Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
These are troubling times for America. With a pivotal presidential election looming and the current momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, the country is in turmoil as politics takes control. Every day, videos of police brutality and racism are shared onto the social media sites that have become the main source of information for […]
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So, here we are – we made it – 2020, the age of robots and flying cars, a pandemic and unprecedented times. Automation is one of the many buzzwords of today (much like buzzword which is itself a buzzword); but what does it mean and how do we tackle this global issue? Will the ‘Rise of […]
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There are over two billion keyboards in the world. They are one of the most used objects in daily life. Yet the trillions of words written every day are largely conveyed through dull, black, plastic varieties that proliferate offices everywhere. The average person will spend five years of their life typing – more than they […]
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Across the globe, scientists are working tirelessly to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, with over 100 potential candidates in development. A successful vaccine could prevent millions of deaths worldwide and allow devastated economies to begin the road to recovery. But with an estimated minimum timeline of 18 months, is it possible that a vaccine will be […]
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There is no doubt that technology has stepped in to attempt to fill the many voids in our lives created by the Lockdown restrictions. From education to socialising to entertainment, we all rely on technology now more than ever to allow us to continue with our daily activities. One of the most obvious ways in […]
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Image description: Russian dolls illustrating social distancing “It seems like a pretty standard interview question”, I thought to myself. Back in 2017, I was preparing for my Oxford interview by taking part in mock ‘Oxbridge-style’ interviews organised between a group of Bristol schools. Testing my ability to apply maths in a real-world context, the interviewer […]
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Image description: A mask and a vial of vitamin D Amid the coronavirus pandemic the demand for vitamin supplements has skyrocketed as millions seek to ‘boost their immunity’ to combat infection. Although evidence underlying their efficacy in reducing case incidence and severity is sparse, a link between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 mortality has emerged […]
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With the massive strides in sustainable transportation made by Tesla and the continuing progress of SpaceX in its aspiring journey to colonize Mars, Elon Musk has repeatedly demonstrated remarkable ambition. Neuralink, a neurotechnology firm co-founded by Elon in 2016, hopes to deliver on an even more grandiose pursuit. Alongside global warming and the possibility of […]
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In a locked-down world society has become atomized. For those that can work remotely, the household has become the workplace. Rather than congregate in large and central locations, our working environments are now small clusters of individuals – the “node size” of the workplace has shrunk. At the same time, the workforce has become dispersed. […]
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The curve has been flattened. The peak has been passed. Life might soon, slowly begin to return to normal. There is no doubt that lockdowns imposed by governments across the world and social distancing guidelines followed by millions have strongly reduced the transmission of coronavirus and have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths. But as […]
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COVID-19 poses a unique challenge to the lives of all people, but the effect on each individual is not the same. Cohorts with existing vulnerabilities are affected by the symptoms of the disease, but perhaps more so by the measures put in place to ‘stop the spread’ and ‘flatten the curve’. Rough sleepers, people in […]
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Image Description: white and blue jellyfish If you take a trip to Koh Rong, the second largest island in Cambodia, and wait until nightfall you will see a natural spectacle that has dazzled and puzzled visitors for many years. If you were to arrive during the day the beach would look like any other beach […]
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Image description: a bathroom sign with a ‘man’ figure and ‘woman’ figure on it. As coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, almost all countries are seeing an interesting risk factor emerging – being male. Many people like to joke that men complain more than women about the same illnesses, but this time the data […]
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On the 12th of April the Minister for Health, Matt Hancock, revealed that an NHS app was in development: “if you become unwell with the symptoms of the coronavirus, you can securely tell this new NHS app and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users that you’ve been in significant […]
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In Oxford you might hear PPE and think of the academic course, however this guide is not going to tell you about a route into Parliament. Instead, I am providing a concise guide into scientific PPE which stands for ‘personal protective equipment’, how it is a way to protect ourselves during the pandemic and why […]
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Image description: Microbiologist using an electronic pipetter to extract reconstructed 1918 Pandemic Influenza virus There is a huge amount of disagreement about what the best strategy is to try and tackle coronavirus. However, one thing that both politicians and scientists everyone can agree on is that we need a vaccine, and we need it now. […]
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Good news, air pollution is down due to coronavirus lockdown measures! Climate change avoided for now, surely? In the short-term, we will see a big drop in global emissions but, as we’ve already seen in China, once the outbreak is over and industrial production and transportation ramp back up, so do the emissions. Instead of […]
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Image description: ultrastructural of the coronavirus After being encouraged by my parents to take daily turmeric supplements to “prevent corona”, I thought it would interesting to look into the kind of self-prescribed medicine and debunk the myths that have been infesting WhatsApp groups and social media. It is understandable in this time of global anxiety […]
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On 16th March, Dr. Adhanom, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the key to defeating COVID-19 was to “test, test, test.” After all, “you cannot fight a fire blindfolded.” But, “fighting it blindfolded” is exactly what we are doing. Our testing figures are shocking: as of the 3rd of April, only […]
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