Research & Science News
Research & Science News
The UGR Awards for Outstanding Research & Scientific Dissemination 2016
17 Nov 2016
The UGR Awards for Outstanding Research and Scientific Dissemination (Premios de la Universidad de Granada a la divulgación científica y a trabajos de investigación de excelencia) were celebrated on the 8th November 2016. These annual awards are granted in recognition of outstanding contributions made by researchers at the UGR to six key areas.
International Meeting on New Strategies in Bioremediation Processes (BioRemid-2017)
8 Nov 2016
The International Meeting on New Strategies in Bioremediation Processes (BioRemid) will be held on 9th and 10th March 2017. This edition will take place in Granada and will be hosted by the UGR's Water Research Institute. The meeting is also supported by the Biodegradation, Bioremediation and Biodeterioration research group, which is part of the Spanish Society of Microbiology (SEM).
The UGR achieves significant progress in international rankings in 2016
The recently published results of international university rankings collectively indicate that the UGR in on an upward moving trend in 2016. In the following article, we give you an overview of the UGR's performance in a collection of prestigious international rankings.
Spectacular rise for the UGR in the latest ARWU ranking (2016)
The latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) reaffirms the University of Granada’s position as a leading global institution, placing it among the top 201-300 universities in the world. The UGR shot up the rankings this year to become the second-highest ranked university in Spain.
Over 300 researchers set to perform experiments in Granada’s streets and squares for European Researchers’ Night 2016 (30 Sept)
About European Researchers’ Night
European Researchers´ Night, which will take place on Friday 30th September, is an annual event dedicated to celebrating popular science, fun learning, and to bringing researchers and society closer together. It allows you to meet the heroes of science; in other words, the researchers from different disciplines whose extraordinary work can change our lives. The programme encompasses hands-on experiments, practical workshops, science exhibitions, live performances, and exciting educational workshops for children, to mention just a few of the fascinating activities lined up.
Engineering for Sustainable Development Forum: 29-30 September 2016
The Engineering for Sustainable Development Forum, a unique event in Andalusia which will take place on the 29th and 30th of September 2016, aims to provide a benchmark forum for knowledge exchanges in the field of sustainable development. The Forum will explore areas such as climate change, renewable energy, water management, sustainable mobility, social entrepreneurship and sustainable funding.
UGR showcases ADOLL - a new online language tool for people with visual disabilities
12 September 2016
The UGR recently presented ADOLL - a pioneering European project designed to tackle current shortfalls in foreign language teaching resources for the blind and the visually impaired. The project features a multilingual online application that enables users to acquire basic skills in three widely spoken languages; Spanish, English and Russian.
Dying, Death, Donating: International Conference on the Ethics of Organ Donation (7-8 September)
06 September 2016
This conference offers an opportunity for novel and senior international scholars to share their most recent research with other academics working in the field of organ donations.
New evidence found of land and ocean responses to climate change over last millennium
21 July 2016
Two recent marine records made in the Alboran Sea Basin and analysed at high-resolution have allowed scientists to reconstruct climate and oceanographic conditions in the westernmost Mediterranean region during the last millennium. They have also shed light on the human impact on the region.
UGR app, Galexia, nominated for Best University Game by AIAS and now on Google Play
15 July 2016
Galexia, a mobile phone app developed at the University of Granada, is now available on Google Play for Android and has been nominated for the Best University Game Award by the Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS). The interactive game app for smart phones notably improves the reading ability of children with dyslexia and reading and writing difficulties.
Olive oil waste used to produce molecules with myriad applications in chemical and food industries
14 July 2016
A team of researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Granada has successfully used various olive industry waste products to produce surface active agents. It marks the first time that alpeorujo has been used to produce biosurfactants, which are environmentally friendly molecules of biological origin. They have numerous applications in fields as varied as cosmetics, medicine, food, detergency, and the environment.
UGR researchers conduct genetic screening of Parkinson’s disease to improve early and differential diagnoses
Friday 01 July 2016
A team of scientists at the University of Granada has used a next-generation genetic sequencing method and a technique known as “Sanger sequencing” to conduct a detailed genetic screening of patients in Granada suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The results of the study have been published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging and have significant clinical implications.
Study proves running barefoot helps optimize technique and reduces risk of injury
29 June 2016
Researchers at the Universities of Granada and Jaén have proved that barefoot running, when done properly, considerably decreases the chances of suffering injuries as it produces significant changes to the way the foot is supported when making contact with the ground.
UGR researchers prove that olive stones used to clean waste can also be used as biofuel
20 June 2016
UGR scientists have demonstrated that olive stones can serve dual roles and can be used during nine cycles to clean waste from industrial metals discharged in water and can also be employed as an environmentally friendly biofuel.
UGR launches Europe's largest sleep research laboratory
5 May 2016
Housed at the UGR’s Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC in Spanish), the lab includes four fully equipped rooms for sleep behaviour research. The University of Granada and Lo Monaco Group, a local company specializing in sleeping equipment, will jointly conduct research into the study, evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of different areas with the field of sleep science.
The UGR launches ‘Science Up Close’, a new dissemination programme aimed at promoting science in society
27 April 2016
By means of short talks of approximately 15 minutes in duration, uploaded to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, researchers from the UGR explain their daily work and topical scientific issues to the general public.
Eviction increases mental and physical health risk by 13, according to a pioneering study by the University of Granada
22 April 2016
Scientists at the University of Granada (UGR) and the Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP), found that those undergoing eviction from their home, whether rented or owned, exhibited worse physical and mental health than the general public.
International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society: May 5-9 2016
20 April 2016
he Second International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society will be held in Granada from May 5-9 2016, in collaboration with the UGR’s Experimental Psychology Department and the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (UGR). The conference will give participants the opportunity to present their latest findings to an intellectually engaged, diverse and professionally-dedicated community.
UGR R&D project “VIVable”, receives national award at Spanish Exhibition of Architecture and Housing
15 April 2016
The UGR research & development project “From accessible housing to sustainable housing: the essence of reasonable adjustment, VIVable”, has won a prestigious national award at the Spanish Exhibition of Architecture and Housing.
Discovering Science (8-17 April 2016, Granada)
06 April 2016
The III Discovering Science Fair, a large-scale national event which aims to bring science closer to society, will be held from 8-17 April in Granada's Science Museum and various locations around the city.
Conference Series: Researchers in Training - Promoting Interdisciplinary Research
12 Feb 2016
Our Conference Series ‘Researchers in Training - Promoting Interdisciplinary Research (JIFFI)’, which will be held from 18-20 May 2016, has been developed with the aim of encouraging doctoral candidates and researchers from our three doctoral schools (Health Sciences; Humanities, Social Sciences and Law; and Science, Technology and Engineering) to engage in cutting-edge interdisciplinary research.
UGR research calls for protection of human rights of trans people
Tuesday 09 February 2016
International trans depathologization activism demands that the current diagnostic classification of transsexuality as a mental disorder be withdrawn, according to a doctoral thesis by Amets Suess Schwend, a researcher at the University of Granada.
New non-invasive methodology, developed by UGR researchers, allows for early diagnosis of diseases such as osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Scientists from the University of Granada have developed a new fluorescent dye capable of detecting the presence of phosphate and biothiol inside living cells. This scientific breakthrough could contribute significantly to the early diagnosis of diseases such as osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes, and prostate cancer...
UGR scientists prove that the brains of patients with schizophrenia vary depending on the type of schizophrenia
Thursday 07 January 2016
An international team, made up of researchers from the University of Granada, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of South Florida, has linked the symptoms of schizophrenia with the anatomical characteristics of the brain, by employing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Cancer research breakthrough: UGR scientists patent effective drug for treating breast, colon, and skin cancers
Tuesday 20 October 2015
Scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) have patented an effective drug for treating cancer stem cells (CSCs) in breast, colon, and skin cancers. The new compound reduced the tumour activity by 50% following 41 days of treatment, in mice with induced tumours One of the major advantages of the drug is that it is non-toxic. Moreover, from a pharmaceutical perspective this anti-tumour drug can be successfully produced in large quantities.
Climate change will cause huge forest fires in the US and Europe, UGR study indicates
Thursday 08 October
In a study published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), scientists from the University of Granada and the University of Wyoming have demonstrated that a temperature increase of just 0.5° during the Medieval Warm Period (between 800-1300 AD) led to a significant rise in the frequency of wildfires in the Rocky Mountains in the US and the amount of area burned.
European Researchers' Night in Granada: 25 Sept 2015
Friday 11 September 2015
European Researchers´ Night is dedicated to celebrating popular science, fun learning, and to bringing researchers and society closer together. It is a great opportunity to meet researchers in a friendly environment, interact with them, and discover the ways in which they contribute to society. This year the European Researchers` Night will be celebrated in over 300 cities in 24 European countries. In Granada the programme includes workshops covering a broad array of disciplines, from drawing, crystallography, and rocket-making, to mathematics, evolution, and DNA.
UGR research reveals spiders can sail on water
Wednesday 15 July 2015
In a new research breakthrough, a team of international researchers has uncovered one of nature’s best kept secrets, shedding light on the dazzling ability of spiders to navigate on water.
Vegetables fried in extra virgin olive oil have more beneficial properties than their boiled counterparts
Friday 26 June 2015
A new UGR study, published in the prestigious journal Food Chemistry, reveals that vegetables fried in extra virgin olive oil have more beneficial properties than their boiled counterparts.
Thursday 18 June 2015
Doctoral research funding: Call for applications (15-29 June 2015)
The application period for doctoral research contracts funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness is now open. The contracts cover three areas of financial assistance: a) research contract funding b) research undertaken at Research and Development Centres and c) funding for doctoral fees.
Thursday 07 May 2015
Antioxidant effects of coffee by-products 500 times greater than vitamin C, UGR research team finds
The coffee industry plays a major role in the global economy. It also has a significant impact on the environment, producing more than 2 billion tonnes of coffee by-products annually. Coffee silverskin (the epidermis of the coffee bean) is usually...
Friday 10 April 2015
Oldest known case of breast cancer discovered in the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis
Researchers from the University of Granada and the University of Jaén have discovered what is now the world’s oldest known case of breast cancer, detected in the 4,200 year-old skeleton of a woman in Aswan, in the south of Egypt.
The woman is believed to have been an aristocrat from the 6th Pharaonic Dynasty. Her skeleton, discovered...
Friday 27 February 2015
UGR researchers shed light on dark matter
In an article published in the prestigious academic journal Physical Review Letters, UGR researchers demarcate the properties of one of the particles which potentially make up dark matter: axions. The article, published by Adrian Ayala and his thesis director Inmaculada Domínguez, could help determine the very nature of dark matter, one of the most puzzling enigmas yet to be solved in physics. The gravitational effects...
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Seabed sediments dating back to around 2.2 - 4.3 million years ago, reveal that there was widespread melting, demonstrated in groundbreaking research published in the academic journal Nature Geoscience.
The study, which involved the participation of UGR researchers from the Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute, indicates that greenhouse gas emissions have a greater impact on melting than changes in the earth’s orbit...
Monday 2 February 2015
New insights into Hoopoe's evolution and behaviour sheds light on beneficial bacteria
Hoopoes are a remarkable bird species. Apart from possessing highly distinctive features (perhaps most notably their characteristic “crown of feathers”), they may help us to shed light on the role of beneficial bacteria in the animal kingdom...
Thursday, 20th of November of 2014
An Andalusian team of researchers led by the University of Granada has designed a new drug that fights carcinogenic stem cells which provoke the onset and development of cancer, for relapse after chemotherapy, and for metastasis
The new drug, called Bozepinib, has been successfully tested on mice, and has a selective action against carcinogenic stem cells for breast and colon cancer, as well as melanoma...
(Continue reading...)
Monday, 10th of November 2014
Psychologists develop danger perception test that helps reduce traffic accidents
Scientists at the University of Granada (UGR), in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University (UK) have designed a test to train new drivers and improve their driving skills by presenting them with virtual situations which they might otherwise take years to experience in real life.
This research, published in the Traffic Injury Prevention journal, is the first danger perception test adapted to the Spanish context. The test has been employed for obtaining driving licences in other countries (such as England, US and Australia) for over twenty years...
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Tuesday, 30th of September of 2014
Researchers at the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy) have designed a multispectral imaging system capable of obtaining information from a total of 36 colour channels, as opposed to the usual 3 colour image sensors.
This scientific development could be used in the not too distant future to create new assisted vehicle driving systems, to identify counterfeit bills and documents, or to obtain more accurate medical images than those provided by current systems...
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Tuesday, 30th of September of 2014
Several experiments on rats prove that prolonged melatonin consumption fights obesity and diabetes
Scientists at the University of Granada, in collaboration with La Paz University Hospital in Madrid and the University of Texas, in San Antonio in the U.S., have demonstrated through several experiments conducted on obese Zucker rats that prolonged melatonin consumption helps combat obesity and type two mellitus diabetes.
They also recommend sleeping in absolute darkness and avoiding artificial light at night to prevent interference in the generation of endogenous melatonine...
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Wednesday, 3rd of September of 2014
Javier Alba-Tercedor, professor of Zoology at the University of Granada, has obtained an award at the “Bruker micro-CT user meeting”, which took place in Belgium, for a video produced with an innovative technique called microtomography...
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Thursday, 3rd of July of 2014
Adolescents from southern Europe less fit and more obese than central-northern European counterparts
Scientists from the University of Granada, in collaboration with another 25 European research groups, have shown that teenagers in Spain, Italy and Greece are less fit and more obese than their northern European counterparts.
The study—published in Pediatrics, the leading journal in its field worldwide—included 3528 adolescents from nine European countries...
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Tuesday, 20th of May of 2014
Fossils key to understanding million year old cyclical phenomena
Analysing palaeontological data helps characterise irregular paleoenvironmental cycles, lasting between less than 1 day and more than millions of years
Francisco J. Rodríguez-Tovar, Professor of Stratigraphy and Paleontology at the University of Granada, is the first Spanish scientist to publish an article in the Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences...
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Wednesday, 12th of March of 2014
Research on the protein gp41 could help towards designing future vaccinations against HIV
Researchers from the University of Granada have discovered, for the first time, an allosteric interaction (that is, a regulation mechanism whereby enzymes can be activated or de-activated) between this protein, which forms part of the sheath of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and an antibody that neutralises the virus
The study has been published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry...
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