Issue 469, 24 September 2001

Main news stories

• Birth of a new era as two become one
  The University embarks on a new era this week, with up to 30,000 students due to register for courses at the University's three campuses in Leeds, Wakefield and West Bretton. We now have over 22,000 full-time students - more than any other UK university - and are currently set to become the country's largest higher education institution within four years.
• VC heads honours roll-call
  Accolades were heaped on University members over the summer, most notably in the Queen's birthday honours list, where the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Alan Wilson, received a knighthood for services to higher education.
• Eight arms make for better impersonations
  Researchers have discovered one of the most striking examples of mimicry in the animal world: an octopus which scares off predators by changing its appearance selectively to resemble poisonous animals.
• Winning hearts and minds
  Official reports are rarely effusive, but when the University Library won its Investors in People (IiP) award, the assessor hardly knew where to start, the triumphs and achievements were so many.
• Lost forests and ancient flowers yield clues to climate change
  Locked under the frozen wastes of the Antarctic are the fossilised remains of tropical forests, which flourished over fifty million years ago but were lost when the Earth's climate cooled and the polar ice caps were formed. From huge fossilised trunks to tiny specks of charcoal, scientists from Leeds are studying the remains of this ancient habitat. They believe that knowledge of ancient climate changes will bring understanding of the processes of global warming which are now melting the ice and snow of the Antarctic region.
• Study gives green light to road charging
  Most road users and rail passengers are not paying enough for their travel, according to a University study commissioned by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.

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