In the news: April 19 to May 2

Here’s a round-up of University stories covered by the media over the last two weeks.

Professor Margaret Bates, Professor of Sustainable Wastes Management, and postgraduate researcher, Rebecca Colley Jones, appeared on BBC 1’s Breakfast programme on Wednesday. They were giving their opinions on supermarkets’ shopping bags – and it’s not as straightforward as you might think (item starts at 2h 19m).

Professor Bates could also be found talking about Britain’s food waste problem in Yahoo News, Metro, Daily Mail, Brinkwire and The Amed Post.

Margaret was also on BBC Radio 5Live on April 23, when she chatted to Nicky Campbell about reusable nappies (starts 8m).

And on Easter Sunday, Margaret was on Talk Radio talking about Easter egg packaging (scroll to 11.40am).

Dr Paul Jackson spoke to Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish daily newspaper, about the extreme right and the tactics they use to take advantage of national incidents for their own gains.

Translation of Paul’s comments: The extreme right is good at taking advantage of what is happening and using it to its advantage says Paul Jackson, an expert on the extreme right and associate professor of history at Northampton University. The extreme right has also previously been in the lime light when there has been a crisis situation in Westminster, when the empire collapsed, when Britain’s relationship with Europe was discussed in the 70’s and so on. According to Paul Jackson, the risk that extreme right-wing organizations would carry out terrorist attacks is not that high, but they can inspire lone wolf attacks. It is tenser because of Brexit and this increases the risk of an attack. During the campaign for the Brexit vote, Labour politician Joe cox was murdered by a man who was inspired by the extreme right, while at the same time the risk of hate crime and xenophobia increased.

The Daily Telegraph’s Business Reporter website features a video interview with our Vice Chancellor, Professor Nick Petford, and Rachel Garwood and Tony Covington from our Institute for Creative Leather Technologies. They explain how the UK leather industry needs to adapt if it is to maintain its reputation for innovation and excellence.

East Midlands Business Link and the Chronicle & Echo covered our story about £5,000 grants being offered to county businesses.

Professor Richard Rose shared his thoughts on why education is for life, not just for employment prospects with the Guardian.

Podiatry students were on hand at the London Marathon, providing support to runners. Students have done this for the past 25 years and Gurleen Suri spoke to BBC Radio Northampton about the help she and her peers gave on the day. She was heard throughout the Breakfast Show on Monday 29 April, starting 4 minutes in.

Brett Baxter, Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Faculty of Healthy and Society, spoke to BBC Radio Northampton’s Helen Blaby about his research into reducing the likelihood of falls in older people.

The University’s resident animal expert, Dr Wanda McCormick, spoke to BBC Radio Essex about reasons for the rise in referrals to the RSPCA of exotic pets.

Will McIlhiney won the award for Mental Health Nursing Student of the Year at the national Student Nursing Times Award last week, as reported in the publication.

The Chronicle and Echo report on research – led by University of Northampton’s Dr Jamal Nasir – that has unlocked more information about how human cells ‘eat’ themselves. It is hoped the findings will help inform future treatments into a variety of medical conditions including cancer.

Donna Bray, Subject Lead for Nursing, was quoted in the Nursing Standard about the recent Florence Network Conference co-hosted by University of Northampton and Coventry University (article is behind a pay-wall).

Senior Lecturer in Psychology Dr Graham Smith spoke on BBC Radio Northampton to explain about how our brains make thoughts.