News 2019

The nitrogen cycle is essential to all forms of life on Earth - nitrogen is a basic building block of DNA. The marine nitrogen cycle is strongly controlled by biology and small changes in the marine nitrogen cycle have major implications on life. It is thought that the marine nitrogen cycle has stayed relatively stable over geological time due to a range of different feedback mechanisms.

Living in a more polluted area is associated with a greater likelihood of having glaucoma, a debilitating eye condition that can cause blindness, finds a new UCL-led study in the UK. People in neighbourhoods with higher amounts of fine particulate matter pollution were at least 6% more likely to report having glaucoma than those in the least-polluted areas, according to the findings published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science .

Researchers at Imperial are starting work on a huge new neutrino experiment, aiming to understand the origin and structure of the universe. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), to be assembled in the US, will have components designed and built by institutions across the UK, including Imperial.

Professor Marianne Ailes , a specialist in medieval French narrative poetry has identified rare fragments of the French poem Fierabras (composed c. 1200), recovered from a sixteenth-century binding in Dundee City Archives. The identification came about by a happy coincidence of circumstances when Dr Julian Luxford of St Andrews University came across the fragments when working in the archive.

Scientists from Cardiff University have studied the sleep patterns of children and adolescents with one of the most common genetic conditions - 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q). The researchers found nearly two thirds (60%) of the group aged 17 and under experienced insomnia or restless sleep and in turn, a higher proportion of these had conditions such as ADHD, anxiety disorders and conduct disorder.

Scientists have reported an effective and environmentally sustainable way to block the transmission of mosquito-borne dengue virus, in trials carried out in Malaysia. Using a strain of the bacteria Wolbachia , which inhibit mosquitoes from transmitting viruses to humans, researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Melbourne and the Institute for Medical Research in Malaysia were successfully able to reduce cases of dengue at sites in Kuala Lumpur.

UCL scientists working to understand neutrinos and antimatter through DUNE (the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) will benefit from the UK's latest multi-million pound investment in the project. The DUNE project brings together more than 1,000 physicists from the UK and 31 countries from Asia, Europe and the Americas to build the world's most advanced neutrino observatory, which could lead to profound changes in our understanding of the universe.

Women who spend longer periods of their early lives in less affluent neighbourhoods are at greater risk of experiencing violence during their early adulthoods at the hands of their intimate partners, finds a new study published in Epidemiology . Intimate partner violence - physical, psychological, or sexual violence committed by a current or former partner - is the most common form of violence experienced by women worldwide.

A team of Cardiff University researchers has uncovered a potential new way to treat a very rare genetic disorder that causes muscles in the arms and legs to become increasingly weak. GNE myopathy is a debilitating condition that affects young adults in their 20s or 30s, typically leaving them in a wheelchair within years.

Intimate partner violence - physical, psychological, or sexual violence committed by a current or former partner - is the most common form of violence experienced by women worldwide. In the UK, an estimated 7% of women (approximately 1.1 million women) reported experiencing this violence in the last year alone according to the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales.

An analysis of patients' heart data has shown that even a small increase in a protein linked to heart attacks is linked to an increased risk of death. Clinicians use troponin testing, alongside other investigations, to determine whether a patient is having a heart attack and to inform treatment choices.

The study published in PLOS ONE today [Wednesday 20 November] investigated whether the donation of personal data could be a publicly acceptable act to support the use of consumer personal data for academic research. The researchers developed a new questionnaire that measured individuals' motivations for donating data, which could be used in future research on data donation in different contexts, such as medical data.

The most energetic form of light has been detected from a distant but powerful cosmic explosion known as a 'gamma-ray burst' for the first time, by an international team including UCL physicists using a UCL-built space telescope onboard NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The discovery and in particular, the unknown mechanisms that cause extremely high-energy light to be emitted in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB).

Scientists from Imperial and the University of Bergen have found a new way to predict how a disease will likely progress in individual patients. This could help patients receive more targeted treatments earlier in the progress of their disease. [Our approach] is very useful for tracking disease markers, learning about biological evolution and other processes that occur over time.

Government leaders must set a good example to the business community if they want to eliminate corporate corruption, a new study reveals. Financial incentives and criminal punishment will not root out corrupt business practices, but a government culture of honesty, integrity and strong leadership could help to cure corruption.

The introduction of a digital alert system to monitor patients with sepsis has led to a reduction in deaths and hospital stays. Sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, is life threatening and accounts for an estimated 46,000 deaths in the UK each year. If diagnosed early it can be treated effectively with antibiotics but the difficulty lies in spotting sepsis before it develops, as symptoms are similar to other illnesses such as flu.

New research examining the effect of being raised by a single mother reveals lower income and resources has the greatest impact on a child's development, not poor parenting skills. The study, published today [20 November] in the journal Child Development , found children who lived with a single mother before age 11 had lower verbal ability than children whose parents stayed together.

Scientists have detected an exotic tick-borne parasite within sheep in the North of Scotland, according to a new study. The research, by scientists at the University of Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine and Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, was published today in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Forty-four academics are included in Clarivate's 'Highly Cited Researchers 2019' list, which recognises authors of the most influential research papers around the world. The results are comparable with university peers such as Oxford (55 researchers recognised), Cambridge (53) and Imperial College London (34) and represent an increase since last year, when 41 UCL researchers were recognised.

The leftovers from a spectacular supernova that revolutionised our understanding of how stars end their lives have finally been spotted by astronomers at Cardiff University. The scientists claim to have found evidence of the location of a neutron star that was left behind when a massive star ended its life in a gigantic explosion, leading to a famous supernova dubbed Supernova 1987A.