science wire

A new European Space Agency (ESA) mission concept to help reduce the global risk of damage caused by space weather will be worked on by teams from across the UK with UCL playing a pivotal role in developing instruments on board the spacecraft.

The clock was turned back to 1968  at a London cinema this week as part of the culmination of a three-year project by UCL academics to record, analyse, archive  and publicise the memories of almost a thousand people across the UK about what it was like to go to the cinema in the 1960s.

Smoking just one cigarette a day carries a much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke than expected - about half the risk of smoking 20 per day - concludes a UCL-led review of the evidence. The researchers say their findings, published today in the BMJ , have important consequences for many smokers and health professionals who believe that smoking only a few cigarettes per day bears little or no harm.  "What this tells us is that people who smoke shouldn't just cut down - they should aim to stop smoking altogether.

Just under half of young people in the UK had tried alcohol by the time they were 14, with more than one in ten confessing to binge drinking, according to UCL research.

Children's career aspirations are too often based on gender stereotypes, socio-economic backgrounds and TV, film and radio, according to a report involving UCL academics.

Huge rises in the cost of private schooling in the UK in recent decades have had little impact on the number of parents choosing the sector for their children, according to a new analysis from UCL.

A method of securely communicating between multiple quantum devices has been developed by a UCL-led team of scientists, bringing forward the reality of a large-scale, un-hackable quantum network. To date, communicating via quantum networks has only been possible between two devices of known provenance that have been built securely.

Mapping common pathways along which the effects of natural and man-made disasters travel allows more flexible and resilient responses in the future, according to UCL researchers.

Following a Mediterranean diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts may reduce the risk of frailty in older individuals, according to a UCL-led study.

Methane in shale gas can be turned into hydrocarbon fuels using an innovative platinum and copper alloy catalyst, according to new research led by UCL and Tufts University. Platinum or nickel are known to break the carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane found in shale gas to make hydrocarbon fuels and other useful chemicals.

Witchcraft labels are a mechanism to harm female competitors and profoundly affect the structure of social networks, according to new UCL-led research. The study quantifies the impact of witchcraft labels, such as 'zhu' used in rural China, on communities including their influence on social life and how social networks are structured.

UCL, Synthomer and Nexeon have together been awarded £7million in Innovate UK funding to develop significantly better materials for Li-ion batteries.

Six-year-old children and chimpanzees derive pleasure from watching others being punished for antisocial behaviour and are prepared to pay to see it, according to new UCL research.

Over one-third of people aged over 75 show evidence of having severe chronic kidney disease, according to research from UCL published this week in the latest NHS Digital Health Survey for England.

The first drug targeting the cause of Huntington's disease was safe and well-tolerated in its first human trial led by UCL scientists.

Rock engravings located in Western Venezuela - including some of the largest recorded anywhere in the world - have been mapped in unprecedented detail by UCL researchers.

Higher educational attainment is associated with a "significantly lower" chance of people suffering Alzheimer's, according to the biggest genetic study into the potential causes of the disease reported today in the BMJ.

A UCL-led interdisciplinary research consortium, i-sense 'IRC Next Steps', has been allocated more than £3.8m in government funding for pioneering developments of agile early warning sensing systems for infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance. Science Minister Jo Johnson announced £11m additional funding for the three Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRCs) today.

Physical and mental illness at younger ages can have a significant impact on people's prospects of being in employment in later life, according to two reports from the International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) and the renEWL research team based at UCL.

Heart tissue can be imaged in real-time during keyhole procedures using a new optical ultrasound needle developed by researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The revolutionary technology has been successfully used for minimally invasive heart surgery in pigs, giving an unprecedented, high-resolution view of soft tissues up to 2.5 cm in front of the instrument, inside the body.

What makes the ideal open-plan office? Researchers at UCL have used data analysis, video observation and surveys to study how we interact at work and come up with an answer.

Young people today are taking part in a wider range of sexual practices with opposite-sex partners compared to 20 years ago, according to new analysis by UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Vaginal intercourse and oral sex remained the most common combination of sexual practices experienced in the past year by heterosexual couples, according to the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

A new UCL study surveyed who uses food banks in London, and for what reasons. The study, published this week in the Journal of Public Health , found benefit-related problems were the most common reason, while recent adverse life events were also associated with food insecurity.

Health and social care spending cuts since 2010 are linked to nearly 120,000 excess deaths in England, with the over 60s and care home residents most affected, finds new UCL research. The study, published today in BMJ Open , stipulates that the critical factor in these figures may be changes in nurse numbers.