science wire

Hepatitis B stimulates processes that deprive the body's immune cells of key nutrients that they need to function, finds new UCL-led research funded by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust. The work helps to explain why the immune system cannot control hepatitis B virus infection once it becomes established in the liver, and offers a target for potential curative treatments down the line.

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has today announced that LDA Design has been appointed to develop a master plan for a new 125,000m 2  campus for UCL on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

What happens when lithium-ion batteries overheat and explode has been tracked inside and out for the first time by a UCL-led team using sophisticated 3D imaging. Understanding how Li-ion batteries fail and potentially cause a dangerous chain reaction of events is important for improving their design to make them safer to use and transport, say the scientists behind the study.

The University of South Australia (UniSA) and UCL have today signed a partnership agreement committing the two institutions to work together to develop teaching and research in South Australia in fie

Professor Peter Kirstein, chair of Computer Systems (UCL Engineering Sciences), has been awarded the prestigious 2015 Marconi Society Prize for his 'tireless advocacy and pioneering technical contrib

A new model for HIV progression finds that it spreads in a similar way to some computer worms and predicts that early treatment is key to staving off AIDS. HIV specialists and network security experts at UCL noticed that the spread of HIV through the body using two methods - via the bloodstream and directly between cells - was similar to how some computer worms spread through both the internet and local networks respectively to infect as many computers as possible.

Young adolescents' judgements on how risky a situation might be are most influenced by what other teenagers think, while most other age groups are more influenced by adults' views, finds new UCL research.

How you feel pain is affected by where sources of pain are in relation to each other, and so crossing your fingers can change what you feel on a single finger, finds new UCL research. The research, published in Current Biology, used a variation on an established pain experiment, known as the "thermal grill illusion".

'Attractive' male birds that mate with many females aren't passing on the best genes to their offspring, according to new UCL research which found promiscuity in male birds leads to small, genetic faults in the species' genome. Although minor, these genetic flaws may limit how well future generations can adapt to changing environments.

Better sharing of routinely collected data could accelerate progress towards improving social mobility and reducing child poverty, as well as generate significant financial savings, according to a new UCL report published today.

More than a third (35%) of 12-year-olds and 28% of 15-year-olds say they have been embarrassed to smile or laugh due to how they felt about their teeth, finds a new UCL-led report commissioned by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The new report, Attitudes, Behaviours and Children's Dental Health, reveals for the first time how children aged 12 and 15 feel about their dental health.

This month sees the launch of PanoptiCam, an online camera that streams the live view from Jeremy Bentham's auto-icon in the South Cloisters.

Professor Sharon Peacock has been appointed as the first Director of the Bloomsbury Research Institute, a partnership between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UCL dedicated to addressing the global challenge of infectious disease.

The human-dominated geological epoch known as the Anthropocene probably began around the year 1610, with an unusual drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the irreversible exchange of species between the New and Old Worlds, according to new research .

People of differing competence tend to give each other's views equal weight, preventing them from making the best group decisions, finds new UCL-led research. This suggests that people with similar levels of competence make the best decision-making groups, as otherwise the tendency to assume equal competence can give undue weight to the opinions of less capable members.

A new paint that makes robust self-cleaning surfaces has been developed by a team led by UCL researchers.

Seventeen researchers from around UCL have been shortlisted to present their research to a panel of expert judges and over 100 MPs in this year's SET for Britain competition.

New UCL-led research reveals the positive and negative effects of different types of cannabis on the human brain, in a trial broadcast on Channel 4: Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial . "Our cannabis research over the last six years has highlighted how different types of cannabis can have different effects," explains Professor Val Curran, Director of the UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, who led the study.

A collaboration between UCL's Department of Earth Sciences, Rocktype Limited, and FEI will potentially enable faster and more efficient processing of large data sets in the study of sedimentary geology.

People with mild cognitive impairment are at higher risk of developing dementia if they have diabetes or psychiatric symptoms such as depression, finds a new review led by UCL researchers. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a state between normal ageing and dementia, where someone's mind is functioning less well than would be expected for their age.

Dr Jade Alglave (UCL Computer Sciences) has been named as the winner of the Brian Mercer Award for Innovation by the Royal Society, The award funds researchers to build on their concepts to bring new ideas to market, and aims to promote links between the academic community, business and industry.

Professor Stephen Caddick has been appointed as Director of the Innovations division at The Wellcome Trust, it is announced today.

Patterns created by the brain's grid cells, which are believed to guide navigation, are modified by the shape of the environment, according to UCL researchers. This means grid patterns aren't a universal metric for the brain's GPS system to measure distance, as previously thought. Grid cells in the brain appear to form an internal map of the local environment by signalling periodically to create a 'grid-pattern' that helps animals to navigate, even in the dark.

The UCL Academy has been rated as the highest performing maintained mixed school in Camden in this year's annual performance tables for A Levels from the Department for Education.

People who worry about cancer are more likely to want to get screened for colon cancer, but feeling uncomfortable at the thought of cancer makes them less likely to actually go for the test, finds new UCL-led research. The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention , looked at how different types of fear influenced colorectal cancer screening decisions in nearly eight thousand UK adults.

Four of the nine systems that regulate the interaction between land, ocean, atmosphere, ice-sheets and life on Earth are at risk from destabilisation due to human activity, according to an international team including UCL scientists.

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) has today (Monday 12 January) announced a short list of five creative teams to develop a master plan for the UCL East university campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

A third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80% of current coal reserves globally should remain in the ground and not be used before 2050 if global warming is to stay below the 2°C target agreed by policy makers, according to new research by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources.

The memory and walking speeds of adults who have lost all of their teeth decline more rapidly than in those who still have some of their own teeth, finds new UCL research.

UCL is the top-rated university in the UK for research strength in the new Research Excellence Framework 2014 published today, by a measure of average research score multiplied by staff numbers submitted.

A UCL study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that older people who felt three or more years younger than their chronological age had a lower death rate compared with those who felt their age or who felt more than one year older than their actual age.

UCL News UCL News home All news Student news Staff news UCL in the media UCL Opinion Services Services for staff Services Get updates from UCL News All channels UCL has today launched a new public information website on animal research, describing how and why animals are used across the university. The website explains how animal research is conducted at UCL, including descriptions of the processes governing research and the '3Rs': replacing animal research with alternatives, reducing the number of animals used and refining experiments to minimise harm and discomfort to the animals.

UCL News UCL News home All news Student news Staff news UCL in the media UCL Opinion Services Services for staff Services Get updates from UCL News All channels Results published today in the latest Health Survey for England show that 50% of women and 43% of men reported taking at least one prescribed medicine in the past week.

Researchers at the EPICentre Research Group, a multidisciplinary research group based in UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) that investigates risk to society and infrastructur