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News

Skylark against a yellow backdrop

In The Conversation: Nature-friendly farming budget swells in UK – but cuts elsewhere make recovery fraught

Nature-friendly farming budgets are increasing through schemes like the ELM programme – but could cuts elsewhere undermine overall progress? Professor Nathalie Seddon from the Department of Biology investigates for The Conversation UK.

The common blue butterfly perched on a leaf.

Trees and hedges on farmland significantly boost butterfly numbers, study finds

A new collaborative study, led by researchers from the Department of Biology, finds that hedgerows, small copses and even individual trees can significantly increase the number of butterflies in farmed landscapes.

A white mouse in a close up shot

In The Conversation: How mice ‘listen’ with their whiskers

Tommi Anttonen from the Department of Biology explores newly published research indicating that mice do more than just feel their way around with their whiskers – they also use them to 'listen' to their environment.

African savannah elephants, with lines indicating the acoustic and seismic vibrations generated by their rumble vocalisations. Credit: Adapted from a photo by Patrick Baum on Unsplash.

Oxford’s Animal Vibration Lab showcased at Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Department of Biology research on animal seismic senses will be featured at the Royal Society’s annual free celebration of world-leading science. The Summer Science Exhibition runs from 1-6 July 2025 at the Royal Society in London.

A generated illustration of brain pathways lightly lit up on a dark blue background.

Oxford to lead new £50m MRC Centre to develop brain stimulation device-based therapies

Researchers at Oxford will collaborate with Cardiff University, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Imperial College London and Newcastle University. The Oxford team spans the Department of Engineering Science and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences.

An Uber neon style sign, mounted in the windscreen of a car.

New research reveals Uber’s algorithmic pricing leaves drivers and passengers worse off

A new study from researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science has found that Uber’s use of dynamic pricing has led to higher fares for passengers and lower earnings for drivers, while increasing Uber’s share of revenue.

Left to right: Professor Saiful Islam (Credit: Paul Wilkinson Photography); Professor Mauro Pasta; Professor Kylie Vincent (Credit: Ian Wallman).

Oxford University researchers recognised in the 2025 Royal Society of Chemistry Prizes

Two MPLS researchers have won 2025 Royal Society of Chemistry Prizes for their work on clean energy technologies, while an Oxford-led collaboration also received a Horizon Prize for sustainable chemical manufacturing.

Members of the programme focused on developing hydrogen-powered jet engines

University to lead new collaboration advancing zero carbon aviation through hydrogen

Leading academics from Oxford, Imperial College London, Loughborough, and King's College London launched a £9.5M hydrogen-powered jet engine programme at Oxford's Thermofluids Institute earlier this month. The EPSRC-backed project aims to achieve net-zero aviation emissions by 2050.

This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.

Oxford celebrates first images from revolutionary sky survey telescope

The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory represents a step change in researchers’ ability to study the cosmos. Scientists from the Department of Physics helped to make the progress possible through more than a decade of sustained involvement.

Local primary school students at Lincoln College as part of an MPLS Primary Science Day

Oxford hosts inspiring science days for local primary schools

Oxford University's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division has welcomed enthusiastic Year 5 students from local state primary schools for two days packed with exciting, hands-on science workshops.

Department of Engineering Science DPhil student Honora Driscoll

DPhil student recognised in the Women's Engineering Society's Top 50 Women in Engineering awards

Department of Engineering Science DPhil student Honora Driscoll has been named in the Women's Engineering Society's Top 50 Women in Engineering awards 2025, announced today for International Women in Engineering Day.

Protein purification in the cold room, Chemistry Department.

Oxford academics awarded European Research Council Advanced Grants for breakthrough research

Three researchers from the MPLS Division have been awarded Advanced Grants from the European Research Council, each worth up to €2.5 million over a period of five years.

Split composition depiction of a diamond generated by AI.

New breakthrough enables precise activation of quantum features in diamond

A new study led by researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester has achieved a major advance in quantum materials, developing a method to precisely engineer single quantum defects in diamond – an essential step toward scalable quantum technologies.

King's Birthday Honours recipients

Oxford scientists in King’s Birthday Honours 2025

The King's Birthday Honours 2025 Lists have been published, marking the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the UK, including members of the MPLS Division and wider University.

The Radcliffe Camera building, Oxford

Oxford sciences at the forefront of AI-driven drug discovery

Researchers from the Department of Statistics and the Nuffield Department of Medicine are among the senior principal investigators on a £8 million government-backed consortium creating the world's largest dataset for training machine learning models in drug discovery.

A rendering of the Oxford University team’s ion trap chip. Credit: Dr Jochen Wolf and Dr Tom Harty.

Oxford physicists set new world record for qubit operation accuracy

Physicists at the University of Oxford have set a new global benchmark for the accuracy of controlling a single quantum bit, achieving the lowest-ever error rate for a quantum logic operation – just 0.000015%, or one error in 6.7 million operations.

A dehorned black rhino in the Greater Kruger region, showing some horn regrowth. Photo by Tim Kuiper.

Study finds dehorning rhinos drastically reduces poaching

Department of Biology researchers have contributed to an international study which found that dehorning rhinos resulted in a drastic reduction in poaching of these endangered animals. The findings have been published this week in the journal Science.

rtistic illustration of spectacular jets propelled by gravitational energy from a supermassive black hole at the heart of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A. Billions of times more massive than our Sun, this supermassive black hole could potentially perform as a powerful particle supercollider. Illustration is based on imaging originally captured using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico.

New study indicates that scientists could use black holes as particle supercolliders

Scientists could turn to black holes to aid the search for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe’s deepest secrets, a new study by Oxford physicists suggests.

An iceberg

First direct observation of the trapped waves that shook the world

Using a brand-new type of satellite altimetry, a study led by the Department of Engineering Science has finally confirmed the theory that the cause of extraordinary global tremors in September–October 2023 were two mega tsunamis in Greenland that became trapped standing waves.

A farmer in a field holding some potatoes

New ARIA award aims to deliver a revolution in sustainable agriculture

Researchers in the Department of Biology and Wild Bioscience Ltd are to receive backing of a £6.7 million grant from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to pioneer a new synthetic biology approach which promises to improve yields in potato and wheat.

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