Latest Birmingham University Stories

An international team of scientists have discovered an ‘ordinary’ black hole in the 12 million light year-distant galaxy Centaurus A. This is the first time that a normal-size black hole has been detected away from the immediate vicinity of our own Galaxy. PhD student Mark Burke will present the discovery at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester. Although exotic by everyday standards, black holes are everywhere. The lowest-mass black holes are formed when very massive stars...

MDMA, better known as the recreational drug ecstasy, could be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma, and certain other types of blood cancer, a new Birmingham University study has claimed. Writing in the journal Investigational New Drugs, researchers from the school claimed that they successfully made the drug, which had already been proven effective against certain types of white blood cell cancers, 100 times more effective. Previously, the dosage required for treatment of these types of...