UCL stories

Rupert Cole (MSc student, UCL Science & Technology Studies) speaks with evolutionary biologist Simon Watt about dissection TV programmes, sperm warfare, what Darwin did to earthworms on a snooker table and why 'ants are natures little anarchists'. Further info: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/events/2012/09/06/dissection-darwin-dawkins-and-dr-death-an-interview-with-simon-watt UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Video (audio-slideshow): http://youtu.be/KYQN4L6SqB0 The Francis Crick Institute has organised a group of 'science buskers', including several volunteers from UCL, to roam around St Pancras International Station and engage members of the public in science tricks. More info: Science busking at St Pancras: http://www.crick.ac.uk/news/events/2012/08/11/science-busking General Crick science busking: http://www.crick.ac.uk/news/cricknews/issue-02/science-busking UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) studies how and why we laugh but also likes to make people laugh. In this podcast her explanation of how we learn to laugh is inter-cut with her performance at a comedy night and a trip with her son to the playground. This research is at the centre of her contribution to the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition. Further information: Professor Sophie Scott: https://sites.google.com/site/speechskscott Royal Society: http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exhibits/laughing-brains Video of this podcast: http://youtu.be/wD3TcORDs3I UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL's Grant Museum of Zoology is hosting an exhibition of art works from several species of animal, including paintings by elephants and apes. The exhibition is co-curated by Mike Tuck, a graduate from the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, and Will Tuck, also a fine artist. Further information: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/January2012/270112-art-by-animals Images of the art: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uclnews/sets/72157629053409035/ Visit the exhibition: http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:t2m-gvv4g5ey-rc0zta UCL Grant Museum: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

This podcast weaves together live recordings of musicians and masquerade rituals from Sierra Leone with an interview from Dr Paul Basu (UCL Anthropology) on the country's cultural heritage. For three years Dr Basu has been working with institutions across Britain and Sierra Leone to gather objects and stories of Sierra Leone's cultural heritage in both a website (http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org) and a new exhibition at UCL. The West African country, still recovering from a Civil War that ended in 2002, has a rich cultural heritage of textiles, masks and more but with little resources to preserve them. Providing an opportunity to re-evaluate Sierra Leone's cultural heritage, this project brings together rarely seen objects from widespread collections to the digital space. Further information:‪ http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org‬ YouTube video: http://youtu.be/Swg_lG-G8RY Dr Paul Basu: ‪http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/p_basu‬ AHRC: ‪http://projects.beyondtext.ac.uk/reanimatingculturalheritage‬ UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

For men with haemophilia B, the standard treatment is to have injections about twice a week so that the liver produces Factor IX for the blood to clot. Now for the first time, a gene therapy trial developed by Dr Amit Nathwani (UCL Cancer Institute) and colleagues in collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the U.S. has been able to reduce this treatment to a single injection for most of the patients in the study. Video: http://youtu.be/11maHFwC35s BBC News: http://bit.ly/sMPUHn New York Times: http://bit.ly/twldkJ UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

For the 2011 Charity Concert in the Quad, UCL staff and students along with local school children gathered to enjoy workshops and performances by UCLU Clubs and Societies, all in aid of Centrepoint, a charity which works with young homeless people. Further information: http://uclu.org http://www.centrepoint.org.uk Video of the event - http://youtu.be/wF0BR9bevFQ UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Astrobiologist Dr Claire Cousins (UCL/Birkbeck Centre for Planetary Sciences) conducted her most recent fieldwork in Iceland. She formed part of a team who were surveying a remote field site that emulates the conditions on Mars millions of years ago. Dr Cousins is applying her field site research to the search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars through contributing to the design of instruments on the ESA's ExoMars rover. Further info: Audio-slideshow version: http://youtu.be/MSrCu_DLVtw Dr Claire Cousins: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ward/people/claire_cousins http://www.clairecousins.com Centre for Planetary Sciences: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/cps UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Professor Catherine Hall (UCL History) and her team in the project Legacies of British Slave-ownership are examining how modern Britain, from its art collections and grand buildings to its financial institutions, has been built on the wealth generated from slavery. The project is tracing the slave owners who benefitted from the £20m paid in compensation in the 1830s and where this money subsequently went. Further information: LBS project website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs Professor Hall: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/about_us/academic_staff/professor_hall Watch Professor Hall's Lunch Hour Lecture: http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:v3-gqp9r8ha-v80p6s Visit exhibition: http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:cl-gqc602ec-1om7o1 UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Incorporating Albrecht Dürer's striking woodblock prints and Elizabethan maps of London and the world, this exhibition offers insight into the ways in which ideas, languages, cultures and power were exchanged in the Early Modern period (1450-1800). In this podcast Professor Helen Hackett (UCL English) and Dr Alexander Samson (UCL Spanish and Latin American Studies) discuss the new exhibition they have helped curate in the UCL Art Museum, Word and image: Early modern treasures from the UCL Collections. The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see items from the UCL Art Collections and UCL Library Special Collections. UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Amniotic fluid stem cells, different from adult and embryonic stem cells, may soon hold the answer to correcting life-threatening birth defects. While Dr Anna David (UCL Institute for Women's Health / UCLH) works with mothers-to-be and helps diagnose these abnormalities in the womb, Dr Paolo De Coppi (UCL Institute of Child Health / Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children) and his team are working with stem cells from the amniotic fluid in the hope of developing therapies. Though this research is still at a pre-clinical stage, the future potential is enormous for treating babies both in the the womb and after birth. Further information: UCL Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/stemcells/ For more on Dr De Coppi's research: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/stemcells/researchers/pc For more on Dr David's research: http://www.instituteforwomenshealth.ucl.ac.uk/academic_research/maternalfetal/prenatalcell UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

At the 2011 UCL Open Day, Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com spoke to prospective students and their parents about the myths of student finance for students beginning study in 2012. Martin Lewis is the Head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information. The event was supported by Universities UK and UCL. For more information: UCL Student Finance 2012: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/tabs/fees-and-costs/2012-site Martin Lewis: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/financial-education/ Universities UK: http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/UKHESECTOR/Pages/StudentFinance.aspx UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

http://www.food-junctions.org.uk/ http://foodpaths.org.uk/ Food Junctions is a student-run festival that crosses cultures, countries and communities to celebrate the fabric of food in all its forms. Food Junctions is designed to promote healthy living and local food production, as well as to encourage visitors to explore the world of food politics, culture and research. It formed part of the Reveal festival in Kings Cross and the Camley Street Natural Park’s 25th Anniversary Festival. Running over two weekends from 24 April to 2 May, Food Junctions featured more than 200 contributors from the academic community and beyond. The festival was jam-packed with a smorgasbord of free events including talks, hands-on workshops, demonstrations, tasting sessions, art and architecture installations, performance, film and much more. The audio soundscape provides a taste of the experiences and features urban beekeeper Brian McCallum, wine tasting expert Professor Kathleen Burk (UCL History), Curator Mark Carnell (UCL Grant Museum) on why we aren’t eating our cats, and poetry extracts from Tim Wells and Simon Barraclough from Poet in the City. UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk. UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.