Departmental news

We were delighted to attend an event at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire last week for the official opening of their new clinical research facility.

Warwick Statistics' academics contributed to The Maths Manifesto launched at The Maths Summit attended by leaders in academia, industry, education & politics.

Dr Ravindra Desai (Centre for Space Fusion and Astrophysics) was part of a team of scientists working with dance artists from The Place* to explore the connections between our sun and Earth in a series of short films.Link opens in a new window

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Modelling of Heterogeneous Systems
(HetSys II), led by Professor James Kermode from the School of
Engineering, Dr Livia Bartok-Partay from Chemistry and Professor
Nicholas Hine from Physics, will train a new generation of scientists
in computational modelling. It spans seven departments and three
university research centres forming a national centre of excellence in
computational simulation, providing world class opportunities in the
West Midlands.

Find out more.Link opens in a new window

The new centre, co-led by Warwick Chemistry's Dr Livia Bartok-Partay, will train 50 PhD students to use computational modelling to tackle pressing global sustainability challenges.

Professor Jacqueline Hodgson provides expert comment on the nuanced aspects of the French criminal justice system depicted in the Oscar-winning film 'Anatomy of a Fall''.

Photo: Neon ©

Morphogen gradients provide essential positional information to gene networks through their spatially heterogeneous distribution, yet how they form is still hotly contested, with multiple models proposed for different systems. Here, we focus on the transcription factor Bicoid (Bcd), a morphogen that forms an exponential gradient across the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of the early Drosophila embryo. Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy we find there are spatial differences in Bcd diffusivity along the AP axis, with Bcd diffusing more rapidly in the posterior. We establish that such spatially varying differences in Bcd dynamics are sufficient to explain how Bcd can have a steep exponential gradient in the anterior half of the embryo and yet still have an observable fraction of Bcd near the posterior pole. In the nucleus, we demonstrate that Bcd dynamics are impacted by binding to DNA. Addition of the Bcd homeodomain to eGFP::NLS qualitatively replicates the Bcd concentration profile, suggesting this domain regulates Bcd dynamics. Our results reveal how a long-range gradient can form while retaining a steep profile through much of its range. Read the paper here.

“Digitally Empowering Young People: The Podcast” is a ground-breaking podcast series hosted by Dr. Roxanne BibizadehLink opens in a new window.

In this inaugural series, we delve into the pressing issue of technology-assisted child sexual abuse material, focusing particularly on the misleading term “self-generated”, which problematically places the blame on the victim. Through this series, we aim to raise awareness and spark vital conversations among educators, parents/carers, law enforcement agencies and professionals working with young people.

Each episode features a distinguished expert voice, offering invaluable insights and perspectives on this critical issue. Contributors include esteemed organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation, Marie Collins Foundation, National Policing Vulnerable Knowledge and Practice Programme, Parent Zone, Kent County Council, and Voice Box.

Our final episode is created especially for young people, providing them with essential information and resources to navigate the digital landscape safely and responsibly.

To listen to our podcast series, visit us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3OANje22oUK5X641ACmxZOLink opens in a new window

For more information about this project and to stay updated on our latest initiatives, please visit our website: www.deyp.orgLink opens in a new window

We’re proud to announce that this project is funded by the ESRC IAA.

There are substantial psychological gains from having a strong welfare state, finds new research done jointly by the University of Warwick and City University. Social spending acts to reduce citizens’ worries about the future.

The report uses data on 280,000 randomly sampled citizens in Western Europe between the years 2005 and 2022. Approximately 40% of citizens in Western Europe now report high levels of worry, and over time there has been a continuing upward trend in ‘national worry’. The proportion of individuals experiencing extreme worry has increased at an underlying rate of 10 percentage points in the West European population over the last decade.

A rising trend in national worry levels was visible in the data, the researchers show, well before COVID, the invasion of Ukraine, and the conflict in Gaza. “In that sense, we find that something foundational, and currently not understood, appears to be going wrong within western society. It is true even beyond Western Europe.” said Lucia Macchia of City University London, one of the two authors. The authors also examined data on the whole OECD.

Her co-author, Andrew Oswald, professor of economics and behavioural science at the University of Warwick, said “This research, on what determines the level of worry within a society, seems to be the first of its kind. One finding is that social spending by a government apparently acts as a protective mental buffer against worry. Social spending reduces people’s fears. The welfare state appears to have remarkable psychological value -- including for those who do not use it -- in a way that I suspect is not completely understood, although I am prepared to bet that William Beveridge understood it.”

The authors show that of all the OECD nations the United Kingdom had the fastest growth in worry levels between 2010 and 2019 (before the special COVID years in which data comparisons become less reliable). Costa Rica had the next-highest growth in worry.

The UK had the strongest decline in social spending across the European nations studied by the authors, and one of the strongest in the OECD. All social spending levels in the authors’ report were calculated relative to GDP.

• NATIONAL WORRY AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VALUE OF THE WELFARE STATE is available as pdf by request and downloadable at www.andrewoswald.com and www.luciamacchia.com