news 2016

New research finds genetic differences that help to explain why some babies are born bigger or smaller than others. The research, led by the University of Oxford, also reveals how genetic differences provide an important link between an individual's early growth and their chances of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease in later life.

Year-long study of almost 2,000 officers across UK and US forces shows introduction of wearable cameras led to a 93% drop in complaints made against police by the public - suggesting the cameras result in behavioural changes that 'cool down? potentially volatile encounters. There can be no doubt that body-worn cameras increase the transparency of frontline policing.

We all know what it's like to taste our favourite food and instantly feel good about the world but the same phenomenon may happen in bumblebees. Thursday 29 September 2016 Biologists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have discovered that after bumblebees drink a small droplet of really sweet sugar water, they behave like they are in a positive emotion-like state.

Britons eating a Mediterranean diet could lower their risk of developing heart disease and stroke, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine .

New research has identified genetic differences that help to explain why some babies are born bigger or smaller than others and how they provide an important link between an individual's early growth and their chances of developing later life disease. The large-scale study and involved more than 160 international researchers from 17 countries who are members of the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium.

Genetic differences could help to explain why some babies are born bigger or smaller than others, according to new research from the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium. An international collaboration of researchers including experts from the University of Bristol's School for Social and Community Medicine and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children have found that genetic differences provide an important link between the biology contributing to an individual's early growth and their chances of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease in later life.

A new study of lead pollution in the North Atlantic provides strong evidence that leaded petrol emissions have declined over the past few decades. For the first time in around 40 years, scientists have detected lead from natural sources in samples from this ocean. In the intervening period, the proportion of lead in the ocean from manmade sources, most importantly leaded petrol emissions, had been so high that it was not possible to detect any lead from natural sources.

Scientists at King's College London have found that people who have previously suffered from acne are likely to have longer telomeres (the protective repeated nucleotides found at the end of chromosomes) in their white blood cells, meaning their cells could be better protected against ageing. Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide sequences found at the end of chromosomes which protect them from deteriorating during the process of replication.

The largest simulation to date of the numbers of cattle and badgers infected with tuberculosis (TB) casts serious doubts about the extent to which badgers cause TB in cattle, according to research from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Tuesday 27 September 2016 Using a mathematical model that combines a huge number of cattle and badgers that have TB, the researchers were able to quantify the relationship between the two animals and use a big data approach to show that the route of infection for cattle is from other cattle rather than from other species.

Children with HIV who can resist the disease progressing could point the way to new treatments for HIV infection that are more widely applicable to infected adults and children alike, an international team of researchers led by Oxford University has found. A study published in Science Translational Medicine looked at paediatric non-progressors  (PNPs), the 5 - 10% of children infected with HIV in whom the disease does not progress.

It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly started to appear on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has put forward some of the strongest evidence yet to support the hypothesis that high levels of oxygen in the oceans were crucial for the emergence of skeletal animals 550 million years ago.

Fish with consistent personalities are more successful in social groups and better at helping to build tighter shoals, according to new research published in Scientific Reports. Oscar Wilde may have considered consistency "the last refuge of the unimaginative" in human behaviour, but when it comes to fish, the element of predictability is critical.

A blood pressure drug may make a type of lung cancer treatment more effective, suggests a new study. The early-stage research, conducted on human cells in the lab and on mice, was led by scientists from Imperial College London and Fudan University in China, and is published in the journal Cell Discovery.

Arboviruses - viruses transmitted by insects such as mosquitoes - pose a considerable threat to both human and animal health. Despite that, not enough is known about the complex interactions between the virus and the host, particularly in the early stages of infection. Prof Massimo Palmarini and Eleonora Melzi discuss their work Now, research led by the University of Glasgow has discovered how arboviruses are able to suppress the immune system responses in the initial stages of infection.

Researchers at King's College London have found a new link between the diversity of bacteria in human poo - known as the human faecal microbiome - and levels of abdominal body fat. The research, published today in Genome Biology , also provides further evidence of possible genetic influences on obesity, through heritable bacteria found in the faecal microbiome.

It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly started to appear on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has put forward some of the strongest evidence yet to support the hypothesis that high levels of oxygen in the oceans were crucial for the emergence of skeletal animals 550 million years ago.

It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly started to appear on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has put forward some of the strongest evidence yet to support the hypothesis that high levels of oxygen in the oceans were crucial for the emergence of skeletal animals 550 million years ago.

A new study based on GPS measurements of the Earth's crust suggests that previous calculations of past and present-day mass loss in the Greenland Ice Sheet may have been underestimated. The latest observations, reported Advances today, reveal that the entirety of Greenland is rising in response to a combination of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (that is the rise of land due to ice mass loss over the last ~23 thousands years) and the Earth's immediate elastic response to present-day ice-mass loss.

Experts from Cardiff University are developing a statistical tool that uses social media to make real-time predictions of where hate crimes may occur. The team, from the University's Social Data Science Lab, will be using Los Angeles County as a test bed for their study, thanks to over $800,000 in funding from the US Department of Justice.