The Open University

OU programme explores the science of sound

1 March 2017

In a two-part BBC series, broadcaster and physicist, Dr Helen Czerski, reveals what the physics of sound can tell us about the world and how it works. Produced in partnership with the OU, and broadcast on BBC Four from Thursday 2 March 2017, 21:00, Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics explores the extremes of the […]

OU research informs prominent IT gender report in India

28 February 2017

Open University researchers have co-produced the latest edition of a high-profile report on the state of the IT industry in India and female participation in particular. The OU’s researchers produced the spring edition of the 2017 Women in IT Scorecard-India with the support of India’s leading IT trade association, NASSCOM. This aims to improve understanding of the make-up […]

OU/BBC production allows viewers to Meet the Lords

27 February 2017

A peek into the biggest parliamentary body outside China, the Chamber of Lords, is in store in a new two-part documentary co-produced by The Open University and the BBC. Meet The Lords on BBC2 from Monday 27th February will help to explain what the 800 plus peers do on a day to day basis. Production company […]

Why we must reduce the prison population rather than build new prisons

26 February 2017

The justice secretary Liz Truss has published a new bill to reform the prison and court system in England and Wales. The Prisons and Courts Bill proposes new laws emphasising audits and league tables of prisons and a legal responsibility for both prison staff and the secretary of state for justice to ensure that prisons […]

A Clockwork Orange: ultraviolence, Russian spies and fake news

25 February 2017

The writer Anthony Burgess is most famous for his novel, A Clockwork Orange. This month marks the centenary of the writer’s birth and his dystopian vision still casts a long shadow over popular culture. But what is perhaps more intriguing is how the book was once drawn into a world of Russian espionage, fake news […]

Backing from UK Government for part-time study welcomed by OU

24 February 2017

The Open University has welcomed moves by the UK Government to ensure that the importance of part-time study and distance learning are fully recognised in the biggest shake-up for decades in higher education in England. Peter Horrocks, Vice-chancellor of The Open University, welcomed proposals that would require the new regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), to include explicitly options for part-time and distance learning when […]

Solar system with seven Earth-like planets found around nearby star – here’s what they could be like

22 February 2017

There have been many discoveries of potentially habitable planets orbiting stars other than our own over the last few years. Now things are getting even more exciting. Scientists have documented a star surrounded by no fewer than seven Earth-like planets – several or all of which could be at the right temperature for liquid water, […]

Dr Michael Mosley, The Secrets of Your Food

OU programme explores the mysterious science of food

20 February 2017

In a three-part BBC series, broadcaster and scientist, Dr Michael Mosley, and celebrated botanist, James Wong, take us on an exploration of the science behind our everyday food. Produced in partnership with The Open University and broadcast on BBC Two from Friday 24 February 2017, 21:00, The Secrets of Your Food celebrates the biology, chemistry, […]

Organic molecules found on giant asteroid Ceres – why that’s such a huge deal

17 February 2017

Sometimes, I think scientists are just that little bit too modest. A new paper in Science has a humdinger of a title: “Localized aliphatic organic material on the surface of Ceres”. It doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue and may not even seem that important. But what the researchers have discovered is a huge deal. […]

Why there is such an enormous demand for drugs in British prisons

15 February 2017

The BBC’s Panorama documentary on HMP Northumberland recently put the problem of drug taking in prisons firmly under the spotlight. The terrible harms that psychoactive drugs create for both prisoners and prison officers were laid bare – secretly recorded footage showed prisoners overdosing on drugs, prisoners threatening an officer with a weapon, and one prison […]

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