The Open University

Expert comment: Fuego eruption is not a ‘river of lava’

4 June 2018

Professor David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, explains more about what is happening in Guatemala: “The cause of most deaths at the current eruption of Fuego (Guatemala) is being widely reported as a ‘river of lava‘. This is probably an inexpert description or a mistranslation. Fuego does not characteristically produce long fluid lava flows like […]

A PhD isn’t possible with three children, is it? Diane would argue otherwise

1 June 2018

Originally from the Isles of Scilly, in 2009, Diane Coral Turner, 42, enrolled on her part-time PhD with The Open University, collaborating with Amersham Hospital and Medical Detection Dogs to develop techniques for diagnosing bladder cancer. After having a child in 2010 and twins in 2012, she wanted a break from study. When her twins […]

Icy dunes on Pluto: spacecraft reveals new details about planet’s surface

1 June 2018

When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, he could not have known that he was opening a whole field of science that is only now coming into its own: the study of planetary landscapes, or comparative planetary morphology. Since the announcement of Pluto’s discovery, the body has been a subject of much speculation: even from […]

Where you ask the questions – BBC and OU launch new ‘citizen inquiry’ website

24 May 2018

The Open University has partnered with the BBC for Tomorrow’s World to develop a new ‘citizen inquiry’ website – nQuire – where members of the public can take part in surveys and experiments about their everyday life and the world around them. The first survey focuses on the use of personal data, linking into the new […]

Why are less than 10% of maths professors women?

23 May 2018

Mathematics has long been dominated by male academics and scientists, but why? In her inaugural lecture, Professor of History of Mathematics June Barrow-Green explores the history of women in mathematics and the centuries-long struggle for women mathematicians to gain equality. Against the odds Professor June Barrow-Green, whose working life began in an art gallery, started […]

Lava in Hawai’i is reaching the ocean, creating new land but also corrosive acid mist

23 May 2018

There is something special and awe-inspiring about watching new land form. This is what is now happening in Hawai’i as its Kīlauea volcano erupts. Lava is reaching the ocean and building land while producing spectacular plumes of steam. These eruptions are hugely important for the creation of new land. But they are also dangerous. Where […]

Asteroids and bringing space rocks back to Earth

11 May 2018

Professor of Planetary and Space Science, Simon Green, is interviewed by the Space Boffins about asteroids, space rocks, and the next international space missions that academics at The Open University are contributing towards. Speaking about the next space missions, which will focus on collecting asteroid samples, Professor Green, said: “Only the most robust [asteroids] objects survive to the […]

Plan to bring back rocks from Mars is our best bet for finding clues of past life

30 April 2018

Sitting with 200 people at the International Mars Sample Return Conference in Berlin recently to discuss the feasibility of bringing samples back from Mars to Earth, I remember the first such conference in Paris ten years ago. Many of the same people were present again, older and possibly wiser, but certainly more grey or bald. […]

Mars and the ice-filled crater on its surface

26 April 2018

An ice-filled Martian crater is visible in the first photographs of Mars transmitted from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). After a year of extremely dangerous aerobraking, the ExoMars TGO began transmitting photographs of the surface from its camera system, known as CaSSIS (Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System). The first photograph taken by the ExoMars TGO […]

Police in hi-visibility jackets policing crowd control at a UK event

Exploring technologies to improve how citizens and the police work together to keep us safe

26 April 2018

Researchers at The Open University (OU) have received a £1 million Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) grant to improve the way members of the public and authorities such as the police work together. This will support them to better investigate and reduce potential or actual threats to citizen privacy, safety, and security. The […]

OU News

Category: Science, maths, computing and technology