A review led by researchers at the University of Nottingham has found that contamination from historical metal mining is widespread across former mining regions in the UK, particularly in Wales and the southwest and northwest of England.

Commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the review examined the available evidence on the risks to animal and human health from land contaminated by metals originating from historical metal mines and smelters. The findings have been published on Defra's website.

England and Wales have a long history of metal mining and processing dating back to the Bronze Age. While these industries were central to the country's development, they also left a lasting environmental legacy. Mining, ore processing and smelting have resulted in elevated concentrations of metals in soils, rivers and groundwater, with contamination extending many kilometres beyond former industrial sites.

A new breakthrough stem cell treatment for ARK (aniridia-related keratopathy) has seen patients’ vision improve for this previously untreatable rare genetic eye condition in a first-in-human clinical trial at Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London (UCL), published in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Researchers have discovered how a form of delirium that often strikes older patients after surgery may set the stage for dementia – and identified a drug that could reverse the underlying brain changes.

Researchers at The University of Toledo have developed a rapid blood screening method designed to detect elevated bile acids, an early warning sign of liver dysfunction that is not routinely measured in standard blood panels. The test is based on a surprising finding that red blood cells exposed to elevated bile acids become more resistant to rupture because changes in their cell membranes make them more rigid. In testing, the method distinguished patients with cholestatic liver disease from healthy controls and produced results in as little as 10 to 20 minutes using a small blood sample. The researchers say the patent-pending screening approach could provide an inexpensive first-line test to identify patients who need further evaluation before liver disease progresses to more serious stages.