UCL in the media
Record-setting ice hole drills 1.3 miles through Antarctica’s ice sheet
Professor Peter Sammonds (UCL Earth Sciences) is part of a team working on a radical hot water drilling technique in West Antarctica. Instruments will record water pressure, ice temperature and deformation, helping to understand how the region will respond to a warming climate.
Neanderthal hunting spears could kill at a distance
Dr Annemieke Milks (UCL Institute of Archaeology) led the study, which saw javelin athletes throw replicas of a 300,000 year-old Neanderthal spear at targets at different distances. The results suggest Neanderthals were more effective hunters than previously thought.
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Refugees and family migrants more likely to feel British than other immigrants
Research Associate Stuart Campbell (UCL Institute of Education) explores perceptions that some migrant groups in the UK lack a sense of belonging, finding that these groups are much more likely to feel they have a British national identity than economic migrants.
Antony Gormley explores how art began
Artist Antony Gormley, alumnus of the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, explains why he believes art being ignored is "a tragedy and a travesty" ahead of new BBC Two film 'How Art Began'.
Being married is good for your health
Dr Natasha Wood (UCL Institute of Education) has found that married men and women over 60 are more physically capable than their unmarried, widowed or cohabiting peers.
Read: iNews, More: Daily Mail, Telegraph (£), Mirror, Telegraph 2 (£), Sun, Yahoo! News, UCL News, Listen: BBC Radio 2 'Zoe Ball' (from 49 mins 53 secs)
What makes smartphones so smart?
Professor Daniel Miller (UCL Anthropology) leads an examination of the technical, cultural and individual processes that make smartphones ‘smart’ and asks what the consequences of using them could be.
Could treatments for physical health be used for mental disorders?
Professor Graham Easton (UCL Medical School) discusses recent research which suggests drugs used for physical health could be used to treat serious mental health problems like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Listen: BBC World Service ‘Health Check’ (from 0 mins 17 secs)
'Cuddle therapy' wellness trend could get rid of stress and boost wellbeing
Commenting on 'cuddle therapy', a growing wellness trend that promises to get rid of stress and boost wellbeing, PhD researcher Marina von Mohr (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said tests had shown being touched by a stranger "can reduce feelings of social exclusion.”
The truth about nutrigenetics
Emeritus Professor Steve Jones (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) comments that nutrigenetics, a new science which reads DNA and tells people how to optimise diet, can give useful information, but “the baselines of health are basically common sense."
The internet was not intended to spy on us
The internet started life in the 1960s as a research project to ensure that the US stayed ahead of the Soviet Union in science and technology, explains Professor Peter Kirstein (UCL Computer Science).