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News from The Open University

Body in the freezer – The Real CSI is back!

Body in the freezer – The Real CSI is back!

A new episode of Forensics: The Real CSI – an Open University/BBC co-production macabrely called Body in the freezer – begins this week. Find out on Sunday 10 March at 9pm on BBC Two how a decomposing body found in a freezer at a waste disposal site triggers the alarm and sees the West Midlands […]

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judges hammer

I run mock trials to research the legal system. The bias shown in Channel 4’s The Jury: Murder Trial is a very real problem

Academic Dr Lee John Curley is a lecturer in psychology at The Open University who conducts research into the way juries behave behind closed doors. Here, he gives his take on the findings of a new reality show about the potential bias of jurors. Channel 4 has billed its new reality show, Jury: Murder Trial, […]

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money counting

Hundreds of councils could sink if the budget does not address their funding distress

With the budget looming on Wednesday Alan Shipman, senior lecturer in economics at The Open University, says if councils don’t get the help they need life will get a lot harder where YOU live. Jeremy Hunt’s Budget options have been narrowed by the growing financial crisis in Britain’s Town Halls as hundreds more councils are […]

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Five books to read if you fell in love with One Day

Five books to read if you fell in love with One Day

Sally O’Reilly is an Honorary Associate in creative writing at The Open University and after the recent airing on Netflix of One Day, based on the book of the same name, she has given her recommendations for books of a similar theme. David Nicholls’s One Day is a poignant, witty depiction of love delayed, found, […]

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Top road safety figures are backing Open University-led research into the dangers of hands-free phone use while driving

Top road safety figures are backing Open University-led research into the dangers of hands-free phone use while driving

The UK’s roads policing lead and the CEO of The Road Safety Trust are supporting the findings of an Open University educational project highlighting to police that hands-free phone use while driving is no safe alternative to hand-held use. The project called “We need to talk about hands-free”,  was funded by The Road Safety Trust, […]

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Nature award for polar bear photo shows that images of these magnificent creatures still have the power to move people

Nature award for polar bear photo shows that images of these magnificent creatures still have the power to move people

Sam Shaw, who is a lecturer in History of Art at The Open University, says he had ‘mixed feelings’ with the revelation that this polar bear picture won a nature award. Here he tells us of the ‘fascinating’ journey his research took him on in fathoming why these bears have come to illustrate the demise […]

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Ministry of Justice film ‘Served’ featuring interview with OU academic wins award

Ministry of Justice film ‘Served’ featuring interview with OU academic wins award

In just five months a film released only online about prisoners learning catering skills and featuring Open University history professor Rosalind Crone has gone on to gain over 106,000 views and collect a trade award. The film, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, shows how prisoners at HM Prison Lincoln learn new skills through training […]

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Spotlight on the intriguing Vernon Lee – writer, philosopher and anti-militarist

Spotlight on the intriguing Vernon Lee – writer, philosopher and anti-militarist

Academics at The Open University are shining a spotlight on the intriguing Vernon Lee – a brilliant woman, prolific writer, anti-militarist and a philosopher ahead of her time yet someone barely mentioned today. She is probably best known for her supernatural Gothic fiction, while her work on psychological aesthetics and empathy particularly, was somewhat forgotten […]

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Young people took up smoking during the pandemic – how tobacco has been used for stress relief for more than a century

Young people took up smoking during the pandemic – how tobacco has been used for stress relief for more than a century

Through his research interest in the smoking habits of people in war-time Britain, Dr Michael Reeve, a Lecturer in Modern British History, shows us how social disruption and stress, over time, has drawn people towards tobacco. In the UK and much of the west, smoking rates have consistently declined since the turn of the millennium. […]

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Lady Killers is back for a third series

Lady Killers is back for a third series

Lady Killers – one of the top ten most popular BBC Podcast series of 2022 – is back for a third time and integral to the show is The Open University’s Rosalind Crone working alongside popular history presenter Lucy Worsley. The half hour OU/BBC co production is due to air on 10 January on BBC […]

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