Hannah Glendell, Year 12, Cults Academy, Aberdeen We live in a world of data. Every day numbers are thrown at us from all directions: teenagers have anxiety, people will get cancer, people have died of Coronavirus. But says who? Numbers swirl around us; wildly exaggerated, spreading like Chinese whispers. The pandemic has exacerbated this problem….
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…
Entry to our termly creative competition is now CLOSED. The winner of the competition will be published in the MT20 magazine. The theme of this term’s competition is ‘Boundary’, and entry will close at midnight on Sunday 8th of November. Good luck! How will the competition be conducted? Any university student can participate and we…
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…
We are pleased to announce the results of our Hilary Term 2020 Schools’ Science Writing Competition. We received 182 entries from school students across the UK in years 10-13, written to an incredibly high standard. The topic of the competition was ‘Should we focus on fixing our planet or move to a new one?’ The…
When they first become widespread in the 1950s, plastics were heralded as a miracle material which can be used for almost everything. From life-saving medical devices to the clothes you’re wearing now, plastic has become integrated into every aspect of our daily lives. It’s hard to imagine a world without it. Images of so-called wildlife…
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…
From that pre-social-distancing era, one might recall surveys that ask about occupation, gender, and perhaps “Are you religious?”. So you quickly jot down your responses, but hesitate on the last question. Perhaps you enjoy religious celebrations a few times a year, so you tick “Yes”, and get back to emptying your wallet on Steam. But…
Pandemics have shaken civilizations throughout history. Although these bouts of infections have had devastating effects on society, our survival has also allowed humanity to evolve and reshape its socio-economic and technological focuses. Medical research has most often managed to overcome the pandemics through significant progress. It might seem incredible but substantial medical achievements have been…
The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most quantified health crises in history. The wealth of available information is a powerful tool for the response, but this is deeply dependent on making sense of mountains of data, and quickly. Artificial intelligence (AI) is potentially invaluable for this: it can sift through and interpret vast…
