The Open University

The environmental costs of Trump’s wall

13 February 2017

It looks like Donald Trump’s “great, great wall” is actually going to happen. Its likely impact on human society has been well-noted, but in the longer-term a barrier across an entire continent will also have severe ecological consequences. The US-Mexico border is around 1,900 miles (3,100 km) long and some of it has already been […]

OU celebrates impact of women in science

10 February 2017

Nations throughout the world will be celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2017 tomorrow (11 February 2017). Established by the United Nations (UN) in 2016, the occasion celebrates women and girls in science, and aims to eliminate gender inequality in academia, education, and industry. In honour of this, we are celebrating the achievements […]

Computer hacker silhouette of hooded man with binary data and network security terms. Thinkstock

Privacy perspectives: dos, don’ts, and to-dos

27 January 2017

Every time you sign up for a new website, share your latest run with your friends, or scan your loyalty card at a supermarket, you leave a record of your activity which is permanent, attached to your identity, and increasingly linked with other information to build a more complete picture of who you are and […]

How old is our moon

12 January 2017

Most scientists agree that the Earth has pretty much always had its moon. Details of the moon’s composition (in particular the “isotopic mixture” of heavier and lighter versions of various elements) are too similar to the Earth’s for it to have been captured from somewhere remote. However, some compositional details differ enough to rule out […]

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Why the solution to ‘fake news’ is education, not technology

11 January 2017

This opinion article has been published by Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at The Open University, Philip Seargeant Since the Trump victory, and the Brexit result before that, the issue of ‘fake news’ has barely been out of the real news. Social media companies, such as Facebook, have been criticised for their role in […]

OU research to STRETCH the boundaries of supported homecare for older adults

19 December 2016

Researchers at the OU have launched a million-pound research programme that will redefine homecare for older adults recovering from hospital treatment. STRETCH (Socio-Technical Resilience for Enhancing Targeted Community Healthcare) aims to coordinate ‘circles’ of support for older adults. These include carers and medical professionals, relatives and neighbours, and the voluntary sector, and would be co-ordinated […]

Artist's impression of the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri

Astronomy research from the OU among Physics World 2016 top breakthroughs

16 December 2016

The discovery of a planet orbiting our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, has been highly commended among Physics World 2016 top 10 breakthroughs. As part of an international team of astronomers, Postdoctoral Researcher at The Open University, Dr John Barnes, was instrumental in establishing that the observed ‘wobble’ of Proxima Centauri was caused by a nearby […]

How booming Havana can avoid the traffic and pollution that plagues most middle-income cities

1 December 2016

The classic 1950s cars on the streets of Havana are much admired by foreigners, yet the reality for most Cubans is a lot more mundane. For them, owning a car – any car – remains a dream, albeit one which has been reawakened by economic reforms and moves towards normalising relations with the US. But […]

India-UK Excellence Award for OU research partnership

11 November 2016

Dr Satheesh Krishnamurthy, a Senior Lecturer in Energy, along with his academic partner, Dr Amit Kumar Chakraborty from the National Institute of Technology (NITD) in Durgapur, India, has won the Mobility Award at the India-UK Excellence Awards. Their project to develop low-cost solar cells has involved a researcher exchange programme which has fostered the skills of young academics […]

Study sheds light on violent asteroid crash that caused mysterious ‘crater rings’ on the moon

8 November 2016

Some 3.8 billion years ago, the moon was a dangerous place – constantly bombarded with asteroids and comets. Our celestial neighbour still bears the scars of this time, in the shape of craters. The biggest of these are called basins, and one is the mysterious, 930km-diameter Orientale Basin, which looks like a bull’s eye with […]

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Category: Science, maths, computing and technology