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A group-based support programme for foster carers significantly improves carer wellbeing, reduces burnout and stress, and strengthens relationships with children in care, while also offering good value for money, finds a new study led by a UCL researcher.

Stopping long-acting inhalers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can lead to a sharp rise in flare-ups for around 3 months, a new study supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) has revealed. This research by The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) scientists is the first of its kind to show people who stop using a prescribed treatment for COPD are at significantly higher risk of exacerbations than expected for their disease.

Alzheimer's is Britain's biggest killer and a key focus of UCL research. Dr Eleftheria Kodosaki and Sophie Hicks (both UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) outline their vital lab work developing a finger-prick test to speed up diagnosis, in an article for The Conversation.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials promise revolutionary advances in electronics and photonics, but many of the most interesting candidates degrade within seconds of air exposure, making them nearly impossible to study or integrate into real-world technology. Transition metal dihalides represent a particularly compelling yet challenging class of materials, with predicted properties ideal for next-generation devices, but their extreme reactivity when exposed to air prevents even basic structural characterisation.

A UK Government-commissioned review's recommendations on research ethics and recording sex and gender data could undermine the quality of public institutions' research, erode academic freedom, and threaten the rights of trans and gender diverse people if widely adopted, researchers have warned.

Nitrous oxide used for sedating patients during dental appointments has a significant environmental impact, with wide variation in use and wastage across the UK, according to a new study by UCL researchers. Inhalation sedation uses a dose of nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, and is an established technique for managing dental anxiety in children and adults.

Nature-based therapy may help people to find hope, meaning and a deeper sense of connection, according to new research from The University of Manchester.

Access to trees and greenspaces is consistently low across English cities according to a new study led by the University. Researchers used a recognised three-part framework for measuring tree and greenspace access in urban neighbourhoods in Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, York, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Plymouth, and found that at best, only 2% of buildings in any city region met all three components of the rule.

Babies and very young sauropods - the long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters that in adulthood were the largest animals to have ever walked on land - were a key food sustaining predators in the Late Jurassic, according to a new study led by a UCL researcher. The study, published in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin , used data from fossils laid down 150 million years ago in the Morrison Formation*, in the United States, to map out a "food web" of the time - a gigantic network of who ate what and who ate whom.