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A country's ability to transition to green energy is dependent on the structure of its political institutions, according to new research involving UCL. Published in the journal Science , the study explores why advanced industrialised countries took divergent paths in their responses to both the current energy price shock and to the oil crisis of the 1970s.

Grandparents who stopped looking after their grandchildren during the Covid-19 pandemic were considerably more likely to experience depressive symptoms compared to those who continued to care for their grandchildren, finds a new UCL-led study.

UCL academics' expertise in environmental hazards, machine learning and research computing will help build resilience to high-impact weather events and climate change through a deeper partnership with the Met Office.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Kevin Fong (UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering) explores how COVID stretched the NHS's intensive care units to its limits.

An inadequate level of social housing across London is affecting children's physical and mental health, and could permanently hinder their development, according to the latest Marmot Review from the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE).

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Andrew Coates (UCL Space & Climate Physics) explains why sending humans to land on Earth's 'evil twin' Venus might not be such a good idea.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Simon Turner (UCL Geography) and his colleagues explore how the ancient Maya used the toxic element mercury, where they sourced it and its environmental legacy in Mesoamerica. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal. When leached into the natural environment, it accumulates and builds up through food chains, ultimately threatening human health and ecosystems.

A new scoring tool that helps to 'transparently' prioritise which countries are in greatest need of Covid-19 vaccines, has been developed by a UCL-led team of researchers. The researchers say the tool considers a far wider range of factors than the current global COVAX facility, which has been criticised by some countries, particularly poorer nations for insufficient access and a lack of flexibility to response to local rapid rises in infections.

Widespread, global failures in the Covid-19 response led to millions of preventable deaths and reversed progress made towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many countries, finds a new report involving UCL researchers.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Bridget Storrie (UCL Institute for Global Prosperity) explores the contradictions around how society views mining, as both necessary to produce raw materials but at the same time undesirable because of its environmental and perceived social harms.

People who wear reusable contact lenses are nearly four times as likely as those wearing daily disposables to develop a rare sight-threatening eye infection, finds a study led by UCL and Moorfields researchers.

A new consortium tackling the growing economic hurdles that prevent life-saving gene therapies from reaching children who need them the most has been co-founded by a UCL researcher.

A new European Space Agency (ESA) mission involving UCL researchers will 3D map Earth's "cooling blanket" of low-lying ocean clouds that may be at risk of disappearing due to climate change. The 10 Earth Explorer mission, known as Harmony, has been approved by the ESA Programme Board on Earth Observation, meaning it can move from the preparatory phase into the design consolidation and implementation phase, with a launch scheduled for 2029.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Bob Morris (UCL Constitution Unit) explores how the new King's relationship with faith may differ from his mother, with him likely approaching his role as "defender of the faith" more inclusively, reflecting the diversity of religion in Britain.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Ilan Kelman (UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction) argues that calling these "natural disasters" overlooks the failure of government to protect vulnerable people from known hazards.

The world's rapidly growing fleet of ships that can run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), are at risk of financial losses of £745bn ($850bn) by 2030, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

A new study led by researchers at UCL and the Francis Crick Institute has demonstrated for the first time how air pollution can cause lung cancer in people who have never smoked. T he research  found that exposure to tiny pollutant particles that are 3% of the width of a human hair, called PM 2.5, promotes the growth of cells carrying cancer-causing mutations in the lungs.