Whole Genome Sequencing is a faster, cheaper and more effective way of diagnosing tuberculosis says a new study published in the journal  Lancet Respiratory Medicine . Dr Louise Pankhurst of the University of Oxford and a team of worldwide collaborators including Public Health England utilised innovative DNA technology to diagnose cases of tuberculosis (TB) up to eight times faster than traditional methods.

Fish react emotionally to stress, indicating a degree of consciousness, a ground-breaking new study, led by scientists at the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture and co-authored by Professor Toby Knowles of the University of Bristol, has found. For the first time in fish, the team scientifically demonstrated that exposure to stress resulted in 'emotional fever' - where fish temporarily increased their body temperatures by up to four degrees Celsius by moving through a thermal gradient.

People born with a rare genetic mutation are unable to feel pain, but previous attempts to recreate this effect with drugs have had surprisingly little success. Using mice modified to carry the same mutation, UCL researchers funded by the MRC and Wellcome Trust have now discovered the recipe for painlessness.

Scientists have discovered genetic changes that may be responsible for a link between development problems in the heart and in the brain. Although doctors have long known that congenital heart disease (which includes conditions such as a hole in the heart) can be associated with brain development, they did not know whether brain issues arose from complications from the heart condition, or whether they had a common genetic cause.

The European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder lifted off earlier today on a Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its way to demonstrate technology for observing gravitational waves from space. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime, predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, published on 2 December 1915.

A superflare from a binary star found to be similar in nature to a type of the Sun's solar flares. The star, KIC9655129, regularly produces superflares. University of Warwick researchers suggest the similarity between the flare on KIC9655129 and our own Sun's flares demonstrates the potential for the Sun to superflare.

In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, scientists discover how bacterial predators evolved to kill other bacteria without harming themselves.

A new method of guiding microscopic swimming devices has the potential to deliver drugs to a targeted location inside the body, according to new research published in Nature. Engineers at the University of Sheffield have discovered that tiny spherical bead-like devices can be guided by physical structures while swimming inside fluids.

A pneumonia 'finger clip' and better diagnostic tests could save thousands of lives, say researchers in a supplement . One of the studies in the supplement found that wider use of a device that clips onto the finger to measure oxygen in the blood could prevent 148,000 pneumonia deaths in the under-fives, in countries where the disease is most prominent.

Researchers from the University of Bristol have uncovered one of the reasons for the evolutionary success of flowering plants. The team's paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, investigates the role of genome size - the total DNA contained in the cell of an organism - in explaining the evolutionary success of flowering plants - known as angiosperms.

A University of Warwick academic has helped develop technology that could revolutionise how some cancers are diagnosed. Associate Professor in computer science, Nasir Rajpoot and his team have contributed to a high-tech computer system based at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) able to read samples of human tissue and pick up on minute changes.

A new study from UCL and King's College London has revealed that 7.5 per cent of adults in a South London sample could be diagnosed as having an eating disorder. The clinical criteria surrounding eating disorders recently changed with the introduction of the fifth and latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals across the world.

A study looking at how DNA changes with body size may help scientists to explain why taller individuals tend to have shorter lives. The new findings, based on wild house sparrows, and published today, show how changes in DNA that are linked to ageing and lifespan take place as body size gets bigger. Although larger types of animals tend to live longer than smaller ones - elephants live longer than mice - within many species the bigger individuals have shorter life spans than their smaller counterparts - a Jack Russell has a much longer life than a St Bernard.

Online health information varies between languages according to 'newsworthiness' A new study from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School ( BSMS ) shows that health information provided to the public on the internet varies significantly between languages and is strongly influenced by its 'newsworthiness'.

Owners of one of the UK's most popular dog breeds, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, are being asked by researchers at the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences to take part in a study to investigate a novel method of assessing neck pain in dogs. Syringomyelia is a progressive inherited neurological disease of the neck spinal cord in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS), which may cause neck pain and affects around 70 per cent of CKCS over six-years-old.

Drinking caffeinated drinks and using social media 30 minutes before bedtime is significantly reducing sleep quantity in teenagers and negatively affecting their school performance, according to new research from UCL Institute of Education (IOE)'s Lifespan Learning and Sleep Laboratory. The role of environmental factors on sleep patterns and school performance in adolescents  written by Dr Dagmara Dimitriou, Dr Frances Le Cornu Knight and Patrick Milton shows that the total sleep and bedtimes of teenagers on weekdays are strongly associated with poorer academic achievement at school.

Scientists have found the first direct evidence for explosive releases of energy in Saturn's magnetic bubble using data from the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn creates its own magnetic bubble, known as its magnetosphere, which protects it from the solar wind. Magnetic reconnection is an explosive process in the magnetosphere that allows material such as gas and plasma (the fourth state of matter) from the solar wind to get in, and material from inside to get out.

Researchers at King's College London have begun a new study to help improve surgery for newborn babies with a life-threatening heart disease called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This study could, ultimately, give surgeons the tools they need to select the best treatment plan for each baby, improving their chances of survival and having the best possible quality of life during their childhood and beyond.

People living in poor countries are exposed to more intense and aggressive tobacco marketing than those living in affluent countries, according to a study authored by researchers from our Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization released today.

Bristol study reaffirms classical view of early animal evolution. Whether sponges or comb jellies (also known as sea gooseberries) represent the oldest extant animal phylum is of crucial importance to our understanding of early animal evolution. Recent genomic studies have suggested that comb jellies, members of the phylum Ctenophora, are the sister group to all animals but now new research, led by the University of Bristol, reaffirms the traditional view - that sponges (Porifera) are the oldest animal phylum.