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Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, with over a million new patients being diagnosed each year. In most cases, the cancer develops from tiny, slow-growing nodules on the bowel wall, known as polyps, which can be detected and removed during a 'colonoscopy' camera examination.

The review, carried out on behalf of World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, has updated the findings of WCRF's landmark 2007 report, which found convincing evidence that being overweight increases bowel cancer risk. But research published since then has increasingly shown abdominal fatness - fat around the waist - is particularly harmful for bowel cancer.

In a report published this week, researchers from the University of Leeds predict that ethnic minorities will make up one-fifth of the population by 2051 (compared to 8% in 2001), with the mixed ethnic population expected to treble in size. Their projections also indicate that the UK will become far less segregated as ethnic groups disperse throughout the country.

The impact of depression on recovery from stroke has been largely underestimated and patients' psychological wellbeing should be monitored much more closely, according to the researchers from the University of Leeds. Around a third of people experience depression after a stroke. Doctors often assume that this downturn in mood is to be expected and that it will be short-lived.

Leeds scientists have created the first convincing robotic fish that shoals will accept as one of their own. The innovation opens up new possibilities for studying fish behaviour and group dynamics. It provides useful information to support freshwater and marine environmental management, to predict fish migration routes and assess the likely impact of human intervention on fish populations.

An attack by the Sunday Times on the veracity of climate change research has been withdrawn, with an apology, following a complaint by rainforest expert Dr Simon Lewis from the University of Leeds. In January, the Sunday Times claimed that UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had issued 'unsubstantiated' and 'bogus' threats about the vulnerability of the Amazonian rainforest to droughts caused by climate change.

The fossil wasp is almost identical to the modern species, proving that this tiny but specialised insect has remained virtually unchanged for over 34 million years. The fossil isn't a new find but was wrongly identified as an ant when it was first discovered in the 1920s. Fig wasp expert at the University of Leeds, Dr Steve Compton, was called in to study the fossil when the late Dr Mikhail Kozlov spotted the mistake during research at the Natural History Museum, London into the flora and fauna of the Isle of Wight.

Scientists from the University of Leeds have discovered the mechanisms of a protein known to play an active part in the inherited kidney disorder, Dent’s disease. Dent's disease is an extremely rare illness caused by a genetic mutation on the X chromosome. Affecting mostly men, its main symptom is kidney stones often followed by a deterioration of kidney function and in many cases chronic kidney failure.

The findings, published online today in Nature Genetics , come during the Everyman Male Cancer Awareness Month, which aims to increase awareness and funding for vital research into testicular and prostate cancers. The work, led by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), was carried out in collaboration with colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Units in Cambridge and at the University of Leeds.

Professor Christopher McCabe, a health economist at the University of Leeds, and colleagues argue that the biggest losers are the other NHS patients who would otherwise have benefited from the money spent on the scheme, estimated to be around £50m per year since it was set up in 2002. The risk sharing scheme was set up by the Department of Health to make sure disease-modifying drugs were available on the NHS after the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) ruled that they were not cost effective.