science wire

Health Cath Harris | 08 Dec 10 Problems related to pregnancy claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of women every year.

Science 07 Dec 10 Of the estimated 70,000 species of flowering plants yet to be described by scientists, more than half may already have been collected but are lying unknown and unrecognised in collections around the world, a new study suggests.

Science Cath Harris | 03 Dec 10 Bacteria have a canny way of protecting themselves from attack by toxic chemicals, aiding their survival and development.

Science | Technology Cath Harris | 30 Nov 10 It's 30 years since research by Oxford University scientists led to the development of one of the world's most popular rechargeable batteries.

Health Jonathan Wood | 29 Nov 10 During his career in tropical medicine Professor David Warrell has milked snakes, studied malaria and rabies and helped thousands of medical students learn about the deadliest diseases.

Oxford scientists have contributed to a series of research papers about the impacts of global warming to coincide with the opening of the Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. One study, led by Niel Bowerman of the Oxford University's Department of Physics, warns that the conference will fail to meet its objectives unless it addresses not just how much the planet warms, but also how fast it warms.

Science 23 Nov 10 Over millions of years dogs have developed bigger brains than cats because highly social species of mammals need more brain power than solitary animals, according to a study by Oxford University. For the first time researchers have attempted to chart the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals over 60 million years.

Business 22 Nov 10 The internet is often held up as the main reason for declining newspaper sales and dwindling revenues.

Policy 19 Nov 10 As politicians and military strategists try to negotiate the NATO withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, academics are looking at what history can tell us about how exits have been managed in the past.

The majority of women are pleased with the care they receive during pregnancy and childbirth, according to a national survey of over 5,300 recent mothers by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University.

Science | Environment 17 Nov 10 Volunteers are being asked to run a series of climate prediction experiments on their computers to help understand how global climate change will affect weather in different regions of the world.

Health 16 Nov 10 Plans would join up the University, science parks (like Begbroke Science Park above), and healthcare providers in bringing research advances to market Oxford could become a world cen

Science | Earth Pete Wilton | 11 Nov 10 Today saw Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupt again in events that have seen almost 200 killed and more than 360,000 people flee their homes.

Arts 04 Nov 10 The Bate Collection has opened an exhibition which displays the musical instruments of torture in Bosch's iconic painting of Hell.

Policy 04 Nov 10 New research suggests that public support for the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder is much more limited than has traditionally been assumed. Furthermore, public opinion on the sentencing of murderers seems to be based on a limited understanding of the current system, according to the survey by Professor Julian Roberts, from the Law Faculty at the University of Oxford, and Professor Barry Mitchell of Coventry University Law School.

Science | Environment Pete Wilton | 02 Nov 10 What links different pollinating insects in your garden or sea otters and kelp? In a recent paper in Royal Society B Becky Morris of Oxford University's Department of Zoology explored how species interactions create networks in which apparently unconnected organisms can affect one another.

Science Pete Wilton | 29 Oct 10 With Halloween almost upon us we thought we should give you a scare of the eight-legged variety.

Science 22 Oct 10 A new baby sleep lab enabling research into the impact of napping on infant memory and learning is one of several new facilities opened this week as part of the launch of Oxford's centre for the study of infant and child development.

University 20 Oct 10 Oxford University is to launch a new centre to study the archaeological and cultural heritage of Asia.

Science Pete Wilton | 19 Oct 10 Tiny flashes of blue light from 1,400 metres beneath the icy South Pole could help scientists uncover the origins of cosmic rays and neutrinos. These flashes, which occur when neutrinos created by cosmic rays strike ice atoms, are being detected by IceCube : a 'telescope' made up of thousands of optical sensors buried deep in the Antarctic ice.

The University of Oxford is today releasing some sample Oxford questions - direct from the tutors who conduct the's - to provoke thought and help explain the reasoning behind even the most strange-sounding questions.

19 Oct 10 The archaeology and history of East Oxford, including Roman settlements, a medieval leper hospital and the growth of the modern town, will be the subject of collaboration between Oxford aca

Arts 14 Oct 10 Submissions from the public have helped put together the world's largest online archive of material concerning the Anglo-Saxons, Oxford University academics have said.