Atreyi Chakrabarty (St. Cross College, DPhil in Interdisciplinary Bioscience) in conversation with Professor Dorothy Bishop (Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford) More and more scientists are starting to doubt the nature of their own playing field. Their colleagues’ studies published in acclaimed journals, but the key findings mysteriously never seem to materialise when others try to…
By Dr Alice Thorneywork Be it ice in a drink, chocolate left in the sun, or the wax of a lit candle, melting – the phase transition in which a substance turns from a solid to a liquid – is a scientific phenomenon that we experience every day. While on a macroscopic level we know what melting looks…
Scientists from Oxford’s Healzlewood group discuss chemistry close to absolute zero. In the Heazlewood group we are interested in how chemical reactions progress at very low temperatures, close to absolute zero. The study of these reactions is of great importance for the exploration of naturally cold environments, such as the interstellar medium in space or the upper levels of Earth’s atmosphere. Previous research shows that…
Dr Martine Abboud is a multi-award winning scientist, working in the Schofield group in the Department of Chemistry and as a Junior Research Fellow at Kellogg College. Martine writes to ‘The Oxford Scientist’ about what she does and her passion for research. During my time in Oxford, I have discovered a genuine interest for scientific…
By Amity Roberts Photograph: Nasa Archive/Alamy Nancy Roman, a boundary-breaking astronomer known as the ‘Mother of the Hubble’, died aged 93 on December 25th, 2018. Roman was NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and supervised the planning and development of the Hubble Space Telescope that would change the way we see the universe. Roman was born…
By Abigail Pavey The power to create, destroy or modify life has always been a source of great debate between scientists and among society as a whole. But what happens when scientists decide to go undercover and do what they please? In November 2018, Chinese researcher He Jiankui announced to the world that he had…
The Michaelmas 2018 issue of The Oxford Scientist is here! Packed full of articles looking at the impact science has on the way we live our lives, check it out below or pick up a copy from your college common room now.
By Emma Baker, Year 13, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, Durham Vivien T. Thomas never had much more than a high school diploma, yet remains one of the most significant pioneers of cardiac surgery to date – having helped save the lives of countless children with congenital heart defects through surgical techniques he invented. His…
By Jemima Longcake, Year 12, Kirkbie Kendal School, Cumbria They may not wear the pristine white lab coat, or work in the esteemed laboratories of CERN or Fermilab. They do not lecture thousands in auditoriums, but they they lecture hundreds in our school lab rooms and classrooms. They are, for many of us, our first…
By Zain Ali, Year 11, King Edward VI Aston School, West Midlands It is flowing through you as you read this. Composed of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma, blood is arguably the most important tissue in the human body. Throughout history, an uncountable amount of people have died because they bled…
