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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nature & Environment
Expert insight: Amazonian challenges and policy responses
An in-depth look at the Amazon System and the challenges it faces.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Money & Business
An American Classic: How Spam became a success
Fritter away a few minutes with the story of how chopped meat in a tin became a branding success. What can we learn from the constant reinvention of a staple?
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Society, Politics & Law
The Curious Geography of Weetabix: A Cereal Tale for Our Times
Where is Weetabix actually from? Prof. John Allen investigates.
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History & The Arts
Shakespeare: For All Time?
A current production of Julius Caesar is causing controversy in the USA for allegedly depicting Donald Trump's murder, but what does this tell us about the nature of Shakespeare's plays?