science wire

Wild-beard capuchin in Brazil is observed smashing stones and unintentionally creating flakes similar to those once created intentionally by hominins. Researchers have observed wild-bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil deliberately break stones, unintentionally creating flakes that share many of the characteristics of those produced by early Stone Age hominins.

Researchers from Oxford and Stanford universities have created all-perovskite tandem solar cells that convert sunlight to electricity at efficiencies above 20%, with the potential to go much higher. These solar cells could rival and even outperform conventional cells made of silicon - potentially exceeding 30% efficiency.

Oxford University spinout Argonaut Therapeutics is developing cancer drugs that reprogram cancer cells to undergo the body's natural process of cell death, shrinking tumours.

'Smart glazing' company Bodle Technologies was spun out of Oxford research with the help of Oxford University Innovation earlier this year.

TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, has announced a new collaboration with Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) involving the creation of an online education

Women with lower levels of education and living in more deprived areas of the UK are at greater risk of coronary heart disease, and this is largely due to smoking, obesity and physical inactivity.

A self-driving vehicle equipped with Oxford-developed autonomy software has been tested successfully in public for the first time in the UK. The demonstration in Milton Keynes was coordinated by the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and marked the conclusion of the LUTZ Pathfinder project, which has been running for the past 18 months.

The University of Oxford has released a set of sample questions from tutors who conduct Oxford s. Students applying for experimental psychology might be asked to speculate why research appears to show older siblings have higher IQs than their younger counterparts, while aspiring doctors might be asked to explain why the death rate from cancer is so much higher in the UK than in the Philippines.

Scientists at Oxford University have developed a solvent system with reduced toxicity that can be used in the manufacture of perovskite solar cells, clearing one of the barriers to the commercialisation of a technology that promises to revolutionise the solar industry. Perovskites - a family of materials with the crystal structure of calcium titanate - have been described as a 'wonder material' and shown to be almost as efficient as silicon in harnessing solar energy, as well as being significantly cheaper to produce.

Researchers are hopeful of a cure for HIV after treating the first patient with a promising new treatment that could kill all traces of the virus.

Researchers are hopeful of a cure for HIV after treating the first patient with a promising new treatment that could kill all traces of the virus. The study involves activating 'sleeping' HIV-infected cells in the body - but researchers say it will take until the conclusion of the study in 2018 to know if there has been an effect on curing HIV.

Medical and health teaching and research at Oxford University has been ranked as the world's best for the sixth year running in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Text of the annual oration, delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, in Convocation House, October 4, 2016.

Medical and health teaching and research at Oxford University has been ranked as the world's best for the sixth year running in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Do 'meal replacements' actually help you to lose weight in the long-term? Is weighing yourself every day enough to prevent obesity? Could feedback on the nutritional content of your shopping basket help you to make healthier choices in the supermarket? These are among the questions researchers across the University of Oxford are asking, through a raft of new studies funded by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Oxford.

The University of Oxford ranks Number 1 in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings .

Image credit: Steve Daniels [CC BY-SA 2.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 )], via Wikimedia Commons The largest NHS-based centre to identify genetic causes of heart disease has welcomed its 10,000 th  patient. Founded by Oxford University and NHS staff, the Oxford Medical Genetics Laboratory at the Churchill Hospital began its cardiac genetic testing service in 2003 and was the first accredited NHS diagnostic genetic testing service for inherited cardiac conditions (ICC) in the UK.

If you've ever been lost in a radio drama, caught up in a film or transfixed by a play, you've probably not stopped to ask why. Yet, humanity's fascination with fiction is an evolutionary enigma. Now, Oxford arts and sciences researchers have found that stories that arouse our emotions trigger the same mechanisms as other forms of bonding.

What is the science behind the climate goals set at the historic Paris Agreement? Researchers are in Oxford to discuss the feasibility and options, with their findings contributing to an IPCC paper in 2018.

What is the science behind the climate goals set at the historic Paris Agreement? Researchers are in Oxford to discuss the feasibility and options, with their findings contributing to an IPCC paper in 2018.

The fate of over 64,000 live wild animals officially reported to have been confiscated by enforcement agencies remains untraceable, according to a new report released by the University of Oxford Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and World Animal Protection. Between 2010 and 2014, more than 64,000 live wild animals were officially reported as seized by wildlife enforcement agencies according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) trade database.

Those with a taste for adult education classes have long known it, but now Oxford University scientists have confirmed that taking part in the weekly sessions can boost wellbeing - regardless of the subject studied.

The money, from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), includes £113.7 million for the existing University of Oxford/ Oxford University Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) a

University of Oxford surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have performed the world's first operation inside the eye using a robot.

University of Oxford surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital have performed the world's first operation inside the eye using a robot.

The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere over the equator, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, was seen to break down earlier this year.

A new study by the Saïd Business School finds that low-quality infrastructure investments pose significant risks to the Chinese and the global economy. It argues that over half of the infrastructure investments in China have destroyed rather than generated economic value. The study authored by Atif Ansar, Bent Flyvbjerg, Alexander Budzier and Daniel Lunn is based on the largest dataset of its kind.

The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere over the equator, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, was seen to break down earlier this year.

Boys and young men in Ethiopia have higher aspirations than their parents did, but often feel 'hopeless' due a lack of education or access to high status jobs, says new research.

Representatives from the organisations involved with ePSIC, including (second from left) Professor Ian Walmsley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University of Oxford.

Women who are overweight or obese have an increased risk of the most common type of stroke, called ischaemic stroke, but a decreased risk of a more often fatal type of stroke, called haemorrhagic stroke. That's the conclusion of research from Oxford University's Cancer Epidemiology Unit. Professor Gillian Reeves said: 'We found that the risk of ischaemic stroke, which is associated with a blockage of blood flow to the brain and is the most common stroke subtype, is increased in overweight and obese women.

Two years ago, a research team led by the University of Oxford revealed that, when plucked like a guitar string, spider silk transmits vibrations across a wide range of frequencies, carrying information about prey, mates and even the structural integrity of a web.

A new study from Oxford University reveals that many patients are not aware that they are having a stroke when they are experiencing symptoms.

The only project of its kind anywhere that studies all acute vascular events, such as strokes and heart attacks, to develop better treatments has recruited its 10,000 th  Oxfordshire participant. The Oxford Vascular Study (OXVASC) began in 2002 and involves University of Oxford staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital collecting detailed health data, blood samples and carrying out scans.

Researchers have studied why young, highly educated Muslim women who live in modern urban environments may be choosing to wear the veil and have uncovered a paradox.

Research published this week in the journal Vaccine reports field trials of the oral rabies vaccine SAG2 in Ethiopian wolves, Africa's most threatened carnivore and the world's rarest canid. The trials, undertaken by the University of Oxford, the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, are the first ever conducted in wild populations of an endangered carnivore.

Representation of the left hand fingers in the brain - each finger is colour coded (left), and its representation in the brain is highlighted by the MRI scan on the right Image from: Kikkert et al,  Revealing the neural fingerprints of a missing hand  eLIFE ( 10.7554/eLife. Our brains have a detailed picture of our hands and fingers, and that persists even decades after an amputation, Oxford University researchers have found.

Researchers from Oxford University and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) have found that during the last four decades global income inequality decreased substantially in relative terms, but increased markedly in absolute terms.

Childhood brain injuries, including concussions, are associated with an increased risk of subsequent mental illness, poor school attainment and premature death, according to a study published today in PLOS Medicine. An Oxford University-led research team, in the UK, US and Sweden, funded by Wellcome, analysed data from more than a million Swedes born between 1973 and 1985 to examine the long-term impact of having a traumatic brain injury before the age of 25.

US election graphic showing an elephant, representing the Republican party, and a donkey, representing the Democratic party, head-to-head.

Scientists at Bangor and Oxford universities have achieved a world first: using spider-silk as a superlens to increase the microscope's potential. Extending the limit of the classical microscope's resolution has been the holy grail of microscopy for over a century. Physical laws of light make it impossible to view objects smaller than 200nm - the smallest size of bacteria ? using a normal microscope alone.

Why do football fans feel so passionate about their team even if it is languishing at the bottom of the league and why is such loyalty so deeply entrenched? New research by the University of Oxford could provide the answer. Anthropologists have discovered that intense experiences of crucial wins and losses shared with fellow fans bind them more tightly to one another and their club.

Oxford University researchers say that trees which grew during intense radiation bursts in the past have 'time-markers' in their tree-rings that could help archaeologists date events from thousands of years ago.