free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Society, Politics & Law
Attention
What does 'attention' mean to you? This free course, Attention, will help you to examine how we 'pay attention'. How do we manage to single out sounds and images that require attention and how easy is it to distract someone and why.
article icon
Society, Politics & Law
Should we be worried about the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement?
The UK government has confirmed that despite the path chosen by the US, the UK would honour the Paris Agreement. Here Shonil Bhagwat looks at the motivations and implications behind the US decision, and how international action on climate change will go on.
article icon
Society, Politics & Law
‘Citizen sensing’ and new forms of environmental monitoring
What technological challenges are faced by communities seeking to understand environmental change at different geographical scales?
free course icon
level 3: advanced icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Drug development process: combating pain
Drug development process: combating pain, is a free course offering a brief introduction to the process of new drug discovery; from identification of a suitable candidate drug molecule to the development of a commercial drug product available in the clinic for pain relief or as an anti-inflammatory.
audio icon
Society, Politics & Law
Should Economics and the Environment work together?
The recent UK general election saw many parties pledge to ‘improve’ the environment. Vicky Johnson considers progress can be measured by more closely connecting the environment to economics.
video icon
Society, Politics & Law
Smart Cities in the Making: Learning from Milton Keynes
Why research Milton Keynes? Professor Gillian Rose introduces a study of how cities are increasingly using digital data to improve their management and create new ways of living.
video icon
Society, Politics & Law
Milton Keynes and the roots of 'Smart' transport
Learn about MK’s unique history of transport innovation, and how The Open University has been a part of the experiment.
article icon
History & The Arts
Do fictional characters shift perceptions of transgender people?
New research in America suggests that characters like Laverne Cox's Sophia Burset in Orange Is The New Black may have more impact on how society reacts to transgender people, than the reported experiences of real people. Erica L Rosensthal and Traci Gillig share some of their findings.
article icon
Nature & Environment
Expert insight: Amazonian challenges and policy responses
An in-depth look at the Amazon System and the challenges it faces.
article icon
Society, Politics & Law
From insecurity to insecurity: Black and Ethnic Minority Europeans in the UK
How can racism and xenophobia undermine democracy and the public finances?
article icon
Education & Development
Do challenges make learning more fulfilling - or off-putting?
Motivation is sometimes reported to be the key factor in educational achievement - but what is motivation? If we understand motivation a little better, we might get better at helping students to succeed.
free course icon
level 1: introductory icon
Science, Maths & Technology
What do genes do?
This free course, What do genes do?, explores how information contained in DNA is used, explaining the flow of information from DNA to RNA to protein. Also introduced are the concepts of transcription (as occurs between DNA and RNA) and translation.