University College London Archives

Can citizen science drive social change?

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What is citizen science and how can this practice be implemented to benefit communities and boost prosperity? Based at the Institute for Global Prosperity University College London, the newly launched Citizen Science Academy aims to provide the answer. By training residents to the practices of social research and equipping them with the tools to drive social action in different areas […]

Optimising well-being and development through music

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Professor Graham Welch and the music education research team at University College London have conducted extensive work to evaluate and document the benefits of music for children. Their research has included large-scale studies of music programmes sponsored by governments and charities. The outcomes of these studies have shown clear benefits of music in supporting optimal health, well-being and development in […]

Converting to terahertz communications

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The amount of data we generate globally is now accelerating at a breakneck pace. As this transformation occurs, exchanges of terahertz signals could become a crucial aspect of future communication systems, yet without a way to efficiently convert these waves to and from optical signals, such a prospect has remained unfeasible so far. In his research, Professor Cyril Renaud at […]

Genuinely theoretical: The case for Philosophical Biology

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Dr Ehsani belives a theoretical foundation for cell biology may translate into tangible advances in treating various conditions.

Though his background is in biomedicine, Dr Sepehr Ehsani is currently completing his PhD in philosophy at University College London. In his time working in the lab, Dr Ehsani became more aware of the often-neglected importance of theory. What is sometimes called theoretical biology is not usually ‘theory’ for the most part, in the sense that it is not truly […]

Decision making under uncertainty: Ambiguity preferences

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We all face daily decision making under uncertainty. Everyone has a different tolerance for the level of risk that they are comfortable accepting and the amount of uncertainty they are happy to make decisions within, which is also known as their ambiguity preference. Traditionally, ambiguity preferences have been measured in economic laboratory environments using complicated and time consuming tasks. As […]

No safe level of smoking exists for heart disease and stroke

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If you think smoking only one or two cigarettes a day is almost harmless, think again. Professor Allan Hackshaw at the Cancer Institute, University College London and colleagues examined the risk of stroke and heart disease associated with light smoking (one to five cigarettes per day). Their large-scale systematic review provides a major body of evidence highlighting the importance of […]

Carcinogenesis: When transmission of epigenetic information goes awry

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Professor Patrick Riley Research Outreach

Genes are blueprints that code for proteins and in turn, proteins drive most activities within our cells. But between genes and their protein products is the layer of epigenetics – genes may be expressed differently depending on the heritable, epigenetic features that switch them on and off. Charting new territories in carcinogenesis, Professor Patrick Riley at University College London explores […]