news

The United Nations (UN) warns that drought is emerging as the next 'pandemic,' putting millions at risk and undermining progress towards Zero Hunger by 2030. According to new research led by the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, human responses to drought are inadvertently reinforcing the crisis, creating a dangerous feedback loop that accelerates resource depletion.

A new treatment for a debilitating inflammatory condition which affects joints and skin has shown promising early results in an international clinical trial of more than 200 patients worldwide. Results from the trial showed that patients with psoriatic arthritis, who were treated with a new Nanobody drug called sonelokimab, achieved much greater improvements in joint pain, swelling, and skin symptoms than patients who received a placebo.

A powerful new software tool which can accurately predict the performance of biofilters used by the water industry could reduce the challenge of maintaining the purity of tap water. Researchers from the University of Glasgow's James Watt School of Engineering developed the tool, called the Environmental Buckingham Pi Neural Network, or EnviroPiNet.

An international research collaboration has harnessed supercomputing power to better understand how massive slabs of ancient ocean floors are shaped as they sink hundreds of kilometres below the Earth's surface. Sophisticated computer models developed by researchers in the UK, Switzerland and the USA has cast new light on the complex physical interactions which govern the sliding and sinking of the ancient ocean floor also referred to as subducted slabs through the Earth's mantle, a process known as subduction.

New research has found the earliest evidence of the use of blue dye in the archaeological record, dating back over 34,000 years. The study shows that prehistoric people at Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia were using stone pebbles to grind the leaves of Isatis tinctoria , also known as dyers woad, a plant known today for producing indigo dye.

Cities and towns surrounded by large areas of woodland are more likely to have ticks in their urban greenspaces, according to a new study. The research, which was led by the University of Glasgow and is published in Nature Cities, found that while the number of ticks remains higher in surrounding countryside, they can also be found in some urban greenspaces - something many people may not be aware of.

A record-breaking development in laser technology could help support the development of smaller, cheaper, more easily-fabricated optical and quantum technologies, its inventors say. Researchers from the University of Glasgow have designed and built a narrow-linewidth laser on a single, fully integrated microchip that achieves the best performance ever recorded in semiconductor lasers of its type.

New research gives a deeper understanding of the impact of gambling harms on emotional wellbeing - both on the individual and their loved ones. Research undertaken by the University of Glasgow as part of the new Policy Research Unit in Addictions shows that the link between poor emotional wellbeing and gambling-related harms extends further than previously thought.

When the remnants of some of the Universe's largest stars collide they create ripples which travel through the geometry of space and time which are detected by the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA gravitational-wave observatories. First detected in 2015, measuring these ripples - gravitational-waves - require the most sensitive instruments ever created.

Annual rates of marine mammal strandings have increased in the last 30 years, across all species of dolphins, whales and porpoise native to Scottish waters. The concerning new finding comes from a study led by researchers at the University of Glasgow, and marks the first time scientists have been able to quantify the scale of the increase in marine strandings around Scotland's coastline.

Researchers have found that a common tool used by clinicians for predicting kidney failure could be underestimating the risk of failure for some people. The study - led by the University of Glasgow and published today in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) - suggests the Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE), a prognostic tool that is widely recommended in clinical guidelines, could be underestimating the risk of kidney failure for individuals with chronic kidney disease who also have frailty.

Researchers at a Scottish university have found a new way to remove a common pollutant from water using controlled waves of ultrasound, without the use of additional chemicals. The system, developed by chemists from the University of Glasgow, can scrub up to 94% of the traces of Bisphenol A (BPA) from samples of contaminated water by using ultrasound to create conditions similar to the surface of the sun in bubbles of contaminated water.

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute, based at the University of Glasgow, have made a discovery which could help stop the spread of breast cancer - one of the leading causes of death from the disease. The research, published in the journal Embo Reports, found there are key metabolic changes which occur in the body before the cancer spreads, offering a vital window to intervene.

New advances in 3D printed 'smart' plastics with unusual deformation properties could lead to a new generation of materials designed to monitor their own condition in real time. An international team led by engineers from the University of Glasgow are behind the development, which could lead to applications in everything from medical implants to impact-resistant vehicle structures.

Technologies such as biomedical imaging and spectroscopy could be enhanced by a discovery in research that involved several institutions including the University of Glasgow. Scientists have found that two-photon processes, which have applications in the study of Alzheimer's Disease and other nervous system disorders, can be strengthened by quantum light at far higher levels than previously thought possible.

Insights from a new study could help unlock the full potential of a developing form of smaller-scale wind power generation, researchers say. Engineers from the University of Glasgow have used sophisticated computer simulations of bladeless wind turbines (BWTs) to identify for the first time how future generations of the technology could be built for maximum efficiency.

A groundbreaking study has found that women who experienced physical abuse in the context of domestic violence are more likely to suffer from long-term mental health challenges, even decades after the abuse has ended. Approximately 30% of women worldwide will experience intimate partner violence - commonly referred to as domestic violence - in their lifetime.

Letting black rhinos roam freely may be the best way to save them from the hidden genetic dangers of inbreeding, according to a new study, the first to look at the whole genomes of these critically endangered mammals from populations in Tanzania. The new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was a collaboration between the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWARI) and researchers at the University of Glasgow.

New research on the role of digital communications evidence in Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) applications involving rape and sexual offences, has been published today (3 June). Researchers examined 119 applications made to the Commission where it was claimed by the applicant their conviction was unsafe.

A new study published in the journal Vaccine reveals that improvements in the supply chain and delivery of human rabies vaccines in Tanzania and Kenya could significantly reduce preventable deaths and ensure more efficient use of health budgets. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Glasgow, Ifakara Health Institute, the Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA) at the University of Nairobi, the University of Edinburgh, and Washington State University, with support from the Wellcome Trust.