UCL in the media
Gaza war protests are modern-day Vietnam – and could open the door to Trump
Dr Nick Witham (UCL History) said Republicans are particularly frustrated by the fact it is a Democrat president who is putting in place the foreign policies that mean Israel is being supported the way it is.
British pharmacies vie for weight-loss patients with drug price cuts
Professor Nick Finer (UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science) warned that retail marketing of the weight-loss drugs could trivialise their side-effects and the medical imperative to stay on the therapy long-term.
Decline in smoking stalled after pandemic, study reveals
A decade-long decline in the number of cigarettes a smoker has per day has stalled, with some people actually smoking more, according to a new study by Dr Sarah Jackson (UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care).
Read: The Telegraph (£); More: Daily Mail (1), Daily Mail (2), Independent, Shropshire Star; UCL News
Running around a 'wall of death' could keep moon settlers fit
Professor Ilan Kelman (UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction) said: ‘considering the limited space in any lunar settlement, this experiment is a helpful and needed contribution to understanding time and cost-efficient ways of keeping moon settlers healthy.’
Don’t sack Cambridge academic for race views, say colleagues
Dr Adam Rutherford (UCL Biosciences) said the concept of race was socially constructed, with categorisations used to describe people of different ethnicities not reflected meaningfully in genetics.
Sleep resets brain connections – but only for first few hours
During sleep, the brain weakens the new connections between neurons that had been forged while awake – but only during the first half of a night’s sleep, according to a new study in fish by Professor Jason Rihel (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology).
Withdrawal of stop-smoking pill could lead to thousands of avoidable deaths
The disruption to the supply of a prescription medicine that helps people stop smoking may have led to thousands fewer people quitting each year in England, which will lead to avoidable deaths in future, suggests Dr Sarah Jackson (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health).
One in five 10-year-olds experience physical punishment
More than one in five 10-year-olds experienced physical punishment in 2020 and 2021 in the UK, reports new research briefing by UCL researchers, led by Dr Anja Heilmann (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health).
Female athletes more likely to get injured at certain points in their menstrual cycle
Football players were six times more likely to experience a muscle injury in the days leading up to their period compared to when they were on their period shows new research led by Dr Georgie Bruinvels (UCL Surgery & Interventional Science, Institute of Sport, Exercise & Health)
Read: BBC Sport (1); More: BBC Sport (2), The Times (£), Mirage News; Listen: BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ (from 5 min, 29 sec); BBC Radio 2 ‘The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show’ (from 32 min, 19 sec), BBC World Service ‘The Newsroom’ (from 17 min, 03 sec); Watch: ITV Evening News (from 36 mins); UCL News
Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir: Religion and Politics in India
Dr Ashraf Hoque (UCL IOE - Social Research Institute) discusses the significance of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya built on the site of a previous Muslim Mosque, and the controversy that surrounded it which led to it being pulled down by a mob in 1992.