by Tamilore Awosile, Year 13, The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, Hertfordshire. I was born with sickle cell anaemia, a genetically inherited blood disorder which affects approximately 4.4 million people worldwide. In the UK, it is particularly prevalent in people of African or Caribbean heritage. Sickle cell is caused by a mutation in the DNA of…
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…
Ten years ago, the completion of the Human Genome Project was a milestone in the history of science. The race to be the first team to decode an entire human genome ultimately ended with the two largest groups collaborating and announcing the success of the project in 2001. This was not only a scientific achievement,…
100 years ago, the Representation of the People Act 1918 allowed some women over 30 to vote in the UK. To celebrate this, Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s current exhibition, Women In Science, explores the life and work of 14 female scientists. From Marie Curie to Barbara McClintock, these women are among the most…
We are pleased to announce the winners of the Hilary Term 2019 Oxford Scientist national school science writing competition! Through our science writing competitions, we hope to encourage school students to think about science outside of the classroom, and give them the opportunity to explore their own scientific interests in a creative way. This term,…
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 Phoebe Hall, Year 12, Ripon Grammar School, Yorkshire Mary Anning was born in 1799, a time when women were expected only to raise families, and most girls had very little formal education. Anning was brought up in Lyme Regis, a seaside town that is now known as part of the Jurassic Coast. As well…
Feature Image Credit Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo Global New Scientist by Laura Steel Humans are constantly creating novel compound tools from otherwise non-functional elements. From large scale technologies such as cars, to simply tying two non-functional bits of string together to make a useful longer piece. This skill comes so easily to us…
Feature Image Credit Tom Toles at the Washington Post by Louis Claxton Originally published on ‘the Oxford Student’ website. Since the target to limit global temperature rise to 2°C was set in the 2015 Paris Climate agreement, those in politics have focused their attention on the notorious and vilified CO2. But what about Methane?…
Dickinsonia was a giant of the Ediacaran era – growing up to 1.4m in length at a time when most life on Earth was confined to the microscopic. Further to this, the “pancake-like” entity achieved this 17 million years before Cambrian explosion, the notorious event 541 million years ago when most life on Earth started…
