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Professor Max Telford and Dr Paschalia Kapli (both UCL Biosciences) discuss the difficulties of tracing the vertebrate origins of humans, and say the long held view that vertebrates are closely related to echinoderms such as starfish may be misplaced. How humans evolved from the very first animals over the last 600 million years is an endlessly fascinating question.

Adults with periodontitis, a serious gum disease, may be twice as likely to have higher blood pressure compared to those with healthy gums, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. Periodontitis is a severe infection of the gum tissues that can lead to chronic inflammation and destroy the bone that supports the teeth, leading to tooth loss.

A single dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines gives residents of care homes substantial protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection after four weeks, according to new pre-print findings from the Vivaldi study led by UCL researchers. The study, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, looked at data from more than 10,000 care home residents in England, with an average age of 86, between December and mid-March, comparing the number of infections occurring in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups (as identified by the gold-standard PCR test.

Teenagers are more likely than younger children to ignore advice, but only when the advice is bad, because adolescents are better at judging their own decisions, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers found that between the ages of nine and 12, young people improve their ability to make decisions independently by learning when they should or shouldn't trust their own judgements.

A new image of the supermassive M87 black hole has been unveiled by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration involving UCL researchers, giving a closer look at how the black hole interacts with the matter surrounding it. The EHT team released the first image of a black hole in 2019, revealing a bright ring-like structure with a dark central region described as the black hole's shadow.

A new image of the supermassive M87 black hole has been unveiled by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration involving UCL researchers, giving a closer look at how the black hole interacts with the matter surrounding it. The EHT team released the first image of a black hole in 2019, revealing a bright ring-like structure with a dark central region described as the black hole's shadow.

Withdrawing from antipsychotics may require months or even years, and patients need to gradually reduce to very low doses, according to a new analysis led by UCL and King's College London academics. The review, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin , is the first ever scientific paper outlining how exactly antipsychotic medication should be reduced in order to minimise both withdrawal effects and the risk of relapse.

Wikipedia page views could be used to monitor global awareness of biodiversity, proposes a research team from UCL, ZSL, and the RSPB. Using their new metric, the research team found that awareness of biodiversity is marginally increasing, but the rate of change varies greatly between different groups of animals, as they report in paper included in a special edition of Conversation Biology .

A backlog of nearly half-a-million endoscopy procedures, essential for diagnosing gastrointestinal cancers and diseases*, has built up during the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a new analysis of NHS England data led by UCL researchers. The study, published in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology , shows the number of endoscopies being performed in April 2020, the month following the first lockdown, fell by over 90%.

Mental health problems often emerge during adolescence, but it is still not fully understood why teenagers are so vulnerable to psychiatric illnesses, says Dr Tobias Hauser (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology). Adolescence is the time when most mental health problems arise. Diagnoses of psychiatric illnesses increase across the board, with teenagers suffering not only from mood disorders such as depression, but also from the most pervasive psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 spread rapidly in care homes in England in November and December last year, broadly reflecting its spread in the general population, according to a study by UCL researchers. The study, published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine , looked at positive PCR tests of care home staff and residents between October and December.

People in prisons are at an increased risk of COVID-19 - with a death rate over three times higher than that of the general population - and should be made a vaccine priority, according to UCL-led team of researchers. In an article published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine , the research team reveals that there were 121 deaths related to COVID-19 among people in prisons in England and Wales between March 2020 and February 2021, representing a risk of dying 3.3 times higher than that of people of the same age and sex outside secure environments.

A fear of poor SATs results is driving headteachers to separate pupils by ability despite the impact on children's self-esteem and confidence, according to a study by UCL researchers. The findings, published in in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Sociology of Education, provide new evidence of a high-stakes culture around testing where some pupils are prioritised above others and physically segregated from them.

People who experienced head injuries in their 50s or younger score lower than expected on cognitive tests at age 70, according to a study led by UCL researchers. Head injuries did not appear to contribute to brain damage characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, but might make people more vulnerable to dementia symptoms, according to the findings published in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology .

PhD candidate Quentin Changeat and Dr Billy Edwards (both UCL Physics & Astronomy) explain how we examine the atmospheres of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) as well as what the benefits of understanding these distant planets could be. Until the early 2000s, the only known planets were located in our own neighbourhood, the Solar System.

Researchers at UCL have solved a major piece of the puzzle that makes up the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism, a hand-powered mechanical device that was used to predict astronomical events. Known to many as the world's first analogue computer, the Antikythera Mechanism is the most complex piece of engineering to have survived from the ancient world.

Almost 60% of frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) experienced a mental health disorder during the first COVID-19 lockdown, with many suffering "very high rates of distress", suggests a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Haifa, Israel.

Life populating the shadowy ocean flourished thanks to the cooling of the Earth's climate over millions of years, according to a new study involving UCL. The research team tracked the development of the largest and least understood habitat on Earth, home to a wide range of mysterious creatures, including plankton, jellies, krill, squid and fish.

A national screening programme targeted at men who are genetically pre-disposed to prostate cancer, and involving a blood test and MRI scan before an invasive biopsy, could prevent one in six deaths and significantly reduce over-diagnosis, finds a new UCL-led study. Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men with around 130 new cases diagnosed in the UK every day and more than 10,000 men a year dying as a result of the disease. However, unlike breast and cervical cancer there is currently no national screening programme for this disease in the UK.

Children conceived through medically assisted reproduction who are born small do just as well in cognitive tests during childhood and adolescence as naturally conceived children who are born a normal weight, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The new research, published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, is one of the first studies to examine the links between medically assisted reproduction (MAR) - including techniques such as IVF treatment, artificial insemination and ovulation induction - birth weight and cognitive development.