From The Conversation: Deep sea reefs are spectacular and barely-explored – they must be conserved
26 January 2023
Biology Research Sustainability & the environment The Conversation
Largely hidden from the masses lie great expanses of deep reefs, which collectively have a larger geographic footprint than their shallower counterparts.
Leaping beetles inspire new, miniature jumping robots
24 January 2023
Inspired by jumping insects, researchers from the Mathematical Institute have helped develop a miniature robot capable of leaping more than 40 times its body length- equivalent to a human jumping up to the 20th floor of a building. The innovation could be a major step forward in developing microrobots for a wide range of applications.
Professor Marina Jirotka on the need for Responsible Innovation and holding AI accountable
23 January 2023
Computer science Women in science
Professor of Human Centred Computing, Marina Jirotka, talks to Oxford Profiles about the battle to make tech ethical, sustainable and fair.
New study shows that most plastic debris on Seychelles beaches comes from far-off sources
19 January 2023
Biology Earth sciences Research Sustainability & the environment
A new high-resolution model to quantify the sources of plastic debris accumulating on beaches across the Seychelles and other island states in the western Indian Ocean reveals that most of this waste originates from distant sources and not from the islands themselves.
Winners of inaugural MPLS Awards for Outstanding Research Supervision announced
18 January 2023
Research staff and academics across the Division have been recognised as winners of the inaugural MPLS Awards for Outstanding Research Supervision, announced today.
University of Oxford Chemist honoured in annual Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists
18 January 2023
Award Chemistry Women in science
Professor of Physical Chemistry, Susan Perkin, has been named Award Laureate in the 2023 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK. The award comes in recognition of her experimental work using a custom-built instrument – known as the Surface Force Balance – to determine the properties of fluids.
From The Conversation: Fossil study brings us one step closer to revealing how ‘flying dinosaurs’ took flight
17 January 2023
Earth sciences The Conversation
New study places Schleromochlus closer to the origin of pterosaurs than other lagerpetids, providing a reference point for research into pterosaur development.
Professor Tim Palmer wins Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal
13 January 2023
Professor Tim Palmer has today received the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2023 Gold Medal for Geophysics for his outstanding work in advancing the understanding and prediction of climate and weather.
Climate goals can be achieved at affordable cost, if fossil fuel producers pay for carbon clear up
13 January 2023
Climate change could be constrained by implementation of policies to ensure fossil fuel producers pay for carbon clear-up, or capture, according to new Oxford-led research, published in Environmental Research Letters.
Raising the minimum age of trophy hunted lions could make hunting more sustainable
13 January 2023
Biology Research Sustainability & the environment
Raising the minimum age threshold for trophy hunted male lions, and accounting for additional deaths caused by poaching and conflict with people, could increase hunting sustainability, suggests a new study from WildCRU, based in the Department of Biology.
Organisations must set bold targets for their catering to become 'nature-positive'
12 January 2023
Biology Research Sustainability & the environment
Making catering more sustainable can make genuine positive contributions, but coming close to fully mitigating biodiversity loss within the current food system will take extremely ambitious action.
Oxford University to co-lead £8m Energy Demand Observatory and Laboratory to help UK reach net-zero
12 January 2023
The five-year programme, funded by the EPSRC and working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), will establish a national energy data platform to help facilitate the transition to net-zero carbon emissions.
MPLS staff welcome Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor
11 January 2023
On Tuesday 10 January, the University’s 273rd Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Tracey CBE FMedSci, was formally admitted in a ceremony steeped in tradition, at the Sheldonian Theatre.
Significant scale-up investment for three Oxford spinouts
11 January 2023
Engineering Funding Physics Spin out
Three University of Oxford spinouts, including two from MPLS, have raised significant investment to scale their companies in vehicle automation, quantum computing and medical imaging respectively.
Dr Elsa Panciroli: portrait of a palaeontologist
11 January 2023
An interview with Elsa Panciroli from the Department of Earth Sciences, a palaeontologist who uses X-ray tomography and digital visualisation to understand the anatomy and growth of the first mammals and their closest relatives.
From The Conversation: Elephant poaching rates vary across Africa - 19 years of data from 64 sites suggest why
11 January 2023
Timothy Kuiper (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape Town) and EJ Milner-Gulland (Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, Department of Biology) explore what varying poaching rates can tell us about what drives, motivates and facilitates poaching.
RSC outreach grant to support Oxford Chemistry showcase at community events
9 January 2023
The Department of Chemistry has been awarded a grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Outreach Fund to help attract a new generation of young people to study chemistry and continue a successful Science Together pilot collaboration.
Oxford students successfully send an experiment into space
20 December 2022
In November 2021, a team of graduate students from Oxford teamed up with the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) to turn the ideas of secondary school children into real experiments for launch to the International Space Station.
From The Conversation: UN biodiversity conference: what does living in harmony with nature look like?
20 December 2022
Biology Food security & biodiversity The Conversation
Senior Research Fellow Dr Alexandra Zimmermann from the Department of Biology writes about the complexities of resolving human-wildlife conflict and achieving coexistence.
From The Conversation: Nuclear fusion may still be decades away
19 December 2022
Nuclear fusion and the hope of a source of clean, abundant energy may still be decades away, but the latest breakthrough could speed up its development.