UCL in the media
Call to allow use of medicinal cannabis
A letter signed by Professor Val Curran (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) states: 'As medical and academic scientists, we strongly urge the government to remove cannabis and all related cannabinoids from Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations Medicines Act and put them into Schedule 2. This would allow medical doctors to prescribe cannabis and/or cannabinoid products to patients who they think will benefit from this treatment based on the available scientific evidence.'
Read: The TimesThird of athletes suffer tooth decay problems
Half of Britain's top athletes have such bad tooth decay that it is affecting their performance, according to a study by UCL's Eastman Dental Institute. The research, led by Professor Ian Needleman, analysed 350 sportsmen and women from nine Olympic teams, along with Team Sky, England Rugby and Reading FC, and found half had untreated tooth decay.
Read: The Independent; The Times; Daily Mail; Reuters; New York Times; Daily TelegraphPsychology and self-analysis help make better fund managers
Professor Adrian Furnham (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) is helping wealth management consultancies to hire the most suitable candidates for the job. He uses psychology to examine the link between investors' performance and their background and behaviour.
Read: Financial Times (£).Barnier risks damaging prospects for a deal on internal security
Dr Nick Wright (UCL Political Sciences) comments that EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier seems to be pushing a maximalist position in discussions, but this apparent lack of flexibility risks damaging prospects for a deal on internal security which the UK seems willing to explore.
Read: GuardianWhat motivates graffiti artists?
Dr Rafael Schacter (UCL Anthropology), author of award-winning World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, comments that graffiti artists are motivated by the social rewards from being part of a subculture, and are individuals totally committed to their collective and practice.
Read: Guardian.Debating the ethics of gene editing
Professor Joyce Harper (UCL Population Health Sciences) says it's impossible to say how far away we are from enhancing humans genetically - the safety needs sorting first.
Watch: BBC Sunday Morning Live (from 41 mins)Mystery extinct ape found in ancient Chinese tomb
Professor Helen Chatterjee (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) worked with colleagues at UCL and ZSL to characterise bones discovered in an ancient tomb in China, revealing an entirely new but already extinct genus of gibbon and the magnitude of human-caused extinction of primates.
Read: BBC News, More: Washington Post, TIME, National Geographic, Daily Mail, Times, Independent, Science, New Scientist, The Atlantic, Mashable, Gizmodo, New York Times, Metro, Telegraph, Economist (£), UCL NewsEU leaders divided over immigration
Ahead of the emergency EU Summit, Professor Christian Dustmann (UCL Economics), Director of the Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration, comments that the rise in populism would suggest that there will be a concerted effort among southern EU countries to block individuals crossing the Mediterranean
Listen: BBC World Service 'Business Matters' (from 2 mins 50 secs).Just four tweets can reveal the identity of an anonymous troll
A study led by Apostolos Pyrgelis (UCL Computer Science) found that just four online posts with leaked locations can be used to uniquely identify an anonymous poster from a phone company's database.
Read: New Scientist, More: MetroYour exposure to air pollution could be much higher than your neighbour's
Research associate Johanna Buechler analyses how our daily routine affects how much polluted air we breathe.
Read: The Conversation