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International researchers led by the University of Bath have demonstrated a cheap, effective and environmentally-friendly way to sterilise medical implants without changing their properties, in contrast to some techniques.

A student start-up who developed edible plastic wrapping for hay bales took home the £10,000 first prize at last night's Imperial Showcase.

A research team led by the University of Bath has developed an early warning system for urinary catheter infections, a problem which can cause severe risk to patients' health and costs the NHS an estimated £120 million per year. Urinary catheters are used in people who have difficulty passing urine naturally and are often used during or after surgery, for patients with enlarged prostates or in some cases to manage incontinence.

They hold the world record for creating the smallest test tube and for writing the smallest version of the periodic table on a human hair.

An Imperial professor explains the origins of oxygen on early Earth and how he is trying to unravel the secrets of this period of great change.

Nobel-winning Sussex chemist honoured with blue plaques A University of Sussex scientist who revealed the detailed chemistry of how enzymes work has been honoured with two blue plaques.

Fancy a pint? Or even better, a pint and a talk by a scientist about their pioneering research at The University of Nottingham? This unusual opportunity is coming to Nottingham as the international festival of public science, ' Pint of Science ', makes its debut in the city.

An image of water rotating in what appears to be slow motion is one of the winning entries in a major engineering photography competition.

A new research consortium involving Professor Saiful Islam from the University of Bath's Department of Chemistry has been awarded £6.8 million by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to explore and develop next-generation lithium batteries. Building upon the portable revolution The new Programme Grant will fund a five-year project entitled "Enabling Next-Generation Lithium Batteries" to carry out research on new battery technologies, similar to those that have helped to power the worldwide portable revolution in mobile phones, laptops and tablet computers.

Researchers from Cambridge, IBM and Lund University have discovered how tiny 'nanowires' of a widely-used semiconductor self-assemble. Dr Frances Ross of IBM Research explains how the findings could lead to a new crop of nanodevices. Building transistors today is done with lithography, which is a "top-down" process that uses patterning to create the complex layers that make up the transistor structure.

Hundreds of Fringe-goers made chemistry their thing at Imperial's molecular-science themed Atoms Family event this week.

Scientists have created a liquid goo that turns into a rubbery solid when shaken and they are inviting the public to help dream up uses for it.

New scanning technology which will give a much clearer picture of lung disease has taken a major step forward thanks to scientists at The University of Nottingham. The experts at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre have developed a process using specially treated krypton gas as an inhalable contrast agent to make the spaces inside the lungs show up on an Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.

Nitrous oxide administered after a traumatic event may help to prevent distressing memories from 'sticking' in the brain, suggests new UCL research. The study, published in Psychological Medicine , found that people who inhaled nitrous oxide after watching traumatic film clips experienced a much faster decline in distressing memories than those who breathed normal air.

How enzymes - the biological proteins that act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur - are 'tuned' to work at a particular temperature is described in new research from groups in New Zealand and the UK, including the University of Bristol. Professor Vic Arcus (University of Waikato) and colleagues, including Bristol's Professor Adrian Mulholland and Dr Marc van der Kamp , showed that the heat capacity of enzymes changes during a reaction as the enzymes tighten up.

You can be feminine and still be a successful scientist Dr Hazel Cox is a senior lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Sussex and Director of Student Experience in the School of Life Sciences.

A quick, cheap and highly efficient method for producing a water-purifying chemical has been developed by researchers at Cardiff University. The team, from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute , Lehigh University and the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA, have developed a new group of catalysts that can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on-demand in a simple one-step process, opening up the possibility of manufacturing the chemical in some of the poorest, remote and disaster-stricken areas of the world.

How does the brain make connections, and how does it maintain them? Cambridge neuroscientists and mathematicians are using a variety of techniques to understand how the brain 'wires up', and what it might be able to tell us about degeneration in later life. To read these words, light is first refracted by the cornea, through the pupil in the iris and onto the lens, which focuses images onto the retina.

A team of researchers have discovered that the increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere during the last ice age did not result from reduced density of the deep ocean as previously thought. In the first study of its kind, the team, made up of researchers from The University of Nottingham , the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey, were able to disprove the theory that the CO2 (that came from the depths of the ocean), was released because deep water became less dense, able to overturn, and ventilate its dissolved carbon to the atmosphere.

The University of Liverpool's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer and Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson have performed the traditional topping out ceremony for the £68 million Materials Innovation Factory.

Imperial marked the completion of structural building work for its Molecular Science Research Hub and the Translation & Innovation Hub on 28 January.

A bewildering physics problem has apparently been solved by researchers, in a study which provides a mathematical basis for understanding issues ranging from predicting the formation of deserts, to making artificial intelligence more efficient. The brute force way of doing this would be to keep changing the system and recording the configurations.

Professor Graham Hutchings named on elite list of highly cited researchers in 2015 Cardiff University's Professor Graham Hutchings, from the School of Chemistry , has been named as one of the world's 'most influential scientific minds' by leading information provider Thomson Reuters.

A new thin-film electrolyte material that helps solid oxide fuel cells operate more efficiently and cheaply than those composed of conventional materials, and has potential applications for portable power sources, has been developed at the University of Cambridge. The ability to precisely engineer and tune highly crystalline materials at the nanoscale is absolutely key for next-generation power generation and storage of many different kinds.

Paul Coxon (Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy) discusses the materials that have each been heralded as the new "world's hardest material". Ask most people what the hardest material on Earth is and they will probably answer "diamond". Its name comes from the Greek word ?????? (adámas) meaning "unbreakable" or "invincible" and is from where we get the word "adamant".

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans are a way of imaging body functions in 3D using specially designed radioactive molecules.

Scientists led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have developed a new type of synthetic bone graft that boosts the body's own ability to regenerate bone tissue and could produce better outcomes for patients.

Tropical groundwater may prove to be a climate-resilient source of freshwater in the tropics as intense rainfall favours the replenishment of these resources, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters. As climate observations show that global warming leads to fewer but more intense rainfalls, a clearer understanding of how these sources are replenished is crucial for developing strategies for groundwater usage that are better adapted to the greater variability in rainfall and river discharge brought about by climate change.

A new class of superhydrophobic nanomaterials might simplify the process of protecting surfaces from water.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have worked with Coventry-based Medherant, a Warwick spinout company, to produce and patent the World's first ever ibuprofen patch delivering the drug directly through skin to exactly where it is needed at a consistent dose rate.

Leading scientists from the University of Sheffield will join world leaders in Paris next week (30 November - 11 December 2015) for the start of the crucial United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

A cocktail of non-toxic chemicals taken from food and vegetables may hold the key to beating untreatable cancers and relapse A cocktail of non-toxic doses of chemicals taken from food and vegetables may be key to tackling untreatable cancers and disease relapse, according to the findings of a global study jointly led by Cardiff.

Hannah Rowland (Department of Zoology) discusses why different animals have different tastes when it comes to food. Anyone who's watched a cat throwing up after munching on grass knows that our feline friends aren't natural plant eaters. So you might be surprised to discover that these carnivorous animals share some important genes that are more typically associated with herbivores.

Caldan Therapeutics Ltd (Caldan) has announced a £4.45 million 'Series A' investment led by Epidarex Capital, a leading international early-stage life science venture capital fund.

Aditya Sadhanala wanders over to the wall, turns a pulley, and a wooden box about a metre squared swings up and away.

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how several of the problems impeding the practical development of the so-called 'ultimate' battery could be overcome. What we've achieved is a significant advance for this technology and suggests whole new areas for research Clare Grey Scientists have developed a working laboratory demonstrator of a lithium-oxygen battery which has very high energy density, is more than 90% efficient, and, to date, can be recharged more than 2000 times, showing how several of the problems holding back the development of these devices could be solved.

How does microbial life manage to survive in subglacial environments over millions of years? New research from the University of Bristol has found that the grinding of bedrock by glaciers and ice sheets produces a continual supply of hydrogen gas, a ready source of energy ('food') for many microbes.

University of Sheffield alumna and the first Briton to go into space Dr Helen Sharman OBE has been appointed as the new President of the Institute of Science & Technology (IST).

Oxford Road will be turned into a giant laboratory on Halloween weekend as spectacular science takes over Manchester The University of Manchester will be running its Spectacular Science event on Satu

Imperial's President Alice Gast helped mark six decades of world-class science supported by the Wolfson Foundation last night. The event, held at the Royal College of Physicians, celebrated the charity's £1.7 billion contribution to UK science, education and the arts since it was founded by Sir Isaac Wolfson in 1955.