Hanah Ibrahim, Year 13, Pimlico Academy, London Currently living underneath the world’s oceans is a vast and deep microbial biosphere that extends hundreds of metres into the seafloor. Dr Karen Lloyd, a marine microbiologist from the University of Tennessee, is fascinated by this deep-sea world and the microbes that inhabit it, so has spent years…
Ruby Keith-Smith, Year 12, Bristol Grammar School Out of the 100 million people who have ever lived on Earth, an estimated half of them may have died from malaria. Malaria is still responsible for over 3000 African children’s deaths per day, being particularly prevalent in low-income communities who lack basic necessities such as proper sanitation,…
WINNER of the Michaelmas Term 2020 Schools Science Writing Competition Lucy Addis, Year 12, Royal School Armagh, Armagh Revolutionary. It’s a word that’s seldom used to describe cancer treatments, but that’s about to change. Immunotherapy is a “game-changing” new treatment that uses viruses to directly kill cancerous cells and make it much easier for the…
By Evan Turner The environment is in crisis. The next few decades are crucial to mitigate catastrophic risks and next year the COP26 Climate Conference will be held in Glasgow. The world is looking to the UK to set the tone, and there is growing public and private sector support for green technologies and acknowledgment…
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 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…
We are delighted to announce the winners and runners up for this term’s Oxford Scientist School Writing Competition. We received 535 entries for this competition, the most entries we have ever received. Thank you all so much for writing essays about scientific advances, inventions, and discoveries which still affect the world today. The entries were…
What can USSR genetic experiments tell us about the self-domestication of urban foxes? My first encounter with a city fox involved hushed tones, tip-toed movements, and wide-eyed awe. Twenty years on, I spot foxes slinking around street corners, hopping over fences, and engaging in ‘who will blink first’ contests. Whilst city foxes possess a wild…
Admired both for their honey and complex societies, theologians and naturalists throughout the ages have looked to bees for inspiration. Every generation has found a virtue in the bee. Religious scholars praised bees for their tireless industry and the precision of the hexagonal cells used to build their hives, a gift from the divine. Darwin…
The reactions of many across the world to the recent atrocities in America have been varied. However, one common theme has been a greater desire for education, in the knowledge that understanding is the opposite of bigotry. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has sought to expose the extent of racism; it is a problem that is manifested…
