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Humans
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’...
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...
Saturday Spotlight Talks at the Pitt Rivers Museum
The Saturday Spotlight Talks over at Pitt Rivers are a programme of events focusing on the displays and their relevance today; find out more about the collections, meet curators, hear specialist speakers, or join in workshops. Suitable for adults and older children.
Colin Espie
Colin is the Professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford, where he is Director of the Experimental & Clinical Sleep Medicine research programme, and Clinical Director of the Oxford Online Programme in Sleep...
Can data find me a date?
Looking for ‘The One’, or maybe just a date for Valentine’s Day? The dating scene has changed significantly over the past ten years, not least because of the increasing popularity of online dating websites and dating apps. In this special ‘Valentine’s’ edition of the Big Questions podcast, we’re asking Patrick Gildersleve from the Oxford...
Can we stop ageing?
We’re pretty obsessed with the concept of ageing. Ancient civilizations supposedly sought an ‘elixir of life’, and today many of us get hung up on finding a way to ‘younger looking skin’… But what’s the science behind ageing? What determines the life expectancy of a species and – time for the 'big question' – can we stop ageing? We ask Alison...
Greger Larson
I received my bachelor's degree in 1996 from Claremont McKenna College, a small liberal arts college in California. I then read just about everything Stephen J Gould ever wrote over the following three years while wandering the deserts of Turkmenistan and working for an environmental consultancy in Azerbaijan. Deciding that evolution was cooler...
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...
Learn more about human sight
As you read this, you currently have lots and lots of light waves entering your eyes. But how can a picture trick your eyesite? Follow the link below to find out more about our most important sense!
Learn more about the human sense of taste
What's your favourite food - can you imagine what it tastes like right now? Find out how the 10,000 taste buds on your tongue work together to make food taste so good (or bad!)
