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Planetary scientists including UCL's Professor Steve Miller have detected the infrared aurorae of the ice giant Uranus after searching for more than 30 years, in a new study published in Nature Astronomy. On Earth, the Northern and Southern Lights (aurorae) occur as a result of the interaction between the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind and our magnetic field, which funnels the particles in our atmosphere around the poles.

Up to 1.7 million people could be living with dementia in England and Wales by 2040 - over 40% more than previously forecast - finds a new UCL-led study. Previous studies, based on data up to 2010, showed that dementia incidence had declined in high-income countries. However, the new research, published in The Lancet Public Health , indicates that dementia incidence started to increase in England and Wales after 2008.

The MyCampus system will be trialled in six buildings from 6 November, before being rolled out across UCL. Staff and students can report maintenance issues and track progress. What do I need to know?  MyCampus is an integrated workplace management system (IWMS), of the type used by many large organisations, which provides a single source of truth for all Estates data to inform decision-making on the operational requirements of UCL's estate.

Existing air pollution regulations will reduce thousands of premature adult deaths in the UK, but even the most effective technically feasible actions, which will save thousands more lives, will do little to protect the country's sensitive ecosystems, find UCL researchers. The new research, published in GeoHealth , found that existing air pollution regulations could avoid 6,751 early deaths amongst adults in the UK by 2030 compared to if no regulations existed.

Consistently sleeping less than five hours a night might raise the risk of developing depressive symptoms, according to a new genetic study led by UCL researchers. Historically, poor sleep has been seen as a side effect of mental ill health, but this study found that the link between sleep and mental illness is more complex.

Polygenic risk scores, which estimate a person's disease risk based on thousands or millions of common genetic variants, perform poorly in screening and prediction of common diseases such as heart disease, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. It has been claimed that polygenic risk scores will transform the prediction and prevention of common diseases.

The healthcare needs of pregnant adolescents will continue to be ignored in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) unless there are major changes to healthcare delivery and frameworks, according to a new study by UCL and Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) researchers.

Tropical crops such as coffee, cocoa, watermelon and mango may be at risk due to the loss of insect pollinators, finds a new study led by UCL and Natural History Museum researchers. Published in Science Advances , the study explores the intricate interplay between climate change, land use change, and their impact on pollinator biodiversity, ultimately revealing significant implications for global crop pollination.

Factors that increase the risk of dementia have a greater impact on risk for people in minority ethnic groups, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The new PLOS One study found that modifiable risk factors-including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, low HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol and sleep disorders-have different impacts on dementia risk for different ethnic groups.

A new international study from UCL and UCLH that aims to improve the quality of MRI scans for prostate cancer screening has identified simple ways to treble the number of scans that are of optimal diagnostic quality. Published in Radiology , the research is an important step towards making MRIs available to all men who need one.

People who carry three gene variants that have bene inherited from Neanderthals are more sensitive to some types of pain, according to a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The findings, published in , are the latest findings to show how past interbreeding with Neanderthals has influenced the genetics of modern humans.

People with early Alzheimer's disease have difficulty turning when walking, according to a new study using virtual reality led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Current Biology , used a computational model to further explore the intricacies of navigational errors previously observed in Alzheimer's disease.

A smartphone camera was able to detect changes in skin tone and eye colour that require patients to seek medical help, in new research from UCL and the Royal Free Hospital. The study, published in PLOS Digital Health , is the first to assess and compare how smartphone images of the forehead, white of the eye and lower eyelid could be used to accurately predict the bilirubin level of patients with advanced cirrhosis.

Scientists at the UCL Queen Square Institute for Neurology have developed new tools, based on AI language models, that can characterise subtle signatures in the speech of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. The research, published in PNAS , aims to understand how the automated analysis of language could help doctors and scientists diagnose and assess psychiatric conditions.

Machine learning models to identify the simplest way to screen for lung cancer have been developed by researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge, bringing personalised screening one step closer. The model was found to be as good or better at predicting an individual's risk of getting lung cancer within five years compared to the best risk models available, and was able to do so using just a quarter of the information needed.

A new systematic review by researchers at UCL and Wingate University has highlighted the importance of identifying childhood verbal abuse by adults as a standalone subtype of child maltreatment, to ensure targeted prevention and address the lasting harm it can inflict. Child maltreatment is currently classified into four subtypes: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.

Young people who are in higher education in England face a small increased risk of depression and anxiety, compared to their peers who are not attending higher education, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research paper, published in The Lancet Public Health , is the first to find evidence of higher levels of depression and anxiety among higher education students compared with their peers.

Policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been effective, however more stringent regulations are needed to limit global warming to the Paris temperature goals, finds a new analysis by UCL researchers of international efforts to fight climate change. The research, published in Annual Reviews of Environment and Resources , tracked the rate of greenhouse gas emissions over the last two decades against global efforts to reduce them.

A team from the UCL Global Business School for Health (GBSH) and the UCL School of Pharmacy are using data collected from an "electric tongue" to create an AI model for predicting the bitterness of drugs. Taste is key to making sure people regularly take their medications and is an important part of drug development.

A team of researchers led by Professor Bart De Strooper (UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, and VIB-KU Leuven) and Dr Sriram Balusu (VIB-KU Leuven) have discovered how neurons die in Alzheimer's disease. The breakthrough study, published in Science , illustrates how neurons initiate a programmed form of cell death, known as necroptosis, when they are exposed to amyloid plaques and tau tangles - the hallmark misfolded proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease.