The Middle East is the topic of a talk in Bristol next month by a prominent author and journalist.

Science Alive! at The Mall Galleries, Broadmead on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 March

A Mechanical Engineering graduate collected an Academy Award last month for his company’s effects work on the Philip Pullman adaptation The Golden Compass.

Paul Manners has been appointed Director of the new National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), which is funded by HEFCE, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Wellcome Trust. The Centre is aimed at improving links and dialogue between universities and the public.

The University is launching a new half-day training programme for staff on cultural awareness.

The Parkinson’s Disease Society (PD) has announced funding of £170k to the University of Bristol for research into how to make stem cells produce dopamine and live longer after they have been transplanted into animals.

In research published today in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, The Open University Professor of Earth Sciences Bob Spicer casts doubt on our ability to accurately predict future climate changes because we simply don't know enough about the past. The paper was co-authored by Paul Valdes, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Bristol and colleagues in Leeds, Sweden, Russia and Austria.

A coffee producer with the fairtrade Soppexxa Coffee Cooperative in Jinotega, Nicaragua, is to visit the University next week as part of national Fairtrade Fortnight.

Complex interventions such as preventive home visits and community-based care after hospital discharge can help improve physical function and maintain independent living in older people, according to a Bristol University study of more than 90,000 older people published in this week’s edition of the Lancet. The authors also advise against withdrawal of existing well-developed services for older people.

The University’s Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health is holding a Wellness Day for disadvantaged jobseekers on Monday 25 February in conjunction with Business in the Community’s (BiTC) Business Action on Homelessness Programme.

A special thanksgiving event for friends and relatives of those who have donated their bodies to medical science will be held by the University of Bristol on Wednesday 27 February.

Four Bristol students are to take part in this year’s World University Rowing Championships, and another has been chosen for the England Saxons rugby squad.