Discover
Internet
'Light' Part 1 - Connecting to the internet through your lights
Can we receive information through our lighting?
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’...
Chris Lintott
I’m an astronomer who works on understanding how galaxies form and evolve, while also spending time finding exoplanets, supernovae and other unusual things. I run the Zooniverse platform, which invites you all to take part in these projects from the comfort of your sofa, via the web. My career started...
Grant Blank
I am a sociologist who studies the social and cultural impact of the Internet. The Internet is one of the most important innovations to emerge in the past half century. It is causing wide changes in British society and culture. I use data from the Oxford Internet Survey to understand how the Internet...
Seabird monitoring - witnesses in the wild
Seabirds – including penguins – are amongst the most threatened animals on the planet. They are also very useful indicators of wider environmental change. But how do you effectively monitor species which live in hard-to-reach places, such as Antarctica? A team of scientists at the University of Oxford has come up with a...
How are we using energy in lockdown?
Things have changed a lot over the past few months – including, for many of us, our daily routine. But how has this impacted our energy usage? In this week’s episode of the Big Questions podcast, we chat to Dr Philipp Grünewald from Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute about his ‘JoyMeter’ survey, which has given a fascinating insight into...
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...
Patrick Gildersleve
I am in my 8th year of study in Oxford, having started with a 4 year undergrad Masters in physics, before making a jump to the social sciences at the Oxford Internet Institute. I’m now working towards a DPhil and am interested in applying mathematical methods from physics to model and make predictions on social systems. In particular, I’m...
Keeping Social Media Social
Social media has become a huge part of many of our lives. But do we really know where all that information goes? In this animation we look at the ways that research can help us understand the world on and offline through the lens of social media, and some of the questions it raises.
Are video games good for my mental health?
Most of us have probably heard of video games being described as "addictive", but is there evidence of this? Are they damaging to our mental health, or could they actually have a positive impact on our metal wellbeing? In this episode of the Big Questions podcast we're booting up our consoles, and asking Prof Andrew Przybylski, Director of...
