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The majority of content and commentary being shared on social media supports the scientific consensus on climate change, according to new research from the Oxford Internet Institute. The findings are welcome relief from growing concern around the polarisation of the climate change debate. Despite broad consensus among scientists that climate change is both occurring and caused by human activity, the populist campaign expressing scepticism on the validity of the scientific consensus shows no signs of movement in their beliefs.

A species of rhino considered a giant of the Ice Age survived much later than previously thought and likely lived alongside modern humans, according to new research. Scientists believed that the ancient rhino species Elasmotherium sibiricum, known as the 'Siberian unicorn', due to its extraordinary single horn, went extinct between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago.

A mission to Mars which carries instruments co-designed by Oxford scientists, has successfully landed and will soon begin the first study of the heart of the planet. The NASA InSight mission landed shortly after 19:50 GMT on Monday, 26 November. InSight will study the inside of Mars to learn how planets, moons and meteorites with rocky surfaces, including the Earth and its Moon, formed.

The Mexican tetra fish can repair its heart after damage - something researchers have been striving to achieve in humans for years. Now, new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) published in Cell Reports suggests that a gene called lrrc10 may hold the key to this fish's remarkable ability.

Machine learning can help healthcare workers predict whether patients may require emergency hospital admission, new study has shown. Machine learning - a field of artificial intelligence that uses statistical techniques to enable computer systems to 'learn' from data - can be used to analyse electronic health records and predict the risk of emergency hospital admissions, a new study from The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford has found.

Scientists have equipped a virus that kills carcinoma cells with a protein so it can also target and kill adjacent cells that are tricked into shielding the cancer from the immune system. It is the first time that cancer-associated fibroblasts within solid tumours - healthy cells that are tricked into protecting the cancer from the immune system and supplying it with growth factors and nutrients - have been specifically targeted in this way.

Researchers have developed a new technique to analyse cell membrane proteins in situ which could revolutionise the way in which we study diseases, such as cancer, metabolic and heart diseases. The discovery was made as part of an international research collaboration, led by Oxford University, alongside peers including Imperial College London.

New analysis of the structure and function of the naturally-occurring antimicrobial agent tunicamycin has revealed ways to produce new, safe antibiotics for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other disease-causing bacteria. Tunicamycin is an antibiotic produced by several types of bacteria, but it is unsuitable for use in humans because it is also toxic to animal cells.

Smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure increase the risk of a heart attack more in women than in men, new research from The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford has found. The study, of 472,000 participants aged 40-69, found that smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and having a BMI ≥25 puts both men and women at increased risk of having a heart attack.

Online labour platforms that connect freelance workers and clients around the world are emerging as an alternative to traditional offshoring, according to new Oxford University research. Workers from emerging economies in particular are benefitting from these networks according to the study conducted by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Introducing a health tax on red and processed meat could prevent more than 220,000 deaths and save over US$40 billion in healthcare costs every year, new Oxford University research suggests. Published today in the journal PLoS One , the study conducted by the Oxford Martin School and the Nuffield Department of Population Health focused on optimal levels of taxation for red and processed meat in 149 world regions, to account for the cost burden on healthcare systems and spur changes in consumption patterns.

Screens are now a fixture of modern childhood. As young people spend an increasing amount of time on electronic devices, the effects of these digital activities has become a prevalent concern among parents, caregivers, and policy-makers. Research indicating that between 50% to 90% of school-age children might not be getting enough sleep has prompted calls that technology use may be to blame.

Group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could be the best choice of psychotherapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, according to a new network meta-analysis study from Oxford University, Department of Psychiatry. CBT is a talking therapy designed to help people manage problems by encouraging positive changes in the way they think and behave.

Artificial intelligence can help us to better understand the causes of religious violence and to potentially control it, according to a new Oxford University collaboration. The study is one of the first to be published that uses psychologically realistic AI - as opposed to machine learning. The research published in The Journal for Artificial Societies and Social Stimulation , combines computer modelling and cognitive psychology to create an AI system able to mimic human religiosity.

The largest study of people with mild hypertension shows that medical treatment may not be worthwhile in those who are at low risk of heart attack and stroke. An observational study of patients with mild hypertension has found no evidence to support recent US guideline recommendations that encourage doctors to offer treatment to patients with low-risk mild hypertension.

Cyber-security researchers have   identified a total of at least 57 different ways in which cyber-attacks can have a negative impact on individuals, businesses and even nations, ranging from threats to life, causing depression, regulatory fines or disrupting daily activities. Researchers, from the  Department of Computer Science  at the University of Oxford and Kent's  School of Computing  set out to define and codify the different ways in which the various cyber-incidents being witnessed today can have   negative outcomes.

An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Oxford has revealed that New Caledonian crows are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes. The new study, published today in Scientific Reports , shows that these birds can create long-reaching tools out of short combinable parts - an astonishing mental feat.

The first farmers who arrived into Europe had company when they travelled out of the Near East during the Neolithic expansion. Along with many other plants and animals, they also brought their dogs. The international collaboration conducted by researchers at École Normale Supérieure of Lyon, the University of Oxford, the National History Museum and the University of Rennes, has revealed that dogs have quite literally been man's best friend, from as far back as 9,000 years ago.

A radical new approach combining archaeology, genetics and microscopy can reveal long-forgotten secrets of human diet, sanitation and movement from studying parasites in ancient poo. Researchers at the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology and School of Archaeology have applied genetic analysis to 700-year-old parasites found in archaeological stool samples to understand a variety of characteristics of a human population.

Well-balanced and predominantly plant-based diets can lead to improved nutrient levels, reduce premature deaths from chronic diseases by more than 20%, and lower greenhouse gas emissions, fertilizer application, and cropland and freshwater use, globally and in most regions, a new study reports. The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health , is the first to comprehensively assess the relationship between the health and nutritional impacts of different dietary-change strategies and their environmental impacts across all major world regions.