Engineering neurons

Shostakovich 2006

The energy line

New fatherhood

re:searchUniversity of Bristol • Research Review • Issue 13 • December 2006

A new age of numbers

Two articles in this issue are about maths. And, when you think about it,almost all the other articles use maths to either obtain or analyse data.Even the music of Shostakovich can be explained using maths – thereason why some note combinations sound pleasing to our ears is due to thegeneration of frequencies that match up at regular intervals. It is this gradualawareness that maths is assuming a central role in business, science andengineering, and having an ever-increasing impact on our day-to-day living, thatled the University to invest £34 million in a new building to house our School of Mathematics. Due to its success in attracting world-class staff and recordstudent numbers over the past four years, the Mathematics Department hasoutgrown its current capacity.

One of the reasons behind the recent success of maths is the way we gatherhuge amounts of data, undreamt of only 10 or 15 years ago. In the businessworld, for example, the massive amounts of data gathered by internet searchengines such as Google can be used to predict human behaviour, which in turn informs businesses about our purchasing preferences and potential.These are powerful – and rather scary – tools.

At the same time, completely new areas of study and new disciplines are beingcreated that crucially rely on mathematics for their success. This is bringing awealth of new opportunities for mathematics and a demand for mathematicians.The world is moving into a new age of numbers. Partnerships betweenmathematicians and computer scientists are building a whole new domain ofbusiness. The mathematical modelling of humanity promises to be one of thegreat undertakings of the 21st century. It will grow in scope to include much ofthe physical world as mathematicians get their hands on new flows of data, from atmospheric sensors to the feeds from millions of security cameras.

Located at the heart of the University, the new School of Mathematics will play a central role in the University’s ability to achieve its research goals in the coming years. One of the features of the new building will be its public space for intellectual and social exchange, both within the department and withcollaborators from other departments. It’s a fantastic and unique time to be a mathematician.

Cherry LewisEditor

re:search editorial

pre:view

re:search is produced termly by the Public Relations Office,Communications and MarketingServices.

Articles about research at BristolUniversity are welcome, pleasecontact the editor.

Editor Cherry LewisResearch CommunicationsManager, Communications &Marketing Services, University ofBristol, Senate House, TyndallAvenue, Bristol BS8 1TH, email re-search@bristol.ac.uk, tel +44 (0)117 928 8086.

Head of Public Relations OfficeJill Cartwright

Communications & MarketingDirector Barry Taylor

Design, print and productioncw-design.co.uk.

More articles about research at the University can be found atbristol.ac.uk/researchreview

For the latest news about theUniversity see bristol.ac.uk/news

For an insight into the life of the University see Subtextmagazine and visitbristol.ac.uk/university/subtext

If you have any comments aboutthis publication or wish to beadded to/removed from themailing list, please email re-search@bristol.ac.uk

re:search No 13, December 2006© University of Bristol 2006.

Extracts may only be reproducedwith the permission of the PublicRelations Office.

02 Engineering neurons A woman in the man’s world of engineering – and loving it.

04 Shostakovich 2006Is there any evidence thatShostakovich really was a Sovietdissident?

06 The energy lineIn these times of concern aboutclimate change, there is a need touse aircraft energy more efficiently.

08 Pollinating rare plantsPlants associated with crop fields are among those suffering thegreatest decline.

09 Evolving a new gardenThe new Botanic Garden will provide Bristol with a uniquebotanical and cultural resource.

10 Can coronary heart diseaseever be a good thing?Heart disease is the last conditionone would expect to be of any benefit.

11 Hope for a rare heart conditonA possible way to prevent heart-beatirregularities in a rare condition.

12 New fatherhood: work in progress? Fathers of today want greaterflexibility within the workplace.

14 Random matrix reloadedAt the quantum level you cannotdetermine both the position andvelocity of a particle.

15 Triggering eruptionsThe ability of magma to self-heatmay provide a trigger for eruptions.

16 Companies wantedSouth west businesses wanted forhigh-level collaborative research.

16 University in top rankOutstanding support for early career researchers.

17 How to catch a mosquitoMosquitoes increase their chances of mating by enhancing their abilityto hear.

17 Optical computer only light years awayOne of science’s longest-soughtdevices might soon be a possibility.

2

910

4

If you need part or all ofthis publication in analternative format, pleasecontact the editorial office.

PH

OTO

BY

GE

OR

GE

SE

LL,

UN

IVE

RS

ITY

OF

MIN

NE

SO

TA

3RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS • ENGINEERING NEURONS

➜ Indeed it is not, but it is quite a mathematical challenge to explain why they are different. Themechanisms for creating a current and how this influences the voltagepotential are rather similar, albeit on completely different scales. Hence, the equations that describethese processes are very similar, and the techniques that one uses tostudy their dynamics work for both.

I very much like this property ofmathematical equations. As soon as the equations are there, one canforget about their physical meaningand study them in their own right.Only at the end must the math-ematical results be translated back to what it means for the neuron cell –or the power plant for that matter. The mathematical analysis naturallyextracts common features ofapplications that lead to similarequations, so in a mathematical sensewe know precisely what the effects ofthe similarities are. Engineeringmathematics, therefore, is in a uniqueposition to point out where techniquesthat are commonly used in, say, powerelectronics may also be beneficial in aseemingly completely different area,such as neuron science. This breadthof mathematics is precisely what isneeded for making substantialprogress in modern technologies.

Given that it is such an interesting and exciting area in which to work, I do find it surprising thatthere are so few women working inthis field. Most people would agree

that it is not easy to have a successfulacademic career of any kind – you

have to work hard and be verygood at what you do. So

everybody, men and womenalike, has moments of doubt

– are you good enough, canyou do it, why not just quitand give it all up? Why isit then that women tendto lose their confidenceso much quicker? From talking to otheracademics, I haveformed the opinionthat there is a bigdifference in the wayothers influence thispersonal battle. Menrarely need to defendtheir career choicesagainst criticalcomments from closefriends or family, asupervisor, or head ofdepartment. Women,

on the other hand, often get well-meant, but negative advice from those who should have been giving

encouragement and support. I knowfrom personal experience that it is,therefore, extremely important to beinspired by successful role models.

At the moment there is not a singlefemale professor in the EngineeringFaculty and only 11 per cent of the Faculty’s full-time academicstaff are female. This compares with 34 per cent of full-time femaleacademic staff across the Universityas a whole. For undergraduatestudents, the number of females in the Engineering Faculty is 14 per cent, compared with 52 per cent of females across the whole University.Hence, it is clear that engineering hasa long way to go. More female rolemodels in engineering would be key to changing our (incorrect) opinions that engineering is just for men. ■

Dr Osinga’s Fellowship is funded by the Engineering and Physical SciencesResearch Council.www.enm.bris.ac.uk

I like this property ofmathematical equations

2 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS • ENGINEERING NEURONS

Dr Hinke Osinga

The Department of EngineeringMathematics lies at the heart ofmany research activities, notonly in engineering but also in recentlyinitiated cross-faculty projects withbiology and medicine. I have workedin this department for almost six years now and thoroughly enjoy thestimulating research environment thatit provides. In August last year I waspromoted to Reader (the grade belowProfessor) and awarded a five-yearAdvanced Research Fellowship around the same time. The fellowship allows me to concentrate fully on my research, which is a combinationof rather pure maths subjects likegeometry and topology – the study of qualitative questions aboutgeometrical structures – with a heavydose of numerical analysis andcomputer programming thrown in.

One of the interesting and importantaspects of this work is visualising thedynamics of mathematical equationsthat model processes which vary withtime. It can be awe-inspiring to watcha computed surface that was hidden inthe equations appear on the computer

screen as a beautiful, artistic object.Indeed, many people know mebecause of images I have created –particularly one which I then went on to crochet as a beautiful three-dimensional structure. This attractedworldwide interest and I now regularlyreceive emails from other scientistswho have learnt about my work andwant to use my methods for theirapplications.

Currently, one of my favourite researchprojects is a collaborative study withArthur Sherman at the NationalInstitutes of Health in Bethesda, USA.The project looks at the behaviour of neuron cells in the brain. Themembrane that encloses the cellcontains tiny channels through whichions like potassium or calcium canenter and exit the cell. The chemical

processes that regulate thesechannels produce electrical currentsthat generate a varying voltagepotential across the cell membrane.This oscillatory electrical activity is thebasis for all cell signalling in the brain,which is needed to initiate muscle

contraction, tissue growth, insulinsecretion, and so on. Our goal is tounderstand how this process can beinfluenced so that we may be able to control or even cure diseases likeParkinson’s and diabetes.

My contribution to the project is todetermine the boundaries of particularbehaviour. For example, in laboratoryexperiments extra electrical current isapplied to a neuron cell in order tomeasure its response. The oscillatoryelectrical activity of the cell membraneis disturbed, which influences thecalcium uptake of the cell. With mycomputational methods, I can find the precise boundary between a net increase in calcium uptake (lowvoltage) and a net decrease (highvoltage), based on the theoreticalequations of the process. From theresults I can tell the experimentalisthow long to apply the added currentof a certain strength, in order to get the required effect.

From the point of view of engineeringmathematics, the cell activity is like anelectronic circuit and it is no surprisethat the model equations are, in fact,rather similar. This can often causegreat confusion for the non-specialist:surely, a neuron cell cannot be thesame as an electrical power plant? ➜

Dr Hinke Osinga is one of only twofemale Readers in the Faculty ofEngineering and the only femalemember of staff in the Department ofEngineering Mathematics. Nevertheless,

as she illustrates below, women do havesuccessful careers in the male-dominant

environment that engineering still is.

How can a neuron be the same as a power plant?

Two non-orientablesurfaces whichhave only one side.

Cover illustration of theEngineering Mathematics

brochure; visualisation of the Lorenz manifold.Engineering

neuronsCrochetedchaos.

5RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 MUSIC • SHOSTAKOVICH 2006

➜ he was signing something utterlyinnocent: harmless reminiscencesabout friends and colleagues that he had already published anyway.

Fay suspected something of the sorthad occurred when she first readTestimony in 1979 and recognisedpassages from the Soviet journalSovetskaya Muzyka. She challengedVolkov to respond; he never did. Ittook almost 20 years for Fay to provethat her original suspicion was correct,and now there are comparatively fewwho would seriously contend thatTestimony was exactly what Volkovhad originally claimed: Shostakovich’sdictated memoirs, read, sanctionedand signed by him. But since then the goalposts have been moved. Toomuch has been invested by too manyprominent publishers, Russian émigrésand music journalists to accept thatTestimony is literally nothing but afake. Having believed in it for a quarterof a century, how can the West see a Shostakovich that has not been

reconstructed by Volkov? And so the issue of its authenticity has been quietly shelved while those who previously insisted upon it nowmaintain that, regardless of how itcame into being, it still presents the‘essential truth’ about Shostakovich.Can there ever really be any suchthing, though? What was the ‘essentialtruth’ about Mozart, about Stravinsky,about Beethoven?

At the Music Department’sShostakovich centenary conference in September 2006, the archivistLeonid Maksimenkov revealed how Shostakovich wrote to severalmembers of the post-war Politburorequesting a new apartment,substantial sums of money and even a trophy German car; hardly the actions of a secret dissident. There were even greater revelations on the musical front: the chief archivistof the Shostakovich Family Archive in Moscow, Olga Digonskaya,described how she had found parts

of two abandoned comic operaprojects from the 1930s, as well as a wealth of sketch material that sheds new light on familiar works.

There will be many more suchdiscoveries over the next decade as Russian archives continue to beexplored, throwing up revelationsabout both the composer and theman. With so much still to discover,we cannot afford the luxury ofimagining we know all aboutShostakovich from Volkov’s Testimonyor from his recent book, subtitled ‘The Extraordinary Relationshipbetween the Great Composer and the Evil Dictator’. We hardly need fake memoirs to sensationaliseShostakovich’s career; the facts are infinitely more exciting than liesand spin; and it will, in the end, be the facts that remain. ■

www.bris.ac.uk/music

4 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006MUSIC • SHOSTAKOVICH 2006

Dr Pauline Fairclough

During Shostakovich’s lifetime(1906–1975) the idea of hisbeing a dissident was neverreally seriously mooted; passingspeculation by Western music criticsand broadcasters was as close as itever got. It was only after his deaththat, at least for the Western media,Shostakovich ceased to be asuccessful Soviet composer andbecame instead an embittereddissident. The event that provoked this shift in popular opinion was abook written by a young Soviet émigré musicologist, Solomon Volkov.The book in question was Testimony,published in 1979. This was claimed to be Shostakovich’s dictated memoirsand proclaimed that every one of hissymphonies written after 1936 was a ‘tombstone’, commemorating thevictims of Stalinism and Soviet power.

As the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 recedes into ever-distantmemory, the heat of the controversyover Testimony is beginning to cool.For the generations of students andscholars who have no memory of theSoviet Union, it will be increasinglydifficult to understand why somewriters invested so much in defending Testimony’s authenticity.

For regardless of our ownpersonal politics, our way

of hearing Shostakovich’smusic, or our respect forsome of those who havechosen to support Volkov,Testimony is a fake. Did Shostakovich meetwith a young Russianmusicologist in secret,confide in him anecdotesand opinions that hekept from his family

and closest friends, and instruct him,as was claimed, to publish the book‘after my death’? Since there is norecord of anything other than a fewbrief meetings, we shall never know.Did Shostakovich say any of thosethings to Volkov? He may well havedone; but there is no written or tapedrecord of their conversations. Theshorthand notes Volkov claimed tohave taken have never materialised.What did materialise was a bookneatly organised into chapters with the first page of each chapter signed‘Read. D. Shostakovich’ in thecomposer’s hand. Volkov emigrated to America, showed his publisher the ‘evidence’ of his collusion withShostakovich, and the rest is history.It is now almost impossible for us toimagine a pre-Testimony Shostakovich:the allure of his dissidence has provedfar greater than the inconvenient facts ofVolkov’s betrayal of the aging composer.

‘Betrayal’ is a strong word. But whenthe American scholar Laurel Fay finallyaccessed the original Russianmanuscript of Testimony in 2000, she found that Shostakovich’ssignature appeared on pages whereonly previously published anecdotesand reminiscences by the composer

appeared. Not a single word on thosepages had not already been publishedopenly in the Soviet Union. Theshocking line on the first page ofTestimony’s Chapter One – ‘Lookingback, I see nothing but mountains ofcorpses’ – was printed on a separatepage, slotted in before the signed one, with pagination accordinglyaltered. What is more, the signed page was counter-sunk to appear like the opening page of a chapter;Shostakovich had clearly believed ➜

Shostakovich 2006Reflections on the centenary year

‘Looking back, I see nothing but mountains of corpses’

Shostakovich became ahousehold name in theWest not only because

he was a hugely popularand successful artist,but also because he

came to be perceivedas a Soviet dissident.

Dr Pauline Faircloughfrom the Department

of Music questions thislabel and examines the evidence for it.

Dmitry Shostakovich (left) with Benjamin Britten in 1966.

IMAGES COURTESY RIA NOVOST:HTTP://EN.RIAN.RU

7RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 PSYCHOLOGY • THE ENERGY LINE

➜ with humans first. A big problem for speech recognition in the car, forexample, is background noise – theengine noise, the radio, and noiseoutside the car all contribute toconfuse an automatic system. So you can make the software moreintelligent by studying how and in what situations a human actuallywants to use it.

Another area Noyes has beenparticularly involved with is in themanagement of visual display systemson board civil aircraft. In these times ofconcern about the contribution aircraftare making towards climate change,there exists a strong rationale for anenergy management system that notonly helps the crew use the aircraft’senergy more efficiently, but alsocontributes to improved safety. Heavylandings, rushed approaches and runwayover-runs could all be reduced throughthe provision of an energy displaywhich allows the crew’s actions to bebased on more accurate information.This in turn should lead to moreappropriate and timely responses.For example, pilots lower the under-carriage ready for landing much earlierthan they often need to, because airlineshave to err on the side of caution.However, lowering the wheels causestremendous drag, which increases

both fuel consumption and noisepollution for those under the flightpath. Improved information on aplane’s energy state during a descentcould help the pilot decide on the best time to lower the wheels, withoutcompromising safety.

Given the large number of factorsgoverning an aircraft’s use of energy,this type of monitoring is bestperformed by sensor and computertechnologies. So the problem facingNoyes was to find the best way ofpresenting all this information withinthe already busy cockpit. Since theconcept of energy guidance wasrelatively new, there were no designsavailable on which to base a display,and although that was quite daunting,given the number of possibilities, the project had the advantage of

being able to apply human factors from the outset. Incollaboration with SmithsAerospace, Cranfield andBritish Airways, threedesigns were evaluated.It was found that those with a predictive capabilityproduced the most accuratedecisions concerningaircraft energy states.

A predictive display issimply one in which theinformation provided isextrapolated forward intime, enabling the operatorto anticipate what is likely to happen in a few minutes’time. Perhaps surprisingly,predictive systems havebeen little researched in the past with only NASAreporting a sustainedinterest in the idea. The roleof such a predictive displaymight be seen as beingsimilar to that of theerstwhile flight engineerwho, often with the aid ofsimple calculations, wouldmake predictions about thestate of the aircraft whichhelped the crew makedecisions concerning the flight.

The primary aim of an energy displaywould be to provide the pilot with anindication of the energy range in whichthe aircraft is operating and to ensurethat current energy levels lie within anideal energy range. The idea is thatyou come in on a ‘good’ energy lineand if you deviate from that you are inwhat is called a ‘dirty’ state – a toohigh or too low energy state – thelatter having more serious implicationsfor safety. Thus an important feature of the system is giving the pilot anindication of whether the deviationfrom ‘good’ can be corrected in time. So how to incorporate all thisinformation into one system, while notoverloading the pilot? Interestingly,experiments showed that while a high workload only adds to the general‘noise’ of the flight deck, a lowworkload display appears to be highly

erroneous in terms of decisions madebased upon it. Either way, potential forerror is high, thus a balance betweenaccuracy of decisions and workload is needed. Of the three systemsevaluated, the ‘total energy status and predictive display’ – or EnergyLine – shown above appears so far to be the most effective, but theaircraft industry does not move fastand designs of today may take many years to bear fruit.

I asked Noyes if she thought therewould ever come a time when humansbecame redundant in aircraft. “Myunderstanding is that it is very feasibleto have unmanned aircraft – theadvantage of crew is when things govery wrong. Humans have an incentiveto get home, whereas a computerdoesn’t,” she replied. “The joke is thataircraft of the future will only have aman and dog at the controls. The manis there to feed the dog. So what’s the dog there for? To keep the man off the controls!” ■

http://psychology.psy.bris.ac.uk

6 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006PSYCHOLOGY • THE ENERGY LINE

Professor Jan Noyes

Jan Noyes works in the Department ofExperimental Psychology because sheis interested in how people interactwith technology – their expectationsand perceptions of it – particularlycomputers and the more advancedtechnology that might be found on theflight deck of a civil aircraft or controlpanels of a submarine. Much of herwork is with engineers, because if you

are going to design something thatcomplex you need a multidisciplinaryteam. “I design from the perspective ofthe human users, whereas engineersdesign inevitably from the point ofview of the engineering parameters,”she explains. “For example, automaticspeech recognition works much betterfor men than women, possibly becauseit is designed by male engineers andthey tested it on themselves.”

Amused, I explain about the littlescenario I had experienced on

the way in to see her.“What you have to do

in that situation islook at the way

we speak toeach other:

what happens when I don’t understandwhat you say? You speak louder andslower, you over-pronounce,” Noyesexplains. “So when we talk to amachine we bring those expectationsalong with us.” Embarrassed, I recallthat is precisely what I did. “But if youlook at the way speech recognitionsystems work, they don’t operate onthose principles at all. The algorithmsare not working on the parameters thathumans work on – so logically, it couldbe better not to have any expectationsat all and treat the machine as an idiot.”

While it is difficult to get a machine tobehave intuitively as a human would,Noyes finds that there are lots of littlethings she can do to improve softwareby carrying out experimental work ➜

The energy line

The idea is that you come in on a ‘good’ energy line

It is a Tuesday morning on the M4 and I am sitting in stationary traffic worrying about being late for my meeting withProfessor Noyes. To try and find out what the problem is, I phone the RAC traffic line: ‘To hear live information about a specific motorway or A road, please say the road name,’ requests a polite, almost human, female voice. ‘M4,’ I say.‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognise that name. ‘M4,’ I repeat, a bit louder and slower. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognise that name.’ ‘EM FOUR.’ I enunciate, clearly and distinctly. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognise that name.’ says the repetitive, but ever-patient,voice. ‘M4, you idiot,’ I shout, turning off the phone as the traffic starts to move.

Cherry Lewis interviewed Jan Noyes, Professor of Human FactorsPsychology (or Cognitive Ergonomics), after a frustrating drive into work.

Aircraft's currenttotal energy status

Current optimal total energy

Aircraft's total energy matchesoptimal total energy

Total energy status predictor

Ad

iam

ond

inth

isto

tale

nerg

yra

nge

ind

icat

esto

olit

tleA

dia

mo

ndin

this

tota

lene

rgy

rang

ein

dic

ates

too

muc

h

The Energy Line display

9RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 BOTANIC GARDENS • EVOLVING A NEW GARDEN

➜ Nevertheless,the team was able

to identify that the redhemp-nettle was primarily

pollinated by the bumblebeeBombus pascuorum at one site

and the hover fly Sphaerophoriascripta at another. The latter was also a likely pollinator of the small-flowered catchfly, while the soldier fly, Chloromyia formosa, may be ofparticular importance in the pollinationof the spreading hedge-parsley atcertain sites because of its apparent

specialisation on the flowers of thisspecies. In addition, all three plantswere linked to other plants in thecommunity by shared pollinators. In many cases these other plantsconstituted the primary food sourcesfor the shared pollinators. Gibsontherefore recommends that themanagement of the rare plants should include the protection andmanagement of populations of someof the more common plant species in their respective communities.

Using this approach allowed the teamto identify the probable key pollinatorsof the three rare plants, and to makerecommendations for management ofthe plant–pollinator communities inwhich they are found. Unfortunately,the management of arable land for

conservation can often conflict withthe growing of crops. There is hope,however, with the implementation ofnew schemes that provide subsidiesto farmers for employing environ-mentally beneficial practices such aswide, unsprayed field margins, beetlebanks and less intensive hedgerowmanagement. In addition, certainarable plants play an important role in maintaining complexes of beneficialinsects, which provide invaluableservices to farmers in limiting pestpopulations. If future agriculturalpolicies are devised with thesebenefits in mind, it may yet bepossible for rare arable plants toflourish in the British countryside once again. ■

www.bio.bris.ac.uk

8 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES • POLLINATING RARE PLANTS

Forty per cent of the flora in theUK is considered to be at risk of extinction and 66 plantspecies are listed in the government'sBiodiversity Action Plan. Farmlandprobably holds more rare andendangered plant species than anyother habitat in the UK, and species of arable weed, ie plants associatedwith crop fields, are among thosesuffering the greatest declines.

Given that 67 per cent of floweringplants rely on animal pollinators for reproduction, it is obvious thatincreasing pressure from humanactivities – the introduction of alienplants, habitat fragmentation andagricultural intensification – willseriously compromise this interaction.But little is known about how it works.

The aim of Memmott’s workwas to determine which

pollinators may be criticalfor the survival of threerare arable weed species:red hemp-nettle, small-flowered catchfly andspreading hedge-parsley. All three are listed as priority species inthe BiodiversityAction Plan. Dataon the three plantspecies, at fivefield sites, werecollected overtwo years in order toconstruct

visitation and pollen transport ‘webs’.Most interactions between plants and their pollinators are embedded in a complex web of plant–pollinatorinteractions which, when analysed bysoftware specifically designed for thetask, provides a quantitative approachto understanding the pollinatorrequirements of these rare plant species.

Researching a site involved thesampling of 16 randomly chosen one-metre-square quadrats. On eachsampling occasion the floral units per plant were counted and all insectsthat visited flowers during a 15-minuteperiod were caught. In the laboratory,each insect was first identified and thenexamined for the type and amount of pollen it carried. From these data it was possible to determine theimportance of a particular insectspecies in pollinating a particular plant species.

The team found that a wide range ofinsects visited the three plant speciesand that pollinators varied considerablyacross their geographical range, butless from one year to the next. ➜

Little is known about the pollinators of rareplants, which is cause for concern given thatpollination is essential for the long-term survival of most plant species. Dr JaneMemmott and Rachel Gibson from the School of Biological Sciences spent two years trying to determine the probable pollinators of three species of rare arable weeds.

Pollinatingrare plants

Dr Jane Memmot (left)Rachel Gibson (right)

All three plants are listed as priority species

It may be possible for rare arableplants to flourish again

Left: Catchfly Silene gallica.Below left: Bumblebee Bombus pascuorum, courtesy www.entomat.be

Evolving a new gardenIn 2005 the University relocated its botanical collections andestablished a new Botanic Garden.This was the fourth time the gardenhad been moved since it was firstestablished in 1882. Over the comingyears, the new Botanic Garden willemerge to provide the University andCity of Bristol with a unique botanicaland cultural resource for the future. It will focus on four themed plantcollections, but of particular interestwill be the Plant Evolution Collection,comprising Evolution of Land Plants,Flowering Plant Phylogeny, and Floral Diversity.

The Evolution of Land PlantsCollection will consist of a walkthrough a sunken dell charting themost important stages in the evolutionof plants on land, from green algae toflowering plants. This 'evolutionarywalk' will take the form of a journeythrough geological time from theCambrian to the Cretaceous usingappropriately chosen rocks and fossilsto reflect the passage of geologicaltime. Living representatives from the

various groups of modern land plantswill then appear along the walk withinthe geological times zone when theyfirst evolved – mosses, ferns andclubmosses in the Devonian, conifersin the late Permian and Triassic andflowering plants in the Cretaceous.The walk will reflect the ‘crescendo’ of plant evolutionary diversification,culminating in the Cretaceous with an ‘explosion’ of flowering plantscentred around a spectacular displayof magnolias.

The Flowering Plant PhylogenyCollection has been designed toreflect modern theories on theevolutionary relationships andclassification of the many families of flowering plants inferred fromcomparisons of their DNA sequences.The paths within this collection willtake the form of a branching familytree (phylogeny) of the floweringplants, beginning with the mostprimitive groups – so-called ‘basalangiosperms’ – from which the othermajor lineages of flowering plantsdiverged. The Floral Diversity

Collection will reflect the extraordinarydiversity of flower form that hasevolved to ensure that flowers arepollinated by insects, birds, mammals,wind or water. Tropical, sub-tropicaland some Mediterranean elements ofthese three sub-collections will bedisplayed within the glasshouses. ■

See the website for the Botanic Garden’slocation and opening times:www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/BotanicGardens

Below: Magnolia Watsoni

In the news:➜ narrowing and hardeningof arteries. Providing it witha high-fat diet causeshuman-like atheroscleroticlesions and plaques.

Two sets of mice were fed for 24 weeks on eithera high-fat or a normal diet.After the 24 weeks hadelapsed, the coronaryarteries and heart tissue ofthose on the high fat dietshowed evidence of blockedcoronary arteries and the heart muscleshowed signs of infarction – death/lossof cellular structure. Knowing thesemice were suitable models for CHD,Chase excised their hearts and putthem through a Langendorff heartpreparation – a system designed to

study coronary flow during cardiacactivity. Both groups were exposed to35 minutes of ischaemia followed by45 minutes of reperfusion. The resultswere fascinating – the diseased heartsshowed a 100 per cent recovery,whereas the normal hearts showedabout 30 per cent recovery.

But why was this the case? What is itabout a diseased heart that gives itsuch strength under such strenuousconditions? Analysis of the diseasedand healthy hearts revealed thatmetabolites such as adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) and glycogen werereduced in the diseased heart, andlactate was at a higher level than thatof a healthy one, giving rise to the pre-conditioned state that allows a CHDheart to cope better with ischaemicinsults. Cellular damage was alsonoticeably different in diseased versus healthy hearts. When heart cellmembranes become damaged, anenzyme called creatine kinase leaksout of the cells themselves. The extentof the damage can be determined bymeasuring the levels of this enzyme –the more creatine kinase you have, themore damage there is. Unsurprisingly,then, Chase found more creatinekinase in the normal hearts (lowrecovery) compared with diseasedhearts (100 per cent recovery).

Protecting the heart from reperfusioninjury is an ongoing field of research andChase is hoping these new findingscan help move the field on. As sheexplained: “Ischaemic and reperfusioninjury occurs in any type of operation

that requires a motionless, bloodlessheart. So while this includes bypasssurgery for coronary heart disease, italso includes valve replacements,arterial defect repair and aneurysmrepair. In children too there are tons ofcongenital heart diseases, so althoughthese diseases don't require bypasssurgery as such, they can still sufferfrom ischaemic or reperfusion injury.”

Current cardio-protective techniquesare largely based on preservingmetabolites – preserving ATP,preserving glycogen and reducinglactate formation. This always seemedlike the obvious thing to do. However,what Chase’s research shows is thatlow levels of ATP and glycogen, andhigh levels of lactate, are actuallybeneficial and can help to protect theheart. From this point of view, it maybe that the cardio-protective solutionswe currently use are ineffective orinappropriate and require something ofa rethink. ■

This work by Anabelle Chase, apostgraduate student at the Bristol HeartInstitute, formed the basis of her PhD. Itwas funded by the British Heart Foundation.Anabelle won the first prize for best oralpresentation at this year’s Joint Faculties’Postgraduate Symposium.

www.bris.ac.uk/clinicalsciencesouth

11RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 PHYSIOLOGY • HOPE FOR RARE HEART CONDITION10 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006BRISTOL HEART INSTITUTE • CAN CORONARY HEART DISEASE EVER BE A GOOD THING?

Coronary heart disease (CHD)is the end result of theaccumulation of fatty deposits– plaques – within the walls of thearteries that supply the heart. Thesymptoms may go unnoticed for sometime and over the course of decadesthese plaques, that at one time weremerely streaks on the inside walls ofarteries, become obstructions. If alarge plaque ruptures, this can attractblood cells called platelets that within minutes form a clot in the artery, or the pieces of the plaque that have been dislodged may adhere elsewhere. Both events canreduce blood flow to areas of the heart muscle, leading to ischaemia –reduced oxygen supply – and it is themost common cause of a heart attack.

Surprisingly, less than 70 per centocclusion of an arterial vessel is not considered high risk for a heartattack. Nevertheless, the greater theocclusion, the more restricted theblood flow becomes to heart cells andthis can result in areas of ischaemicactivity on a semi-continuous basis.There is, however, a potentialadvantage to this otherwise life-threatening condition.

Researchers at the Bristol HeartInstitute have found evidence that in some cases, heart cells havedeveloped a ‘coping mechanism’when the heart is subjected to erraticperiods with low levels of oxygen.

The cells appear to have developedthe ability to shift their metabolicactivity towards the anaerobic inorder to manage the decreasedoxygen level more effectively.This has been termed ‘ischaemic

pre-conditioning’ and Chasebelieves that this increased

hardiness of the cells may be the key to protecting the heart againstreperfusion injury during coronarybypass surgery.

During heart surgery the heart isdeliberately stopped so that it is notbeating while the surgeon operates.The blood, which would ordinarilyhave passed through the heart, passes instead through an externalpump. During this process the heartundergoes a period of oxygendeprivation which can result indamage to the heart muscle. Theproblem is compounded whencirculation is restored, since thesudden influx of oxygen and nutrientscan cause inflammation and oxidativedamage to the tissue. Rather than

restoring normal function, the heartcan be weakened even further. Itappears, however, that in thosepatients with CHD, ischaemic pre-conditioning allows heart cells tomaintain a level of activity thatminimises the chances of beingoverwhelmed when normal blood flow is restored.

This state of pre-conditioning wasdiscovered by Chase when attemptingto develop a suitable model of coronaryheart disease. Previous models haveall been based on healthy rat modelsand therefore the effects seen whenstopping and restarting these heartsdoes not accurately reflect thoseexperienced by diseased hearts in situ.The question posed by Chase wastherefore ‘Are diseased hearts different?’.The answer came from another type ofrodent, the ‘apolipoprotein E knockout’mouse, which has been geneticallyengineered to be the perfect modelfor atherosclerosis – the progressive ➜

Can coronary heart disease

ever be a good thing?

Anabelle Chase

The diseased hearts showed a 100 per cent recovery

Heart cells have developed a‘coping mechanism’

With 1.4 million cases of coronary

heart disease in the UK, leading to

120,000 deaths peryear, coronary heart

disease is the lastcondition one would

expect to be ofpotential benefit to

anything. Chris Mooreinterviewed AnabelleChase at the BristolHeart Institute who

seems to thinkotherwise.

Cross section of an artery that has become blocked due to plaque rupture.

Hope for rareheart conditionA team led by Professor JulesHancox and Dr Harry Witchel inthe Department of Physiology hasfound a possible way to preventheart-beat irregularities caused by ‘short QT syndrome’ – a rarecondition that runs in families.

People with SQTS can be prone to dangerous changes inheart rhythm, such as the life-threatening condition ‘ventricularfibrillation’. This is due to a defectin regulation of the electricalcurrents that control heart musclecontraction. The existence ofSQTS was only discovered in 1999thus medical treatments are stillvery limited.

The team found that when testedon isolated cells, an existing drugcalled disopyramide appears to be able to correct the moleculardefect in one type of SQTS. If theresults translate into humans,disopyramide could be a life-saving medicine for sufferers.Professor Jeremy Pearson,Associate Medical Director at theBritish Heart Foundation, said:“This demonstrates how researchinto understanding thefundamentals of heart conditionscan provide the evidence we needto help more heart patientsbenefit from existing drugs.” ■

www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Physiology

13RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 SOCIOLOGY • NEW FATHERHOOD

➜ of ‘new’ fatherhood is correct, withfathers moving towards more familycentred activities, then we shouldexpect to see fathers spending lesstime in employment than non-fathers. Or could there be a third option?Could it be that fatherhood simplytends to coincide with a time in men’s lives that is critical to thedevelopment of their careers? In which case, previous research onfatherhood may be overplaying theinfluence of parenthood in relation to men’s experience in the labourmarket. For example, higher levels of engagement in family care by men may be attributed to alterations in our ideas about fathering, whenthey are really the result of limitedemployment opportunities in particularlabour market sectors. Thus, argues,Dermott, by assuming at the outsetthat the categories ‘father’ and ‘non-father’ have an intrinsic salience,researchers may produce spuriousfindings.

Initially, when fathers are comparedwith non-fathers the results seem toindicate that fathers do work longerhours (and are also more likely thannon-fathers to be working extremelylong hours). But once other variablesare considered this differencedisappears. Dermott’s analysis showsthat men’s preferences about workingtime do not change when menbecome fathers – around a quarter ofmen wanted to work fewer hours; lessthan one per cent wanted to increasetheir hours; and the remainder wishedto maintain the status quo. Thesefindings challenge the orthodoxy offatherhood as breadwinning – men’sengagement with the labour marketexists irrespective of their parental

status. But it also calls into questionassumptions about the arrival offathers who are adopting a ‘femalemodel’ of parenting. Although the ideaof involved, caring fathers may havebecome culturally embedded, thesuspicion is that stories of fathersworking on a part-time basis or menreducing their hours of employment as a consequence of parenthood

are exceptional cases rather thansubstantial movements – despite their frequent media attention. The findings reassert that therelationship between paid work

and parenthood is very different formothers and fathers in the UK sincemothers and non-mothers do differsignificantly in terms of their hours ofwork. This ties in with other recentresearch on gender differencesconducted by Dr Sarah Childs, fromthe Department of Politics. She wasthe co-ordinator of a study speciallycommissioned by Woman’s Hour forthe programme’s 60th anniversary,which suggested that both men andwomen are still much more likely toview the stay-at-home mother as aparenting ideal than the stay-at-homefather. The survey also found thatwomen are twice as likely as men to feel guilty about placing their pre-school children in childcare,suggesting that the obligations ofmotherhood and fatherhood have not yet converged.

Men may find other ways of achieving involvement in family life that do not mean a reduction in full-time contracted hours. The period around the first year after a birth is associated with some decrease in working hours so, while fathers may not be taking on the bulk of childcare duties orsubstantially altering their workinghours in a permanent way, there issome short-term adjustment. This

may be in line with the idea of good‘new’ fatherhood, which promotesmen’s presence at the birth of a childand a general sense of ‘being there’ but does not undermine a strongattachment to the labour market. Inpractice, ‘new fatherhood’ is not arevolutionary transformation but amoderate accommodation. If family-friendly policies are going to be

successful, they will need to takeaccount of how fathers want to adapttheir routines to fit in with family life.‘While fathers don’t want to work lessthey may want to work differently,’

says Dermott. ‘Speaking to fathers itwas evident that what they consideredmost valuable in a job was flexibilityover their working hours, so that theycould leave early to go to schoolsports day or make sure they werehome in time to read a bedtime story’. ■

www.bristol.ac.uk/sociology

12 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006SOCIOLOGY • NEW FATHERHOOD

Dr Esther Dermott

There is a tension in our current understanding about fatherhood. The socialexpectation that men will provide fortheir family is exemplified in the legalrequirement that a father continues

to be financially responsible for hischildren after divorce or separation.Furthermore, recent studies haveconcluded that breadwinning is stillmen’s main form of commitment to family life and an importantcomponent of men’s fathering identity.On the other hand, behaviour that isnot work-centred seems to be anincreasingly important aspect of whatfathers do. There has been an increasein men’s contributions to domesticwork and involvement in childcareactivities alongside a spectacular shift in involvement with particular

child-related events, most notablyattendance at births. Over 90 per centof married or cohabiting fathers arenow present at the birth of their child,compared with a mere 8.5 per cent of fathers in the 1950s. This kind of

evidence has led some to argue thatthe ideology of the breadwinner hasbeen replaced with a nurturing fathermodel, and that it is the quality of the father–child relationship that isincreasingly prioritised by men.

Exploring the relationship betweenfatherhood and employment is oneway to examine this conundrum. Ifbreadwinning is connected with afathering role, it is reasonable toexpect men with children to worklonger hours than their childlesscolleagues. In contrast, if the advent ➜

Being a father has little effect on men’s

working hours or theirpreferences over

working time. But fathers of today do prioritise

family life and wantgreater flexibility withinthe workplace in order to play a larger role in

their children’s lives. Dr Esther Dermott,

from the Department ofSociology, says that

new fatherhood is still‘work in progress’.

New fatherhood:work in progress?

Fathers don’t want to work less,they want to work differently

Over 90 per cent of fathers arepresent at the birth of their child

Men’s working preferences do notchange when they become fathers

In the news:

15RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 EARTH SCIENCES • TRIGGERING ERUPTIONS

➜ Theory is that this also has featuresthat can be interpreted as zeros andby comparing the distribution of zerosin the two systems new insights can beobtained, new questions asked and ourunderstanding of both systems improved.”

The connection between numbertheory and random matrix theory wasmade during a casual conversationover tea between a physicist and amathematician in the 1970s and one ofthe main benefits of Nina’s fellowshiphas been the ability to travel anddiscuss results and techniques withnumber theorists. “Bristol is full ofexperts on quantum chaos but, untilthe last couple of years, there weren’tmany number theorists,” says Nina.“Now the mathematics department hasa very strong number theory group,but at a time when there was less

local expertise I was able to spend 15 months in the US at a major math-ematics institute working with numbertheorists, essentially understanding theright questions to ask. It is very mucha two-way street for informationbetween number theory and randommatrix theory, which makes theinteraction even more exciting.”

Number theory is a vital area forsecurity in IT, ensuring, for example,that internet transactions are secure.Random Matrix Theory is a rapidlygrowing field in physics and mathe-matics. It is used in nuclear and solidstate physics. “Interestingly, it is nowbecoming possible, thanks to nano-technology, to fabricate systems thateffectively create quantum billiardtables,” says Nina. These nanosystemswill be able to test the effects predictedby Random Matrix Theory and shouldlead to new insights, improved theoryand therefore to the design andproduction of new materials withunusual electronic and other properties.

Nina sees her area of work as being a very cool area of research. “There is certainly no shortage of graduateswanting to study at Bristol,” sheconcludes. “Random Matrix Theoryand Number Theory are extremely hottopics, frontier work in fact, and we getsome exceptional students inspired to get involved with the work.” ■

14 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006MATHEMATICS • RANDOM MATRIX RELOADED

Dr Nina Snaith

Nina Snaith works at theinterface between physicsand mathematics, looking atthe connections between randommatrix theory and number theory andtheir applications in quantum chaos.

Nina studied theoretical physics as anundergraduate in Canada and wasfascinated by quantum mechanics.“Quantum mechanics is a beautifultheory and so different from intuitiveclassical mechanics,” she says. “I was interested in chaotic systemsso I chose to come to Bristol to do my PhD as it has an excellentreputation for research in quantumchaos.” How large objects, such asballs on a billiard table, interact in adynamic system can be relativelyeasily modelled using Newton’s classiclaws of motion. “In a classical chaoticsystem, however, it is like modellingballs on a billiard table that no longerhas a straight edge but is irregular.This makes prediction of speed ordirection of the balls very complicated,”explains Nina. “If you imagine thetable getting smaller and smaller,reducing to the size of atoms, then thelaws of classical mechanics no longerapply and quantum mechanics

takes over.” At the quantum levelHeisenberg’s uncertainty principlemeans that you cannot determine boththe position and velocity of a particle,and at this small scale the energylevels of particles, such as electrons,

are quantized. This means that onlycertain discrete energies are allowed.The field of quantum chaos involvesunderstanding how these quantumobjects behave in systems withchaotic classical analogues, anddetermining methods that giveinformation such as the distribution of these quantum energies.

Nina has a traditional approach tomathematics. “I am very much a pencil and paper mathematician,” she admits. “My research involves a lot of working with, and thinkingabout, formulae, but there is also a lot of interaction with other people –exchanging ideas and getting differentviews.” The main part of Nina’s work is on Random Matrix Theory – atechnique used to model quantumchaos, which is now being applied to fundamental research in number

theory. “Usually maths supportsphysics but this is an example wherea technique developed in physics ispushing things forward in maths,” Ninaexplains. She is applying RandomMatrix Theory to the Riemann zetafunction, an object of fundamentalimportance in number theory. In fact,solving the Riemann hypothesis is soimportant it has been designated oneof the ‘Millennium prize problems’.These are seven mathematicalproblems that have so far resistedsolution, thus a million-dollar prize isattached to solving each one. “Numbertheory is the theory of arithmetic,literally the theory of whole numbers or integers – understanding how primenumbers arise and other fundamentalconcepts. The Riemann zeta function,as with other functions, can be thoughtof as describing a land-scape. I aminvestigating the contours of thislandscape for unusual features: inparticular the places where the functionis zero. The link with Random Matrix ➜

Dr Nina Snaith, in the Department of Mathematics, was one of theRoyal Society’s Dorothy Hodgkin Fellows, a scheme that providesflexible funding at the early stage of postdoctoral careers whenresearchers, particularly women, tend to leave science. Today sheholds an Advanced Research Fellowship, which means she canspend most of her time doing research. This is an updated version of an interview she gave to the Royal Society.

Randommatrix reloaded

Howdo you work?

TriggeringeruptionsA team from the Department ofEarth Sciences has shown thatmagmas heat up as they crystallise,rather than cooling down aspreviously thought. This ability toself-heat may provide a trigger foreruptions. In addition, the teamshows that crystallisation ofunderground magmas is a short-lived phenomenon – taking yearsrather than centuries – which isprecisely the timescale over whichvolcanoes can be monitored.

Explosive volcanic eruptions arefuelled by the escape of volcanicgases from magma stored inunderground reservoirs and pipesseveral kilometres below thesurface. Predicting such eruptionsrequires a real-time knowledge ofjust where the magma is at anyone time and what it is doing.

Professor Jon Blundy andcolleagues analysed tiny dropletsof volcanic liquids that becometrapped inside crystals as themagma crystallises on its way to the surface. This enabled themto reconstruct the changes inpressure, temperature andcrystallinity that occur within abody of magma prior to eruption.The researchers demonstrate that as pressure decreases,crystallinity increases, and themore a magma crystallises thehotter it gets – by up to 100°C.

This surprising result indicatesthat the driving force behindcrystallisation of these magmaswas a drop in pressure, ratherthan a loss of heat to thesurrounding rocks, as previouslythought. Professor Blundy said:“This work is now being used to gauge the direction of thevolcanic activity currentlyhappening at Mount St Helens.” ■

This research was published in Nature 443, pp76-80.

www.gly.bris.ac.uk

What are the current areas ofresearch you work in?

Do you think studying postgraduatemathematics is becoming more popular?

Triple correlationof the zeros of the Reimannzeta function

How will yourwork help society?

Dr Nina Snaith’s Fellowship is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.www.maths.bris.ac.uk

17RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006 IN THE NEWS16 RESEARCH REVIEW • DECEMBER 2006UNIVERSITY EXCELLENCE

The Great Western Researchinitiative is a five-year, £14-million investment which aims to catalyse cutting-edgeresearch collaboration between highereducation institutions and businessesin the South West. There are fivebroad research themes intended tosupport enterprise in the region:Materials, Applied Mathematics,Sustainability, Psychology and theCreative Arts.

As part of this government-fundedinitiative, GWR will provide matchingfunds for 130 new PhD-level researchprogrammes to be undertaken in highereducation institutions, in partnershipwith south-west businesses. Theprojects will be of high added value

to both the business partner and thesouth-west regional economy.

If you want to meet your business andcustomers’ needs through focused,bespoke collaboration with a team ofworld-class academics, Great WesternResearch can provide you with thecontacts, advice, support and financialbacking to achieve this. The initiativewill help you focus on developing new products, provide support on aproject of strategic importance to your business, and increase yourefficiency and profitability. ■

Detailed information on the GWR initiative and the individual research themes can be found on the website:www.greatwesternresearch.ac.uk or contact Jess Warburton on 01392 263456.

Companies wanted forhigh-level collaborative research

The University has beennominated for a place in thecategory of ‘Outstandingsupport for early career researchers’,in the 2006 Times Higher Awards. The award rewards the university thatprovides the best support in makingresearch an attractive career path, andfor helping early career researchersachieve their full potential.

The University, which has an ethosthat sees contract researchers asemployees rather than students, was nominated because of the world-leading reputation it hasearned for handling its 1,100 contractresearch staff. In 1999 the Universityestablished an annual staff survey thathas now been rolled out to 43 higher

education institutions acrossthe UK. It also has an excellentcommunication channel with itsstaff through an annual staffconference.

Dr Iain Cameron, Head of the Research Councils UKCareers and Diversity Unit,congratulated the University on its nomination, saying: “Our sponsorship of this awardsignals our commitment tohelping research organisationsimprove the attractiveness ofresearch careers, the quality of research training, and theemployability of researchers.” ■

www.bris.ac.uk/personnel/researchstaff

One of science’s longest-soughtdevices – an ‘optical memory’that stores digital informationas light – might soon be a possibility,thanks to funding of over €1 millionfrom the European Commission.

It is already known that light can carrya lot more information than an electriccurrent. In order to develop an opticalcomputer that would outpace today’sPCs many times over, a form of memoryusing light is needed to store information.The problem is – light never stops.

The IOLOS project, led by Dr SiyuanYu in the Department of Electrical andElectronic Engineering, will developintegrated optical logic and memorydevices based on a semiconductor

ring laser. The team will work on theprinciple that light will encircle an SRL,emitting a laser beam in only one oftwo directions – clockwise or counter-clockwise. When looking at outputfrom one direction you would eithersee ‘light’ or ‘dark’, representing ‘0’ or ‘1’ in a digital system.

Provided energy is supplied to thedevice the recirculation is endless,much like a toy racing car goingaround its track for as long as thebattery has power. The device cantherefore remember its state as long

as power supply to the SRL is notinterrupted. To set the direction of therecirculation, a beam of light needs tobe launched in that direction to beginwith, very much like writing a ‘1’ or ‘0’into a computer memory.

Dr Siyuan Yu, commenting on theproject, said: “By making the SRLreally small, we aim to develop apractical technology that may one dayprovide optical memories operatingjust like electronic memories.” ■

www.een.bris.ac.uk

University in top rankfor supporting early career researchers

Male mosquitoes increase their chances of mating with a passing female byenhancing their ability to hear herflying past. Much like the human ear,the mosquito ear is able to amplify the sounds it hears, making a passingfemale appear closer.

The research was published in theProceedings of the National Academyof Sciences. Professor Daniel Robert,senior author on the paper, said: “To our surprise, we found that themosquito ear mechanically respondsto enlarge its own range of detection.It makes the female appear closer thanshe actually is, giving the male a splitsecond longer in which to react.” This behaviour enhances the male’schance to capture and mate with a

passing female. It may also be whysuch small animals have, comparativelyspeaking, such large ears.

Males detect female mosquitoes from the sounds generated by theirwing-beat. As female wings are pooracoustic radiators – they don’t makemuch noise – males have been driven,by sexual selection, to evolve highlysensitive acoustic sensors. In addition,female sounds appear and vanish verysuddenly, leaving the male with just asplit second in which to detect her. Areflection of the demands of this taskmay be the fact that the ears of malemosquitoes contain up to 16,000sensory cells, a number comparable to that contained in the human ear. ■

www.bio.bris.ac.uk

How to catch amosquito

The antenna of the male Tanzanian mosquitoToxorhynchites brevipalpis. The ring-shapedstructures at the base of each antenna (between the eyes) contain the auditory organs.Photo: D. Robert & J.C. Jackson

In the news:University excellence:

Optical computeronly light years away

Public Relations OfficeCommunications & Marketing ServicesUniversity of BristolSenate HouseTyndall AvenueBristol BS8 1TH

www.bristol.ac.uk

Email: re-search@bristol.ac.uk

re:search

L E A R N I N G • D I S C O V E R Y • E N T E R P R I S E