Wales Aberystwyth University

Aberystwyth University is rated the best in Wales and one of the top ten higher education institutions in the UK for overall student satisfaction, according to the National Student Survey.

The results show that overall satisfaction among students at Aberystwyth University stands at 92% - that’s six percentage points higher than the UK figure of 86%.

They may have been domesticated 10,000 years ago but the genetic past of Welsh sheep has been uncovered by researchers at Aberystwyth University.

They studied eighteen native breeds and found four distinct groups.

Some breeds, like the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, saw their genetic history mapped back to Scandinavia. They were brought here by the Vikings.

The Llandovery White Face saw its roots traced back to Roman times.

The study even found that one particular breed of sheep, exclusively from the Llyn peninsula in northwest Wales, can trace its genetics back to a single, small flock of sheep in Galway, Ireland from the early 19th century.

Scientists say infections by parasitic flatworms in tropics and sub-tropics cause some of the most debilitating diseases on the planet.

They attack both humans and livestock and with climate change the parasites are extending their range into Europe.

Traditional control methods rely on chemical treatments but a generation has evolved which is resistant to the limited drugs available.

Now an international team of scientists led by Professor Karl Hoffman at Aberystwyth University has been awarded almost £4m to fund a different approach.

The team will produce tools to manipulate the genetic structure of the parasites.

It is hoped new ways will then be found of controlling the diseases.

Glaciologists from Aberystwyth University will fly to Antarctica at the beginning of November to study large lakes forming on the surface of ice shelves.

Professor Bryn Hubbard and Dr David Ashmore from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences’ Centre for Glaciology will be working with collaborators from Swansea University on the Larsen C ice shelf.

Larsen C covers an area two and a half times the size of Wales

It's a long, fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Professor Hubbard and Dr Ashmore will be using hot water to drill up to 150m down into the 200m deep ice shelf to study the many layers of ice that make up Larsen C.

The ice shelf is significant for scientists trying to understand the effects of climate change on Antarctica.

Two other ice shelves in the area, Larsen A and B, have broken up and disappeared since 1995 and scientists have been trying to understand why.

The traditional greeting of a handshake could be responsible for spreading bugs and bacteria, according to a study by Aberystwyth University.

Scientists there carried out research, published today in an American scientific journal, which revealed up to ten times more e-coli can be passed on by a handshake, compared to more modern greetings of a high-five or a fist-bump.

Read: Let's not shake on it - hygiene concerns over traditional greeting

Bumping fists may be a more hygienic greeting than shaking hands, experiments at Aberystwyth University have revealed.

Using rubber gloves and a thick layer of E. coli, scientists at the university exchanged handshakes, high-fives and fist-bumps.

Their results revealed the transfer of potentially disease-causing bacteria is highest during a handshake.

This was reduced by more than half in the high-five, with germ transfer a whopping 90% lower when bumping fists.

Young scientists at the Technocamps Beach Lab in Aberystwyth have been displaying their robotic creations in the town this weekend. The robots were made in after school clubs, using a 3D printer to make the plastic parts needed to build them. Kelsey Redmore reports.

Young scientists in west Wales have been demonstrating their robot building skills to the public this weekend.

The Technocamps Beach Lab in Aberystwyth showcases creations they've made at after-school clubs organised by the local university.

One of their creations is a robot whose body parts can be 'printed' using a 3D printer and is the first full-size adult 'humanoid' in west Wales.

These photographs were taken by a camera launched more than 15 miles up by primary school pupils at Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth.

With the help of experts from Aberystwyth University, they build a capsule and launched it from the playground with a helium balloon on Thursday morning.

The camera photographed Cardigan Bay, the Llyn Peninsula and the south west of England, before the balloon burst.

After a journey lasting 2 hours and 51 minutes, it landed in a field near Llandrindod Wells.

Scientists at Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) are partly developing a so-called 'supergrass' which could help reduce flooding.

The 'supergrass' will enable soil to retain more water and could help prevent some of the devastating flooding seen at the beginning of this year across Wales and the UK.

The new type of grass is being developed as part of a £2.5m project and could be in fields in five years time.