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Fewer cars are broken into at night on roads with part-night lighting (PNL), where street lights are switched off between midnight and 5am, finds researchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The rate of thefts from cars at night was halved on roads with PNL, compared to the same roads before PNL was introduced.

Medicines can be printed in seven seconds in a new 3D-printing technique that could enable rapid on-site production of medicines, reports a UCL-led research team. The findings published in the journal, Additive Manufacturing , improve the prospects of how 3D printers could be integrated into fast-paced clinical settings for on-demand production of personalised medicines.

Cases of cognitive decline in older people, where a doctor has assessed someone following concerns about memory and noted their brain function has been affected, have more than doubled over the past ten years, according to UCL researchers. The researchers set out to see if there had been an increase in the numbers of older people who were reporting their first concerns about memory loss or cognitive decline to their doctor and what their chances of developing dementia were after consultation.

Teenagers who take part in arts and cultural activities, such as dance, drama, reading and going to concerts, are less likely to engage in antisocial and criminalised behaviour up to two years later, according to a new study by UCL and University of Florida researchers. For the peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (JOYO), researchers looked at data from more than 25,000 teenagers in the United States who had filled out questionnaires over several years.

Vaccination-acquired immunity against Covid-19 wanes substantially after three months among elderly care home residents, suggesting that regular booster jabs may be needed for this group, according to preliminary findings from the Vivaldi study led by UCL researchers. The study, funded by the UK Health Security Agency  and published on the preprint site medRxiv, looked at data from over 15,000 residents (with a median age of 87) and 19,000 staff at 331 care homes across England from December 2020 to December 2021.

A world-first treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), developed by scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Prion Unit at UCL, has shown "very encouraging" early results following its use in six patients at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation. CJD is a rare but devastating disease that causes brain damage and for which there is currently no licensed treatment.

Just one in six (18%) healthcare workers thought mandatory vaccinations were the best solution to encourage more frontline staff to have a Covid-19 jab, finds new research led by UCL and the University of Leicester. As part of the UK-REACH longitudinal study, researchers carried out a survey of over 3,200 NHS healthcare workers, to understand how they felt about mandatory vaccinations, and find out what solutions they may have to address the problem of under-vaccination among colleagues.

Some of the most fundamental questions about the Universe will be investigated by UCL particle physicists, following a £4.34 million award from the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The funding is part of a £60 investment from STFC awarded to 18 universities, helping to keep the UK at the forefront of particle physics research.

E-cigarette use in England among young adults between 2007 and 2018 did not appear to be associated with substantial increases or decreases in the prevalence of smoking uptake, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. Several longitudinal observational studies have previously suggested that e-cigarette use may act as a "gateway" towards later use of cigarettes in adolescents.

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by UCL researchers can be used to detect heart disease in record speed, helping to improve care for heart patients. The first-of-its-kind AI tool, described in a new paper in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance , analyses heart MRI scans in just 20 seconds whilst the patient is in the scanner.

People without jobs or with less secure housing have poorer outcomes when treated for depression with talking therapy or antidepressants, compared to more socially advantaged peers, finds a study led by UCL researchers. The authors of the new study published in JAMA Psychiatry say that addressing employment and housing needs may be helpful alongside depression treatments to support the mental health of people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Continents reconfigure, oceans shift, and ice sheets thicken and thaw, but for the past 95 million years Earth's engine for distributing ocean heat has remained remarkably consistent, a new study co-led by UCL has found. The study, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , and led by Yale University, offered a novel way of examining plankton shells to better gauge the accuracy of climate models and the Earth's temperature gradients.

The death rate linked to extreme temperatures will increase significantly under global warming of 2°C, finds a report by researchers from UCL and the University of Reading. Temperature-related mortality - where a death is directly linked to climate temperature - in England and Wales during the hottest days of the year will increase by 42% under a warming scenario of 2°C from pre-industrial levels.

A new DNA test, developed with the help of UCL scientists, has been shown to identify a range of hard-to-diagnose neurological and neuromuscular genetic diseases quicker and more accurately than existing tests.

Mini particle accelerators are a step closer to being realised after a new study co-led by UCL researchers showed it would be possible to accelerate millions of bunches of electrons per second using plasma waves. The technique involves a high-energy laser or particle beam being fired into a cylinder of plasma - a soup of ionised atoms - creating waves like those produced by a speedboat in water.

Scientists at UCL have developed a new technique that uses microscopic magnetic particles to remotely activate brain cells; researchers say the discovery in rats could potentially lead to the development of a new class of non-invasive therapies for neurological disorders. Published in Advanced Science , the pioneering technique called "magnetomechanical stimulation" or MMS, allows touch sensitive brain glial cells called astrocytes to be stimulated with a magnetic device outside the body.

A pioneering new study led by UCL and National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists has revealed, for the first time, why a common genetic variant worsens disease outcomes for people with the devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases ALS and FTD. Published in Nature , the study shows how TDP-43 protein depletion, associated with almost all cases (97%) of vALS amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a nd half of frontotemporal dementia ( FTD) cases, corrupts the genetic instructions for the critical neuronal protein UNC13A.

Young children are more optimistic than adolescents, which stems from not learning enough from bad outcomes, finds a new study by UCL researchers. While people tend to have an optimism bias at any age, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General study reports that this is particularly true among children, and declines as they grow up into adolescence.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) can quickly and accurately detect the most common inherited neurological disorders - something previously thought to be impossible - according to a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The scientists say the results support the use of WGS as a standard diagnostic tool within routine clinical practice.

A team co-led by UCL researchers has substantially increased the efficiency of a new type of solar cell, potentially paving the way for its use as a low cost, environmentally friendly alternative to existing solar power technology. Standard solar cells are silicon-based, but they are bulky, expensive and energy intensive to produce.