UCL in the media
How UK energy prices turned negative
Professor Michael Grubb (UCL Bartlett School of Energy, Environment & Resources) explains what led prices to become negative in Britain’s power market.
Listen: BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme (from 21 min 28 secs)
Study finds one in five UK children in persistent poverty
A study co-authored by Professor Catherine Law (UCL GOS Institute of Child Health) finds that 30% (4.1million) of UK children are living in poverty and predicts this will rise to 37% by 2023-24, and that one in five children are in persistent poverty.
The phenomenon of the ‘zombie ant’
PhD researcher Gino Brignoli (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) explains how a parasitic fungus, through chemical interference of the brain, appears to take control of the behaviour of a living ant to heighten its chance of reproductive success.
The neuroscience of terrorism
PhD researcher Nafees Hamid (UCL Security & Crime Science) describes a study scanning the brains of people professing extremist views, and explains that feelings of social exclusion appeared to increase propensity to violence and made participants’ values less negotiable.
Dementia and antidepressants
As a study suggests taking antidepressants may increase the risk of dementia, Professor Rob Howard (UCL Psychiatry) argues that the relationship may be the other way round – that depression is a sign of Alzheimer’s-type pathology in the brain.
Wolfson History Prize winning book sheds light on Nazi crimes
Professor Mary Fulbrook (UCL School of European Languages, Culture & Society) talks about her book ‘Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice’, which has won the 2019 Wolfson History Prize.
Listen: BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ (from 2 hrs 25 mins), More: UCL News, BBC History Magazine, The Bookseller, BBC Radio Wales (from 50 mins 19 secs), Financial Times
New government "net zero" climate change target has unifying effect
Visiting Professor Tom Burke (UCL Laws) says Theresa May’s stricter climate change target of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 has united trade unions, businesses and activists “at a time when everything is so polarised”.
Listen: BBC Radio 5 Live ‘Breakfast’ (from 1 hr 4 mins & 43 secs)
Orwell Prize to be unveiled at UCL
The winners of the four Orwell Prizes will be unveiled at a ceremony at UCL, home of the Orwell Archives, on Tuesday 25 June.
How AI could improve treatment for MS patients
Dr Parashkev Nachev (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) has led a study using computer algorithms to track hundreds of MRI brain scans in multiple sclerosis patients. AI could improve care for people with MS by detecting their responses to treatments more accurately.
Assessing the UK Treasury’s grasp of climate economics
Professor Michael Grubb (UCL Bartlett School Environment, Energy & Resources) says the Treasury’s predicted cost of over £1tn to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 ignores the effect that economies of scale and industrial innovation have on reducing costs.