New research on mummies challenges the conventional belief that fatty arteries are caused by unhealthy lifestyles. The study came about through the Digging into Data Challenge, a research initiative co-funded by the ESRC.

Regulations controlling air pollution from ships might be ineffective, suggests ESRC-funded research. A minority of berthing ships in the UK and Sweden are burning high-sulphur fuel in restricted control areas.

Fieldwork is beginning in a unique study which puts social scientists at the heart of disease prevention. The ESRC-funded Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium will study 'zoonotic' diseases – those which can be transmitted to humans from wild animals and livestock.

Public health policies have been hampered by the lack of good research evidence to design and implement effective initiatives. Research by the ESRC-funded Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement has examined health policy initiatives in Wales.

Thirty years after the first reported cases of AIDS, a unique gathering of experts are examining the early response to the epidemic in the lecture series "AIDS @ 30: Three decades of responding to HIV/AIDS".

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in the UK, and new research based on longitudinal studies shows how people from some ethnic backgrounds are more at risk than others.