science wire

A UCL professor has won a fellowship to develop her potential as one of the next generation of world-leading scientists. Professor Sofia Olhede (UCL Statistical Science) has been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Leadership Fellowship. The fellowships, which provide up to five years of funding, are a direct investment in Britain's most talented researchers.

UCL is heavily involved in the design of a proposed space mission to study the Sun in unprecedented detail. If selected for development by the European Space Agency (ESA), Solar Orbiter will travel closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft. The data it collects could provide major breakthroughs in our understanding of how the inner Solar System works and is driven by solar activity.

Advertising and media coverage about swine flu reduced public concern and improved the uptake of useful, protective behaviours such as hand-washing, according to new research led by Professor Susan Michie, UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology. The research, funded by the Department of Health's National Institute for Health Research, is published today in the journal Health Technology Assessment.

UCL is heavily involved in the design of a proposed space mission to study the Sun in unprecedented detail.

A global index to measure the progress of countries towards creating a zero carbon built environment in terms of energy consumption and production has put Norway at the top, with Brazil second and the UK in third place.

UCL looks set to play a central role in three new space missions designed to unlock the secrets of the Sun, search for dark matter, and seek out planets that could harbour life. The UK Space Agency has just awarded £3.65m to help scientists prepare for the missions, Solar Orbiter, Euclid, and PLATO, and UCL is involved in all of them.

The UCL professor elected as the new president of the British Medical Association (BMA) has issued a rallying cry to doctors to lead the fight against health inequalities and social injustice.

In his latest book UCL's Professor Philippe Sands uncovers the obscure, 'cattle market-like' processes at play in selecting some of the world's most influential judges.

Competition is key to nurturing Europe's digital economy, according to Joaquín Almunia, the European Commission's Competition Commissioner, who spoke at a UCL event yesterday.

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) are calling for the swift reintroduction of vitamin D supplements to pregnant women in the UK. In an article published online today by the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN), the authors argue that despite a growing body of evidence that links vitamin D deficiency to complications in pregnancy and poor neonatal health, the UK remains the only one of 31 European countries that doesn?t have a set vitamin D recommendation for women of reproductive age, while also failing to endorse a daily supplement to expectant mothers.

UCL has launched an Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health to create a hub of expertise for sports and exercise-related research.

The Summer Show is the annual celebration of student work at UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture. Over 450 students show innovative drawings, models, devices, texts, animations and installations.

A consortium of the UK's most prestigious scientific and academic institutions has laid out its plans for the biggest centre for biomedical research and innovation in Europe.

A team of scientists from UCL is designing the 'eyes' of a rover that will search for signs of life on Mars.

Scientists at UCL and Cambridge have developed a computer program modelled on the human brain that can recognise the shape of galaxies and classify them accurately and efficiently.

UCL is starting a PhD training programme designed to attract researchers with the highest intellectual and scientific skills to the field of biomedical and life sciences.

Haunting has long been a theme in popular culture, and Popular Ghosts goes further to establish ghosts within the cultural imagination and to explore what it is that makes this space so compelling now.

A medical and technological collaboration between the UCL Institute of Neurology and UCL's Multimedia team has developed 'Read-Right', a therapeutic website designed to help people with Hemianopic Alexia (HA) to improve and test their reading ability from their own homes.

UCL's expertise in biomedical engineering has underpinned a world first in veterinary science that may have major implications for human medicine.