The History and Future of Biodesign
Arabella Fearnley-Whittingstall evaluates the sustainability and potential implications of biodesign, ranging from concrete to fashion.
Culture
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The Oxford Scientist Michaelmas reading and watchlist
Culture editors Catherine Wang and Erin Adlard give recommendations for this term’s must-watch and must-reads for those who love science.
From willow bark to aspirin: The evolution of modern medicine, through the rise and fall of ancient and medieval empires
Isra El Haddad reflects on the importance of ancient discoveries to the evolution of modern medicine and treatments.
Discovering the stars: The need for gender equality in space
Olivia Allen discusses the gender inequality experienced by Bell Burnell, notably how her discovery gave her male colleagues a Nobel Prize.
To capture time: Investigating timekeeping, collecting, and colonialism at Oxford’s History of Science Museum
Julia Granato explores the colonial history of many exhibitions in Britain and how a new exhibit at Oxford is trying to acknowledge its past.
Lost legacies: Western medicine’s appropriation of Indigenous psychedelic wisdom
Athina Metaxa explores how the Western psychedelic renaissance can threaten Indigenous communities and initiatives created to mitigate such.
Viral Whodunit: Investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Eloise Elkington explores the largely disputed origins of COVID-19 and how evidence suggests but not proves a wet market origin.
Speculative fiction and Xenobiology: Why scientists should embrace science fiction
Molly Bleach explores how scientific imagination can be a way of explaining data as well as preceding revolutionary findings.
Pixels and procedures: The tech-driven evolution of beauty standards
Isabelle Goodall-Summers explores the internet’s influence on beauty standards, and its promotion of potentially dangerous procedures.
The unintended consequences of scientific innovation on food
Doris Vidas explores how the scientific agricultural revolution has been invaluable in feeding the growing population, but at a cost.