URN

Astronomer and cosmic optician Dr. Simon Dye joins us in the studio to talk about about cosmic lenses - the magnified images of distant galaxies that we wouldn't normally be able to study. Simon studies these rare distant objects and attempts to work out what they look like. By doing this, Simon can study how galaxies formed and evolved in detail not available in unmagnified systems.

To begin our journey into cosmic lenses, we must remind ourselves about that ubiquitous force that is responsible for many a dropped phone - gravity. You can listen to our previous show all about gravity below, or skip to the next paragraph for the condensed version especially for those on the go.

It has recently been announced that New College Nottingham (NCN) is offering a foundation degree in heavy metal. Course convenor, Liam Maloy has set up the degree in response to demands from students. URN spoke to Liam Maloy and he explained what prospective students can expect to get from the degree.

With many students concerned with the debt they are going to rack up from university we asked Liam to inform us of the cost of the degree and what students can hope to receive for their money.

Students have expressed views about the degree and one said “the only people who may take it seriously are people signing heavy metal bands but the nature of music is that you don't need a degree in it to be any better than someone busking on the street so it won't really help them with employability in that respect.” Liam disagrees with this and explains what employability prospects he expects from future graduates.

NCN have not only received criticism from students but from the Campaign for Real Education who has deemed it a ‘waste of time’ and an ‘easy option’.

We are The Science Show and we need to talk about mental health. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and its an important issue that will affect almost all of us in some form or another during our lives. Whilst students have shown ourselves to be more open, honest and frank about many things, including sex and mental health, we still find ourselves silenced by unnecessary stigma attached to these important problems.

Here we will be looking at the more scientific areas of mental health disorders. For more information on the more general aspects, please listen to the show 6-7pm on 13/05/2013 or if you missed it find the podcast here.

Introduction to Neurochemstry
The brain is the most complicated machine on Earth. Leading scientists have been searching for years as to the wonders of the thing that gives us consciousness. Yet even with thousands of scientific publications each year, we seem to still be only scratching the surface of least understood part of the human body.

This year's edition of men's Varsity football was always going to be an intriguing affair. Both Uni and Trent have made names for themselves this season as hard-nosed, defensively minded sides who concentrated first and foremost on keeping clean sheets, there was little evidence that this would be a classic. The key question was which team would come out of their comfort zone and try to attack, and take the game. The answer was Uni, and their decision to twist rather than stick proved to be their undoing.

On Wednesday 8 May, Sutton Bonington Rugby Teams faced an uncertain future.

Following a meeting with AU reps and the Assistant Director of Sport, the removal of the Sutton Bonington rugby team from the British University and College League (BUCS) was deemed likely.

As Nottingham University strive to become one of the top five teams in the League, the men’s and women’s teams were told that the separation of Sutton Bonington and University Park players was unlikely to continue. A proposal was put forth for the two teams to merge and compete together; a suggestion that Sutton Bonington say is unrealistic and impractical.

The rugby teams from the campus have therefore launched a petition to insist that, if they do not compete in the BUCS, they ultimately face a lack of funding and teams to play against. In essence, the teams would cease to exist.

We spoke to some of Sutton Bonington’s rugby players to ask them how long they’ve been fighting to keep their teams going:

Considering that BUCS ranks teams on their merit which the university then use to allocate their funding, we asked the players how well they’re doing in the league: