UCL in the media
First UK trial of Deep Brain Stimulation for children with epilepsy begins
A teenager who is the first patient to take part in a UCL-sponsored clinical trial involving Martin Tisdall (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) to use deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat epilepsy has seen his daytime seizures reduce by 80%.
Listen: BBC Radio 4 'Today' (from 40 mins 17 secs), Read: BBC News, More: BBC Mundo, Mail Online, Mirror, Telegraph (£), Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard, Yahoo! News, AOL, IFL Science, Neuroscience News, India Today, Indian Express, Times of India, Deccan Herald (India), Telegraph (India), NDTV (India), Firstpost (India), Dailyhunt (India), Economic Times (India), Financial Express (India), Terra (Brazil), La Nacion (Argentina), Folha De S.Paulo (Brazil), Estado de Minas (Brazil), Editora Gazeta (Brazil), Época Negócios (Brazil), Correio Braziliense (Brazil), La República (Peru), La Tercera (Chile), Liberty Times (Taiwan); Watch: BBC 'Morning Live' (from 48 min, 11 sec); UCL News
Easter Island study casts doubt on theory of ‘ecocide’ by early population
“For at least a decade, the idea of ecocide through population growth and landscape mismanagement has been increasingly convincingly challenged for Rapa Nui," says Professor Sue Hamilton (UCL Archaeology).
Are primary school kids in England the best readers in the Western world?
Professor John Jerrim (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society) helps to clarify whether or not Rishi Sunak's claim that primary school children in England are the best readers in the Western world is true.
What Glastonbury could look like in 2050
Future iterations of the Glastonbury festival could face heat "in realms we have never experienced" and this could become deadly if people are unable to cool down overnight, warns Professor Ilan Kelman (UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction).
Is multitasking bad for your brain?
“Our brain-imaging studies have shown that too much information at once can cause ‘inattentional blindness’ and even deafness," explains Professor Nilli Lavie (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences).
What happens when 80% of your diet is made up of UPFs
Dr Chris van Tulleken (UCL Infection & Immunity) describes what happened to his body when, for an experiment, he changed his diet so that 80% of it was made up of ultra-processed food (not an atypical diet for a teenager in the UK or US).
UTIs and their link to antibiotic resistance
Professor Jennifer Rohn (UCL Renal Medicine) speaks to Madeleine Finlay about how urinary tract infections take hold, and the complexity surrounding their treatment.
Listen: Guardian 'Science Weekly' podcast (from 2 mins 54 secs)
Hezbollah vs Hamas: key differences in military power
Hamas has increasingly received funding, weapons, and training from Iran, but it is not as controlled by Iran as Hezbollah, which is almost entirely backed by Iran and follows its directives." - Dr Julie Norman (UCL Political Science)
Risk of Parkinson’s more than double for people with anxiety
The risk of developing Parkinson’s is at least twice as high in people with anxiety compared to those without, finds a new study by UCL researchers including Dr Juan Bazo Avarez (UCL Epidemiology & Health) and Professor Anette Schrag (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology).
Read: Newsweek, More: Naver (South Korea), Times Now (India), La Razón (Spain), Dailyhunt (India), India Today (India), Washington Post (USA), UCL News
Restoring trust in the political class
Professor Meg Russell and Professor Robert Hazell (both UCL Political Science) co-sign a letter in The Times that says low trust in politics is damaging the health of British democracy and is "indicative of the need for substantial improvement in the governance of the UK."