science wire

An international project to find new treatments for muscular dystrophy, led by a UCL researcher, has been awarded a €9.5 million (£8 million) grant from Horizon Europe and UKRI.

A key innovation of the industrial revolution, credited to Englishman Henry Cort, was in fact pioneered in Jamaica by Black metallurgists, the majority of whom were enslaved, according to a new study by UCL's Dr Jenny Bulstrode (UCL Science & Technology Studies).

Almost half the school pupils with long COVID felt they had fallen behind classmates, a UCL study shows.

Writing in the Conversation, Dr Joana Jacob Ramalho (UCL SELCS) breaks down the latest in a series of global marketing stunts promoting Greta Gerwig's new film, a real-life Barbie DreamHouse created by Airbnb.

Professor Christina Pagel (Clinical Operational Research Unit at UCL) and Professor Katherine Brown (UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science) share the findings of their new research in The Conversation on the rates and factors impacting COVID infections in children. At the heights of the pandemic, particularly since 2021, many children and teenagers admitted to hospital had COVID.

Experts at UCL, Queen Mary University of London and Great Ormond Street Hospital are aiming to develop revolutionary treatments for children diagnosed with low-grade brain tumours, following major new funding. The research team have been awarded £1.6 million by The Brain Tumour Charity to advance knowledge of low-grade brain tumours, how they behave in the body, how to better treat them and how to improve quality of life for children affected.

UCL researchers among leading experts to sign open letter highlighting the "alarming misunderstandings and misconceptions" around the proposed Online Safety Bill. Scientists from the UK's National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN) has called on Parliament to consider independent scientific evaluation before voting through the online safety bill, which could inadvertently enable surveillance technologies and erode online protection.

A lack of understanding by, and encouragement from, management is proving a barrier to the uptake of technologies like artificial intelligence in the legal services sector, according to a new report by UCL, the University of Manchester, and the Law Society.

Early years practitioners working in socially disadvantaged areas should receive bespoke professional training to help boost children's English oral language development, finds a study led by UCL.

A new "landmark" report recommending ways to address the ongoing and historic racism, elitism and sexism prevalent in English and Welsh cricket was co-led by a UCL researcher.

Dr Victoria Garfield (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL), Valentina Paz (University of the Republic (Uruguay) and MRC Unit) and Hassan S Dashti of Harvard University share the results of their new study on the benefits of napping in The Conversation. Sleep plays an important role in keeping the brain healthy, which is why people are advised to get at least 7-9 hours each night.

The true number of autistic people in England may be more than double the number often cited in national health policy documents, suggests a new study by UCL researchers. The first-of-its-kind research, published in  The Lancet Regional Health Europe,  estimated how many adults in England may have undiagnosed autism.

As young people weren't considered to be at high risk from Covid-19 directly, pandemic policy decisions largely ignored their needs and resulted in their long-term detriment, finds a global consortium of universities led by UCL researchers. The report, titled "The Impact of COVID-19 on Education, Food & Play-Leisure and Related Adaptations for Children and Young People," outlines how slow government action and policy gaps in efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19 had negative impacts on children and young people's health and welfare.

Euclid, a space mission led by the European Space Agency that includes a massive optical camera designed and built by UCL researchers, will map the large-scale structures of the universe to better understand two mysterious components: dark matter and dark energy. Everything that we can see and detect in the world around us - the stars, galaxies, flowers, our bodies, atoms - represents just 5% of the universe.

Read more about our new electrical vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice lease scheme, which will go live on Friday 23 June at 9am.

Around 20% of women who needed fertility treatment, such as IVF, to conceive their first child are likely to get pregnant naturally in the future, finds a new UCL study.

To prompt discussion about the circular economy and celebrate the role of stone in the City of London's creation, 58 granite blocks from London's Victoria Embankment on the Thames have been relocated throughout the City, as part of a project designed by UCL architects.

Three young patients with relapsed T-cell leukaemia have now been treated with base-edited T-cells, as part of a 'bench-to-bedside' collaboration between UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).

Differences in the percentage of Native American ancestry in Latin American people are linked with the chances of them developing severe liver failure and associated high risk of short-term mortality, a study co-authored by UCL has found. ACLARA study , published in Gastroenterology , is the first of its kind to indicate that ancestry and race may determine the outcome of advanced liver disease (decompensated cirrhosis) in patients.

The need for grief counselling in dementia care may be substantially underestimated, according to new research led by a UCL academic.

Financial incentives could be an effective way to support teacher recruitment, particularly in schools with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage, finds a new review led by UCL researchers and published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

The UCL Institute for Global Health has been designated as a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for TB Research and Innovation.

A UCL-led research team has opened and closed the blood-nerve barrier for the first time and used it to deliver drugs to target tissues. The Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK-funded research, published in Developmental Cell , has the potential to both deliver tumour-killing drugs to the nervous system, and also prevent side effects from chemotherapy that result from damage to the peripheral nervous system.

Medical students and doctors are at increasing risk of experiencing financial difficulty throughout their careers, with reasons ranging from illness and disability to high training costs and student debt, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL.

Professor Michael Grubb and Dr Serguey Maximov Gajardo (both UCL Bartlett School Environment, Energy & Resources) examine the increasing revenues of British electricity generating stations and explore implications for the future in The Conversation.

Security services are a vital part of the UCL operation. We are working alongside our security providers, Bidvest Noonan, to enhance the security service at UCL.

A "sizeable" gap in the financial knowledge of children, depending on which socio-economic group they come from, has been identified in a new study of more than 3,700 UK families, led by UCL researchers.