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Category: Science, maths, computing and technology

Tens of thousands of previously unseen galaxies made available for the public to classify

Tens of thousands of previously unseen galaxies made available for the public to classify

Twenty thousand high quality images have been released to the public on the most popular citizen science project: Galaxy Zoo. Anyone in the world can help astronomers classify images taken with one of the most advanced instruments installed on one of world leading telescopes. The international collaboration between Galaxy Zoo, The Open University, University of […]

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How to better understand space, time, infinity… and beyond

How to better understand space, time, infinity… and beyond

A new free OpenLearn course is to take people on a journey of discovery to explore a range of scientific fields and gain a deeper understanding of topics such as space, time and infinity. It’s based on the book “What We Cannot Know” by celebrated mathematics Professor Marcus du Sautoy, who has helped design the […]

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Top tips for a greener Christmas

Top tips for a greener Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but perhaps not the most environmentally conscious time of the year. While it may sound Scrooge-like, Christmas can be a very wasteful period – but there are things you can do to make your festivities greener. We spoke to Dr Catherine Rolph, Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at […]

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How “killer” asteroids saved planet Earth

How “killer” asteroids saved planet Earth

A new international study shows how Earth got its water These days, asteroids get a very bad press. As depicted in blockbuster movies, such as Don’t Look Up, we see asteroids as a potential source of grave danger to humanity. It doesn’t help that, 66 million years ago, a giant asteroid wiped out about 75% […]

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Virtual reality setting showing three scans of the human body

OU secures £5.8m to build extended reality studio

The Open University (OU) has secured funding of £5.8m from the Office for Students to develop extended reality studios to expand its teaching and learning with augmented and virtual reality. Open XR Studios will feature state-of-the-art equipment to capture, reproduce and render 4D imagery. It will deliver immersive and reality-embedded learning to students in their […]

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Fossil fuels vs green energy

Our US$10 trillion global energy bill dwarfs what’s needed to limit global heating

Stephen Peake is a Professor of Climate Change and Energy. Here he talks about the world’s addiction to energy, our wasteful use of it and how we can do something about it. The world’s energy bill for 2022 is set to be the highest ever, topping US$10 trillion (£8.3 trillion). This is the total price […]

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NASA’s JWST reveals an exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before

NASA’s JWST reveals an exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before

Nasa’s JWST just scored another first: a molecular and chemical profile of a distant world’s skies secured by research from experts including Dr Joanna Barstow and Agnibha Banerjee from The Open University. While JWST and other space telescopes previously have revealed isolated ingredients of the planet WASP-39b’s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu […]

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Ancient rivers increase chances of finding life at next Mars rover’s landing site

Ancient rivers increase chances of finding life at next Mars rover’s landing site

Rivers as wide as 600 metres once lay across the surface of Mars – according to new research from Birkbeck, University of London; The Open University; The Natural History Museum; Imperial College London; and the University of Bern. The research team say this discovery is important because these are some of the oldest rivers in […]

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Group of books with earphones.

Chokepoint Capitalism: why we’ll all lose unless we stop Amazon, Spotify and other platforms squeezing cash from creators

Cory Doctorow, Visiting Professor of Computer Science, The Open University and Rebecca Giblin, ARC Future Fellow; Associate Professor; Director, Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia, write for The Conversation about Amazon’s chokehold on creatives. In 2020, the independent authors and small publishers whose audiobooks reach their readers via Audible’s ACX platform smelled a rat. Audiobooks […]

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Winchcombe meteorite holds information about the origin of Earth’s oceans

Winchcombe meteorite holds information about the origin of Earth’s oceans

The Winchcombe meteorite, a rare carbonaceous meteorite which crashed onto a driveway in Gloucestershire, has been found to contain extra-terrestrial water and organic compounds that reveal insights into the origin of Earth’s oceans. A new study by experts from The Open University (OU), Natural History Museum and the University of Glasgow reports the orbital history […]

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