science wire

Two Oxford University scientists have proposed a solution to a puzzle of the human immune system: how our immune system scales its response in proportion to any threat to our health to make it 'just right'. Their ideas, published in the journal  Trends in Immunology , could support a range of medical research.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have achieved a quantum logic gate with record-breaking 99.9% precision, reaching the benchmark required theoretically to build a quantum computer.

Blood disorders cost the European economy a total of '23 billion in 2012, while healthcare costs per patient with blood cancers are two times higher than average cancer costs, due to long hospital stays and complex treatment and diagnosis.

Researchers at Oxford University have launched a pioneering project to tackle crippling bone pain suffered by thousands of cancer patients. An estimated 30,000 people every year develop this cancer-induced pain from a destructive and hugely debilitating bone disease caused by their cancers. Our goal is to identify and understand pain-related changes in patients with cancer-induced bone disease so that new approaches to target this pain can be developed.

New research challenges Uber's claims that its car-sharing services make the roads safer by limiting the numbers of individuals who drink and drive.

A new study has examined the varying fortunes of the world's richest people between 1988 and 2012 to identify which parts of the world the top 1% come from. It finds that compared with previous decades, many more of the global super-rich are from emerging countries, with a corresponding decline in the share of those from advanced economies.

A drink developed for soldiers to generate energy from ketones rather than carbs or fat allowed highly trained cyclists to add up to 400 meters of distance to their workouts, an Oxford-led study has reported in journal  Cell Metabolism . The supplement, which will be commercially available within the year, works by temporarily switching the primary source of cellular energy from glucose or fat to ketones - molecules derived from fat that are known to be elevated in people consuming a low-carb, Atkins-like, diet.

The same genes that make us prone to depression could also make us prone to positivity, two psychology researchers have suggested. Professors Elaine Fox, from Oxford University, and Chris Beevers from the University of Texas at Austin reviewed a number of studies for their paper in Molecular Psychiatry.

Mental ill-health was the focus of the annual Oxford University Disability Lecture 2016, which was given by Professor Linda Gask and introduced by Oxford's Vice-Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson.

Scientists from the University of Oxford have shown that newly hatched ducklings can readily acquire the concepts of 'same' and 'different' - an ability previously known only in highly intelligent animals such as apes, crows and parrots. Ducklings and other young animals normally learn to identify and follow their mother through a type of learning called imprinting, which can occur in as little as 15 minutes after hatching.

The Department of Physics at the University of Oxford has been named a champion of gender equality as part of the Institute of Physics' Project Juno initiative.

The largest study of its kind into type 2 diabetes has produced the most detailed picture to date of the genetics underlying the condition. More than 300 scientists from 22 countries collaborated on the study, which analysed the genomes of more than 120,000 people with ancestral origins in Europe, South and East Asia, the Americas and Africa.

A study published online by  JAMA Psychiatry  of patients in Sweden suggests trigger events, including exposure to violence, were associated with increased risk of violent crime in the week following

A team of scientists from Oxford University has shown how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to assemble and power microscopic 'windfarms'. The study, published in the journal Science Advances , uses computer simulations to demonstrate that the chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source.

Local sports clubs and associations are often as segregated as the neighbourhood they are in, suggests a new study. It says that rather than encouraging a mixing of different cultures, they may even reinforce rather than mitigate existing ethnic divisions in local communities. The research, published in the  American Sociological Review , focuses on how Turkish and Moroccan immigrants have integrated in the Netherlands in the last decade by looking at joining and leaving rates for sports, leisure and neighbourhood associations of different ethnic composition.

A study from Oxford University has looked at how out-of-hours GP services are being used to support patients dying at home. In a service evaluation published in the British Journal of General Practice , Rebecca Fisher, Daniel Lasserson and Gail Hayward worked with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to look at the use of the GP out-of-hours service for Oxfordshire over four years, finding that at least 1 in every 100 was for palliative - end-of-life - care.

Alendronic acid molecule: A bisphosphonate, alendronic acid is used to slow or stop the natural process that dissolves bone tissue and thus maintain or increase bone density and strength.

The Selenium mobile autonomy system being developed by Oxford University's world-leading Mobile Robotics Group has been demonstrated at this year's Shell Eco-marathon Europe.

Six out of ten people in Britain today consider themselves working class because they believe their family background determines class rather than occupation or whether they went to university. Just

A new study by the Centre for Social Investigation (CSI) at Nuffield College, Oxford, has analysed views on immigration across 21 European countries and finds that negative attitudes do not appear to be linked with net migration rates. It also finds that people ed in the UK have a slightly more positive view of migrants' contribution to their country as compared with a decade earlier.

A wave of disruption has hit news organisations around the world, with potentially profound consequences both for publishers and the future of news production, according to a report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Its fifth Digital News Report says the combined effects of the rise of social platforms, an accelerating move to mobile devices and a growing rejection by consumers of online advertising has undermined many of the business models that support quality news.

OMass Technologies, a spinout from the University of Oxford's Department of Chemistry, is the first company to conquer the challenge of deciphering the interactions of membrane proteins by using native mass spectrometry.

A beating heart frozen in time in an image by an Oxford University researcher has won a competition run by charity the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

A number of Oxford scholars were recognised for their achievements in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours, announced on Friday 10 June.

Cancer researchers are developing a bubbly drink packed with oxygen microbubbles to make treatments more potent for hard to treat tumours like pancreatic cancer. Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Ulster, supported by Cancer Research UK, are investigating how to re-oxygenate tumours with a drink that could deliver extra oxygen to the site of the tumour, allowing radiotherapy and chemotherapy to deliver a knock-out blow.

England 7s Team (white) plays against Wales 7s team (red) during Day 2 of HSBC World Rugby Singapore Sevens on April 17, 2016 at National Stadium in Singapore Former England international rugby players are set to be recruited for the next phase of a major-scientific study examining the possible long-term effects of the game on brain health.

Study offers new direction for preventative interventions to increase mental resilience to stress and trauma Emergency services workers who are more likely to suffer episodes of mental ill health later in their careers can be spotted in the first week of training. That's the conclusion of a Wellcome Trust funded study carried out with trainee paramedics.

By the age of 15 or 16, aspiring to go on to higher education makes a big difference to A-level choices, particularly for disadvantaged students, says study.

The work of Oxford University Professor Sir Andrew Wiles was celebrated as having 'heralded a new era in number theory' as he received the top international prize for mathematics.

An artist's rendition of the galaxies Akira (right) and Tetsuo (left) in action. Akira's gravity pulls Tetsuo's gas into its central supermassive black hole, fueling winds that have the power to heat Akira's gas. Because of the action of the black hole winds, Tetsuo's donated gas is rendered inert, preventing a new cycle of star formation in Akira.

Researchers at Oxford University are playing a key role in expanding the UK's network of ultra-powerful MRI machines.

A project which will shed light on how musicians rehearsed and interacted with each other in the 19th Century has begun at Oxford University.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have launched a five-year programme to investigate ways of relieving peak demands on the UK's electricity grid that also might make energy bills cheaper too. Peak demand is posing an increasing challenge to the UK's electricity system. A government commission set up to look at the UK's future needs for nationally significant infrastructure recently reported that up to £8.1bn could be saved if we became 'smarter' about electricity, including use of electricity at down times rather than at peak times.

A review by the respected Cochrane organisation, and led by Oxford University Professor of Psychiatry Keith Hawton, has found that psychological therapies, more commonly known as 'talking treatments', may help people who self-harm. Self-harm is intentional self-poisoning or self-injury. Many people who are admitted to hospital because of this are at an increased risk of self-harming again and of suicide.

Oxford spinout EvOx Therapeutics will harness the body's own precision system to deliver drugs to specific parts of the body, with the aim of treating conditions which are currently untreatable - including those affecting the brain, as well as autoimmune diseases and cancers.

Why doesn't a spider's web sag in the wind or catapult flies back out like a trampoline? The answer, according to new research by an international team of scientists, lies in the physics behind a 'hybrid' material produced by spiders for their webs. Pulling on a sticky thread in a garden spider's orb web and letting it snap back reveals that the thread never sags but always stays taut - even when stretched to many times its original length.

One of the most ambitious Oxford spinouts to date is en route to becoming a powerhouse in age-related regenerative medicine, developing drugs which can treat cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, heart failure, macular degeneration and other major age-related conditions.