Search results (28)
« Back to NewsFrom 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.
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.
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.
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.
From The Conversation: Shark fishing is a global problem that demands local solutions
12 December 2022
Biology Research The Conversation
Hollie Booth, Oxford Policy Engagement Network Post-doc Fellow in the Department of Biology, writes about her research into ways to reduce catches of threatened shark species that also support the rights and welfare of small-scale fishers.
From The Conversation: Air pollution cools climate more than expected – this makes cutting carbon emissions more urgent
16 November 2022
Climate Physics The Conversation
Air pollutants in the form of tiny particles suspended in air kill around seven million people every year, but also have a buffering effect on climate change. By Peter Manshausen, Duncan Watson-Parris and Philip Stier from the Department of Physics.
From The Conversation: The danger of advanced artificial intelligence controlling its own feedback
24 October 2022
AI and data science Engineering Research The Conversation
'How would an artificial intelligence (AI) decide what to do?', asks Oxford DPhil candidate in Engineering Science, Michael K Cohen, and his co-author Marcus Hutter from the Australian National University, in this article which highlights the potential risks of relying on the 'reinforcement learning' approach in AI research.
Noise in the brain enables us to make extraordinary leaps of imagination. It could transform the power of computers too
20 October 2022
Climate Physics The Conversation
Professor Tim Palmer, Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Physics, discusses how noise can improve the accuracy of climate models, and how noise in the brain is the key to creativity, in an article first published on the Conversation.
Elephant conservation may be undermined by Twitter users who overlook main threats
18 October 2022
An article first published on the Conversation by Amy Dickman, Professor of Wildlife Conservation in the Department of Biology, and colleagues Niall Hammond from Griffith University and Duan Biggs at Northern Arizona University.
The science of why hawks are one of nature’s deadliest hunters
11 October 2022
Biology Maths Research The Conversation
In an article first published on the Conversation, Graham Taylor, Professor of Mathematical Biology in the Department of Biology, writes about the sophisticated techniques that Swainson's hawks use to deal with the 'confusion effect' posed by large swarms of their prey, the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat.
Chess: how to spot a potential cheat
29 September 2022
AI and data science Engineering The Conversation
Michael K. Cohen, graduate student in the Department of Engineering Science, writes about AI, chess and the difficulty of identifying cheating in an article first published on the Conversation.
How to finance marine conservation without harming local communities
15 August 2022
Biology Food security & biodiversity The Conversation
Hollie Booth from the Department of Biology discusses whether international marine tourists might be prepared to pay towards community-based shark conservation, in an article first published on the Conversation.
Trophy hunting: why a UK import ban threatens wildlife conservation
11 August 2022
Amy Dickman, Professor of Wildlife Conservation in the Department of Biology, puts the case that trophy hunting import bans risk increasing threats to wildlife and undermining local rights and livelihoods, in an article first published on the Conversation.
Solar is the cheapest power, and a literal light-bulb moment showed us we can cut costs and emissions even further
1 August 2022
Energy Functional materials Materials science Research The Conversation
In an article first published on the Conversation, Matthew Wright (Department of Materials), together with colleagues Bruno Vicari Stefani from CSIRO and Brett Hallam from UNSW Sydney, explain how rethinking the type of silicon used in solar cells could make them much more efficient.
Earth scientists reveal ancient salamander hidden inside mystery rock for 50 years
15 July 2022
Earth sciences Research The Conversation Zoology
A collaboration between Earth Sciences palaeobiologists from the University of Oxford and University College London has shed new light on one of the earliest-known salamanders, from a rock first discovered in the 1970s.
Jurassic World Dominion: a palaeontologist on what the film gets wrong about dinosaurs
14 June 2022
Earth sciences The Conversation
Ben Igielman, DPhil student in palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, writes about the new Jurassic World film in an article first published on the Conversation.
From The Conversation: What the invasion of Ukraine means for the IPCC’s latest climate change report
4 April 2022
Climate Physics The Conversation
Professor Myles Allen, University of Oxford and Hugh Helferty, Queen's University Ontario discuss whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes it harder to stop climate change.
From The Conversation: How to investigate when a robot causes an accident – and why it’s important that we do
24 March 2022
AI and data science Computer science Research The Conversation
Keri Grieman, Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science, writes about the 'ethical black box' for robots.
From the Conversation: Biodiversity: why new rules to ensure nature benefits from building projects could fail
24 March 2022
Biology Food security & biodiversity The Conversation Zoology
EJ Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, and colleagues from the University of Kent write about “biodiversity net gain” – a measure applying to most new developments in England which is intended to ensure nature is left better off overall than before the project began.