Hitting the headlines - the University in the media
Friday, 12 July 2013
Lionel Smith appeared on BBC News talking about his grass-free lawn
Since our last update in April, colleagues from across the University have continued to raise the University's profile through the national media. Here are some of the highlights...
Worm poo's window into past climate
A study by Geography and Environmental Sciences researchers shows earthworms allow scientists to piece together the prevailing weather conditions thousands of years ago. The story was featured nationally, including by the BBC and Daily Mail, and internationally - Times of India.
Greener, prettier and more biodiverse: grass-free gardens for the next Millawnium
Biological Sciences PhD researcher Lionel Smith scooped a Silver Flora Award at this year's Chelsea Flower Show for his innovative grass-free lawn. This was picked up widely including by the Telegraph and BBC News (video).
Meteorology experts give interviews to national media in the aftermath of the Oklahoma Tornado
Between them Dr Andrew Barrett, Dr Sue Gray, Dr Peter Inness, Rob Warren and Ross Reynolds appear on all national TV news programmes including BBC 6 and 10 o'clock news, Sky and ITN.
Our experts were also quoted widely in the national media including the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.
Not much climate change doubt, science says
Mark Richardson, also from Meteorology, who co-authored a paper saying 97% of scientists agree on climate change, was quoted in a number of international news sources, including in US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and Singapore in May. Mark is a post-grad researcher who carried out the work on this paper in his spare time while on a fieldwork assignment in the Arctic.
How much cow is in a beef stock cube?
Director of the Flavour Centre, Dr Jane Parker, featured in an episode of Channel 4's Food Unwrapped (13mins 16secs in) last week, talking about what is actually in beef stock cubes.
400 year old Rubens sketch discovered at Uni
A sketch by renowned artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens has been discovered in the University's Department of Art. Just 10.8cm x 8.9cm in size, the drawing is valued at £75,000 and shows a profile view of the head of Marie de Médicis, Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France. The news was covered widely in the national and international media including the Guardian, Daily Mail and the Huffington Post
Coronavirus outbreak
Virology experts Dr Ben Neuman and Professor Ian Jones provided extensive comment to publications around the world on the latest coronavirus outbreak earlier this month, including BBC World Service.
Greatest manuscript of 20th century added to Beckett Collection
The University's purchase of an original Samuel Beckett manuscript was picked up by the world's media earlier this week: Guardian, Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, BBC Online, BBC Radio 4 PM, BBC South Today and international media including Reuters, Malaysian Insider, Asian Age (India), Global Post (US), New York Daily News, Times of Malta, to name but a few.
Dr Mark Nixon, Director of the Beckett International Foundation at the University, was interviewed by BBC South Today in the Special Collections store of MERL about the value of the Beckett purchase as ‘an investment in the humanities' for students and researchers. ‘That's what universities do', he said.
Professor Mark Pagel has Got News For You
Have I Got A Bit More News For You, the extended version of Have I Got News For You on BBC One, featured research by the University of Reading's Professor Mark Pagel in May. The teams, including regulars Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, were played a selection of clips of words that Professor Pagel's research found could be as old as the Ice Age.
Professor Pagel's work was covered widely in the national and international media including the Guardian, Washington Post and Sky News Australia.
Time Team Special - Britain's Stone Age Tsunami
In this special episode on Channel 4, Tony Robinson revealed new evidence that shows how, 8000 years ago, a huge tsunami swamped the east coast of Britain. Professor Martin Bell, Head of the Department of Archaeology, appears from 41mins and 30secs discussing the extraordinary evidence found at a threatened archaeological site on the Severn Estuary that shows that Stone Age people were more than just hunters.
Working with the media can be a great way to help raise yours and the University's profile, so please get in touch with the Press Office if you would like to know more about how we can help publicise your work - email media@reading.ac.uk or visit the Press Office website. Also, if you have organised media appearances yourself, the team would love to hear about it.