An international team co-led by UCL researchers has estimated the distribution of matter in the universe and found that it supports the standard model of cosmology - much to the team's surprise. The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) observed large parts of the southern sky over eight years to gain insights into the distribution of matter in the universe.

Women have a higher proportion of key immune cells between puberty and menopause, which may be linked to the sex hormone oestrogen and explain why they are less susceptible to certain infectious diseases than men, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine , is one of the first to explore how sex chromosomes and sex hormones combine to influence the immune systems of healthy individuals across a wide range of ages and gender profiles 1 .

Scientists explore a seafloor area newly exposed by iceberg A-84; discover vibrant communities of ancient sponges and corals. An international team of scientists have uncovered a thriving underwater ecosystem off the coast of Antarctica that had never before been accessible to humans. The team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, were working in the Bellingshausen Sea off the coast of Antarctica when a massive iceberg broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf in January of this year.

Many discs of gas and dust in which new planets are formed are much smaller than thought, according to a new study involving UCL's Dr Paola Pinilla. The research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look at 73 protoplanetary discs in the Lupus region. They found that many young stars host modest discs of gas and dust, some as small as 1.2 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the sun).

Neat lanes are the norm at road crossings - until people start veering off at critical angles, then chaos ensues. Zebra crossings generally showcase the best in pedestrian behaviour, with people naturally forming orderly lanes as they cross the road, smoothly passing those coming from the opposite direction without any bumps or scrapes.

Women experience a significant fall in earnings in the years following a menopause diagnosis, with more women stopping work and others working fewer hours, according to a new UCL study published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Economists at UCL, University of Bergen, Stanford University and University of Delaware calculated that women experience a 4.3% reduction in their earnings, on average, in the four years following a menopause diagnosis, with losses deepening to 10% by the fourth year.

Researchers have developed an irreversible inhibitor of the transcription factor cJun, which drives certain difficult-to-treat cancers. For the first time scientists have identified promising drug candidates that bind irreversibly with a notoriously "undruggable" cancer protein target, permanently blocking it.

Researchers from around the UK, led by the University of Oxford, have found that a new way of performing prostate biopsies is better at diagnosing prostate cancer, but takes longer to perform and is more painful for patients. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the developed world. The most widely used method of diagnosing prostate cancer involves a biopsy that passes a needle through the lining of the lower bowel (the rectum) and into the prostate gland, which is performed under local anaesthetic.

A new AI weather prediction system, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, can deliver accurate forecasts tens of times faster and using thousands of times less computing power than current AI and physics-based forecasting systems. The system, Aardvark Weather, has been supported by the Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft Research and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts.

A wide diversity of marine life, that may include previously unknown species, flourishes in a region of ocean once hidden beneath a thick cover of ice, finds a recently-returned Antarctic expedition co-led by a UCL researcher. The expedition, in partnership with Schmidt Ocean Institute, examined and mapped the unseen submarine environment off the Antarctic Peninsula, in an area that was until recently covered by a massive ice shelf and that in late 2024 shed a colossal iceberg from its floating edge.

Our scientists have played a leading role in creating the largest-ever 3D map of the universe, using data from 15 million galaxies and quasars. The map was produced by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), an international project involving over 900 researchers from 70 institutions worldwide.

The parts of the brain that are needed to remember words, and how these are affected by a common form of epilepsy, have been identified by a team of neurologists and neurosurgeons at UCL. The new study, published in Brain Communications , found that shrinkage in the front and side of the brain (prefrontal, temporal and cingulate cortices, and the hippocampus) was linked to difficulty remembering words.

Scientists have released a new set of data from the Euclid space telescope, offering an unprecedented view of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. The Euclid space telescope, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to create the most detailed map of the night sky ever made, helping scientists understand the evolution of our Universe and mysterious forces like dark matter and dark energy.

New research has found that four out of five males in prison have a history of significant head injury, with many having been exposed to repeated head injuries over time. Led by the University of Glasgow and published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, this latest research highlights both the very high prevalence and the impacts of significant head injury among Scotland's adult male population.

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe. Our history is far richer and more complex than we imagined Aylwyn Scally Using advanced analysis based on full genome sequences, researchers from the University of Cambridge have found evidence that modern humans are the result of a genetic mixing event between two ancient populations that diverged around 1.5 million years ago.

People with favourable socioeconomic conditions, such as high incomes or education levels, face a reduced risk of age-related diseases and show fewer signs of biological ageing than peers of the same age, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. Social inequalities appear to have a direct impact on the biological ageing process, according to the authors of the Nature Medicine paper.

Researchers looked at adult sickness and death in 18 countries Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, nearly 17 million years of life were lost from 2020-2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study. The study, in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine, shows a stark picture of the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both total and disability-free years of life lost, with researchers able to identify different factors at play as the pandemic progressed.

Research increasingly shows that tackling modifiable exposures and environmental risks could be one of our most powerful levers for longevity and health span. Scientists say this knowledge could help us design better solutions to create environments that promote human health to address the global health and economic crises caused by the chronic disease epidemic and ageing demographic.

Researchers found that adding a deadline to bowel screening invitation letters boosted test returns, with the largest effect for a 2-week return deadline. The study, which was led by Professor Katie Robb from the University of Glasgow's School of Health and Wellbeing, involved 40,000 adults in the nationwide Scottish Bowel Screening Programme.

Tiny, individual, flexible ribbons of crystalline phosphorus discovered by UCL researchers in 2019 exhibit magnetic and semiconducting properties at room temperature, opening new possibilities for next-generation electronics, finds a new study involving members of the same team. The findings, published in the journal Nature , confirm the one-atom-thick ribbons, known as phosphorene nanoribbons, as a unique class of material that could enable more energy-efficient computing and unlock new quantum technologies.