science wire

The Banana Theory: realising the carbon footprint of bananas
Exactly how bad are bananas? Or anything else? Inspired by Mike Berners-Lee's book How Bad Are Bananas? , The Banana Theory project demonstrates, using QR code technology and installation art, the difficulty we face when deciding how to change our lifestyle to become greener.

Sainsbury Wellcome Centre: contractor appointed and building work begins
Building works for a new research centre at UCL will begin later this month, following the formal signing of contracts worth in excess of £70 million with Kier Construction.

Butterfly genome reveals a promiscuous past
An international collaborative study to map the genome of a South American butterfly has identified the secret behind its mimetic nature. The genome sequence of the Postman butterfly, Heliconius melpomene, was used as a reference to study species that live together in the Peruvian Amazon. Several of these share bright wing patterns in order to reinforce a warning signal that they are bad to eat - dissuading predators from attack.

Engineering Receives Grand Challenges Explorations Funding
UCL Engineering announced today that two members of staff will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables individuals worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

X-rays emitted from black holes sterilise galaxies
Astronomers at UCL, using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, have shown that the number of stars that form during the early lives of galaxies may be controlled by the massive black holes at their hearts. All large galaxies have a massive black hole in the middle, each millions of times the mass of a single star.

Billion euro ESA mission to explore icy worlds of Jupiter
The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved a new mission, which includes scientists from UCL, to explore Jupiter and the habitability of its icy moons.

50th Anniversary of the UK’s first step into space
The first satellite to carry experiments devised and operated by UK universities including UCL was launched 50 years ago today. The launch of 'Ariel 1' marked Britain's first step into space, making it the world's third space-faring nation. The satellite carried six scientific experiments designed and built by British space scientists.

Ageing population could boost economy
Older people are a benefit, rather than a burden, to the economy and society according to a new report from the UCL School of Pharmacy.

Study links Google search behaviour to GDP
Internet users from countries with a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are more likely to search for information about the future than information about the past, a quantitative analysis of Google search queries has shown. The findings, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest there may be a link between online behaviour and real-world economic indicators.

Setting the cultural heritage research agenda
UCL has contributed to setting the European research agenda relating to cultural heritage and global change.

DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago
All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study. An international team of scientists from the CNRS and National Museum of Natural History in France, the University of Mainz in Germany, and UCL in the UK were able to conduct the study by first extracting DNA from the bones of domestic cattle excavated in Iranian archaeological sites.

£3.7m EPSRC funding for High Performance Computing
UCL will play a key role in a new £3.7million regional centre for supercomputing, following an award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

New project to help predict the future of the UK’s coastline
A new project is being launched that will help forecast what the UK's coastline will look like in up to 100 years' time. The four-year £2.9m iCoast project brings together UCL scientists with researchers from a number of other UK universities, research laboratories and leading consultants, to develop new methods that will characterise and forecast long-term changes to coastal sediment systems.

GlobIce: mapping the movement of sea ice
A UCL-led project to map changes in sea ice in the Arctic has released its data after the conclusion of the 5 year project.  Available for use in climate models by scientists and partner instituti

Should motorway speed limits be raised to 80mph?
In 1965, the UK government set the speed limit for UK motorways at 70mph. The UK government has indicated its intention to consult on the proposal to increase the motorway speed limit in England and Wales from 70 to 80mph.

Engineering awarded £18 million for future information and communication technologies
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) today announced the award of £18million to three projects led by University College London (UCL) Engineering.

Familiarity breeds contempt in cleaner fish
Familiarity with your partner is usually thought to promote teamwork, but new research has found that on coral reefs at least, female cleaner fish are more cooperative with unfamiliar males than their breeding partner.

A million NHS users are suffering preventable or inadequately treated pain
At any one time a million people in England are living with long term pain which could have been prevented or be being significantly better treated, according to joint UCL School of Pharmacy and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association report published today.

Next ice age delayed by global warming
Without human carbon dioxide emissions the next ice age would be imminent, according to a Nature Geoscience study led by a UCL scientist.

Wolfson Foundation awards £20million to UCL for experimental neurology centre
A new centre dedicated to the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases will be established at UCL following the award of a £20million grant from the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today.

Industrial "inertia to change" is delaying development of zero carbon homes, report finds
Tackling rising CO2 emissions from the residential sector could make a vital contribution towards mitigating climate change, according to a new report from the UCL Bartlett School of Planning.

Research Strategy published
The 2011 UCL Research Strategy calls for a transformation of the understanding of the role of our comprehensive research-intensive university in the 21st century.

Mitochondria and the great gender divide
Why are there two sexes? It's a question that has long perplexed generations of scientists, but researchers from UCL have come up with a radical new answer: mitochondria.