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Professor Andrew Hayward (UCL Epidemiology & Health) explains why the new, more infectious, strain of Covid-19 is a cause for concern and suggests what must be done to reduce transmission of the disease. On the last day of 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) received the first reports of an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China.

Scientists at UCL and from across the world have catalogued almost 700 million astronomical objects in one of the most detailed sky surveys ever undertaken. Scientists on the international Dark Energy Survey (DES), including those from eight UK institutions, have released the second set of data - mapping over an eighth of the entire sky using one of the most sensitive cameras ever built.

A quarter of people in the UK reported drinking more than usual during the first lockdown, particularly those who were younger, female and suffering from anxiety, finds a study by UCL researchers. The study, published today in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, surveyed over 30,000 adults about their drinking behaviour during the earliest stage of lockdown between 21 March and 4 April 2020 and found that a third (34.3%) weren't drinking.

Patients admitted to very full hospitals have an increased chance of dying which is equivalent to being up to 11 years older, according to a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The study, published as a pre-print* on MedRxiv , analysed data from 4032 patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) with presumed or confirmed Covid-19 in the first lockdown.

Less than half (43%) of people who developed Covid-19 symptoms say they've requested a test, find UCL researchers as part of the Covid-19 Social Study. Three quarters (75%) of adults aged 60+ who reported experiencing symptoms at least once said they had never requested a test, with just 18% of the same age group saying they requested a test every time they experienced symptoms.

Researchers are leading a £3.8 million project to develop quantum technology aimed at detecting the mass of a neutrino, the universe's most abundant but elusive particle of matter. UCL is playing a key role in three of the seven projects. Neutrinos are millions of times lighter than electrons and are poorly understood as they can pass through matter undetected.

Children who have adverse experiences such as being smacked at the age of three are more likely to suffer from poor mental health and have behavioural problems through to age 14, according to a study led by UCL researchers. Children who have adverse experiences such as being smacked at the age of three are more likely to suffer from poor mental health and have behavioural problems through to age 14, according to a study led by UCL researchers.

A new risk-stratification tool which can accurately predict the likelihood of deterioration in adults hospitalised with COVID-19 has been developed by UCL researchers, in collaboration with the UK Coronavirus Clinical Characterisation Consortium (known as ISARIC4C). Researchers say the online tool, made freely available to NHS doctors on Friday 8 January 2021, could support clinicians' decision making - helping to improve patient outcomes and ultimately save lives.

A new smartphone app developed by researchers at UCL and Birkbeck, University of London, is enabling doctors to remotely monitor their patients' progression of Parkinson's symptoms, as reported in a new clinical trial. The findings, published in npj Parkinson's Disease , show that the app can provide clinicians with a more complete picture of a person's condition than they can get from a typically brief medical check-up.

A pioneering new eye test, developed by scientists at UCL in collaboration with the Western Eye Hospital, London, may predict wet AMD, a leading cause of severe sight loss, three years before symptoms develop. Researchers hope their test could be used to identify the disease early enough so that treatment can effectively prevent any vision loss.

More than one third of UK teenagers are starting adult life with excess weight (either overweight or obese), and rates are even higher among the poorest, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published today in a briefing paper  by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Social Research Institute, shows that one in five (21%) young people were obese at age 17, and a further one in seven (14%) were overweight, based on data collected in 2018-19 .

Researchers at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute have rebuilt a human thymus, an essential organ in the immune system, using human stem cells and a bioengineered scaffold. The study in mice marks an important step towards building artificial thymi for use in transplants. The thymus is an organ in the chest where T lymphocytes, which play a vital role in the immune system, mature.

The proportion of adults with diagnosed diabetes trebled between 1994 and 2019, report researchers from UCL and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), who have analysed the latest results from the Health Survey for England (HSE). The report, which is commisisoned by NHS Digital, analyses data from over 8,200 adults and 2,000 children living in private households in England and shows the percentage of people who have been diagnosed with diabetes has risen since 1994, from 3% to 9% among men and from 2% to 6% among women.

Neuroscientists at UCL have found no significant association between COVID-19 and the potentially paralysing and sometimes fatal neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome. Researchers say the findings, published in the journal  Brain*,  along with a linked scientific commentary** by UCL and other international experts, should provide the public with reassurance, as the UK's national coronavirus vaccination programme is rolled out.

An earwax self-sampling device could be used to measure chronic glucose levels, according to a study led by UCL and King's College London researchers. The pilot study, published in Diagnostics , reports that the new device was almost 60% more reliable at measuring chronic glucose levels averaged over a month than an existing gold standard technique.

People's levels of anxiety and depression were at their highest (worst) in the early stages of the March lockdown but improved fairly rapidly following the introduction of restrictions, according to new findings by UCL researchers. The study, published today in Lancet Psychiatry and funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, analysed data from over 36,000 adults who had provided responses on their mental health as part of the UCL COVID -19 Social Study on a weekly basis between 23 March and 9 August 2020.

Men have almost three times the odds of needing admission to intensive care and 40% higher odds of dying from COVID-19 than women, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the University of Cape Town. The study, published and the largest review of its kind, looked at publicly available data from 92 reports across 47 countries to investigate why COVID-19 may affect genders differently.

California's 2018 wildfires cost the US economy $148.5bn (£110bn) (0.7% of the country's annual GDP), of which $45.9bn was lost outside the state, according to researchers from universities including UCL. More than 8,500 separate fires burned during 2018 in California, making them the deadliest and most destructive of any year in the state's history.

Dr Ferran Sayol and Professor Tim Blackburn (both UCL Biosciences) discuss their new study, which found there would be at least four times as many flightless bird species on Earth today if it were not for human influences. When the first humans started to colonise all the regions of the world, many species went extinct.

There would be at least four times as many flightless bird species on Earth today if it were not for human influences, finds a study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Science Advances , finds that flightlessness evolved much more frequently among birds than would be expected if you only looked at current species.