re:search University of Bristol • Research Review • Issue 18 • Autumn 2008 re:search is produced termly by the Public Relations Office, a department of The Worldwide Communications and Marketing Services. Articles about research at Bristol University are welcome. Please contact the editor. ANTONIO SOUTO 2 Universities Network Editor Cherry Lewis Research Communications Manager he Worldwide Universities Network Communications and Marketing Services T(WUN) is a partnership of 16 University of Bristol research-led universities across Europe, Senate House North America, South-East Asia and Tyndall Avenue Australia. It provides a global platform Bristol BS8 1TH for innovation in research and education, email [email protected] 4 JAMES HAMMOND 7 collaboratively tackling the big issues tel +44 (0)117 928 8086 currently facing societies, governments, bristol.ac.uk corporations and education that no one member could address alone. Head of Public Relations Office Jill Cartwright Projects cover the full spectrum of re:search editorial disciplines, from the weathering of soils Communications and Marketing Director to multilingualism in the middle ages, Barry Taylor and different institutions take the lead, Ian Wei depending on their particular expertise. Design, print and production Field work The ‘Ideas and Universities’ project, cw-design.co.uk P J BARMAN 12 co-ordinated by Rosemary Deem and ven in today’s world where information about every topic imaginable is on the Ian Wei at the University of Bristol, The project explores the way in which More articles about research at the Eweb, there are some disciplines where there is just no substitute for going out began in 2005 as an interdisciplinary ideas have found institutional expression University can be found at there to measure, watch and even hear your subject – be it a volcano, a penguin or research workshop and became a WUN in universities from the emergence of bristol.ac.uk/researchreview an ancient burial site. Field work is therefore an important and popular part of pre:view project when it launched its international the earliest European universities in science training, particularly in the Earth and Biological Sciences, and many video seminar programme in January the late twelfth and early thirteenth For the latest news about the University, see students will attend one or more formal field courses during their studies. Field work 2007. It involves institutions from eight centuries until today. Its objectives bristol.ac.uk/news 01 The Worldwide Universities Network allows integration of the skills learnt from lectures and laboratory classes, as well as different countries, providing the A partnership of 16 research-led include examining the purpose of developing students’ skills of observation and interpretation, and techniques for opportunity to compare the intellectual universities, their ideals and realities, For an insight into the life of the University, universities. investigating specific subjects. Many become so bitten by the bug they continue to cultures of universities around the globe. internationalisation, and the causes see Subtext magazine and visit do research in the field throughout their academic lives. Alongside a series of virtual seminars, and mechanisms of change. The results bristol.ac.uk/university/subtext 02 The cry of the jungle the project has already staged two highly The golden-backed uacari of Brazil. of some of the research so far are With increasing technological advances, such as GPS, satellite phones and tiny successful conferences in Zhejiang and summarised on page 15. I cameras, it is possible to penetrate into more and more remote places, and to If you have any comments about this 04 Unraveling our heritage London, and has another planned for observe increasingly elusive subjects. Not that field work always has to be done in publication or wish to be added to/removed Chicago in 2009. Understanding more about Avebury www.bristol.ac.uk/wun inaccessible places or into rare species – there is still much to understand about from the mailing list, please email and Stonehenge. this country. This issue of re:search focuses on some of the field work being done [email protected] by researchers at the University and takes us to Brazil, Ethopia and South Africa, as 06 Providing pain relief with computers well as to Stonehenge, right here in England, where, you might imagine, everything If you need part or all of this Increasingly, drugs are being possible has already been unearthed. Even a kind of medical field work is being publication in an alternative designed on computers. carried out in Chile and India where some academics are making a real difference to format, please contact the the lives of thousands of depressed people. editorial office. 07 Birth of a new ocean In a remote part of northern Ethiopia, Field work in foreign countries always requires collaboration with those living there the Earth’s crust is being stretched and frequently includes training as part of the agreement, which obviously benefits re:search No 18, Autumn 2008 to breaking point. all concerned. But another form of international collaboration can be found in the Research Mobility Programme of the Worldwide Universities Network, through which © University of Bristol 2008 10 Early day motions universities are coming together to offer postgraduate students the chance to study Just what does your MP really believe? abroad, particularly those who need access to specific expertise or rare facilities. Extracts may be reproduced with the The increasing interconnectedness of the world, alongside issues such as permission of the Public Relations Office. 12 Spot the penguin globalisation and climate change that affect the entire planet, calls for a new How to tell one penguin from all generation of international collaborative researchers – be they up a volcano in Cover image: ‘Kazim’ by Lorraine Field the others. Ethiopia or in the archives of a library in China. 14 Celebrating Hans Heilbronn A three-day conference in September will celebrate Heilbronn’s life and work. 15 What does it mean to be Cherry Lewis ‘world class’? Editor Is there a down-side to league tables? 16 Small money, big difference Treating depression in Chile and India. 1 Left: Recording the uacari under camouflage. enjoying the antics of creatures like giant imately 625 primate species described so otters, and swimming with tame dolphins, far, of which nearly 25 per cent are at risk now living wild in the Negro River. of extinction. The golden-backed uacari used to be classified as ‘vulnerable’, The golden-backed uacari, Cacajao although that has recently been changed BRUNA BEZERRA ouakary, has an unusually short tail, to ‘low risk’. However, knowing the locals characteristic of primates of the Cacajao hunt the golden-backed uacari for food, genus, a reddish-brown body and thighs, Bezerra believes the numbers have been with black head, arms, chest and legs, overestimated. but a bright golden mid-back. It lives in social groups of up to 200 individuals and Capturing the uacari’s vocalisations and mating seems to occur throughout the their contexts can become an important wet season. Adult females nurse and care instrument with which to survey the for their babies until they are around species, which is one of the first steps a year old. Only a few preliminary in a conservation plan. For example, The type of call heard gives an idea of the uacari’s emotional state and the behaviour it might be exhibiting, even if you cannot see it investigations of diet and habitat choice if you hear an animal vocalising in the have so far been conducted on them wild, you know that it is actually there. and so Bezerra’s project will provide Furthermore, the type of call heard gives completely new data about the behav- an idea of the uacari’s emotional state ioural and social ecology of this rare and the behaviour it might be exhibiting, primate, as well as helping to under- even if you cannot see it. Knowledge of The cry of the jungle stand the social status of individuals vocal behaviours and repertoires is also and groups, which will then be used for valuable for solving taxonomic issues, future conservation and welfare plans. as different species have different vocal signals. So understanding vocal Vocalisations are an essential commun- behaviour and repertoire can became Bruna Bezerra is a Brazilian ezerra has been undertaking and then thrown the head back into the ication tool for primates that live in an extra tool to help taxonomists to Bexpeditions to the Amazon since river. It was coming towards me because trees, because of the visual restrictions differentiate between species. Finally, student studying for her 2006. Her base is the Jaú National Park, there were some piranhas nibbling on it, imposed by their habitat. Despite this, data on the behaviour and the sociality in Amazonia, Brazil, the second largest pushing the head forwards.” Another time PhD in the Department of studies of vocal repertoires have only of a species in the wild can help zoos A rare photo of the shy and elusive national park in Latin America. Just she found a wild piglet that had fallen into been conducted on 42 of the approx- and laboratories make improvements golden-backed uacari. Biological Sciences. Her getting to her field area is a challenge. the toilet hole which had to be rescued interest in the behaviour, From the nearest city, Manaus, she at four in the morning before she could travels by boat along the Rio Negro for use the facilites. in their enclosures, so that captive social communication and about 24 hours, taking everything with animals behave more like they would her that she is likely to need for the next About ten per cent of the Jaú National in the wild.