news 2014

Parents of children who fell at home were more likely not to use safety gates and not to have taught their children rules about climbing on things in the kitchen, a study from researchers at The University of Nottingham has found. In the UK, more than 200,000 under-fives attend emergency departments (ED) and in England more than 20,000 are admitted to hospital each year following a fall.

New findings debunk theories that over hunting by early humans led to the disappearance of mastodons from the Arctic and Subarctic. New dates show they were wiped out locally before human colonisation. The paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the Arctic and Subarctic were just temporary "holiday homes" for mastodons when the local climate was warm around 125,000 years ago.

Researchers from the African Genome Variation Project (AGVP) have published the first attempt to comprehensively characterise genetic diversity across Sub-Saharan Africa. The study of the world's most genetically diverse region will provide an invaluable resource for medical researchers and provides insights into population movements over thousands of years of African history.

Two UCL professors led a key part of the new analysis of 'Skeleton 1'; which was discovered in a Leicester car park in 2012 on the site of the Grey Friars friary, the last known resting place of King Richard III. They used probability calculations to combine several different lines of evidence, producing an overall weight-of-evidence for the skeleton being that of King Richard III.

Excessive alcohol consumption costs NI £900m per year Minimum Unit Price for alcohol would save 63 lives per year Policy would reduce hospital admissions by more than 2,400 The Northern Ireland Executive has today (3 December 2014) announced it will proceed with an Alcohol Minimum Unit Pricing policy, which could reduce drink-related hospital admissions by more than 2,400 a year, according to researchers from the University of Sheffield.

DNA and genealogical study confirms identity of remains found in Leicester and uncovers new truths about his appearance and Plantagenet lineage. Although the false paternity means we cannot look forward in time, we can trace King Richard's Y lineage back into prehistory Peter Forster An international research team has provides overwhelming evidence that the skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester indeed represents the remains of King Richard III - closing what is probably the oldest forensic case solved to date.

Industrial sites and highways could become cleaner in the future thanks to shark-shaped samplers that hunt 'fugitive' air pollutants. Scientists at Lancaster University and the Environment Agency are working together to develop a new sampler to measure levels of so-called fugitive pollutants - such as particulates, and gases such as ammonia and nitrogen dioxide.

In a quest to find new drugs for epilepsy, Dr Michael Johnson is at the forefront of research investigating the heritability of this serious disorder. Dr Michael Johnson is Deputy Head of the Centre for Clinical Translation at the Division of Brain Sciences , Imperial College London and a consultant neurologist at I mperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Oxford's law students have held their first moot court competition that specifically focuses on issues affecting people with disabilities.

The rapid evolution of HIV, which has allowed the virus to develop resistance to patients' natural immunity, is at the same time slowing the virus's ability to cause AIDS. The Oxford University-led study also indicates that people infected by HIV are likely to progress to AIDS more slowly - in other words the virus becomes less 'virulent' - because of widespread access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).

As the cold weather sets in, a quantitative analysis on particulate matter (PM) in Delhi has highlighted that residents are exposed to significantly higher levels of air pollutants in the Indian capital during winter than in summer. Air pollution continues to be one of the key global environmental challenges and is widespread in India, with Delhi, most notably, experiencing major air quality problems.

One outcome of the IOE and UCL merger coming into effect today will be that all five of the UK's national birth cohort studies will be housed at the same institution for the first time, forming the largest concentration of birth cohort expertise in the world. Cohort studies are a type of longitudinal research that follow the same group of people throughout their lives, charting health and social changes and untangling the reasons behind them.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 02 Dec 2014 Doctors and scientists from The University of Manchester have identified changes in a gene, which can increase the risk of developing brain tumours in children with a rare inherited condition called Gorlin syndrome. Gorlin syndrome causes an increased risk of developing cancers of the skin and, rarely, in the brain.

A new study from researchers at Queen Mary University of London looking at how goats express subtle positive emotions could lead to greater understanding of animal welfare. While there has been a great deal of research into negative emotions and stress in animals it is often hard for those who work with animals to know when they are in more subtle positive states.

The team have derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions Research by the University of Liverpool has identified, for the first time, how global warming is related to the amount of carbon emitted. A team of researchers from the Universities of Liverpool, Southampton and Bristol have derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions since the late 1800s when man-made carbon emissions began.

UK scientists have discovered a ground-breaking technique with the potential to dramatically reduce the amount of energy used in the refinement of crude oil. Professor Martin Schröder and Dr Sihai Yang from The University of Nottingham have led a multi-disciplinary team of scientists from Nottingham, the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) ISIS Neutron Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Diamond Light Source, to discover a porous material that works like a chemical sponge to separate a number of important gases from mixtures generated during crude oil refinement.

Press release issued: 1 December 2014 There is an ever growing demand for high speed internet communication systems. New research has shown optical switching technology built on nanoantenna reflectarrays and tunable materials could transform high speed optical networks. The study by Dr Maciej Klemm and Professor Martin Cryan from the University of Bristol's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is published in the journal, Optics Express .

The models which are used to predict how climate change will occur could be much improved by including the key role of ozone, which is often overlooked in current models. These models are the only tools we have in terms of predicting the future impacts of climate change Peer Nowack Many of the complex computer models which are used to predict climate change could be missing an important ozone 'feedback' factor in their calculations of future global warming, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge and published today (1 December) .

Enzymes made from artificial molecules which do not occur anywhere in nature have been shown to trigger chemical reactions in the lab, challenging existing views about the conditions that are needed to enable life to happen. Our assumptions about what is required for biological processes - the 'secret of life' - may need some further revision Alex Taylor A team of researchers have created the world's first enzymes made from artificial genetic material.

UCL research into the BRCA gene mutation in the the Jewish population show that only assessing family history misses half of the people with the mutation. Women carrying a BRCA 1 or 2 gene mutation have approximately a 15%-45% chance of getting ovarian cancer and a 45-65% chance of getting breast cancer.