science wire

UCL's Selina Wray is to front a national appeal for the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Selina Wray (UCL Institute of Neurology) was selected by the UK dementia research charity thanks to her cutting-edge work using stem cells to fight Alzheimer's disease.

Space scientists from UCL helped build part of a satellite that has detected the most distant and ancient object in the known universe.

People who frequently take ketamine suffer from short-term memory problems, according to a study by UCL researchers. However, the study also found that infrequent and ex-users did not show such memory impairments, suggesting that memory deficits may be repaired when people quit taking the drug. The authors urge health campaigners to ensure that the growing number of ketamine users are made aware of these potentially negative effects on their health.

UCL has a long tradition of many excellent scientists and social scientists working on human evolution ? but we are scattered across different departments and faculties.

A symposium and evening roundtable debate, ?Just Enough: Sufficiency and the Cultural Imagination?, will be held on 4 December 2009.

On World Usability Day, two UCL researchers describe how their work is making the systems in our lives more efficient, pleasurable and safe to use.

UCL will host the first ever International Symposium on Neonatal Neurology and Therapeutic Hypothermia in India next month.

Press release Links: Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology.

UCL's Andrew Hayward is to lead a £2.1m project examining the symptoms, prevention and treatment of the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain, known as swine flu, as part of a major collaboration announced today.

PhD student Irma'T. Kurniawan discusses the surprising motivations for sporting performance in the latest issue of Opticon1826 . Next time you watch a heavy weight lifting tournament, tell the person next to you not to boo the person that he doesn't want to win. A study recently published shows that modifying someone's arousal level can influence their force production.

One current and one former student from UCL have represented the UK at the prestigious International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in South Korea.

Watch Professor Steve Bramwell (London Centre of Nanotechnology ? a joint venture between UCL and Imperial) explain in under four minutes his discovery ?magnetricity?.

Solar wind generated by the sun is probably driven by a process involving powerful magnetic fields, according to a new study led by UCL researchers based on the latest observations from the Hinode satellite.

UCL researchers have been awarded £5.3 million to investigate the causes of Parkinson's disease.

Michal Heller, mathematical cosmologist, will be delivering this year?s MB Grabowski Memorial Lecture on ?Creation of the Universe: Science and Philosophy? at UCL on 12 November.

UCL's Professor Pete Coffey is the joint leader of a major project to bring stem cell treatment to the point of clinical trial.

The UCL Genetics Institute (UGI) will be holding a public seminar to mark its launch on 11 November.

UCL researcher Hashim Uddin Ahmed is conducting a series of world-first trials into an alternative form of treatment for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the UK, with conventional treatment for the disease causing many distressing sid effects. Mr Ahmed is a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Fellow in the UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science.

Press Release Media coverage The first UCL Venture Research Fellowship has been awarded to Nick Lane, UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment.

Franny Armstrong (UCL Zoology 1994), director of 'The Age of Stupid', participated in an audience discussion following the film's screening at UCL on 19 October 2009.

A perfect partnership - that was the verdict of companies which hosted UCL students on work experience this summer.

UCL is co-ordinating a project to help young researchers develop careers in cardiovascular engineering.

UCL and Yale University have formed an alliance to improve global health through scientific research, clinical and educational collaboration.

The 8th October marks the day of two important announcements for UCL; our rise to fourth place in the THE-QS World Rankings, and the sealing of a major collaboration with Yale University.

Press Release Links: A famous Egyptian mummy died from tuberculosis (TB) rather than a tumour of the ovary, according to new research led by UCL scientists. The research, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, gives a definitive answer to a very old mystery. Augustus Bozzi Granville (1783-1872) caused a sensation when he described the first scientific autopsy on an ancient Egyptian mummy to the Royal Society of London in 1825.

UCL Business PLC, UCL's knowledge transfer and technology commercialisation company, today announced that it has led an initial investment round of £350,000 into a magnetic sensing technology company, Endomagnetics.

Children whose mothers go out to work have poorer dietary habits than those whose mothers are not in paid employment, according to a new UCL study. The children furthermore are more sedentary, and are more likely to be driven to school than children whose mothers do not work outside the home, according to research published today by Professor Catherine Law (UCL Institute of Child Health) in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health .

UCL staff and students are invited to a seminar, 'Social determinants of health: what next?', on 6 October 2009.

The Crucible Centre at UCL is running a 'café scientifique? from the Print Room Cafe on the first Thursday of every month at 6pm. Each month a speaker (or speakers) is invited to give a brief talk (a maximum of 20 minutes) about a scientific issue and the audience is then invited to join in informal discussion about what they have heard.

Peter Bentley readily admits he developed a piece of software that turned an iphone into a stethoscope as a bit of 'fun'.