news 2015

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), site of the famous 2012 discovery of the elusive Higgs boson, is due to switch back on next week. Many Imperial College London researchers are involved in the work of the LHC. They were amongst those who designed, engineered and built the CMS detector - one of the LHC's two main experiments - and analysed its results.

The causes of a hitherto mysterious process that could enhance the power of solar cells have been explained in a new study. If we want to implement this in a solar cell, we need to understand more about why and how singlet exciton fission occurs in the first place. Andrew Musser The underlying mechanism behind an enigmatic process called "singlet exciton fission", which could enable the development of significantly more powerful solar cells, has been identified by scientists in a new study.

Astronomers have made observations which can reveal the chemical makeup of a rocky world orbiting a distant star. Led by researchers at The Open University, in conjunction with the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield, the observations could initiate a new discipline: exogeology - the geology of planets orbiting other stars.

A molecular chaperone has been found to inhibit a key stage in the development of Alzheimer's disease and break the toxic chain reaction that leads to the death of brain cells, a new study shows. The research provides an effective basis for searching for candidate molecules that could be used to treat the condition.

Scientists have shown that gold nanotubes have many applications in fighting cancer: internal nanoprobes for high-resolution imaging; drug delivery vehicles; and agents for destroying cancer cells. The study, published today in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, details the first successful demonstration of the biomedical use of gold nanotubes in a mouse model of human cancer.

Manchester scientists have found that gentle heating of targeted nano-sized drug parcels more effectively in deliver them to tumour cells – resulting in an improvement in survival rates. One of the clinically-established methods for the delivery of cancer chemotherapy drugs has been to package the drug inside nano-sized containers, known as liposomes.

Researchers have cracked a code that governs infections by a major group of viruses including the common cold and polio. Until now, scientists had not noticed the code, which had been hidden in plain sight in the sequence of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) that makes up this type of viral genome. But a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition by a group from the University of Leeds and University of York unlocks its meaning and demonstrates that jamming the code can disrupt virus assembly.

Semi-transparent, flexible electronics are no longer just science-fiction thanks to graphene's unique properties, University of Sheffield researchers have found. Published in the scientific , University of Sheffield and University of Manchester researchers show that new 2D 'designer materials' can be produced to create flexible, see-through and more efficient electronic devices.

Semi-transparent, flexible electronics are no longer just science-fiction thanks to graphene's unique properties, University of Manchester researchers have found. Published in the scientific , University of Manchester and University of Sheffield researchers show that new 2D 'designer materials' can be produced to create flexible, see-through and more efficient electronic devices.

Chemists at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with colleagues at the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Heriot-Watt University (HWU), can now follow chemical reactions in liquids with unprecedented, atomically resolved detail on sub-picosecond timescales (1 picosecond = 10-12s) - matching the time intervals between molecular collisions.

Scientists have long known that the speed of light can be slowed slightly as it travels through materials such as water or glass. However, it has generally been thought impossible for particles of light, known as photons, to be slowed as they travel through free space, unimpeded by interactions with any materials.

Scientists from around the world have joined forces to lay the foundations for an experiment of truly astronomical proportions: putting together the biggest map of the Universe ever made. In a series of papers published today on the arXiv.org astrophysics website ( http://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new ), an international team of researchers, including a team from The University of Manchester, set out their plans for the mammoth survey.