Author: James Lau

In a training trip on the River Thames in London, Professor Marcus du Sautoy, founder of the mathematics outreach programme Mathemagician, is teaching a few student volunteers how to show that a tetrahedron is more structurally stable than a cube – using bamboo sticks and rubber bands. Mareli Augustyn, Mathemagicians Coordinator and school liaison officer at the […]

When we see distinguished scientists being awarded Nobel Prizes on stage, we often think of their hard work and collaboration with their colleagues. However, if there is no money to support them, how can they purchase the chemicals needed for the Haber process to happen? Although many science projects in Oxford are funded by the […]

When you are eating a beef burger in your college hall, you probably think of it as muscle taken out from a cow. But how would you react if you found out you were eating beef which was instead cultured entirely in the laboratory? Professor Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University who is […]

In the last few years laws such as the EU Cars Regulation setting at 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre the maximum average emission per fleet by 2015, have pushed the automotive industry towards the route of enhanced safety and environmental sustainability. All the vehicles recently launched are equipped with several driver assistance technologies […]

March is the month for the planet hunters among us. Not just for the Kepler spacecraft, which recently discovered a haul of 700 new exoplanets, but also for the amateur astronomer. This month sees the Moon very close to many of the Solar System planets, meaning they are impossible not to spot. Firstly, Jupiter is […]

Many people argue that we need more women in higher positions in the work place. Usually, they wave their hands and mutter something about gender equality and feminism, and others (depending on the crowd) will either nod somberly, or roll their eyes. Hard evidence of this necessity is rare, but is slowly being made more […]

  If you are short-sighted or long-sighted and you can’t see clearly, what would you do? Wear a pair of eyeglasses? Or even a pair of contact lenses? But who is going to pay for those if you are in a developing country earning less than a pound a day? Self-adjustable eyeglasses, which can be […]

The idea that “we need to do something about climate change” is one frequently tossed around by both scientists and politicians alike. Usually, the impact it carries is of the same order as comments such as “we need to do the washing”, or “we need to get up for the rowing gym session tomorrow morning”. […]

I have always had the impression that green energy is an exclusive “luxury” for developed countries: the costs in developing a green technology, getting a patent, manufacturing the product and employing and training people with enough expertise to install and maintain the infrastructure needed to collect the energy are simply too great for developing countries. Yet […]

  The Oxford Climate Forum was held with the Oxford Hub over the weekend of 3rd week. Using the banner ‘Climate Change: An Opportunity’, Fleur Nash, one of the coordinators of the Oxford Climate Forum held over the weekend of 3rd week, explained that climate change is a multiple opportunities, linking innovation, change and ideas, […]

On 1st week Hilary Term, the OUSU Council has passed a motion on fossil fuel divestment campaign, which requests the University to stop directly investing in fossil fuel companies, which are defined to be those participating in exploration for or extraction of fossil fuel reserves. Daniel Tomlinson, the OUSU VP for Charities and Communities, commented: […]

I begin my visit in a lab at the West Wing of the John Radcliffe Hospital, being shown around by Dominik Fischer, who introduces me to the various pieces of eye-wateringly expensive equipment he works with every day. “This costs more than a house”, he grins, and encourages me to touch the table upon which […]

In May 2010 David Cameron said that the coalition would aim to be the “greenest government ever”. Since then the government has had a somewhat mixed record on the environment, culminating in Cameron last year reportedly saying that he wants to get rid of all the “green crap”, according to an unnamed senior Tory who […]

Many politicians are not particularly well versed in scientific issues. This is much to the chagrin of practising scientists – many would surely relish the opportunity to influence and inform scientific policy making. Sir Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society, is one of the few scientists in such a position. The Royal Society, […]

Claudia Hammond is the voice that brings discussion of mental health to the airwaves, in the UK and around the world. She has written award-winning psychology books such as Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception, all while remaining at the frontier of informing us about health issues that affect many, as the presenter […]

Located in an uninspiring industrial estate in the outskirts of Bristol, Filton is the location of the largest blood processing in the world. The scientists here deal with 3000 of the UK’s 7000 blood donations each day. Opened in 2008, the building itself is white, gleaming, and perfectly rectangular, and contrasts starkly with the waste […]

Rosalind Roberts and Elizabeth Hartfield discuss how gender roles discourage women science researchers Women can have it all! They have access to education, the right to vote, they can have a career. This is the message that we hear in the modern world, yet does it match the reality? A comprehensive statistical analysis of performances […]

It’s an odd experience when I have to interview someone from my own college; it’s odder still when that person is more used to being interviewed by the national media. So when I sat down to chat with the Oxford student shortlsted to walk on Mars, I was curious about how he was going to […]

Jonathan Taylor brings us a selection of some of the most important developments in science in 2013. The Higgs Boson are discovered – Quite possibly the physics discovery of the century. The Higgs boson is the particle which is theorised to give other particles mass. Scientists at the CERN laboratory have achieved a ‘five sigma’ […]