The University of Oxford's independent science magazine
Talk Summary by Barbara Walkowiak Many of us are afraid of cardiovascular disease, and very much aware that if a blood clot forms in the vessels in our brain or heart, it can be life-threatening. What we do not usually think about is what happens when such a clot appears in the blood vessels supporting…
Talk Summary by Barbara Walkowiak The basics of photosynthesis, or why getting your own food is always challenging In times of climate change and rising global population, sustainable and efficient food production is of vital importance. The secret to improving crop yields may lie in the algal chloroplast, as powerfully described by Ella Catherall in…
Talk Summary by Jasmine Charles On the third day of the Varsity Sci Symposium, Gayatri Tadikamalia from the University of Oxford delivered a thought-provoking presentation on anorexia nervosa and the microbiome. Throughout this clear and well- constructed slideshow, Gayatri pointed out the links between gut composition and the psychiatric illness, and tried to establish whether…
Talk Summary by Leah Hurst For the second talk in the Translational Medicine series of the symposium we owe our thanks to Aaron Koh, an incoming Natural Sciences student at Cambridge. Following a research project during his holidays based at the Genome Institute of Singapore, Aaron not only shared with us his findings of a…
Talk Summary by Sam van Druten Viruses are a prevalent topic of discussion nowadays. I thought it would be interesting to watch the Varsity Sci talks on virology to help me understand the subject better, and to help distinguish between the fake news and real facts making their way through the media. I was grateful…
Talk Summary by Harry Crook Recently the world reached the one-degree centigrade rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the first step in irreparable global warming; this has led to much research into CO2 emissions reduction. Initially this involved methods such as sequestration underground or simply planting trees, but more recently the…
Talk summary by Barbara Walkowiak Current diagnostic criteria that guide doctors through the complexities of the human body may often feel like checklists. If a doctor can tick enough boxes for the patient, the diagnosis is straightforward. For example, a patient may experience low mood persisting for longer than two weeks, trouble sleeping, weight imbalance…
Talk summary by Gemma Penson Climate change is one of the most critical emergencies humankind and our planet face on a daily basis. Amidst the current pandemic, the situation is not getting any better, with a severe reduction in recycling and mass production of disposable masks. For anyone determined to reduce their environmental damage and…