on holiday.However, this group rarelymade environmentally friendlypurchases. The next stage of theresearch will see those in eachof the three lifestyle groupsparticipate in focus groups andin-depth interviews to explorethe motivations for participatingin environmentally responsiblebehaviour.

RESEARCH NEWS • SPRING/SUMMER 2008

ONE

news

New research published inScience shows that coral reefswill not survive the rapidincreases in globaltemperatures andatmospheric CO2 that areforecast this century by theIPCC. The most definitivereview yet of the impact ofrising carbon emissions oncoral reefs also concludesthat the millions of livelihoodswhich depend on them areat risk.

17 marine scientists, who areleading members of theinternational Coral ReefTargeted Research andCapacity Building forManagement Program(CRTR), argue that risingglobal CO2 emissionsrepresent an ‘irreducible risk’that will rapidly outstrip the

capacity of local coastalmanagers and policy-makersto maintain the health ofthese critical ecosystems, ifCO2 emissions are allowed tocontinue unchecked.

"This crisis is on ourdoorstep, not decades away,”says Professor Peter Mumbyof Exeter’s School ofBiosciences, UK author onthe paper. “Unless we actnow, coral reefs are likely todwindle into insignificance;they’ll be reduced toseaweed beds, rubble andonly a few scattered corals.The livelihoods of manymillions of people living alongthe coasts of tropicaldeveloping countries will beamong the first majorcasualties of rising levels ofcarbon in the atmosphere.”

Carbon crisis is lethal for coral reefs

Are you an ‘Eco-hypocrite’?

TWO

Many traffic jams leave driversbaffled as they finally reach theend of a tail-back to find novisible cause for their delay.Now, mathematicians from theUniversities of Exeter, Bristoland Budapest, have found theanswer and published theirfindings in leading academicjournal Proceedings of the RoyalSociety.

The team developed amathematical model to show theimpact of unexpected eventssuch as a lorry pulling out of itslane on a dual carriageway. Their

model revealed that by slowingdown below a critical speedwhen reacting to such an event,a driver would force the carbehind to slow down furtherand the next car back to reduceits speed further still. The resultof this is that several miles back,cars would finally grind to a halt,with drivers oblivious to thereason for their delay. The jammoves backwards through thetraffic creating a so-called‘backward travelling wave’,which drivers may encountermany miles upstream, severalminutes after it was triggered.

The model takes into accountthe time-delay in drivers’reactions, which lead to driversbraking more heavily than wouldhave been necessary had theyidentified and reacted to aproblem ahead a second earlier.

Dr Gábor Orosz of theUniversity of Exeter’s School of

Engineering, Computing andMathematics, said “When youtap your brake, the traffic maycome to a full stand-still severalmiles behind you. Our modelshows that overreaction of asingle driver can have enormousimpact on the rest of the traffic,leading to massive delays.”

Exeter mathematician solves traffic jam mystery

Not Just Dead-End Kids in Dead-End JobsA tall story: research adds toknowledge of genetics of height

news

Scientists are beginning todevelop a clearer picture ofwhat makes some peoplestand head and shouldersabove the rest. The team ofExeter researchers, whichlast year identified the firstcommon version of a geneinfluencing height, has nowidentified a further 20 regionsof the genome whichtogether can make a heightdifference of up to 6cm.

The study by the PeninsulaMedical School, published inthe journal Nature Genetics,means that scientists nowknow of dozens of genes andgenetic regions that influenceour height. This provides afascinating insight into howthe body grows and developsnormally and may shed lighton diseases such asosteoarthritis and cancer.

“The number and variety ofgenetic regions that we havefound show that height is notjust caused by a few genesoperating in the long bones,”says Dr Tim Frayling of thePeninsula Medical School.“Instead, our researchimplicates genes that couldshed light on a whole range ofimportant biologicalprocesses. By identifyingwhich genes affect normalgrowth, we can begin tounderstand the processesthat lead to abnormal growth– not just height disorders butalso tumour growth, forexample.”

The Peninsula Medical Schoolis a joint school of theUniversities of Exeter andPlymouth. The research wasfunded by the WellcomeTrust.

Young people in jobs withouttraining (JWT) may be seen aslacking in prospects, howeververy little is known about thelives and aspirations of thisgroup of young people whomove into what is often low-waged and/or casual workstraight after they leave schoolat 16.

To gain a greater understandingof their motivations for leavingschool and going directly intoemployment, researchers in theSchool of Education andLifelong Learning havecompleted a large scaleresearch project in the SouthWest. The research is timely,following recent governmentproposals to implement theLeitch Review recommendationto keep all young people in

education and training untilage 18.

Funded by the European SocialFund, the Learning and SkillsCouncil and the Connexionsservice, it comprised aqualitative study with 114 youngpeople and a quantitativedimension through analysis oflocal and national data.

The research found that theyare not a homogenous groupwho are in some way lacking insocial or work skills; rather theycomprise a fluid category whomove into and out of work andtraining. Visiting Professor JoceyQuinn explains, “They do notsee themselves as ‘losers’ ratheras fortunate in being in aposition to work and developtheir work-related skills.”Dr Robert Lawy adds; “Theywant to learn, but many resistthe idea of going back tocollege-based training becauseof negative experiences ofschooling.”

RESEARCH NEWS • SPRING/SUMMER 2008

THREE

news

Research by the Universities ofExeter and Oxford provides thefirst evidence that a child’s sex isassociated with the mother’sdiet. Published in the journalProceedings of the Royal SocietyB: Biological Sciences, the studyshows a clear link betweenhigher energy intake around thetime of conception and the birthof sons.

Funded by the Sir Jules ThornCharitable Trust, the studyfocused on 740 first-timepregnant mothers in the UK,who did not know the sex oftheir fetus. They were asked to

provide records of their eatinghabits before and during theearly stages of pregnancy. Theywere split into three groupsaccording to the number ofcalories consumed per dayaround the time they conceived.56% of the women in the groupwith the highest energy intakeat conception had sons,compared with 45% in thelowest group. There was also astrong correlation betweenwomen eating breakfast cerealsand producing sons.

Although sex is geneticallydetermined by fathers, mothers

appear able to influence the sexof a baby. It is known from IVFresearch that high levels ofglucose encourage the growthand development of maleembryos while inhibiting femaleembryos. In humans, skippingbreakfast depresses glucoselevels and so may be interpretedby the body as indicating poorenvironmental conditions andlow food availability.

Dr Fiona Mathews of Exeter’sSchool of Biosciences, leadauthor on the paper, said: “Thisresearch may help to explainwhy in developed countries,

where many young womenchoose to have low caloriediets, the proportion of boysborn is falling. Here we haveevidence of a ‘natural’mechanism that means thatwomen appear to be alreadycontrolling the sex of theiroffspring by their diet.”

Scientists already know that inmany animals, more sons areproduced when a mother hasplentiful resources or is highranking. The explanation isthought to lie with theevolutionary drive to producedescendants.

You are what your mother eats

Research by the Universitiesof Exeter and Cambridge hasshed new light on the reasonwhy females of some species,including humans, experiencemenopause. In a paperpublished in PNAS theresearchers propose that thetiming of reproductivecessation in humans is bestunderstood as an evolutionaryadaptation to reducereproductive competitionbetween generations offemales in the same familyunit.

The research demonstratesthat humans are uniqueamong primates becausethere is almost no overlap ofreproductive generations. In‘natural fertility’ populations,women on average have their

first baby at 19 years and theirlast baby at 38 years; in otherwords, women stop breedingwhen the next generationstarts to breed.

Biologist Dr Michael Cant,who is based on theUniversity of Exeter’sCornwall Campus, explains,“Women everywhereexperience a rapid decline infertility after the age of forty,culminating in menopausearound ten years later. Ourstudy helps to explain whythis phase of rapid'senescence' of thereproductive system startswhen it does, and whywomen, on average, stophaving children a full ten yearsbefore the onset ofmenopause.”

Research providesinsight into menopause

The flood believed to be behindthe Noah’s Ark myth kick-started European agriculture,according to new research bythe Universities of Exeter andWollongong, Australia.Published in the journalQuaternary Science Reviews,the research assesses theimpact of the collapse of theNorth American (Laurentide)Ice Sheet, 8000 years ago. Thisevent resulted in rising sealevels and is now widelybelieved to be behind thevarious folk myths that led tothe biblical Noah’s Ark story.

By creating reconstructions ofthe Mediterranean and BlackSea shoreline before and afterthe rise in sea levels, the teamestimated that nearly 73,000square km of land was lost tothe sea over a period of 34years leading to thedisplacement of some 145,000

people. Archaeological evidenceshows that communities insoutheast Europe were alreadypractising early farmingtechniques and potteryproduction before the Flood.With the catastrophic rise inwater levels it appears theymoved west, taking theirculture into areas inhabited byhunter-gatherer communities.

The rise in global sea levels8,000 years ago is in-line withcurrent estimates for the end ofthe 21st century. ProfessorChris Turney said: “Thisresearch shows how rising sealevels can cause massive socialchange. The latest estimatessuggest that by AD 2050,millions of people will bedisplaced each year by rising sealevels. For those people living incoastal communities, the omenisn’t good.”

‘Noah’s flood’ kick-startedEuropean farming

e research group isdocumenting a critical history ofBritish Asian live theatre,encompassing the manycompanies that have practisedover the last thirty years. Some,such as Tara Arts, have risen toprofessional status, performingon the stage of the Nationaleatre and receiving ArtsCouncil funding. Others havesurvived and produced excitingand challenging work withoutsignificant support. Behind manyof these groups and practitionerswas a commitment to the artisticand theatrical expression of whatit meant to be an Asian inBritain. Most chose to work inthe English language, directingtheir productions not just to theAsian community but to thebroad theatre-going public, andthey have followed diverseaesthetic directions, from street-wise naturalism to theincorporation of more traditionaltechniques and modes ofpresentation derived from thesub-continent.

Principal investigator ProfessorGraham Ley said: “Our view of

modern British theatrical historywill be distorted if we do notacknowledge the significantcontribution made by BritishAsian theatre companies, whohave given a unique insight intothe experience of individuals andcommunities, and pioneeredartistic explorations in cross-cultural performance.”Perhaps the best known BritishAsian theatre company is TaraArts, which was founded in 1976.Against a background of growingracial tension, with the rise of theNational Front and theintroduction of new restrictiveimmigration legislation, manyBritish Asians formed or joinedpolitical movements, but onesmall group of young menresponded by forming an artsgroup. At that time Asians wereoften represented in stereotypicalway, particularly on television,and those who formed Tara Artsfelt they had to do something tochallenge this misrepresentation.

Professor Graham Ley hasresearched the history of TaraArts by interviewing members ofits core founding group, includingthe current Director JatinderVerma. Professor Ley says: “I wasstruck by the group’sdetermination to createperformances that addressed theconcerns and experiences ofBritish Asians. With no previoustheatrical training or experience,they addressed the self-

representation of Asian people,which paved the way forcountless other people to takecharge of the way they arerepresented on the stage or onour TV screens. Virtually allAsian comedy and theatreultimately stem from Tara Artstaking that initiative.”

In 1989, more than a decade afterTara Arts was formed, twoprofessional female performers,Kristine Landon-Smith andSudha Bhuchar set up aproduction company calledTamasha. Inspired by Tara Artsand other British Asianperformers, they adapted the1930s novel Untouchable byIndian author Mulk Raj Anand.e striking set design by SueMayes, which vividly evoked lifein India, set the standard forTamasha’s subsequent work.Unlike the creators of Tara Arts,Landon-Smith and Bhuchar wereprofessional performers whosought external funding andrecognition from the outset.Dr Sarah Dadswell, researchfellow to the project, has alsogathered evidence ofperformances by South Asians inBritain stretching back to thefirst recorded national tours ofvisiting Indian magicians in1812. To understand the contextin which active theatre-makingarose in the 1970s, the teamconducted a broad range ofinterviews with members of

FOUR

Celebrating 30 yearsof British Asian theatree University of Exeter’s Drama Department is leadinga remarkable research project that could rewrite the historyof modern British theatre. e project focuses on thecontributions of members of Britain’s South Asiancommunities to theatre over the last thirty years. Funded bythe Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and nowin its final year, the four-year study culminated in the UK’sfirst academic conference on British Asian eatre, whichwas held in Exeter in the spring.

South Asian communities inSouthall and Tower Hamlets inLondon, in Bradford and in theManchester area, who hadpursued earlier drama initiatives.

Together with an expandingcollection of interviews withcurrent practitioners, theserecordings will constitute aunique archival resource held atthe University of Exeter. Indeed,the creation of resources has beenthe primary aim of the researchproject from the beginning, andtwo books: British South Asianeatre: A Documented History andBritish South Asian eatre:Critical Essays, by ProfessorGraham Ley and Dr SarahDadswell, will be published in2010 by the University of ExeterPress, in its Performance Studiesseries. e volume will include aCD-ROM produced in the DramaDepartment by performancearchivist, Peter Hulton, featuringimages of programmes, fliers, stillphotography, audio clips frominterviews and from videorecordings of productions. Inaddition, Graham Ley and SarahDadswell will be guest-editing aspecial issue of the journal SouthAsian Popular Culture in 2009devoted to the subject of BritishAsian theatre.

Professor Graham Ley said: “It isto be hoped that these resourceswill greatly facilitate the study ofthis important aspect of modernBritish theatrical history at alllevels, and place recognition ofthese achievements firmly intothe wider picture of modernBritish culture.”

Conference contributors

Parv Bancil, playwright

Kuljit Bhamra, composer

Poulomi Desai, performance & visual artist

Harmage Singh Kalirai, actor

Anuradha Kapur, National School of Drama, Delhi

Girish Karnad, playwright, India

Faroque Khan, movement director

Naseem Khan, author of e Arts Britain Ignores

Shamshad Khan, performance poet

Shelly King, actor

Jaswinder Singh, Asian Arts Agency

Kirstine Landon-Smith, Tamasha eatre

Champak Kumar Limbachia, Oriental Arts

Jamila Massey, actor

Reginald Massey, classical scholar

Indian music & dance

Claudia Mayer, designer

Sue Mayes, designer

Rani Moorthy, Rasa eatre

Vayu Naidu,Vayu Naidu Company

Arti Prashar, Spare Tyre Company

Dominic Rai, Man Mela

Hardial Rai, Zeroculture

Rajni Shah, Rajni Shah eatre

Janet Steel, Kali eatre

Kully iarai, Freelance eatre Director

Alan Tweedie, Melange

Jatinder Verma, Tara Arts

Parminder Vir, Non-Exec Director, DCMS

Madani Younis, Freedom Studios

Aziz Zeria, Culture Links

RESEARCH NEWS • SPRING/SUMMER 2008

FIVE

As part of this research project the Department of Drama hosted a major conference‘British Asian eatre: From Past to Present’ in April 2008. is historic occasion broughttogether over 35 national and international theatre practitioners and leading scholars todiscuss the many issues that have affected the development of British Asian theatre over thepast three decades, as well as more recent international South Asian theatres. e conferenceincluded public performances of South Asian music, theatre and live art and a video-installation under the title ‘Celebrating British Asian Live Arts’ (CBALA), which was madepossible through the support of an Arts Council of England Grants for the Arts award. eperformances took place at the Drama Department’s Roborough Studios and AlexanderBuilding, and at the Phoenix Arts Centre in the city, where celebrated musician, composer andproducer Kuljit Bhamra and performance poet Shamshad Khan performed Am I in Tune?a new performance commissioned by the AHRC research team with the grant from theArts Council of England.

SIX

Dr Nicholas McDowell wasawarded a Philip LeverhulmePrize by the Leverhulme Trust,a charitable educational trustthat supports academic workacross the disciplines. The Trustwas established through abequest by William HeskethLever, the first ViscountLeverhulme, founder of thecompany that became Unilever.The Philip Leverhulme Prizes,worth £70,000 over two years,are awarded to ‘outstandingscholars (normally under theage of 36) who have made asubstantial and recognisedcontribution to their particularfield of study, recognised at aninternational level, and whosefuture contributions are held tobe of correspondingly highpromise.’ In awarding DrMcDowell the prize, the Trustcited him as ‘one of the verybest current Renaissancescholars and one of the mostimportant Miltonists on theinternational scene.’ Thewinners can use the prizemoney for any purpose whichcan advance their research.

e great seventeenth-century writer JohnMilton, born 400 years ago this year, is bestknown for Paradise Lost, his epic poem based onthe biblical story of the temptation of Adam andEve. Less well known is his career as a spokesmanfor the English republic, established in 1649 afterthe execution of Charles I by Parliament. In theweeks following the execution of the king, Miltondefended the legitimacy of the new governmentin e Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.Parliament was so impressed that Milton washired as an official writer for the regime – what wemight call today a ‘spin doctor’. In 1649 he wenton to publish several other prose works defendingthe regime and attacking the supporters ofroyalism, including a furious attack on the deadKing Charles called Eikonoklastes.

ese 1649 political works are being edited overthe next two years by Dr Nicholas McDowell,Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, forthe new multi-volume Complete Works of JohnMilton that is being published by OxfordUniversity Press between 2008 and 2012. anksto funding from the Leverhulme Trust, DrMcDowell can devote the next two years of hiscareer to this project.

As well as visiting libraries in America and Europeand liaising with Milton scholars around theworld, some of his work can be done closer tohome: he is using a first edition of e Tenure ofKings and Magistrates housed in the library atExeter Cathedral as the basis for his own edition,which focuses on the 1649 writings.e period from 1649 to 1660 is the only time inits history that England has been a republic.Milton’s writings offer the most impressiveintellectual arguments against monarchy of any ofthe many publications during the English CivilWars. One of the challenges Dr McDowell will faceis tracing the origins and significance of Milton’smany references to his vast learning in classicaland biblical knowledge. But he is also concernedto make Milton’s thought accessible to newreaders. “Many readers only ever encounterMilton through Paradise Lost or some of theshorter poetry and know little or nothing abouthis political career. I hope the publication of mynew edition will allow the writings againstmonarchy to become better known amongstundergraduates as well as academics.”

Dr McDowell comes from Belfast and recognisesin the debates of the English Civil Wars thelanguage of political and religious conflict withwhich he grew up. e writings that he is editinginclude an attack by Milton on the activities ofboth Catholic priests and Protestant ministers inthe Belfast of the 1640s, published just beforeCromwell began his notorious military campaignin Ireland. “One of the motivations for myresearch into this period has always been tounderstand the complex political and religiousconflicts that led to the situation in myhometown of Belfast in the 1970s and 1980s. egenerosity of the Leverhulme Prize will enableme, I hope, to make a significant contribution toour understanding of Milton and of the EnglishCivil War, but also to shed some new light on thehistory of the divisions in Northern Ireland.”

Milton at 400

One of the motivations formy research into this period hasalways been to understand thecomplex political and religiousconflicts that led to the situationin my hometown of Belfast in the1970s and 1980s

RESEARCH NEWS • AUTUMN/WINTER 2007

SEVEN

Many of us will be glued to our screens as Britain’s

athletes are put to the ultimate test in Beijing this

summer. One group of academics will be watching

the 2008 Olympics with particular scrutiny.

Exeter’s School of Sport and Health Sciences is

established as one of the best sports science

research groups in the UK. Some members of the

team are advising British athletes who will be put

to the test in July and others will see the fruits of

their research playing out under the Beijing sun.

Professor Andy Jones, who works with elite

athletes like Paula Radcliffe and Jo Pavey, is

anticipating the event with mixed feelings: “You do

get nervous as you feel like you’re out there with

them.” He is advising marathon runners on their

pacing and nutritional strategies and working with

Brunel University and the British Olympics

Association on a top-secret device to help athletes

cope with the high levels of pollution.

Back in the lab, Professor Jones has published a

number of academic papers on ‘muscle energetics’,

the ways in which the muscle uses oxygen to

release energy when we do exercise. He recently

published research which showed for the first time

the relationship between our ‘critical power’ and

the pH level of our muscles.

Dr Sharon Dixon is an expert on the impact of

footwear and running surfaces on injury and

performance. She works with athletes to assess

their running ‘gait’, assessing their stride length

and the way their foot impacts on the running

surface, and believes this will increasingly be used

to examine the causes and effects of injuries. Dr

Dixon explains: “By assessing how someone runs

normally, we then have something to measure

against if they are injured. We can see if they have

changed their running style, which may be putting

more pressure on other parts of their body, risking

further injury or affecting the quality of their

performance.” Dr Dixon has recently been awarded

an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research

Council grant to investigate the development of a

‘smart’ sports shoe that will provide real-time

information on running style. While we won’t see

athletes wearing ‘smart shoes’ this summer, Dr

Dixon believes they may be treading the tracks of

the 2012 Olympics.

With temperatures expected to reach 30 degrees

and 90 percent humidity, marathon runners will be

more concerned with keeping cool than warming-

up and a focus on keeping fluid levels high through

drinking water is inevitable. However, a recent

study led by Dr Chris Byrne, has shown that the

level of fluid intake has absolutely no effect on

body temperature or performance.

Dr Mark Wilson is a cognitive psychologist who

works with golfers, shotgun shooters, footballers,

hockey players, archers and basketball players.

Using the latest technology, he monitors an

individual’s gaze behaviour during performance

and assesses differences between non-stressed and

stressed conditions. He says: “For an athlete

nothing is more stressful than the Olympics.

Under that kind of pressure an athletes’ focus

becomes more ‘scattered’ and can mean all the

years of training and preparation are wasted. My

work involves training athletes to learn a kind of

gaze strategy routine so they know exactly where

and when to look at that crucial moment.”

From the lab to the track

Head of the School of Sportand Health Sciences at theUniversity of Exeter, ProfessorRoger Eston is in no doubtabout the importance of sportsscience for optimising athleticperformance. He says “Thehuge advances in athleticperformance over the lasttwenty years are testament tothe advances in the varioussciences underlyingperformance in sports. This canbe seen across the board, fromresearch involving thebiomechanics and ergonomicsof human performance leadingto significant improvements inthe design of sportingequipment, clothing and playingsurfaces to sports psychologyresearch leading to strategies tocope with the psychologicalpressures experienced before,during and after intensecompetition and gruellingperformance schedules.

“Sports science is here to stay.The growth of the discipline atExeter, in the UK andworldwide, has not only led toa greater appreciation of thebiomechanical, physiologicaland psychological factorsunderlying elite sportsperformance. It has alsoinformed understanding of theimportance of exercise forhealth and well being for thegeneral population. I am proudto say that our staff andstudents at Exeter are at thecutting edge of advancingknowledge in these areas ofsports science.”Beijing Olympic Stadium

EIGHT

Dr Nicholas McDowell wasawarded a Philip LeverhulmePrize by the Leverhulme Trust,a charitable educational trustthat supports academic workacross the disciplines. The Trustwas established through abequest by William HeskethLever, the first ViscountLeverhulme, founder of thecompany that became Unilever.The Philip Leverhulme Prizes,worth £70,000 over two years,are awarded to ‘outstandingscholars (normally under theage of 36) who have made asubstantial and recognisedcontribution to their particularfield of study, recognised at aninternational level, and whosefuture contributions are held tobe of correspondingly highpromise.’ In awarding DrMcDowell the prize, the Trustcited him as ‘one of the verybest current Renaissancescholars and one of the mostimportant Miltonists on theinternational scene.’ Thewinners can use the prizemoney for any purpose whichcan advance their research.

As part of its £80 million investment in science theUniversity is boosting ‘systems biology’ researchover the next three years. e UK’s main publicfunder of life science research, the Biotechnologyand Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC),has announced a £26 million investment insystems biology, including a recent £5 millionaward to a team including Exeter scientists.

Head of the University’s School of BiosciencesProfessor Nick Talbot is in no doubt as to theimportance of this developing area of science.“Ultimately,” he says, “systems biology is set to beanother scientific revolution on the scale ofmolecular biology. Over the last few decades,biology has become more and more focused: weknow the whole genome sequence of the organismswe study. But now it’s time to take a step back. Forthe first time, it’s becoming possible for us toaddress living cells, organisms or wholepopulations as complex, integrated dynamicsystems. is gives us a new approach tounderstanding life on Earth.”

By adapting systems theories developed bymathematicians, physicists and engineers,biologists can now study ecological communities,animals, plants and microbes in the same way thatother scientists understand how computers ormachines work. At a molecular level, systemsbiology can be used to help understand howdisease overcomes a living cell. For the University,this could mean using systems biology to analysehow infectious diseases operate both in humancells and in plants. At the other end of the scaleenvironmental perturbations or stresses on wholepopulations, caused by pollution or climate change,can be analysed using systems theory techniques.Exeter plant biologist Professor Murray Grant,recipient of the recent £5 million BBSRC grant,believes that systems biology will enable scientiststo take their understanding a step further than

they have been able to go up to now. “e majorbenefit is that it allows you to be predictive,” hesays. “Biologists are excellent at observation anddescription but, unlike our colleagues who work inthe physical sciences, we have not yet developedmeans of predicting behaviours in cells, organismsor populations. Systems biology has the potentialfor us to do this.”

Professor Talbot is excited about the potential forprediction in his research, which focuses oninfectious diseases in plants, mainly rice blast, adisease which destroys enough rice to feed morethan 60 million people every year. “e questions Iwould love to answer are: when does an infectedplant reach a ‘tipping point’ and become diseased?What are the requirements that bring aboutdisease? What things condition plant immunity? Ifwe could answer these questions, we would be onthe way to solving an international epidemic.”

If systems biology takes off as the Universitypredicts, biologists will need a whole new skills setand will certainly need to become more numerate.But what are the implications and opportunitiesfor scientists working in other disciplines?Professor Stuart Townley, an appliedmathematician at Exeter, is already working withbiologists and explains: “ere are already manywell-tested tools developed for mechanicalsystems, which can now be developed for systemsbiology. e same theories can be applied, butwhereas with physical sciences you can focus onmanipulating discrete system components, in lifesciences you are dealing with layers and layers ofinformation and data and so it’s far more complex.”

Professor Nick Talbot is aware of the challengessystems biology presents for scientists of alldisciplines. “e way biologists look at the world isvery different from our colleagues inmathematics and the physical sciences,” he says.“ere’s going to be a big challenge in gettingpeople to speak the same language. But it’s achallenge we’re ready for. In ten years time,systems biology will be at the heart of what we do,and biosciences students will be skilled in a muchbroader range of disciplines.”

Life by numbersUnderstanding the impacts of river pollution on fish populations, working out how

a micro-organism infects a plant, discovering how human cells respond to invasion

by bacteria. ese are all issues that biologists from the University of Exeter are

tackling, but increasingly they are solving these problems by thinking more like

mathematicians, computer scientists or engineers than traditional biologists.

Helping plants copewith climate changeThe BBSRC has awarded ateam of researchers fromthe Universities of Exeter,Warwick and Essex £5million to study how plantscope with environmentalstress. The team will modelsignalling pathways used byplants to respond toenvironmental challenges,with important implicationsfor breeding hardier cropvarieties to help those cropsface a range of climatechanges.

Exeter researchers recentlydemonstrated thatpathogens can hijack planthormone signalling pathwaysto promote disease. Thishormone, called abscisicacid, is more generallyassociated with plantsresponse to stress caused bydrought. Their studieshighlight the fact that plantshave a limited number ofsignalling networks withwhich to respond toenvironmental stresses, bethey pathogen attack, pests,drought, cold or heat waves.

Given the future predictionsof climate change it isimperative to understandhow plants prioritise andallocate resources tomultiple stresses. Usingsystems biology, the teamwill research and model plantresponses to three differentpathogen infections, droughtand excessive light. Theoutcome of this study couldlead to new approaches toagricultural management.

RESEARCH NEWS • AUTUMN/WINTER 2007

NINE

PeopleProfessor Irene Ng, AssociateProfessor of Marketing in the Schoolof Business and Economics, has beenawarded the prestigious AdvancedInstitute of Management Research(AIM) Fellowship in Services.

Professor Roy Sambles FRS, of theSchool of Physics, has been appointedto the Council of the Engineering andPhysical Sciences Research Council.

Dr Richard Toye, Senior Lecturer inHistory was awarded the Times HigherEducation Young Academic Author ofthe Year award for 2007/8.

Professor Andrew Massey,Department of Politics, has beenelected onto the Academy of SocialSciences.

Jeremy Black, Professor of Historyhas been awarded the Samuel EliotMorison Prize for 2008 from theSociety for Military History, for his‘outstanding scholarly activity’.

Grace Davie, Professor of Sociologyhas been awarded an honorarydoctorate of eology from theUniversity of Uppsala in Sweden.

Professor Gordon Murray of theSchool of Business and Economics hasspent the past three years leading anEU network, funded by the Economicand Social Research Council and otherEuropean research councils, focusedon researching innovation and thedevelopment of SME’s.

Professor Frances Wall has replacedProfessor Robert Pine as Head of

Camborne School of Mines (CSM). Sheis the first woman to lead CSM in its 120

year history.

Professor Rick Titball, previously SeniorFellow at the Defence Science and

Technology Laboratory, Porton Down,has joined the School of Biosciences. He

will lead a team focusing on newtreatments for infectious diseases.

Professor Catherine Mitchell has joinedthe Geography department on the

Cornwall Campus. The UK’s first femaleProfessor of Energy Policy she was

previously at Warwick Business School.

Professor Ilan Pappé joined the Historydepartment on the Cornwall Campus

from the University of Haifa, Israel. He isa leading historian of Arab-Israeli

relations.

Professor Annie Pye joined the Centrefor Leadership Studies at the School of

Business and Economics, as ProgrammeDirector for the MA in Leadership

Studies and Director of Research. Shewas previously at the University of Bath,

School of Management.

What has been themost rewardingmoment ofyour career? Apart from the joy (and shock!) of having twindaughters, publishing my latest book, The Gnostics:Identifying an Early Christian Cult, in that it marked both theculmination of almost 40 years research on the Gnostics andthe happy fusion of that with my most recent researchinterest, early Christian art and archaeology, centring on theearly churches and catacombs of Rome.On the eve of your retirement what would youconsider has been yourmajor researchachievement? It would have to be my work on theGnostics, based on a library of original Coptic texts found inEgypt in 1945, seeking to identify them, despite recentdoubts, as a real entity, an early cult movement that grew upwithin, seriously challenged and broke away frommainstream Christianity. The sensational recent publicationof the Gospel of Judas, on which I am giving the openingpaper at an international congress in Houston, Texas, hashelped to strengthen my thesis.What do you hope to achieve in the future? I wouldlike to continue to produce first class research in my areas ofinterest, the Gnostics, early Christian heresy and early

Christian art and architecture. I have a number of projects tocomplete in the next few years, a textbook on early Christianheresy, articles on the martyr cult of St Peter and St Paul inRome which began at the present church of San Sebastianosouth of the city, and so on, which should keep me busy inmy impending retirement.If you had not been an academic, what wouldyou be? I would probably be, like my father and uncle, aminister in the Church of Scotland, for which I trainedbefore escaping into academia.What do you like to do in your spare time? I lovesinging classical music in choirs, large and small, playingthe French horn, reading novels and rambling onDartmoor and Exmoor (almost as good as my nativeScotland!).What do you like best about living in the southwest? I love the landscape: the moors, the coast, thesea, the villages, the winding lanes, and I love thearchitecture: Exeter cathedral and the wonderful parishchurches, the grand houses, castles and gardens. I alsolove the splendid idiosyncratic pubs of Devon and beingable to eat outside in the summer.

Interview by email

Name: Dr Alastair LoganAge: 64

Job: Senior Lecturer inChristian Doctrine,

Department of TheologyEducation:MA HonsClassics, University ofEdinburgh, BD HonsEcclesiastical History,

University of Edinburgh, ThM,Harvard University, PhD in

New Testament, University ofSt Andrews

Based in: Department ofTheology, part of the School of

Humanities and SocialSciences

Research BriefsA project that will analysechanging masculine norms amonglanded gentry families from themid-seventeenth century to theearly twentieth century has beenawarded a PhD studentship and£296,000 by the Arts andHumanities and Research Council.History lecturer, Dr Henry Frenchwill lead a team of tworesearchers on this three-yearstudy.

Dr Chris Fogwill of the School ofGeography, Archaeology andEarth resources is helping tounderstand Antarctica’s past andfuture response to sea levelchange.Using a £18,506 grant from theNatural Environment ResearchCouncil, he aims to use mountainsprotruding through the AntarcticIce Sheet to record past changesin ice sheet thickness and volume.By measuring the concentration ofrare cosmogenic isotopes, thisnew approach provides ameasure of the time that amountain has been exposed tothe atmosphere due to long termice sheet thinning.

Following the successfulcompletion of a project to createmarine habitat maps and to studybiodiversity in the Bahamas, theMarine Spatial Ecology Lab in theSchool of Biosciences has beenawarded a further £50,914 tocontinue their research. The grantfrom the Khaled bin Sultan LivingOceans Foundation will allowresearchers to develop plans formarine reserve networks that arebetter suited to a changingclimate. The impacts of humancoastal developments and modelsof rising sea temperatures,hurricane disturbances and fishingeffort will be included in acomputer optimization algorithmto find the best locations formarine reserves.

Two women are known to bebehind the literary workspublished under the pseudonymMichael Field. To uncover more oftheir fascinating story, lecturer inVictorian Literature and CultureDr Ana Vadillo, School of Arts,Languages and Literature, hasbeen awarded £7,491from theBritish Academy for the project:Works and Days: The Journals ofMichael Field, 1888-1914.

A study to explore the literary andoral narratives of local identity asthey are influenced by ideas ofmyth, mysticism and Celticnationalism will be undertaken asan interdisciplinary projectbetween The Institute of CornishStudies and departments of Englishand History on the CornwallCampus. The Arts and HumanitiesResearch Council has supportedthe collaboration with an award of£172,858 and a fully funded PhDstudentship.

Professor Annie Pye from theCentre for Leadership Studies atthe School of Business andEconomics is conducting a study ofdirectors, boards and corporategovernance process within leadingFTSE Companies. The project,which has been awarded£506,000 by the Economic andSocial Research Council (ESRC),builds on two earlier ESRC-funded projects to explore howsmall groups of people effectively‘run’ large companies throughinterviews with a selection ofChairmen, Chief Executives anddirectors, amongst others.

Many new gene variants associatedwith disease have recently beenidentified, including for type 2diabetes and heart attacks. A newproject will identify the full range ofeffects of the top fifty variants onhealth and work status. ProfessorDavid Melzer of the PeninsulaMedical School has been awarded£116,901 from the BUPAFoundation for a study entitled‘Genetic Variation and the Healthof Middle Aged and OlderWorkers’. He will examine possibleclinical applications for targetingprevention or treatment.

Selected literary papers of writerslike Agatha Christie and PatriciaBeer will be opened up forresearch through a cataloguingproject. Academic Services havebeen awarded £ £21,403 fromthe Cataloguing GrantsProgramme funded by ThePilgrim Trust and Esmee FairbairnFoundation, administered by TheNational Archives. Dr JessicaGardner and Christine Faunch willrun the archival element inpartnership with the Centre forSouth West Writing.

A team from the Schools ofPhysics and Engineering,Computing and Mathematics isrunning a project to deliver adeeper understanding of the non-thermal processes, which couldfacilitate the future developmentof electronic and optical memorydevices. Their work could pavethe way for the development ofentirely new replacements forsilicon 'Flash' memory formemory sticks, digital camerasand PDAs. The study has beenawarded an Engineering andPhysical Sciences ResearchCouncil grant of £642,814.

Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer,Exeter Centre for Ethno-PoliticalStudies, Cornwall Campus, istracing the roots of Islamicradicalisation of North Africansliving in Europe. Three politicalscientists and a historian will assesshow the legacies of colonialrepression and current political,social and economicmarginalisation affect perceptionsof terrorism and the West. Thistwo-year project has beenawarded £224,000 from theEconomic and Social ResearchCouncil.

Dr David Coley of the School ofPhysics is working on the creationof ‘reference weather years’detailing weather prediction datafor various parts of the UK fromnow until 2080. These data setswill be used by engineers to drivecomputer models of variousbuildings to see how they

perform and whether theoccupants are likely to becomfortable or under heat-stress.The study, entitled ‘The use ofProbabilistic Climate Data toFuture-Proof Design Decisions inthe Buildings Sector, has beenawarded a £477,850 Engineeringand Physical Sciences ResearchCouncil grant.

A new project will put the Blitzinto a broader comparativeframework by examining thepolitical and cultural effects ofbombing during the SecondWorld War in Germany, France,and Italy, as well as in Britain. Aresearch team led by Professor ofHistory Richard Overy, with theUniversities of Reading andNewcastle, has been awarded£401,000 and two PhDstudentships from the Arts andHumanities Research Council.

Little is known about thephysiological responses ofchildren during sportingperformance. Most descriptionsof paediatric physiologicalresponses are simulated in thelaboratory, particularly in relationto the investigation ofthermoregulation, drinking andsweat rates. To address this,Professor Craig Williams of theSchool of Sport and HealthSciences is conducting a studyentitled ‘Fluid Balance andElectrolyte Concentration inYoung Adolescent Footballers’,which received £6,727 fromGlaxosmithkline Research &Development Ltd.

Professor Anna Craft, School ofEducation and Lifelong Learning(SELL) has been awarded£164,335 by the Arts andHumanities Research Council tolead a team including Linda Rolfeand Dr Kerry Chappell (SELL),investigating dance educationpartnerships. Collaborating withTrinityLABAN, Dance Partners forCreativity will research the co-development of creativity at theinterface between dance andlower secondary education.

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