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The number of patients per GP has soared by 9%, rising to a massive 32% when taking chronic conditions into account, a new study in England by University of Manchester researchers has found. The increase - identified from data between 2015 and 2022 - occurred alongside an overall drop in GP supply of 2.7% over the same period, due to falling contractual hours.

Scientists have developed a new way of searching for elusive dark matter, which makes up 85% of all matter in the Universe, using detectors that are meant to observe gravitational waves. The researchers, who were looking for a specific ultra-low-mass form of dark matter, reached a factor 10,000 improvement over previous world-leading results using Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) data from 2019-2020.

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. The international team, co-led by the University of Cambridge, used Webb to observe a galaxy roughly the size of the Milky Way in the early universe, about two billion years after the Big Bang.

A new cheap, easily-manufactured device could lead to improved satellite communication, high speed data transmission, and remote sensing, scientists say. A team of engineers led by researchers from the University of Glasgow have developed a ultrathin 2D surface which harnesses the unique properties of metamaterials to manipulate and convert radio waves across the frequences most commonly used by satellites.

Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From brain fluid surgery to a lunar-Earth flyby from the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), here is some quick-read news from across Imperial. Spacecraft slingshot success The European Space Agency (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), with Imperial kit on board , has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby.

New results from the world's most sensitive dark matter detector narrow down the possibilities for what makes up our universe's invisible mass. Figuring out the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most of the mass in our universe, is one of the greatest puzzles in physics. New results from the world's most sensitive dark matter detector, LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), have put new limits on the potential properties of one of the leading dark matter candidates: weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From new treatment targets for balance problems, to space weather missions, here is some quick-read news from across Imperial. Space weather mission  researchers will be building kit for a new space mission to understand a component of the solar wind and how it interacts with the Earth to create potentially dangerous 'space weather'.

Scientists have developed a new method for detecting supermassive binary black holes, pairs of the largest kind of black holes in the Universe and located at the very centre of galaxies. The new technique will require a deci-Hz gravitational-wave detector and would enable astronomers to study supermassive black hole binaries, which might otherwise remain inaccessible.

Astronomers have discovered that red dwarf stars can produce stellar flares that carry far-ultraviolet (far-UV) radiation levels much higher than previously believed. The discovery suggests that the intense UV radiation from these flares could significantly impact whether planets around red dwarf stars can be habitable.

Scientists have modelled the breakdown of alien spaceships using "warp drive" technology, to study the gravitational wave emissions that are generated. The technology, seen in sci-fi shows like Star Trek, creates a bubble in which fictional spacecraft are propelled forward by compressing the spacetime in front of them.

The mystery of how complex molecules essential to life first formed may have been solved by a new study involving UCL's Dr Paola Pinilla. Planetary scientists believe that organic macromolecules that make Earth suitable for life, including elements such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, initially came from a type of meteorite known as a chondrite - but how chondrites acquired these molecules in the first place was unknown.

The different atmospheric conditions of the 'morning' and 'evening' sides of a distant planet have been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The atmospheres of exoplanets - those outside our Solar System - have been measured using powerful telescopes for some time. However, the atmosphere has always been treated as being the same all'over the planet.

Research into a rare planet is revealing the link between hot Jupiter-sized exoplanets and cold solar system giants like Saturn. Astronomers searching for exoplanets (planets outside of our solar system) have investigated a Saturn-sized body around a Sun-like star, 490 lightyears from Earth. The research, led by The University of Warwick in collaboration with other global institutions, focused on a transiting exoplanet called TOI-2447 b, which is much cooler and further away from its host star than most known exoplanets.

An antenna on ExoMars' Trace Gas Orbiter has been given a new lease of life, helping researchers delve into the Martian atmosphere like never before. Using the repurposed equipment, a team including Imperial College London researchers have measured parts of the Martian atmosphere that were previously impossible to probe.

A massive balloon, designed to measure the background radiation left over from the 'Big Bang' and help scientists better understand the infancy and evolution of our Universe, has just moved to the next stage of development Thirty years after the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) spectrum was first precisely characterised by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission, a new experiment - known as BISOU (for Balloon Interferometer for Spectral Observations of the Universe) - is expected to significantly advance these measurements, gaining a factor of ~25 in sensitivity.

Techniques developed to analyse the ripples in spacetime detected by one of the 21st century's most sensitive pieces of scientific equipment have helped cast new light on the function of the oldest known analogue computer. Astronomers from the University of Glasgow have used statistical modelling techniques developed to analyse gravitational waves to establish the likely number of holes in one of the broken rings of the Antikythera mechanism - an ancient artifact which was showcased in the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny .

Manchester engineers unlock design for record-breaking robot that could jump twice the height of Big Ben Engineers at The University of Manchester have unlocked the secrets to designing a robot capable of jumping 200 metres - higher than any other jumping robot designed to date. Using a combination of mathematics, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments, the researchers have discovered how to design a robot with the optimum size, shape and the arrangement of its parts, allowing it to jump high enough to clear obstacles many times its own size.

The structure and function of the kidneys is altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardise any mission to Mars, according to a new study led by researchers from UCL. The study, published in Nature Communications , is the largest analysis of kidney health in space flight to date and includes the first health dataset for commercial astronauts.

Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy just 350 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest detection of any element in the universe other than hydrogen. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge observed a very young galaxy in the early universe and found that it contained surprising amounts of carbon, one of the seeds of life as we know it.

Artist's depiction of CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope with two versions of the mysterious celestial object: neutron star or white dwarf Most collapsed stars rotate faster than once per second. This one takes nearly an hour. Scientists have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate -slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio emitting neutron stars measured to date.