FROM tracing the ancestry of domestic dogs, to investigating the impact of climate change on Antarctica, Durham’s pioneering researchers have certainly had a fruitful 2022.

The university started the year with the news that a telescopic instrument designed with the help of its Physics department is being used to help produce the most detailed 3-D map of the Universe ever.

Once complete, the map created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will give scientists a better understanding of dark energy – the mysterious substance that accounts for 70 per cent of the content of the Universe.

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Meanwhile, Durham’s Music Department researchers were busy investigating how emotions can be conveyed through music.

They created an interactive computer interface called ‘EmoteControl’, allowing users to control six cues – tempo, pitch, articulation, dynamics, brightness, and mode – to reflect specific emotions through music.

From music to mites, the university announced in March that researchers in Biosciences were working on a new drug based on a protein found in tick saliva that could ease chronic pain and itching in humans.

The research, involving Newcastle University and pharmaceutical company Akari Therapeutics Plc, could lead to a replacement for potentially addictive opioid painkillers.

Spring brought research from Durham’s Geography department into the potential impact of recent climate change on Antarctica.

Researchers used over 2,000 satellite images from a seven-year period (2014-2020) to study the size and volume of meltwater lakes forming on top of the ice sheet – the first time that a year-on-year comparison of these lakes has been undertaken.

Back at Durham’s highly-rated Biosciences department, experts working with international partners discovered that flowering time in chickpeas is influenced by one to three major genes.

Their pioneering research is providing new insights to improve chickpea farming and has already generated locally-adapted varieties to support agriculture in Turkey and Syria.

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Summer 2022 also saw Durham University’s archaeologists bring us a step closer to understanding where humans first domesticated dogs.

Researchers joined academics from 38 global institutions to analyse ancient wolf genomes.

They discovered that the ancestry of dogs can be traced to at least two populations of ancient wolves; an eastern source that contributed to all dogs and a more westerly source that contributed to some.