Discover
Healthcare
How tricky is it to make a COVID-19 tracing app?
As we search for a way out of the global coronavirus crisis, there’s been plenty of discussion surrounding a potential COVID-19 tracing app. Many of us carry a mobile phone with us wherever we go, so it seems logical to use this pre-existing infrastructure in the transition towards a ‘new normal’. But how tricky is it to make such an app? What’...
What does my family want to know about coronavirus?
Coronavirus has been hitting the headlines since late 2019, and is now at the forefront of many people’s minds. We have a lot of questions, and it can be difficult to find answers. In this episode of the Big Questions podcast, Emily is asking her family what *they* would like to know about coronavirus, and Prof Christl Donnelly (an expert in...
Tingting Zhu
Dr. Tingting Zhu is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and Member of Faculty within the Department of Engineering Science, Oxford. She is an Associate Research Fellow of St. Hilda's College and a Stipendiary Lecturer at Mansfield College.
How do you measure pain?
We all feel pain differently. What to one person may be the worst pain in the world, might be a mild irritation to another person; but why? At the moment, we don’t have a thorough understanding of how pain is processed, meaning it is difficult to devise treatments for chronic (long-term) pain.
Min Chen
I was born in Shanghai, China. The majority of my school education took place during the infamous Cultural Revolution. There was no encouragement of academic achievement. Fortunately, the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, when I was 16, and it became normal again for teenagers to study and apply for university places.
Neva Kandzija
I am a full time DPhil student at Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health. My current research examines the pathophysiological mechanisms that cause Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. Despite being the most common metabolic gestational complication, affecting 10% of pregnancies, few women have heard of it before they’re told they...
How do unborn babies and mothers communicate via the placenta?
The placenta is a fascinating organ, which allows communication between mother and foetus through the release of bubble-like vesicles. Could the messages within these vesicles provide an early warning of diseases such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia? Scientists at the University of Oxford are finding out.
Andy Segerdahl
I first became interested in neuroscience as an undergraduate student. I discovered a lecture called “Introduction to Neurophysiology” and was completely swept away. The lecturer was a huge advocate for hands-on, lab-based tutorials which meant that I was learning how to do electrophysiology recordings from actual neurons in the first week of...
How do you fight malaria in the back of a van?
Just one mosquito bite is enough to infect someone with malaria. Tackling this serious – sometimes fatal – subtropical disease is a key priority for the World Health Organisation; but how can we move forward in the fight against it? Specifically, how could a small team of researchers, taking to the roads in a custom-built ‘Landrover Lab’, help...
