School of Applied Sciences

Facilities

The School of Applied Sciences boasts some of the best resources for both undergraduate and postgraduate study in the UK. We are proud to have a large support network of enthusiastic demonstrators and PhD students who will share their expertise whilst working with you in our state of the art facilities.

» Animal and Human Skeletal Facilities:

Two human osteology laboratories and a dedicated animal bone laboratory
Extensive collections of human and animal skeletal reference materials, including an exceptional range of human, hominin and modern primate teaching casts
Archaeological collections of human and animal remains from sites spanning the Bronze Age to Post-Medieval periods.
Find out more about BU’s archaeological skeletal collections.

» Field Survey Equipment and Artefact Store:

Wide range of site-surveying applications, including GPS and Total Stations for topographic surveying, remote sensing instruments such as Magentometers, Ground Penetrating Radar and Resistivity Meters and 3D laser scanners
Artefacts from our training excavations including worked flint, ceramics (Neolithic through to Medieval), metal work and glass
Extensive reference collection of flora and faunal microscope slides.

» Computer Suite:

Dedicated computer suite with workstations supporting the latest Geographical Information Systems (GIS), surveying and Earth observation software
A range of two dimensional scanners and digitisers for data acquisition.

» Crime Scene Facilities:

Crime Scene Training Centre, which includes two bedrooms, one with an ensuite, a lounge-kitchen-diner, a bank and a drugs lab, used to carry out full-scale simulated crime scene investigations
A field station where we can simulate mass graves, conduct field trials on the decomposition of bodies and other research
Streetwise, a life-sized indoor village, owned by Dorset County Council with street, beach and domestic scenes where we can stage large scale crime scenes
Dedicated crime laboratory.

» Dedicated Science Labs:

Variety of teaching and research labs for both wet chemistry and biology, as well as dry labs for analytical and skeletal training
State of the art instrumentation providing chromatographic (HPLC, CG-MS/MS & IC) and spectroscopic analysis (ICP, UV/vis, FTIR), research level microscopy (including Scanning Electron Microscopy) and X-ray facilities
Modern molecular biology laboratory housing PCR, Real-Time PCR machines and Genetic Analyser, capable of DNA amplification and profiling, DNA sequencing, studying gene expression, molecular cloning and other routine molecular biological research and teaching.

Come and visit us at an open day to see our renowned facilities for yourself.

School of Applied Sciences lab facilities

One of our dedicated science labs