News & articles

An OU academic, who specialises in the use of technology among older people to combat isolation, has come up with tips to keep connected during COVID-19.

A new patented space valve developed by OU scientists which is compatible with cleaner and greener water-based alternatives to fuel satellites, has been taken up by industry.

OU Space Science PhD student, Hannah Sargeant, has been named on the Forbes Annual 30 under 30 Europe List for Science and Healthcare, announced on Tuesday 17 March 2020.

The OU has received just under £700,000 to expand its research degree capacity as part of the government’s investment of £179 million to support the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

The British pound’s slide in value against the US dollar to less than US$1.15 on March 18, from over US$1.30 at the start of the month, partly reflects a familiar retreat into US assets as the global economy stalls due to the coronavirus panic.

Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, set out a £5 billion boost for buses and cycling in February, promising to make buses more frequent with simpler and more affordable fares. A month later, BBC’s Panorama picked up the issue, highlighting the social and economic cost of bus service cuts over the past decade.

An OU citizen science platform, which allows the public to act as scientists, is one of three projects shortlisted by the Guardian University Awards 2020.

Anyone who engages critically with the phenomenon of conspiracy theories soon encounters a conundrum. Actual conspiracies occur quite regularly. Political assassinations, scandals and cover-ups, terrorist attacks and a lot of everyday government activity involves the collusion of multiple people in the attempt to bring about a desired outcome.

In the five decades since we first started sending spacecraft to Mars, exploration of the red planet has had a poor record of success. It is only in the last few years that we have come to expect that the number of successes greatly outweighs the failures.

An OU academic has fed her research into a campaign on the dangers of mobile phone use while driving, which begins this week (9 March 2020).