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Studying the violent collisions of black holes and neutron stars may soon provide a new measurement of the Universe's expansion rate, helping to resolve a long-standing dispute, suggests a new simulation study led by researchers at UCL. Our two current best ways of estimating the Universe's rate of expansion - measuring the brightness and speed of pulsating and exploding stars, and looking at fluctuations in radiation from the early Universe - give very different answers, suggesting our theory of the Universe may be wrong.

Advanced MRI techniques can detect very early changes in the brains of people with multiple sclerosis (MS), which may lead to more accurate predictions about disease progression, finds a study led by UCL researchers. The authors of the paper, published in Brain , say these previously unseen changes could have the potential to predict how disabled a person might become in the future.

People with pre-existing mental health conditions have reported challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdowns, such as the loss of normal coping routines, barriers to accessing care, and unequal impacts of the pandemic, in a new study led by UCL researchers. The qualitative, interview-based study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , shows that the impacts of lockdown were not distributed equally, and people in ethnic minority groups reported particular challenges.

Substance use and antisocial behaviour are more likely to go hand-in-hand with poor mental health for generation Z teens compared to millennial adolescents growing up a decade earlier, finds a new UCL study. Researchers from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Social Research Institute and the University of Liverpool analysed data collected from two cohorts, born a decade apart, when they were 14 years old.

Taking regular physical activity cuts the risk of dying from infectious diseases, such as Covid-19, by 37% and reduces susceptibility to such viruses by 31%, finds a new global study involving UCL researchers. The research, published in Sports Medicine journal, also found that physical activity can boost the effectiveness of vaccines by up to 40%.

Older people in England with physical disabilities were more likely to have worse mental health and to feel lonelier during the Covid-19 pandemic than able bodied people - with more support required to address this during and after the pandemic - according to a new UCL study. Research published today in The  Lancet Public Health found that those with a disability experienced greater increases in depression and anxiety than people without a disability, as well as poorer psychological wellbeing, quality of life and sleep, in addition to lower levels of social contact.

Heavier social media use is associated with more frequent alcohol consumption among young people in the UK, according to a new UCL study. Published today in the journal Addiction , the study found that those aged 10-15 who used social media more regularly were more likely to drink alcohol. The researchers also found a link between heavier social media use and more frequent binge drinking among young adults aged 16-19.

A team led by a UCL clinical academic has outlined the mechanism behind rare cases of blood clots and low platelets seen in patients who have had the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , highlights the importance of rapidly spotting this new syndrome, known as vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT), as it requires a very different treatment from what is typically recommended for thrombosis.

Scientists at UCL, the Francis Crick Institute, and the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, have identified genetic changes in tumours which could be used to predict if immunotherapy drugs would be effective in individual patients. Immunotherapies have led to huge progress treating certain types of cancer, but only a subset of patients respond, and hence a challenge for doctors and researchers is understanding why they work in some people and not others, and predicting who will respond well to treatment.

People who sleep six hours or less each night in their 50s and 60s appear to be more likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a new study led by UCL and INSERM researchers. Those who persistently slept six hours or less per night were roughly 30% more likely to develop dementia, compared to those with normal sleep duration, according to the findings published.

Seemingly unrelated diseases that typically begin at similar ages appear to have genetic similarities, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. In a research paper published in Nature Aging , the team reports using a novel approach to provide the first data-driven classification of multiple diseases obtained using human genetic and medical data freely available from the UK Biobank.

Half of young people who developed the rare but serious multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19 had neurologic symptoms or signs when they entered the hospital, according to preliminary research led by UCL academics. Those symptoms included headaches, encephalopathy and hallucinations.

The B.1.1.7 variant of Covid-19 - otherwise known as the UK or Kent variant - is not associated with more severe illness and death in hospitalised patients, but appears to lead to higher virus load, suggests a new study led by UCL researchers. As part of the observational study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers assessed 341 Covid-19 patients admitted to University College London Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH), between 9 November and 20 December 2020.

The suspicion that gender stereotypes could lead doctors to underestimate women's pain has been confirmed by research which found healthcare staff, both men and women, often discount women's pain, says Professor Amanda Williams (UCL Clinical, Education & Health Psychology). When a man consults a doctor about pain, he will hope to be taken seriously: to convince the doctor that the pain is real, and a problem that needs addressing.

Scientists at UCL have used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify three new multiple sclerosis (MS) subtypes. Researchers say the groundbreaking findings will help identify those people more likely to have disease progression and help target treatments more effectively. MS affects over 2.8 million people globally and 130,000 in the UK, and is classified into four* 'courses' (groups), which are defined as either relapsing or progressive.

The "wobble", or rate of precession, of the muon particle in a magnetic field is different from what our best theoretical model of the subatomic world would predict, according to an experiment involving UCL researchers that strengthens evidence for new, unknown physics. The Muon g-2 experiment, carried out at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States, measured with unprecedented precision the rate at which the muon "wobbled" (precessed) as it circulated a 15-metre magnetic ring at nearly the speed of light.

Using a simple set of hand signals can improve the experience of online meetings, make groups feel closer to each other and that they are learning and communicating better, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The research team trained students to use a set of signals in seminars, such as waving to take a turn to speak, and raising a hand to show empathy, and found evidence that they improved the experience of video meetings during lockdown.

A single qubit on a standard silicon transistor chip has been successfully demonstrated as "quantum capable" in a new study by the UCL spinout Quantum Motion, led by researchers at UCL and Oxford University. The qubit is the building block of quantum computing, analogous to the bit in classical computers.

People discharged from hospital after Covid-19 appear to have increased risks of diseases across multiple organs and nearly a third are readmitted to hospital in the following months, according to a new study co-led by researchers at UCL. The study, published today in The BMJ , looked at nearly 50,000 people who were discharged from hospital by August last year and compared them to a control group who were matched according to personal characteristics and 10 years of medical history.

Low to moderate alcohol consumption appears to be associated with a lower risk of requiring surgery for cataracts, finds a new study led by UCL and Moorfields researchers. The study, published today in Ophthalmology (the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology), was observational and does not definitively prove a direct causal effect.