news 2016

Interventions  intended to encourage green choices among individuals, including for recycling or energy use, would be better targeted at moments of major change in people's lives if they are to stick, according to a new study from psychology researchers. In their new paper , published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology , behaviour change experts from the University suggest that life transitions, such as a house move or changing jobs, can provide a window of opportunity, during which time habits can be shifted.

Orbit Discovery - a new spinout from the University of Oxford - has raised seed funding to commercialise technology which will help to identify targeted, affordable therapeutic drugs known as peptides. Oxford Sciences Innovation, the £320m investment company established to provide capital and scaling expertise to Oxford spinouts, is the lead investor in the new company.

New research has found, for the first time, a scientific solution that enables future internet infrastructure to become completely open and programmable while carrying internet traffic at the speed of light. The research by High Performance Networks (HPN) group in the University of Bristol's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is published in the world's first scientific journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A .

An epilepsy drug could lead to a new treatment that protects nerve damage in MS patients, according to research published in the Lancet Neurology. Researchers, led by Dr Raj Kapoor from the UCL Institute of Neurology, found the anti-convulsant drug phenytoin protected neural tissue in patients with optic neuritis.

New research at the University of Liverpool has confirmed that unhealthy food advertising increases food intake in children. Researchers, led by Dr Emma Boyland from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health & Society , reviewed and analysed 22 separate studies that had examined the impact of acute, experimental unhealthy food advertising exposure on food consumption.

Current satellite technology has been overestimating how much variation there is in UV radiation from the Sun, according to a new analysis. Scientists measure the varying amount of ultraviolet light that comes to Earth from the Sun because it plays a role in our climate. It does this by creating or destroying ozone molecules in the top layers of the atmosphere.

In what is believed to be the biggest study of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) - in children to date, researchers at the University of Bristol, have found that almost 2 per cent of 16-year-olds have CFS lasting more than six months and nearly 3 per cent have CFS lasting more than three months (the UK definition).

New research shows wild Aegean wall lizards found on Greek islands choose to sit on rocks that better match their individual colouring. This improves camouflage and so reduces the risk of being attacked by birds when they sit out in the open, raising the intriguing question of how the lizards know what colour they are.

Wearing a helmet in an effort to stay safe is likely to increase sensation seeking and could conversely make us less safe and more inclined to take risks, according to a significant new study from our researchers. The latest findings call into question the effectiveness of certain safety advice, notably in relation to helmets for various leisure activities, including cycling.

The UK's first national clinical research centre dedicated to early miscarriage is to open at Imperial College London. The National Early Miscarriage Centre, which will be funded by Tommy's - the UK baby charity that funds research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth - will comprise a partnership between Imperial College London , the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick.

Physicists from Imperial and the Germany have demonstrated a theory about the behaviour of light in materials, 106 years after it was first proposed. Tags: Strategy core disciplines , Materials See more tags Leave a comment Your comment may be published, displaying your name as you provide it, unless you request otherwise.

Srivas Chennu (Department of Clinical Neurosciences) discusses how doctors could use brain waves to help predict how patients will respond to general anaesthetics. Measuring certain kinds of brain activity may help doctors track and predict how patients will react to anaesthesia before going under for surgery, our research has found.

It may be possible to assess the risk of developing dementia by analyzing information gathered during routine visits to the family doctor, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. Researchers from UCL have developed an algorithm that uses routinely collected data to predict a five-year risk of dementia as part of an NIHR-funded study.

An illustration showing atherosclerosis - blockage of the artery caused by a buildup of cholesterol-rich plaque. When plaque breaks off and enters the brain, it can cause a clot leading to stroke Scientists at the University of Oxford will investigate a new way to identify people who might be at high risk of stroke. Dr Luca Biasiolli at the university has been backed by the British Heart Foundation to study whether a new MRI scanning technique could be used to spot the potentially dangerous plaques that cause stroke.

Mental health issues in early adulthood can impact upon a person's future life chances, a new study has shown. Researchers at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, looking at the emergence of health inequalities in young adults, have highlighted evidence that mental health in young adulthood has an effect on person's later socio-economic position, and most notably for women.

While traditional economic and evolutionary theory predicts that people will typically seek to maximise their own success, the results of economic games have shown people to be much more altruistic than expected. But a series of experiments carried out by evolutionary biologists at Oxford found that people are just as generous towards computers, which cannot benefit materially from cooperation, and that simply misunderstanding the game may lead to altruism in many cases.

Simple blood test capable of detecting levels of leukaemia cells post chemotherapy Cardiff University scientists are part of a UK team to develop a simple blood test capable of detecting levels of leukaemia cells remaining after intensive chemotherapy. Working alongside experts from King's College London, a team from the University's School of Medicine led by Dr Robert Hills provided the crucial data from current patients with leukaemia.

Skeletal remains of a group of foragers massacred around 10,000 years ago on the shores of a lagoon is unique evidence of a violent encounter between clashing groups of ancient hunter-gatherers, and suggests the "presence of warfare" in late Stone Age foraging societies. The deaths at Nataruk are testimony to the antiquity of inter-group violence and war Marta Mirazón Lahr The fossilised bones of a group of prehistoric hunter-gatherers who were massacred around 10,000 years ago have been unearthed 30km west of Lake Turkana, Kenya, at a place called Nataruk.

Cancers evolve over time in patterns governed by the same mathematical laws that drive natural processes such as the flow of rivers or the brightness of stars, reports a study led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and The Institute of Cancer Research. The research raises the possibility that doctors could take clinical decisions on how an individual patient's cancer will change, and what treatments should be used, by applying mathematical formulas to tumour biopsies.

Children whose GPs are easy to access are less likely to visit A&E than those whose GPs are less able to provide appointments. These are the findings of a new study, led by researchers from Imperial College London , and published in the journal Pediatrics. The research also found that during weekdays, children's visits to A&E peak after school hours.