Science - OU Community Online

Claire Turner, a lecturer in analytical science at the OU, talks to the camera about how odours can be used to detect disease and how dogs, rats and bees play their part…

 

Find out more:

• Study with the OU - S240 Analytical science: health, heritage and environments
  
• Study with the OU - Science

 

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first international satellite which the OU's Professor of Space Science John Zarnecki says set the standard for international collaboration in space exploration.

The Ariel-1, the world's first international satellite, carried experiments designed by UK universities and was built and launched by NASA.

John Zarnecki, Professor of Space Science at the OU and chair of the UK Space Agency's Science Programme Advisory Committee, said: “Ariel-1 set the standard for international collaboration in space exploration, something that is essential today in the light of the tight budgets faced by national space programmes and because of the ambitious missions undertaken by space scientists and engineers.

"Projects like  Cassini-Huygens to Saturn, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency of which the UK is a major player, help us to understand how the solar system formed and evolved, and would not have been viable without international partnerships. 

“On a more practical front, the Galileo constellation of European Navigation satellites currently under construction, will enable us to locate our position on Earth to unprecedented accuracy, opening up a whole new range of applications.  And in two years’ time, the international Rosetta mission will arrive to land on the surface of a comet nucleus after a 10-year journey. It will carry a dust counter from Italy, a camera from Germany, a gas analyser from Switzerland... and a high-tech analytical laboratory from The Open University!”

Ian Wright, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the OU, is the Principal Investigator for the Ptolemy instrument on board the Rosetta mission, which is currently on its way to land on the surface of a comet in 2014. Ptolemy is a high-tech analytical laboratory which will process the comet sample.

The UK Space Agency is hosting a two-day conference at the Science Museum on 26 and 27 April and Professor Zarnecki will attend as a speaker.
 

The OU has released its first Multi-Touch iBook enabling people to explore moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts from the comfort of their own sofa.

The 'Moon Rocks' iBook incorporates the OU's world-leading Virtual Microscope giving users the ability to explore thin sections of moon rocks under different light conditions, letting them zoom in and out, rotate individual rocks and identify the diagnostic colour changes that helped geologists identify the minerals in these rare finds.

‘Moon Rocks’ was released into the Apple iBook store on 22 March. It was created by Dr Andrew Tindle and Professor Simon Kelley from CEPSAR, the OU’s Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research and is part of a new free Open University on iTunes U course called on ‘Moons: an introduction’, which was highlighted by Apple this week.

Dr Tindle said: "Our Multi-Touch iBook tells the geological story of the evolution of our Moon and gives us a huge advantage over conventional books in allowing us to accurately represent to a general audience how scientists study rare and precious samples such as Moon rocks. In reality, such samples could never be made publically available to such an audience."

The samples we use in the book were collected by Apollo astronauts. They were part of the bravest and boldest endeavour of the 20th century and their contribution to science is acknowledged in the book which also incorporates interactive virtual microscopes, videos, image galleries, 360° panoramic rotation movies and 'test your Knowledge' quizzes.

'Moon Rocks', available now on the iBookstore on iPad, was developed using Apple's new iBooks Author publishing tool. The Open University already has over 422 eBooks available for free on iTunes U, but 'Moon Rocks' was the first to use iBooks Author.

The OU is always exploring ways to make the most of the latest and highest quality technologies to simplify study on the move. 71 percent of OU students fit study around work and nearly 30,000 accessed OU sites via mobile devices in December 2011 alone.

All the OU's content is available from the OpenLearn website which houses more than 11,000 hours of free web-based learning materials. For eBook readers there are more than 400 existing OU enhanced eBooks available, representing over 5,000 hours of interactive study.
 

The popular Open University app, Devolve Me, which was labeled 'coolissimo' by Stephen Fry on Twitter, has hit one million downloads.

The face morph game which was launched as part of the Darwin celebrations, allows people to see how they may have looked as an ancient ancestor from 3.7million years ago to 500,000 years ago.

David Meadows, Head of Marketing Communications for The Open University said: “When we first planned the tool we were keen to capitalise on the interest in the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Initially, the app generated a year’s worth of undergraduate science prospectus requests in just a few weeks - which was staggering enough - but three years later we are still seeing around 10,000 visitors every month.

'Part of the appeal is that you can feel that you are coming face to face with your ancestors'

"It’s ironic in a way that an app which shows us devolving as a species should fuel a desire for people to learn, achieve and ultimately evolve to the next part of their lives. Perhaps the next step should be an ‘Evolve me’ App which would give a vision of where you could be in 10 years’ time through studying with The Open University.”

David Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Biological Science at the OU, who provided the scientific advice for the app, said: "The great thing about the application is that while providing a fun way of changing photographs, it also reminds people of the time periods over which humans have evolved and the sort of changes that have taken place in our appearance. Part of the appeal is that you can feel that you are coming face to face with your ancestors.’’

Professor Jonathan Silvertown, who directed the OU's Darwin events, said: “We are one of the youngest species on the planet and without doubt we are still evolving. The Devolve Me app wraps science in a fun package. What could be better than that?”

The app was created by 20:20 Agency, and experienced a surge in traffic when Stephen Fry posted a message on the micro-blogging site Twitter calling it ‘Coolissimo’. This was retweeted across the globe resulting in Devolve Me becoming the OU’s most visited webpage. An unexpected benefit of the app is that schools are also using it as an extra resource in the classroom.

 

Find out more:

• Devolve Me website
• Devolve Me app

                                                      


 

An Open University PhD student and scientist has been shortlisted for a poster competition at the Houses of Parliament aimed at early career researchers.

Prasanna Gamage, 34, from Baldock, is attending Parliament next week (Monday 12 March) to present his science to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of SET for Britain, a national poster competition for researchers split into sessions -  engineering, biological and biomedical sciences, chemistry or physics - depending on their specialism.

Prasanna’s poster on research about neuronal ageing in the lower gastrointestinal tract will be judged against dozens of other scientists’ research in the biology session of SET for Britian, the only national competition of its kind.

He said: "I am honoured to be shortlisted for an event of this magnitude, and it is a great recognition of the research I am involved in. It is also a great opportunity to communicate my research into a wider audience."

Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, added: “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers. 
 
“These early career scientists are the architects of our future and SET for Britain is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

Judged by leading academics, the gold medalist receives £3,000, while silver and bronze receive £2,000 and £1,000 respectively.

The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee run the event in collaboration with The Royal Academy of Engineering, The Institute of Physics, the Society of Biology, The Royal Society of Chemistry, the Physiological Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Society of Chemical Industry, with financial support from BP, Airbus/EADS, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, AgChem Access, Oxford Instruments, IBMS and GE Hitachi. 

Find out more:

• Study with the OU - Science
• Postgraduate qualifications in Science

 

Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer in Environment at the OU believes more people now doubt that climate change is caused by humans.  The term Climate sceptics’ applies to us all but he suggests that the phrase ‘Climate Dyspeptics’ would be better used because it describes not a position but a condition – rather than dividing into believers and deniers it suggests a feeling of discomfort about climate change instead.

Strange but true: the number of people who doubt that climate change is human-caused has, if anything, increased in the UK and US over a period when uncertainties in the science have been narrowing. However to think that this is all down to radical libertarian thinktanks like the Heartland Institute or energy industry lobbyists is a dangerous distraction. Attempts to spin climate change have been going on so long they have their own historians: Oreskes and Conway’s Merchants of Doubt shows the similarities – and links – between the tobacco and climate story. But this is of the ‘Pope is Catholic’ category of news. To think that lobby groups and think tanks are the reason that plenty of people are at best ambiguous about climate change is to fail to understand how many of us feel about relatively new and demanding ideas about humanity’s relationship with its environment.

Globescan, Eurobarometer or recent Yale/George Mason University studies show polling that offers fairly consistent accounts: somewhere between 15 and 35% of people are not convinced climate change is happening and/or don’t believe it is human caused depending on the framing of the question. These can be read as ‘glass more than half full’ results, but it is impossible to build robust international political support for mitigation and adaptation policies without engaging more people with a good sense of the best available scientific thinking on the topic. But the words that are used to describe the negative feelings that a substantial minority of the population have about climate change science and policy may be part of the problem. Terms like sceptic, denier and contrarian are not just inaccurate, but more to the point, create a stark and false binary of ‘believers’ and ‘deniers’.

One of the most widely used phrases is climate sceptic. But scepticism is a part and parcel of any good research and journalism. Indeed we need all the scepticism we can get from researchers, policy analysts and journalists if humanity is going to do a good job of responding to new knowledge about the world. So let’s just say we’re all climate sceptics now and leave that phrase alone.

'There are many climate dyspeptics who are fearful about or irritated by the way climate issues have been presented in the media and with some good cause'

I’m mostly serious in suggesting a new term: climate dyspepsia. An ugly term for sure, but it is useful because it describes not a position but a condition. Certainly this seems to capture the anti-science, crotchety and closed-minded attitude of some sour cherry-picking bloggers and pose-striking journalists. But it also suggests much more widespread feelings of discomfort. It summarises the state people are in when they find all the talk about climate change science, policy or politics difficult to digest. I come over climate dyspeptic myself fairly often – probably because I spend quite a large proportion of my life working on the topic.

There are many climate dyspeptics who are fearful about or irritated by the way climate issues have been presented in the media and with some good cause. The climate research and policy communities need to be more considerate about how people feel about new knowledge about climate change. They also need to be more willing to trust people’s capacity to cope with more open accounts of complex long-term problems. Often this will not be about doing things differently but about naming them differently. There are three things that could be presented in a new way.

First the science of climate change needs to be told as a broad and unfolding process rather than a fixed result. People have a good nose for authenticity and know that over-hasty phrases like ‘the science is finished’ misrepresent the work. And what work it is: climate science includes some of the most ambitious questions that humanity has ever set itself – why is it so rarely experienced as such?

'It is remarkable, but too rarely noted, that almost all of the extraordinarily broad range of policy, business and community responses to climate change carry other benefits'

Second the policy response needs to be framed not as the pursuit of a single final UN agreement that arises out of a great big finished fact, but rather explained as a long term collective risk management process. Everyone who drives a car understands the need for rules about car insurance; everyone in a country with a health system understands the principle of collective risk burden sharing. In fact we tend to do more than tolerate these responses to risk: we treasure them. Climate change policy is no more than an extension of these principles. It is an idea that almost everyone can get behind. Politicians need to inhabit climate policy and not palm off their job on researchers who have a different job to do. Elected politicians have the legitimacy and responsibility to make decisions about the most substantial risks facing their societies and need to step into these big shoes.

Thirdly it is remarkable, but too rarely noted, that almost all of the extraordinarily broad range of policy, business and community responses to climate change carry other benefits. This is the fact that will make the political task achievable. Some of the most compelling developments in design and engineering of our age are at least in part catalysed by knowledge of climate change. Furthermore they are delivering improvements in the quality of everyday life and the long-term profitability and sustainability of business. So here’s a cheering thought: the things that people are actually doing about climate change can overcome the sickly feelings that can be brought on by all the talk of it.

For a follow up post to this one, see here.

Find out more: 

• The Science behind climate change explained
• Environmental studies at the OU