看有没有假:英国大学过去50年100项改变世界的重大发现



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送交者: insight 于 2006-7-10, 19:50:18:

100 UK university discoveries

EurekaUK is a new report from Universities UK showcasing 50 years of research in UK universities. Here is its top 100 world-changing discoveries, innovations and research projects to come out of the UK universities in the last 50 years

Wednesday July 5, 2006

Section one: Healthy babies and birth control

Producing the contraceptive pill
In 1961 Herchel Smith, a researcher at the University of Manchester, developed an inexpensive way of producing chemicals that stop women ovulating during their monthly menstrual cycle.

The first test tube baby
Cambridge University embryologist, Robert Edwards and his colleague Patrick Steptoe, were the first to develop the IVF technique, to enable infertile women to have babies.

Modern infertility treatment
Medical scientists, led by Robert Winston at Imperial College London, have developed a number of tests that enable doctors to select newly created embryos that do not contain the genetic abnormalities.

Scans during pregnancy: seeing babies through sound
Ian Donald invented the use of ultrasound for unborn babies at the University of Glasgow 40 years ago.

Babies should sleep on their backs
Peter Fleming and Jem Berry at Bristol University uncovered a link between the sleeping position of babies and unexplained deaths (Sids).

Spina bifida and folic acid
In 1974, Nicholas Wald, then at Oxford University, discovered a way of predicting whether babies are likely to have debilitating paralysing conditions, such as spina bifida and anencephaly (where the brain is small, or missing altogether).

Smoking harms babies
During the 1970s Harvey Goldstein and Neville Butler, then based at the National Children's Bureau in London, studied 17,000 babies born in 1958 and discovered that babies with mothers who smoked were lower in weight by an average of 200g than other babies.

Section two. Healthier and longer lives

Ultrasound to detect weakened bones
In the 1980s Chris Langton at Hull University was the first to develop an early detection system for osteoporosis utilising "ultrasonic" waves.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
In 1976 Peter Mansfield at Nottingham University was the first to publish a successful MRI scan of a living human body part - a finger.

Using light emitting chemicals to detect disease
Scientists have exploited a phenomenon called "chemiluminescence" - where chemicals emit light during reactions - to develop faster and more accurate tests for allergies, anaemia, cancer and HIV.

Seeing the light: inside the human body: keyhole surgery and the endoscope
Harold Hopkins showed in 1954 how a bundle of tiny pin-like glass fibres allowed light and images to be transmitted along them even when they were curved- fibre optics.

Pace of change; patient-controlled pacemakers
Leon Abrams and Ray Lightwood at the University of Birmingham developed and implanted the first patient-controlled variable rate pacemaker.

Fluoride and tooth decay
Neil Jenkins, Andrew Rugg-Gunn and John Murray, based at Newcastle University, found that higher levels of fluoride in water were linked to fewer incidents of tooth decay among children.

The Holy Grail of hip surgeons
In 1961, John Charnley perxxxxed the first operations to replace whole hips at Wrightington hospital in Wigan.

The portable defibrillator: saving lives wherever
The portable defibrillator, developed in the early 1970s by Frank Pantridge at Queen's University Belfast, has saved thousands of lives.

The needle-free injection
In 1993 Brian Bellhouse at Oxford University invented a way of giving vaccinations and other treatments without a needle.

Smoking damages your health
Austin Bradford Hill and Richard Doll published a study that found that 0.5% of men with lung cancer were life-long non-smokers compared with 5% of men of the same ages in the general population.

Combating a world killer: the Hepatitis B vaccine
Ken Murray's search for a vaccine for Hepatitis B was prompted following a 1969 outbreak in Edinburgh that claimed 11 lives.

Eradicating the Tsetse fly
Scientists from the University of Greenwich have been working to eradicate the Tsetse fly from Africa through the use of a novel artificial cow.

Section three: Medicine under the microscope

Revealing the recipe of life
James Watson and the late Francis Crick unveiled the double helix structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA on February 28, 1953.

How proteins work
Max Perutz pioneered the study of how proteins, the essential constituents of all living beings, work, illuminating for the first time their complex molecular structures.

The building blocks of insulin
In the 1950s, at the University of Cambridge, Fred Sanger revealed the exact order of the 51 basic building blocks, or amino acids, that make up the insulin molecule.

The body's feel-good hormone
In 1975 Hans Kosterlitz and John Hughes at Aberdeen University were the first to show that the body produces endorphins naturally.

Uncovering the body's defence mechanisms
In 1967 Rodney Porter at Oxford University helped to uncover the secret to the body's defence mechanisms.

Genetic fingerprinting
In 1985 Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester developed a reliable way to detect differences in the DNA of individuals - a technique now known as genetic fingerprinting.

Cancer and cell division
In 1987 Paul Nurse and Tim Hunt at Cancer Research UK were the first to identify the key genes that govern and regulate the cell cycle and cell division, which paved the way for progress in treating cancer.

Dolly the sheep- the first cloned adult animal
Ian Wilmut, a scientist at the Roslin Institute (an associated institute of the University of Edinburgh) introduced the world to Dolly the sheep, the world's first animal cloned from a cell taken from an adult animal, in 1997.

Stem cells
Martin Evans' early research at Cambridge University led to his discovery of embryonic stem cells - cells so early in their development that they have the potential to grow into the different cells that make up the human body.

Section four: Discoveries for the digital age

Fibre optics: lighting up the world
In the 1950s the "founding father of fibre optics" Narinder Kapany and Harold Hopkins at Imperial College London demonstrated that light could bend, given the right encouragement.

Generating inxxxxation for CDs, DVDs and the internet
The internet, CDs and DVDs have all been made possible through a technology called strained quantum-well lasers, first proposed by Alf Adams at Surrey University. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
George Gray and his colleagues at Hull University first created the first stable liquid crystals for use in LCDs.

Holograms
Dennis Gabor at Imperial College London, invented the method of producing holograms.

Manchester: birth of the first working computer
Two University of Manchester scientists, Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn, are credited with running the world's first stored program computer.

The scanning electron microscope
The scanning electron microscope allows researchers to peek inside materials, right down to the level of their most basic building blocks, atoms, and by so doing, to design materials that have the right properties to fit many different purposes.

3D modelling by hand
"ModelMaker" is the world's first hand held 3D laser scanner that can accurately and quickly scan physical objects to make colour three-dimensional computer models.

Using technology to assist disabled people
Robotic Caterpillar developed by scientists at Staffordshire University allows people to perxxxx basic day-to-day tasks by themselves.

Glass, photocopiers and solar panels
Nevill Mott researched into how materials conduct electricity and absorb light.

Microscopic footballs
Harry Kroto at Sussex University, and his US collaborators, revealed that carbon can exist as tiny spherical molecules, now known as fullerenes or buckyballs.

Section five: Planes, trains and automobiles

Improving engineering design
The design and engineering of vehicles and buildings has been revolutionised by a technique called "finite element analysis", which was developed in part by UK academics.

Motorway signs: the corporate identity of Britain
The unique road signs that we see in the UK are all thanks to the work of Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert at the Royal College of Art.

Seeing atomic scale defects in metals
In 1956 Peter Hirsch and his collaborators at Oxford University observed for the first time the motion of tiny dislocations in the atomic structure of metals.

The birth of "aeroacoustics"
James Lighthill at the University of Manchester was the first to understand how to minimise sound created in jet engines.

Magnetically levitated trains
In the 1950s Eric Laithwaite at Imperial College London designed the world's first magnetically levitating train.

Microcab
Researchers from Coventry University have developed technology that does not give rise to harmful fumes generated by traditional petrol powered engines.

Computerised train schedules
British Rail introduced the world's first computerised train schedule in 1963 - designed by Tony Wren at the University of Leeds.

Survival in plane accidents
Aircraft interiors and flight procedures are designed differently today thanks to the work of Helen Muir, at Cranfield University.

Cooling the tube
Academics at London South Bank University have been working to develop a revolutionary cooling system for the underground utilising one of the capital's natural resources - rising underground water.

Road bridges
Researchers at the University of Teesside and the universities of Sheffield and Liverpool have been developing new techniques to reduce accidents by cars crashing through road bridges.

Sirens using directional sound
Deborah Withington's "localiser" siren, developed at the University of Leeds in 1994, uses directional sound.

Section six: Ideas for ideals

Helping the poor
During the 1970s Richard Morris Titmuss at the London School of Economics and Political Science meanwhile found that poverty, not family circumstances, were behind the behavioural problems and learning difficulties in children from one-parent families.

The causes of poverty in the developing world
Arthur Lewis, at the London School of Economics and at the University of Manchester, led economists to study how relations between local agriculture and modern markets combined to create poverty.

International accounts
Richard Stone during the 1950s at Cambridge University, created the methods needed to produce national accounts.

People do not suffer in famines because of food shortages
In the 1980s, while at Oxford University, Amartya Sen was the first to conclude that people suffer in famines not because of food shortages, but because they lack the resources or other entitlements that are needed to obtain food.

Slavery today
Kevin Bales' work at the University of Roehampton identified that there are 27 million slaves in the world today.

Language and learning
In the 1960s and 1970s, Basil Bernstein, at the Institute of Education, University of London, showed how the design, organisation and control of school lessons should be tailored to suit particular children.

Optimal taxation in an uncertain world
In work begun in 1967, and continued at Oxford University from 1968, James Mirrlees found methods for analysing and calculating incentive systems when the behaviour to be affected cannot be directly observed.

Improving the effectiveness of schools
In 1979 Michael Rutter and fellow researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London showed that schools in poverty-ridden areas could be successful and revealed the secrets of their success.

Pensions and old age
Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend from the London School of Economics and Political Science made the case for wage-related state pensions, changing the course of legislation in the UK such as the Pensions Act of 1959.

The nature of law
The work of Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, one of the most important legal philosophers of the 20th century, changed the way that lawyers understand their world and their work. Hart argued that law and morality are independent but interconnected.

Empowering the nations and regions
Constitutional rexxxxs in Scotland and Wales were greatly facilitated the groundwork of Robert Hazell and his team of researchers in the Constitution Unit at University College London.

Voting trends and election swings
The idea of election swing is an academic concept - created by David Butler of the University of Oxford and other researchers. Using the notion of swing it is much easier to understand why elections turn out the way they do.

Section seven: Understanding ourselves

The Third Way
Anthony Giddens, xxxxer director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, argued that new political solutions were needed to respond to the modern globalised and constantly changing world we now inhabit.

War crimes
Alan John Percivale (A.J.P.) Taylor's seminal work, Origins of the Second World War (published in 1961), changed our perceptions of the war for ever.

War and peace
Michael Howard, who 40 years ago became the country's first professor of war studies at King's College London, continues to analyse the factors behind the latest wars around the world, asking whether peace will ever be possible.

Sage of the ages
Eric Hobsbawm, now professor emeritus at Birkbeck College, London, has charted the complex patterns and mechanisms that transxxxxed the world during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Cracking the ancient code
Michael Ventris and John Chadwick had conquered what came to be known as "the Everest of Greek archaeology".

Understanding the Celts
Miranda Aldhouse-Green's work at the University of Wales, Newport has helped us understand the Celts to a much greater extent.

Shaping politics and debunking science
One of the great philosophers of the 20th century, Karl Popper helped to shape British politics in the 1980s and also changed our views of how science develops.

Literal truths
Richard Hoggart's 1957 work of literary sociology, The Uses of Literacy, stands as a pioneering study of what had been achieved, since the Universal Education Act of 1870, and the Butler Education Act of 1944, for the working classes of Britain.

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru
In December 2001 the first standard historical Welsh dictionary, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, was complete.

Pevsner architectural guides
Created by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, the guides were the first authoritative source of inxxxxation on the architectural sites that populate the country, from ancient cathedrals, great country houses and their parks to Victorian public buildings and industrial monuments.

Section eight: Understanding our environment

Gaia: Earth as a living organism
It was while studying the atmosphere on the planet Mars, that James Lovelock developed a new revolutionary way of thinking about the Earth. The "Gaia hypothesis" - the idea of the earth as a self-regulating living organism -- transxxxxed public attitudes towards the environment.

Detecting CFCs in the atmosphere
James Lovelock discovered the electron capture detector in 1957 because of nuisance signals from a detector designed for someone else's scientific problem.

Seafloor spreading and plate tectonics
In 1963, two British marine geologists discovered huge matching magnetic 'stripes' in the rocks by ocean ridges.

Understanding global warming
The pioneering climatologist Hubert Lamb was instrumental in establishing the study of climate change as a serious research subject.

Lasting impact of flooding
Researchers at the University of Middlesex show that the immediate impact of flooding is just the start of the problems - with long term physical and psychological impacts.

Section nine: Space exploration

We are all made of stardust
In 1957 Fred Hoyle and three fellow scientists at Cambridge University proposed a startling theory: the elements were created in the oldest chemical factories in the universe: stars.

The discovery of Pulsars
In 1965 postgraduate student Jocelyn Bell joined Anthony Hewish in the astronomy department of Cambridge University to look for quasars, certain types of galaxies.

Big bangs and singularities
Stephen Hawking as a graduate student at Cambridge University, working with the theoretical physicist, Roger Penrose at Oxford University in the 1960's proved that singularities exist.

Black holes are common in space
Research by Ken Pounds and his team at Leicester University helped to provide the best evidence so far that black holes are common in the universe.

Seeing a postage stamp on the moon
Martin Ryle, an astronomer at Cambridge University, knew that the development of more powerful telescopes would hold the key to many unanswered space questions.

Sensing the weather
In the 1970s Fred Taylor at the University of Oxford pioneered a technique that would be applied across the entire solar system called infrared remote sensing.

Low-cost satellites
Thanks to Martin Sweeting and fellow academics at the University of Surrey, low-cost satellites now exist to provide the crucial links for disaster relief all over the world.




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