Latest news with #Loughborough
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Emily Scarratt 'priceless' to England, says former captain Sarah Hunter
Emily Scarratt will be a 'priceless' member of England's 2025 Rugby World Cup squad, says former Red Roses captain Sarah Hunter. The Loughborough Lightning centre is set to be selected for a record fifth World Cup, and is the leading points scorer in women's rugby. Leicester-born Scarratt spent more than a year away from the game with a serious neck injury that threatened to cut her career short but has since returned to the England set-up and will be a key part of the Red Roses' bid for a first world title since 2014. "She is just incredible,' Hunter said. 'When you look back on her career and being a superstar, she was the first player that brought a level and quality to the game that we hadn't seen before. 'She was a generational talent and if you think about the length of time she has been able to do that, it is incredible. 'Then you throw in her leadership skills, the presence that she has in the team, you can't underestimate it. 'You look at what has happened post that World Cup in 2022 to now and what she has been through in a potentially career-ending injury. 'It wasn't just to get back playing, it was to have a normal life, the injury she had. I think that takes a lot of strength of character so to get back to the level that she has done is a testament to the person that she is.' Having played together for over a decade, Hunter now sees Scarratt's brilliance from a different angle, serving as defence coach for England. Hunter took up the role having been part of the Gallagher High Performance Academy in 2023, a scheme delivered by World Rugby to increase the number of women coaching. Close to 50 women will have benefitted from the scheme by the end of the World Cup in England which begins on 22 August in Sunderland. Scarratt, who won the World Cup alongside Hunter in 2014, also coaches at a grassroots level and could potentially follow Hunter into elite-level coaching when she eventually hangs up her boots. Hunter added: 'She just adds so much to the team environment, her experience, her calmness, her leadership, when she speaks, people listen. 'The ability to make people around her look good, having her in a World Cup squad is priceless. 'It is really special for her if the Red Roses go on to win it in a home World Cup.
BBC News
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Dark Knight actor Colin McFarlane receives honorary degree
An actor who starred in The Dark Knight and voiced characters in Bob the Builder and Peppa Pig has received an honorary degree from his alma McFarlane was recognised for his "outstanding contributions to the arts and his role in championing men's health issues" when he returned to Loughborough University on graduated with a BA in Drama in 1983 and has since played a variety of roles on stage, television and film, including Gotham City police commissioner Gillian B Loeb in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark is an advocate of men's health awareness and publicly shared his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2023 to encourage others to get checked. McFarlane is known as the voice of The Cube on the ITV has also appeared in Liam Neeson film The Commuter, the Doctor Who universe and Outlander, and voiced characters in Supertato and Hey Duggee. The 63-year-old said: "I feel very lucky to be able to come back and be recognised for the work I've done. It's a wonderful full circle moment."This is where it all began, where the dreams began."My younger self wouldn't believe that one day I'd be in a Batman movie, work with Liam Neeson, become the voice of an iconic game show, produce, direct and write, be offered lovely roles in Hollywood, and make my parents proud."And the bonus is that this has given me a platform to help other people. That wasn't something that was in my dream, but dreams evolve."
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Loughborough student defies pain to complete epic run for charity
A PhD student said he ran "through pain" for five and a half days to finish a challenge to raise money for Stennett, who is also a teaching assistant at Loughborough University, ran about 186 miles (300km) to the top of hills throughout the Peak District in six days to raise funds for Kidney Research 30-year-old said he took on the challenge in support of his friend Sam Viravong and Sam's mum Manoly who was awaiting her second kidney Stennett initially set out to run 348 miles (560km) but was forced to reassess his target after experiencing knee and ankle pain about 50km into the challenge on day one. He said the injury was "frustrating" as he had done longer more intense training runs, and it meant he could not "keep up the pace" to complete the initial aim of the challenge. "I was running through pain for the first couple of days, it was quite severe. I think I've got quite a good pain tolerance, but that was kind of on the edge of my tolerance," he Stennett told the BBC that friends came to the Peak District and completed sections of the challenge with him, which he said gave him a "massive lift".He started the challenge at about 05:00 BST on 7 July, and finished on Saturday afternoon, raising more than £5,000 for Kidney Research UK."It was a massive surprise that we got to the amount that we have, we had no expectations going in," he said."Seeing all the messages on the JustGiving page has been really lovely, we've had people from the US and Australia send money - quite a lot of them, we don't even know."And there's some really heartfelt messages of people saying 'my sister donated her kidney' or 'my son needed a donation', and it's just stuff we didn't really expect and it's given the whole thing another layer of significance for us," he said. Mr Stennett decided to raise money for Kidney Research UK as his friend Sam's mum, Malony, has an autoimmune condition which meant she had a kidney transplant when the pair were Viravong - who is planning on becoming a kidney donor - told the BBC it was "really heartwarming" that Richard had decided to fundraise for Kidney Research in the said: "It means the world, first off the basis that there was no expectation for anybody to do anything for me, my mum and our family."Especially something of this magnitude for him to want to dedicate it and raise money for Kidney Research UK, thinking of my mum's kidney disease and struggle at the moment."Lucy Sreeves, executive director of Kidney Research UK, previously said the challenge was "extraordinary" in scale."He's taking on this huge physical feat in support of a friend's family, and in doing so, he's helping to raise awareness of a disease that affects millions," she said."Kidney disease is often invisible, but its impact is devastating. We're incredibly grateful to Richard for shining a light on the need for research and for inspiring others to take action."
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
House too hot? Energy bill already too high? This UK professor says smearing yogurt on your windows can cool your home
A researcher in the UK found applying yogurt to windows can lower a house's temperature by 6 degrees. The discovery comes as the country faces a massive heatwave, as does the U.S. Greek yogurt was used in the study, with a fat percentage of 10%. The summer of 2025 is already a scorcher—and we've got a long way to go. It's not just the U.S., either. The UK is experiencing a massive heatwave that has resulted in health alerts across parts of the country. That's especially problematic as few homes in that country have air conditioning—and it's resulting in some rather unique solutions. A professor at Loughborough University has come up with an especially odd way to cool your home that is a lot more effective than you might imagine: Smear some yogurt on the window. Dr. Ben Roberts says putting yogurt on the outside of windows can lower the temperature by up to 6.3 degrees (Farenheit). The numbers come following a one-month experiment, where two identical test houses braved the heat—one with yogurt windows, one without. On average, the yogurt house was one degree (F) cooler, but it saw a difference of 6.3 degrees on 'hot and sunny' days. The yogurt results in a film on the windows, which blocks some of the solar radiation, which raises the temperature. (If you're thinking of trying to recreate this, Roberts says they used Greek yogurt with a fat percentage of about 10%. He didn't add, but it seems logical to add that you'll want to skip the fruit-flavored varieties when doing so.) Roberts admits he was 'quite surprised' when he saw the temperature differences, adding he didn't think the diary product would be as effective as it was in blocking heat. Worried about the smell? Roberts says that faded as soon as the yogurt had dried, which took less than a minute. He did not, however, address whether the application of yogurt on the windows attracted more bugs. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Experiment finds yoghurt can lower house temperature
People across the UK would have had their windows open and fans on to try and keep cool in the midst of the third heatwave of the summer. But there would likely have been few trying out one university lecturer's alternative method to lower the temperature in a building. Dr Ben Roberts, a senior lecturer in healthy buildings at Loughborough University, said applying yoghurt to the outside of windows can lower the temperature by up to 3.5C (38F). He has pointed to the results of a month-long experiment to show the method has brought results. He said: "We can't get houses to cool down during the day. "That's a real problem for a lot of people, so we've started to look at shading solutions, stopping sun getting into your house during the day." In May, Dr Roberts and PhD student Niloo Todeh-Kharman conducted an experiment on two identical test houses at Loughborough University by putting yoghurt on the windows of one, but not the other. The experiment found the indoor temperature of the house with yoghurt on the windows was on average 0.6C (33F) cooler, but up to a maximum of 3.5C cooler when it was "hot and sunny". According to Dr Roberts, the yoghurt forms a thin film on the window itself and reflects some of the incoming solar radiation as it is a light colour. This means not as much heat passes through the window. He told the BBC the yoghurt smells for "30 seconds when drying" but that as soon as it has dried "the smell disappears". Dr Roberts said the idea came from a conversation with Tom Greenhill, the author of the Heatwave Toolkit website, who was thinking of "low-cost ways" which could stop overheating. He added Mr Greenhill tried putting yoghurt on his own house but that it had never been tested. For their experiment, the scientists at Loughborough University used a supermarket-brand of Greek yoghurt that has a fat percentage of about 10%. When he saw the results of the investigation, Dr Roberts said he was "quite surprised" as he did not think it would be "that effective". He added that when they carried out experiments with tinfoil - which blocks "pretty much" all of the incoming sun's heat - they saw a maximum temperature drop of 5 to 6C (41-42.8F), so he was "pleasantly surprised" with the results from the yoghurt experiment. Dr Roberts said: "It shows the importance of treating windows and heat shielding solutions for windows to reduce overheating." "We see a lot of excess summer deaths, so very simply if you can keep your home cooler we'll reduce the number of excess summer deaths happening and we can improve people's health and wellbeing," he added. Dr Zoe De Grussa, research manager at the Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers, added: "It's not your everyday hack, I would say, but anything you can do to put on the outside of windows is going to be of benefit to stopping sunshine coming in and heating up the internal environment." Follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. As UK faces third heatwave, is this 'just summer'? Loughborough University
