science wire

Paul Dobraszczyk (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture) explores five ways of integrating plants into buildings beyond simply trying to grow them on walls in The Conversation.

The annual number of heat-related deaths in England and Wales is set to rise up to fiftyfold over the next 50 years because of climate change, finds new research by UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Richard Wortley (UCL Security & Crime Science), explores his research into what happens when drinking precedes killing.

Professor Joanna Moncrieff (UCL Psychiatry) argues in The Conversation that a new review of antidepressant withdrawal effects risks underestimating the potential harms to long-term antidepressant users by focusing on short-term, studies.

An artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables a four-legged robot to adapt its gait to varied, unfamiliar terrain, just like a real animal, has been developed by researchers at UCL and the University of Leeds.

The NSS 2025 results, released on Wednesday 9 July, reflect improvements across areas of importance to our studentsexperience.

The largest review of 'gold standard' antidepressant withdrawal studies to date has identified the type and incidence of symptoms experienced by people discontinuing antidepressants, in a study involving UCL authors, finding that most people do not experience severe withdrawal.

When people watch a live contemporary dance performance, their brainwaves sync up, signalling shared focus and attention, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. That synchrony dropped when the same performance was viewed alone on video, report the authors of the new iScience paper. Dr Guido Orgs (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience), a neuroscientist and dancer who was the senior author of the paper, said: "We wanted to explore what makes live performance feel so different from watching a recording.

Emma Connolly (UCL Digital Speech Lab) explores the issues, from fears about technology to threats to democracy, that voters on both sides of the political divide agree in The Conversation.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Jamie Brown and Professor Lion Shahab (UCL Behavioural Science and Health) offer strategies to help vapers quit the quit-aid.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be made more sustainable by making practical changes, such as reducing the number of decimal places used in AI models, shortening responses, and using smaller AI models, according to research from UCL published in a new UNESCO report.

Contributing to The Conversation's user-friendly guide to climate finance , Professor Mark Maslin (UCL Geography) explains key technical terms and jargon.

Why humans have chins is one of many as-yet unanswered questions about evolution that scientists are making progress towards solving, rewrites Professor Max Telford (UCL Biosciences) in The Conversation.

State-educated, working class and ethnic minority graduates were less likely to secure employment offers in 2024 compared to 2023 than their privately educated, privileged and White peers, according to UCL researchers.

The newly released first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile mark the start of a ten-year mission involving UCL researchers to create an ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the Universe and help to pin down what dark energy might be. The observatory is named in honour of a trailblazing US astronomer who discovered evidence for dark matter.

Nursery availability is lowest in England's most deprived neighbourhoods, with private equity backed providers less likely to open in them, leading to concerns around choice and quality, finds a report by UCL researchers.

Radioactive iodine treatment after thyroid cancer surgery usually means side effects like nausea and time in hospital isolated from loved ones. But new clinical trial results from researchers at UCL mean patients worldwide could now safely be spared this treatment. Globally, around 820,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer each year.

Comment: How pterosaurs learned to fly: scientists have been looking in the wrong place to solve thi Writing in The Conversation, Dr Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza (UCL Earth Sciences) explains how climate, ecology and evolutionary science have come together to reveal how pterosaurs learned to fly.

Professor David Voas (UCL Social Research Institute) expresses scepticism about a reported religious revival in England in the Conversation.

A set of genes that could be used to help doctors predict which children will respond well to treatment for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) have been identified by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), who are part of the CLUSTER Consortium. JIA is a childhood immune disease where the immune system attacks the body, in particular the lining of the joints.

A low-cost, durable, highly sensitive robotic 'skin' that enables robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way that's similar to humans has been developed by researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge. The study, published in Science Robotics , details the development of the flexible, conductive skin, which is easy to fabricate and can be melted down and formed into a wide range of complex shapes.

We have made some important changes and improvements to UCL's Report + Support system to enhance support for staff and students We believe that no one should ever have to experience bullying, harassment, or sexual misconduct, and that, if you do, you deserve to be supported and taken seriously.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Katherine Twamley (UCL Social Research Institute) explains her research into why fathers do not believe the UK government or their employers view their participation in childcare as important.

Patients who received a one-off gene therapy to treat haemophilia are still doing well up to 13 years later, proving that the therapy is safe and long-lasting, finds a new study from researchers at UCL, the Royal Free Hospital and St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee. The study, published in New England Journal of Medicine , is the longest reported follow-up for any gene therapy for haemophilia B, a rare genetic disorder caused by insufficient levels of a protein in the blood, called factor IX (nine), that promotes clotting after injury.

Opening any new North Sea oil and gas fields is incompatible with achieving the Paris Climate Agreement goals of limiting warming to 1.5°C or holding warming to "well below 2°C" relative to preindustrial levels, finds a new report published by UCL academics.