Sixty Second Spotlight University of South Wales

Dr Emily Underwood-Lee explores the way that stories can help us look out through the eyes of another and the impact this can have on policy and services.

Find out more: southwales.ac.uk/research



Hello and welcome to Sixty Second Spotlight. I’m Emily Underwood-Lee, Research Fellow at the University of South Wales.  My research explores how we tell and listen to personal stories.

Stories are a key to understanding.  They help us see how we got to the place we are now and why that matters on a human level.  They help us to imagine the kind of future we might want to have.  By listening to the stories of others we can understand what it means to be in their position and we can build empathy and understanding.

When policy makers, service providers and others listen to the stories of the people they serve they are able to improve their provision and better meet the needs of their communities.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way many of us relate to the world around us.  We are separated from some through social distancing while also making new connections as communities come together in mutual aid or as key workers show extraordinary levels of care.

Many health boards and organisations are turning to stories. They are collecting the stories of people living at the front line of the Covid pandemic and the stories of our communities as history is made.

One area that I focus on is storytelling within healthcare, for example in my collaborative work on the Storytelling for Health Conference with Swansea Bay Health Board and the associated publications, and the recent work I have been doing at Great Ormund Street Hospital exploring how the arts can help parents of children in hospital care.

The sociologist Arthur W Frank famously described illness as a ‘call for stories’.  Perhaps a global pandemic calls for stories on an unprecedented scale.

Molecular microbiologist Dr Emma Hayhurst explores how Covid-19 is accelerating the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

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The recent Covid-19 pandemic has (rightly) made us all much more aware of the risks of picking up infection. Hand sanitisers are selling out, and people are more wary than ever about touching contaminated surfaces or breathing in contaminated air.

In the midst of a global pandemic, this behaviour is useful to try to slow the spread of infection. But what about the longer term consequences, when Covid is gone?  I have spent a career trying to combat ‘germaphobia’ and as a mum to two young children, I am the first to allow my children to ‘eat a bit of dirt’. We humans do not need to live in sterile environments, and indeed we should not. Exposure to some germs helps us build a health immune system.

The negative impacts of germaphobia are many. One is an increase in the use of plastic packaging (reversing a hard-fought campaign to reduce it – I noticed on my last food shop that all of the broccoli is now individually wrapped). Another is an increase in the use of household cleaning products and the negative impacts on the environment this will have. The psychological impact may be far reaching, too. Young kids taught not to cuddle in case they pass on the virus may be a lesson which proves difficult to forget.

Another big concern is the impact of this pandemic on levels of antibiotic resistance. Infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria are much harder to treat and, before the Covid pandemic, dealing with antibiotic resistance was a major global health priority. My research focuses on this very issue - understanding the reasons behind the increase in antibiotic resistance that we have seen in recent decades.

We know that many things associated with the Covid pandemic are likely to make the situation with antibiotic resistance worse – from the ‘worried well’ taking more antibiotics through to the increased use of cleaning products which can also drive an increase in antibiotic resistance.

So here I am, in support of our germ-y friends. Covid is a sobering reminder of the power of microbes to disrupt our lives. But we can’t banish them – they are everywhere, and we need them. They are part of what makes us human. So, when this is over - let’s cautiously welcome them back.

Biotechnologist Professor Denis Murphy asks can and should we do without palm oil?

Palm oil is found in about half of all food products but has also been implicated in environmental destruction and loss of biodiversity in the tropics where it is grown. Are there alternative crops we can use or is it possible to reform the palm oil industry to make it more sustainable?

Denis Murphy has worked on oil crops for over 30 years and is looking at ways to either improve or replace palm oil cultivation.



Hello and welcome to Sixty Second Spotlight. I’m Professor Denis Murphy, a biotechnologist at the University of South Wales. My research focuses on using genetic technologies to improve agriculture to cope with new diseases, environmental destruction and climate change.

It is estimated that has much as half of the items in a typical supermarket contain palm oil.

Palm oil is a key ingredient that is found in many foods including biscuits, ready meals, cakes, chocolate and ice cream. It’s also found in products like detergents, shampoos, cosmetics and toothpaste.

But the plantations that produce palm oil are also having adverse effects on the environment and especially on wildlife. Sometimes tropical rain forests are cut down to make room for plantations and animals such as orangutan are endangered.

So should we just stop using palm oil?

The problem with that approach is that palm oil is by far the most efficient vegetable oil in terms of its yield.

So if we replaced it with other oils we would actually need to use even more land and the environmental effects would be even worse.

The best option is to work with the palm growers so they only use non-forest land for their crops and stick to strict environmental guidelines.

We are now working with partners to develop ‘certified sustainable’ palm oil brands so that hopefully the next time you buy one of these products it will have come from an environmentally friendly source.

Forensic geologist Dr Duncan Pirrie explains explains why we need to explore for new mineral deposits if we are going to achieve our ambitions for the use of electric vehicles.

Find out more: southwales.ac.uk/research



Hello and welcome to Sixty Second Spotlight. I’m Associate Professor Duncan Pirrie, a geologist at the University of South Wales. My research focuses on how minerals help society.

Before our news became dominated by the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a lot of media coverage of the importance of climate change and how we can reduce our impact by switching from fossil fuels.

One aspect of a low carbon future is the use of electric vehicles and governments across the world have ambitious targets for these vehicles of the future.

What is less commonly discussed is that all of the existing battery technologies need raw materials – and these come from mining minerals for elements like carbon, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Let’s take cobalt as an example.  This element is rare and only naturally occurs in a few minerals.  Most cobalt today comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but future demand will completely outstrip supply.

So, if we are to have the planned electric vehicle revolution we need to find new cobalt mineral deposits and fast – from starting exploration to opening a large mine can easily take 10 years.

So the hunt is on.  In December 2019 I met to discuss research with Mawson Resources in Lapland, where they are exploring a potentially huge gold and cobalt deposit.

Finland also has other nickel, carbon and lithium deposits, which makes it Europe’s future leader for battery mineral production. Only time will tell if we can find the raw materials needed and that exploration needs the geology and engineering graduates of the future.

Biological anthropologist Dr Tracie McKinney talks about the importance of research on wildlife living in human-altered environments.

Find out more: southwales.ac.uk/research



Hello and welcome to Sixty Second Spotlight. I’m Dr Tracie McKinney, a biological anthropologist at the University of South Wales. My research focuses on primates like monkeys, apes, and lemurs, and how these animals interact with humans and human-altered landscapes.

It’s really common for people to view “humans” and “nature” as two completely separate things.  We often use the phrase “human disturbance”, for example, and traditionally field scientists avoided studying animals that were considered “disturbed”, in favour of animals living in pristine forest.

There are two problems with this view. First, it’s almost impossible to find landscapes and wildlife that have not been influenced in some way by human actions. Whether that’s through deforestation, loss of top predators in the ecosystem, or even global influences like climate change, we humans have a tendency to leave our mark.

Second, humans are a part of nature. We are not some supernatural creature exempt from the rules of ecology; we are part of these animals’ communities. Therefore, animals will respond to humans in the same way they would to any other member of the community – as predators, as competitors, or as potential sources of food.

So, let’s not throw people out of the equation. We are part of nature, just like everything else.

As a primatologist, I am fascinated by the many primate species which have shared space with human populations for centuries. These relationships are important, and can tell us so much about the adaptability and ecological roles of both humans and other primates.

Good communication is essential to good healthcare. In this research podcast, learning disability nurse Professor Ruth Northway explores how communication tools can improve access to appropriate healthcare for people with learning disabilities.

Find out more: southwales.ac.uk/research



Hello and welcome to Sixty Second Spotlight. I’m Ruth Northway, Professor of Learning Disability Nursing at the University of South Wales. My research focuses on the health and well-being of people with learning disabilities and ways to improve their access to healthcare.

Over recent weeks Covid-19 has caused many of us to worry about our health and whether we can get access to healthcare when we need it. However, concerns regarding access to healthcare are unfortunately everyday experiences for people with learning disabilities and their families.

Research undertaken at the University of South Wales has highlighted that a key barrier to access can be communication.

Our healthcare system relies on our ability to provide health staff with information about our current health concerns and our health history in a way they can easily understand. This can be challenging for people with learning disabilities some of whom may communicate non-verbally or have difficulties with recalling and processing information. They may require the support of family or carers to ensure that this information is available but Covid-19 has made it more difficult for such support to be provided.

One way of overcoming this problem is the use of communication tools to provide key information about an individual.

Recently we have been undertaking research commissioned by Improvement Cymru at Public Health Wales to develop an All Wales tool providing key health information for use by healthcare professionals to assist them in providing appropriate, safe and timely care. Covid-19 has shown just how important such tools are.