Media
Video
Lockdown Walks - What's up with those clouds?
If you don't think there's much left to discover on a local walk, think again! In our 'Lockdown Walks' video series, researchers at the University of Oxford share some of the fascinating science that can be found right outside your front door! In this episode, Andrew Williams, a PhD student in...
Understanding COVID-19 transmission, informing control
Tackling a previously unseen pathogen - like the one that causes COVID-19 - is like piecing together a puzzle. There are many different parameters to investigate before the pathogen can be fully understood, and before effective control measures can be put in place. So how do scientists go about...
Changing plant chloroplasts to improve crop performance
Chloroplasts are tiny protein-filled units within plant cells. As well as being responsible for photosynthesis, they are critical to a plant's ability to respond to its environment (for example, to the intensity of light or the threat of disease). They do this by importing the proteins they need...
Mechanobiology: the stress of life
We often think of our bodies in terms of cells and genes, but we shouldn’t forget that they’re also complex mechanical structures. From an Achilles tendon – that can carry half the weight of a Mini – to our constantly pulsing blood vessels, they’re feats of meticulous engineering. Scientists at...
Using your science to reveal how much rain fell on the dinosaurs
During the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 million years ago), the world was very different! It was hotter, with more rainfall, and dinosaurs would have roamed the lush wetlands and forests that existed in the UK....
Using your science to explore the climate history of Mars
Mars today is colder than Antarctica and drier than the Sahara — but scratch just beneath its dusty red coating and tales of a different planet emerge. The young Mars of three billion years ago was an Earth-like place of rain, rivers, and perhaps even oceans. Though long-gone, the rocks remember...