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Welcome to the Expert Comment pages of the Applied Sciences website. Each week an expert from the school will be offering their thoughts on a relevant topic in the news.
University staff regularly make themselves available to comment to the media about topical issues. Requests for comments and contributions and other media enquiries are welcome to press.office@hud.ac.uk. To contact the School of Applied Sciences please email science@hud.ac.uk
An RSS feed is available for our Expert Comment articles.
Most of us know that we need to eat a healthy, balanced diet to avoid diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. But how can we find out which foods are best to eat and how much of them we should eat? In the 21st century we obtain most of the information we need from the Internet and healthy eating is no exception. It is just a case of knowing the right websites to look at.
Dr
Roger JewsburyHead of the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences
With a team of Analytical Chemists at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver working around the clock analysing over 2000 samples in total and nearly two thirds of analyses now completed, no-one has yet been shown to have enhanced their performance with prohibited drugs, although some had been banned before the Games started.
Dr Bob ArdreySenior Research Fellow and former Senior Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry and Forensic Science
Where do the illicit drugs on the banknotes in your wallet or purse, yes yours, come from?
Dr Paul HumphreysSenior Lecturer in Microbiology
Energy in the form of electricity, gas, petrol or Diesel is an essential but increasingly expensive part of everybody's day to day lives. Although we use energy in a variety of forms, there are only a few basic sources such as fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable. Concerns over global warming and the realisation that oil will not last forever has focussed increasing attention on our over reliance on fossil fuels.
In January, 150 years ago Charles Darwin published the second edition of his book The Origin of Species, following the complete sell-out of the first edition published two months earlier. Despite some vocal voices to the contrary, the evidence for evolution is indisputable. Darwin suggested that some of the differences between individuals within a species can be inherited. If the environment changes, individuals bearing traits that provide the best adaptation to the new environment have the greatest success in reproducing.
Recently I met an old friend; upon tellin ghim that I was a forensic biologist, he immediately asked 'Is that where you do things with blood and string or lasers?' My response to this question frequently changes, usually depending on what mood I am in!
Since the very earliest of prehistoric times mankind has been fascinated by our sun. Some cultures have worshipped it as a god whilst others have built giant observatories such as Stonehenge to track its path across the sky as the seasons change. Over recent centuries scientists have also struggled to understand how the sun works, and how it provides the apparently limitless heat and light that is absolutely essential to sustain all life on Earth.
You can't have failed to notice that it's been rather chilly over the last month with one of the coldest Christmas periods for many years. The nation has, on regular occasions in the past few weeks, ground to halt because of the effects of large amounts of snow and ice on the road and rail networks.
Professor Adrian WoodEmeritus Professor, School of Applied Sciences
The forests of Ethiopia may seem to be an unexpected place in which to find some of the practical answers to the problems of climate change discussed in Copenhagen before Christmas.
