science wire

Ground-breaking software that allows users to control their PC through their webcam using face and body movements has been developed by a team of UCL Computer Science students in collaboration with Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Google and the NHS.

UCL has today apologised to both current and former students and staff who have been subjected to a culture of unacceptable behaviour at the Bartlett School of Architecture and is taking immediate action following the outcome of an independent investigation. In October 2021, UCL commissioned Howlett Brown to carry out an independent investigation following reports and concerns raised by current and former students and staff relating to the culture, educational practices and environment at the Bartlett School of Architecture (the BSA) over decades.

A European Space Agency science mission to 3D-map a comet for the first time, which was proposed by a UCL-led team, has reached a major milestone, moving from the design phase to implementation.

A smartphone app that identifies severe jaundice in newborn babies by scanning their eyes could be a life-saver in areas that lack access to expensive screening devices, suggests a study co-authored by researchers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Ghana. The app, called neoSCB, was developed by clinicians and engineers at UCL and was used to screen for jaundice in over 300 newborn babies in Ghana, following an initial pilot study on 37 newborns at University College London Hospital (UCLH) in 2020.

Families across England are set to make history from next week as they join the first new national birth cohort study of babies to be launched in more than two decades, at a time of huge significance for the country as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The top 25 maths apps for children under five-years-old do not reflect best practices on how children learn and develop their early mathematical skills, according to a new report from IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Patty Kostkova (UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction) and her colleagues describe how artificial Intelligence can be harnessed to better understand the interconnectedness of nature in order to protect it and us from future diseases.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Andrew Coates (UCL Space & Climate Physics) explains how after the start of the Ukraine war, the ESA suspended the ExoMars Mission due to fly on a Russian rocket in September, and what might happen to its nearly-complete rover.

A new report led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Institute of Health Equity) exposes the growing social and economic inequalities in parts of north-west England and the impact it is having on people's health.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Jonathan Rogers (UCL Psychiatry) describes new research explores what some people experiencing catatonia feel and think that overwhelms them to the point of being unable to move.

Inequality is linked to more greenhouse gas emissions and tackling inequality is an integral part of combatting climate change, argues a new study by researchers at UCL and Salem State University, Massachusetts. The research, published today in the peer-reviewed journal One Earth , identifies multiple pathways by which inequality leads to more emissions, bringing together evidence from different fields.

A blood test could screen children for juvenile-onset Huntington's disease, reports a new UCL-led study, ahead of a larger trial of an at-home finger prick test for the condition.

We are aware that users are experiencing difficulties with our travel provider, Clarity Travel. Clarity have committed to improving their service and there are several recommendations to consider when arranging travel.

Members of the public are being asked to examine and evaluate high-resolution images of the potentially blinding eye condition, uveitis, as part of a UCL-led project aimed at ensuring children with the disease are diagnosed and treated far more quickly. The Eye on Eyes initiative is building up a bank of images from children with uveitis that need to be analysed and labelled by humans, so they can eventually be used to train artificial intelligence to detect the disease automatically.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Seirian Sumner (UCL Biosciences) shares some of the wildest and most shocking facts about solitary wasps, borrowed from her new book "Endless forms: The secret world of wasps.

Professor Dame Jane Dacre (UCL Medical School) is leading an independent Parliamentary review evaluating the UK Government's commitments to improve the health and social care workforce in England.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Ilan Kelman (UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction) argues that the UN's International Panel on Climate Change needs to engage more with science policy and policy makers to remain relevant.

Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft carrying instruments proposed, designed and built at UCL, has had its closest approach yet to the Sun, providing breathtaking images and movies of the solar poles, of powerful flares, and of a curious solar "hedgehog". The close approach to the Sun, known as perihelion, took place on 26 March.

Robot-assisted surgery used to perform bladder cancer removal enables patients to recover far more quickly and spend significantly (20 per cent) less time in hospital, concludes a first-of-its kind clinical trial led by scientists at UCL and the University of Sheffield.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Michael Odijie (UCL History) and Poorva Karkare of ECDPM, take a careful and critical look at how Nigeria's closed-borders policies designed to fight goods smuggling is limiting trade with their neighbours and their own industrialisation.