news 2021

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid's (UC3M) Displays and Photonic Applications Research Group has developed a measuring instrument that can be used to study the increase in temperature during volcanic eruptions. This research allows the first measurements of temperature to be taken in situ using a machine in the laboratory that simulates these volcanic processes.

The first settlers in the Azores Islands arrived seven hundred years ago before the first Portuguese arrived there in the 15th century as stated in the official historiography. This is one of the main conclusions of a study carried out by an international and multidisciplinary team in which the experts Alberto Sáez and Olga Margalef, from the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics of the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the UB, -have taken part.

A study published in the journal Geology rules out that extreme volcanic episodes or peaks in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit around the sun had any influence on the massive extinction of species in the late Cretaceous. The results confirm the hypothesis that it was a giant meteorite impact what caused the great biological crisis that ended up with the dinosaur lineages and other marine and terrestrial organisms 66 million years ago.

A study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals the genetic structure of the land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and it provides new scientific tools for the improvement of the conservation of this endemic and threatened species in Catalonia. This land mollusc, identified in the late 19th century in the Montserrat mountain, has a reduced geographical distribution limited to the province of Barcelona, and it is a protected species in the area of the natural parks of Montserrat and Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac.

A study published in the International Journal of Climatology , in which several researchers of the UB participated, analysed for the first time the recent evolution of snow at high levels in the Catalan Pyrenees. The study shows that over the last twenty years, at more than 2,000 meters high, the snow has not decreased but there has been an increase of snow-shape rain during the winter.

Finding the signature of past climate transitions in the Mediterranean using the analysis of innovative geochemical tracers -specifically, isotopes of neodymium and rare-earth distributionis the objective of the oceanographic campaign TRANSMOW, led by the experts Leopoldo Pena and Jaime Frigola, members of the consolidated Research Group on Marine Geosciences of the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the UB.

Researchers of the University of Barcelona, together with researchers from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and Brown University (United States), have analysed more than 10,000 evaluations that were carried out to candidates who wish to hold a public teaching permanent in Catalonia. The objective was to study how the decision by the committee of evaluators is affected by the fact that each candidate holds a certain position in the lists of people to be assessed.

The image of a gorilla beating its chest is one of the most iconic images related to the behaviour of these primates. However, despite being one of the most emblematic sounds in the animal kingdom, the well-known chest beats have received little attention from the scientific community. A research team in which Jordi Galbany, expert from the Faculty of Psychology of the UB, takes part, has found a correlation between the body size of gorillas and the sound frequency of the typical chest beats.