The root of the uncanny: why are things creepy?
What is it that makes things uncanny? And what do people find so creepy about clowns and ghostly children? Linus Milinski examines the roots of creepy.
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Chalk Talks, 22nd Oct
Arianna Schuler Scott “What is privacy to you?” The large black letters on the board set the tone immediately for Arianna Schuler Scott’s talk which asked us all to think carefully about the privacy of our data, how secure it is and how bothered we should be. In her five minute talk, Schuler Scott (a…
Finding the ‘Nemo effect’: no evidence that animal movies drive demand for pets, say researchers
Following the release of ‘Finding Nemo’, numerous global news providers, including the BBC and CNN, reported that the movie’s popularity was driving an increase in demand for clownfish as pets and threatening wild populations. This effect, dubbed the ‘Nemo effect’ by media outlets, was so widely reported that it became conventional wisdom amongst amateur animal…
The Oxford Scientist: Change Issue
The Trinity 2019 issue of The Oxford Scientist is here! Packed full of articles looking at the the way science has changed over the years, check it out below or pick up a copy from your college common room now.
When experiments fail, can analogies help?
Gaining insight into interiors of black holes, subtleties of the quantum realm, the Big Bang pushes us beyond the reach of experimentation. To get their hands to work, physicists turned to easily manipulable “analogue” systems governed by similar equations. In 2016, a physicist created a sonic black hole by making a fluid to trap sound…
Is international talent the key to the UK’s future success?
Sponsored Earlier this year, International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox and Education Secretary, Damian Hinds announced the Government’s ambition to increase the number of international students choosing to complete higher education in the UK by 30%, to 600,000 per annum by 2030. Oxford Royale Academy (ORA), a leading provider of summer schools at Oxford and Cambridge…
More humans needed for robots to take us over
Regardless of how advanced our AI algorithms are, they have to be trained by humans in order to be smart. For an algorithm to accurately recognize an apple is an apple, it needs to be taught with thousands to millions of pictures of apples. Some algorithms even have to be trained in culturally specific ways….
Keeping Cells in Line
Ligaments, tendons and other musculoskeletal soft issues not only are differentiated by their cellular and extra-cellular constituents, but also the organization of these constituents. While we are able to create medical products through printing living cells, the technology in engineering tissues for common injuries is yet to be around. “One challenge has been organizing the…
The future of quantum computing is knotty
We all know how the story goes for quantum computing: A qubit (short for a quantum bit), unlike classical bits, can be at the state of 0 and 1 simultaneously. The superposition of states offers quantum computers the superior computational power over traditional supercomputers. Its unprecedented efficiency for tasks like factoring, database-searching, simulation, or code-breaking…
Science Can Change the World – If it is Given the Chance to
by Ben Bradley, Year 12, Reigate College, Surrey. “The good thing about science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe in it”- Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and science communicator. But in the age of fake news, since when has the truth been important? Despite consensus throughout the scientific community on the threat of…