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People who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol before a traumatic event report more flashbacks than those who have had no alcohol, according to new UCL research. The results may give new insight into why some individuals develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event and others do not.

People at high risk of having a stroke are half as likely to have a stroke or die following surgery to repair damage to an artery in the neck, rather than 'stenting' treatment, according to UCL research published in the Lancet today. These findings emerged from a major trial carried out at the UCL Institute of Neurology, which was funded by the Medical Research Council and The Stroke Association.  'Stenting' is a treatment that relieves pressure in the carotid artery using a wire mesh tube or 'stent', which is then fed through to the neck using a catheter in the groin.

Dr Christopher Gerry explains why and how a UCL team re-examined evidence for the controversial claim that rapid economic reforms in 1990s post-Communist Europe led to the deaths of thousands. The claim has been hotly debated in the pages of the Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and elsewhere, ever since the 2009 claim, published in the Lancet, that rapid mass privatisation had resulted in large increases in mortality among working aged males.

Professor David Nicholas, Head of UCL Information Studies, will reveal how use of the internet has affected our capacity to read and write at length, in The Virtual Revolution on 20 February. The four-part series has investigated the history of the internet, its trailblazers and how it has reshaped a variety of aspects of our lives.

The discovery and characterisation of a planet with an Earth-like atmosphere is a step closer thanks to a new observation technique, developed by astronomers at NASA and UCL, using small ground-based telescopes. Published today in Nature , astronomers have identified organic molecules in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet nearly 63 light years away.

Professor Michael Batty (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) and Dr Soong Kang (UCL Management Science and Innovation) applied the techniques of statistical physics to their mountain of raw data. The pair joined forces with a computational social scientist and a physicist, both based in Paris, to explore patterns of commuting by tube into central London.

Data Soliloquies rose from a fruitful collaboration between Martin John Callanan and Richard Hamblyn, during their terms as artist and writer in residence at the UCL Environment Institute. The result is a witty and insightful book about the theatricality of scientific data, exploring the profusion of graphs, charts, computer models and other forms of visual advocacy that are now inescapable fixtures of public science displays.

The study, co-authored by Dr Benedetto De Martino (UCL Institute of Neurology), and published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , looked at a phenomenon known as 'loss aversion' in two patients with lesions to the amygdala, the region deep within the brain that is involved in emotions and decision-making.

A team from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory working on the Cassini-Huygens mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. MSSL's Professor Andrew Coates, lead author of a paper on the latest discovery, said: 'While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water and where there's water, carbon and energy, some of the major ingredients for life are present.

Dr Alison Bish and Professor Susan Michie (UCL Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology) investigated the results of a number of studies into how people behave during pandemics, such as the recent swine flu outbreak, to better understand protective behaviour and to improve interventions and communication in the future.

Professor David Nicholas (Head of UCL Information Studies) has led a team based in the department's research group CIBER in conducting experiments that test whether the structure of the World Wide Web ' created by Tim Berners-Lee 20 years ago ? is transforming the connections in our brains. The research shows that under-18s who have grown up with the web are better at multi-tasking, but appear to rate speed and convenience above content, depth and understanding.

Professor Atul Singhal of the UCL Institute of Child Health led the study, published in the journal Obesity , which showed that participants in the MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition? Do It!) programme lost weight, lowered their body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, and improved their self esteem and physical activity levels.

Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment. The fragments were being studied at UCL as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded 'Projet Volterra' ? a ten-year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context.

A new study, led by UCL's Professor Sophie Scott, suggests that all humans share basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness ' and vocalise them in similar ways. The results of the study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , provide further evidence that such emotions form a set of basic, evolved functions that are shared by all humans.

New UCL research shows that genetic testing provides no real help in predicting the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a major risk factor for heart disease. The findings question the benefit of genetic direct-to-public home screening tests currently available on the market, which claim to be able to predict the risk of diabetes.

MRC-funded scientists led by Dr Josef Kittler (UCL Neuroscience) have identified how nano-sized motors in nerve cells help to regulate the balance of communication in the brain. The findings may also help to explain why communication between nerve cells is disrupted in Huntington's disease, leading to altered electrical behaviour of nerve cells in this disease.

Professor Haroun Mahgerfeteh has won a prestigious medal for a paper on the feasibility of transporting captured carbon dioxide (CO2) along a pipeline. Professor Mahgerfeteh (UCL Chemical Engineering) won the 2009 Institution of Chemical Engineers Frank Lees Medal for the most meritorious publication on the topic of 'safety and loss prevention' in any IChemE publication, including journals, books, conference proceedings and web resources.

Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes 3 billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to research published today in Geology . The research, by a team from Imperial College London and UCL, suggests that during the Hesperian Epoch, approximately 3 billion years ago, Mars had lakes made of melted ice, each around 20km wide, along parts of the equator.

Michael Browne, Head of European Research and Development at UCL said: ?These grants are designed to allow exceptional established research leaders in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue risk-taking, interdisciplinary and pioneering research. The Advanced Grant scheme, in particular, is highly competitive (with an overall success rate of seven percent) and highly prestigious.

Analysis of human remains buried in the 1st century 'Tomb of the Shroud? in Jerusalem has revealed evidence of ancient leprosy and tuberculosis. The new research, involving UCL researchers, is published in the journal PLoS One today. This is the first time that a 1st century tomb from Jerusalem has been investigated by molecular methods.