science wire

The Children of Craig-y-nos: Life in a Welsh Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1922-1959 , co-authored by Carole Reeves of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, was launched on 1 May at Craig-y-nos Castle.

The Spring 2009 issue of UCL's academic journal 'Opticon1826? has just been published, featuring contributions from both staff and students.

John Wood, Professor of Molecular Neurobiology at the UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Science (WIBR), has won the Grand Prix Scientifique 2009 from the Fondation NRJ, at  the Institut de France.

UCL has entered into a collaboration with the biopharmaceutical group Pfizer, negotiated by UCL Business, to advance development of stem cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Links: Article abstract in the British Journal of Psychology Professor Adrian Furnham A recent UCL study by Professor Adrian Furnham (UCL Psychology) demonstrates that men show off a boastful nature while women maintain their modesty, when estimating their intelligence. The worldwide study, published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychology, investigates the self-rated levels of intelligence of 2,006 people across 12 countries.

Research into the development of British Sigh Language by the Deafness Cognition and Language (DCAL) Research Centre at UCL featured on the BBC programme 'See Hear? on  15 April.

Professor Terence Stephenson has been appointed Nuffield Professor of Child Health at the UCL Institute of Child Health, effective from 1 October 2009.

UCL has won four grants worth a total of just over £5million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support research into large-scale integrated projects that exploit nanotechnology for healthcare purposes.

Patients with schizophrenia are able to see correctly through the 'hollow mask? illusion, probably because their brain disconnects 'what the eyes see? from what 'the brain thinks it is seeing', accor

Our faces contain 'barcodes' of information which help us recognise people and may have implications for improving face recognition software, according to a study co-authored by Steven Dakin of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology published today in the Journal of Vision .

UCL Business and biopharmaceutical company Ocera Therapeutics Inc have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for UCL-L1V - a compound that can be used to treat acute hepatic encephalopath

Links: UCL Institute of Child Health Sparks Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Richard Chin, a clinical lecturer at UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Great Ormond Street NHS Trust, has won the Sparks charity's annual Young Investigator of the Year award for his work into childhood onset epilepsy.

A consortium headed by UCL has been chosen by the Department of Health to lead a nationally accredited training system for NHS Stop Smoking practitioners.

Links: UCL Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Steering Committee The London Project to Cure Blindness UCL on iTunes U Four UCL professors discuss the science and debates surrounding stem cell research, reflect on their own work and consider the implications of President Obama's reversal of the ban on US federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

24 March is World TB Day.

Pentraxin Therapeutics Ltd, a UCL spin-off company, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are collaborating to develop the world's first dual drug?antibody treatment for the rare and often fatal condition amyloidosis.

UCOpera (UCO) relishes a challenge. Their current production of Ernest Bloch's Macbeth at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre ' the British première of the opera ' is no exception.

A pilot study led by Professor Carol Dezateux (UCL Institute for Child Health) has informed a decision to introduce a blood test for a rare metabolic condition for all newborn babies across England.

Ed Byrne, UCL Vice-Provost (Health) explains the benefits to UCL and its local community of being involved in one of the first Academic Health Science Centres: UCL Partners.

A new resource at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH) will help doctors and scientists address the four key complications in pregnancy. Jointly led by Professor Gudrun Moore (UCL ICH) and Professor Lesley Regan (St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College London), the resource ' known as the Baby Bio Bank ' will be the first study of its kind and the most extensive, as it will analyse maternal and paternal inheritance patterns.

The UCL Institute for Global Health's 9th Symposium, 'Straight Talking: Population growth and family planning', was held on 16 March 2009.

'Neuroscience is one of the key disciplines of our time, and UCL is today the strongest neuroscience university in Europe ': Professor Malcolm Grant, UCL President and Provost.

Article: 'Prospective parental consent for autopsy research following sudden unexpected childhood deaths: a successful model', in Archives of Disease in Childhood (Online First) A study published tod

Bottoms Up, a North-West London bowel cancer charity, has donated £95,000 to UCL to buy a vital piece of equipment to aid cancer research.