The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Teaching has taken place at Oxford since 1096. Oxford has the largest volume of world-leading research in the country, rating top in the REF power rankings published by Research Fortnight. Oxford’s research involves more than 70 departments, almost 1,800 academic staff, more than 5,000 research and research support staff, and more than 5,600 graduate research students. The University has 38 independent colleges to which undergraduate and graduate students belong. Oxford has the highest research income from external sponsors of any UK university: £478.3m in 2013/14. The University has pioneered the successful commercial exploitation of academic research and invention, creating more than 100 companies, and files more patents each year than any other UK university.
Declining numbers of zebra, antelope and other big grazers cause rodent populations to rapidly increase, a new study has shown. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hillary…
A 13th century bishop’s theory about the formation of the universe has intriguing parallels with the theory of multiple universes. This was uncovered by the the Ordered Universe project at Durham University…
Let’s hope it’s barren.
NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech
Last week, scientists announced the discovery of Kepler-186f, a planet 492 light years away in the Cygnus constellation. Kepler-186f is special because it marks the first planet almost exactly the same…
Pigeons have extraordinary navigational abilities. Take a pigeon from its loft and let it go somewhere it has never been before and it will, after circling in the sky for while, head home. This remarkable…
Narendra Modi is winning support from young voters.
Divyakant Solanki
In 2004, students in the north Indian city of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, started a club called Generation Nowhere. They met to discuss the hopelessness of their position as educated young men from provincial…
When patients suffer from a brain injury and are unresponsive, we often don’t know whether they have suffered irreversible damage from which they will never recover, or whether the damage is a temporary…
Will your smartwatch contain graphene? Samsung thinks so.
Kārlis Dambrāns
Samsung has had a mixed relationship with wearable technology to date but an announcement this week may put it ahead of the crowd. The South Korean firm made an early bid on the market with smartwatches…
At least we won’t have to queue at the job centre when this is over.
Toggenburg Bible
The plague known as the Black Death which tore through 14th century Europe is traditionally held to have had at least one upside. Women, the theory runs, were able to exploit the labour shortages of post-plague…
Do you think your Mum and Dad made the right choice?
John Stillwell/PA
Choosing a good quality nursery is one of the most important decisions any parent will make during the first years of their child’s life. In a recent report, UK school and childcare regulator Ofsted acknowledged…
Maybe I’ll get a better mark if I answer in Mandarin.
David Davies/PA
With the creeping rise of exam results over the past few decades, many have questioned whether standards are really as high as they were in the past. More worrying still is whether pupils in the UK can…
Impact investing is a growing phenomenon but many mainstream investors are wary of it.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
The World Economic Forum reports there is widespread confusion regarding what impact investing promises and what it ultimately delivers. Some estimate it is a market worth between US$450 billion and US$650…
Hearing voices. Francois Hollande watches a Mirage 2000-5 taxi out of its hangar.
Philippe Wojazer/EPA
Why does the economic policy pursued or proposed by the Left in Europe often seem so pathetic? The clearest example of this lies just across the channel. France is subject to the same fiscal straitjacket…
The key to reducing carbon emissions?
Caroline Ford
What if carbon trading – where companies must bid for limited permits to emit pollutants, and so pay a price in order to do so – could be applied on an individual level? Personal carbon trading is a policy…
Golden Bay in New Zealand after damaging flooding in December 2011.
Gerry Draper, via NIWA
Liz Minchin, The Conversation and Katherine Smyrk, The Conversation
Australians and New Zealanders can now use their computers to help scientists discover if climate change has contributed to record heatwaves, droughts and flooding across both countries. The Weather@home…
The rapid escalation of the situation in Crimea has led us faster than we might have thought to consider if and how Russia might unleash energy policy as part of its geopolitical strategy. President Vladimir…
The world is certainly not short of pundits claiming to have a grasp on where the economy is heading or what the future holds for Ukraine. But history reminds us how poor humans are at making predictions…
Australia has no laws protecting children from harm they may have suffered in the womb.
Andrew Johnson/Flickr
Many children in Australia suffer from severe disabilities caused by things done before they were born, but most are not entitled to compensation for the harm they suffered and there’s no law to prevent…
Longing to return to its espinal home.
Poco a poco
Rewilding is considered one of the crazier ideas in contemporary conservation. The idea of resurrecting woolly mammoths and setting them loose in Siberia and the American Great Plains or lions roaming…
Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled his fourth budget. The blueprint for recovery includes wholesale changes to pensions and savings, attempts to boost business investment, new relief for the costs…
To fight climate change, the UK will invest in renewing nuclear energy.
pandaposse/Flickr
Recent floods in the UK have awoken the country to the possibly severe impacts of climate change. Like many other parts of the world, including Australia, the UK will see rising temperatures and increasing…
Head of Policy Engagement, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford and Fellow in Environmental Change, Reuben College, University of Oxford, University of Oxford