3,190 search results

Big data and bioinformatics: Powerful tools for decoding DNA
Science, Maths & Technology

Big data and bioinformatics: Powerful tools for decoding DNA

...working with this type of data is therefore becoming increasingly important. It allows scientists to fully make use of the information available, and allows them to compare and analyse data generated from different sources. It can be used to find new links between genes and disease that may be responsible for diseases such as cancer. Armed with this information we can...
How a centuries-old poem hints at Shakespeare’s herbal ‘muse’
History & The Arts

How a centuries-old poem hints at Shakespeare’s herbal ‘muse’

...works would over run, But that in Paper they immortally Do live in spite of Death, and cannot die. Taylor argues that writers “survive” through their work, which was published for posterity on paper produced from hemp, or cannabis. It is worth pointing out here that the cannabis plant was illustrated and referred to as “hemp” by botanist John Gerard as far back as...
A hard day at the Met Office: The BBC look for a change in the weather
History & The Arts

A hard day at the Met Office: The BBC look for a change in the weather

...work. At a time when government is reducing spending, it is natural that the Met Office should seek to maximise income and the BBC should seek to cut costs, leading to the current schism. Should anyone care? The clichéd conversational opener about the state of the weather is invariably followed by the comment that it wasn’t predicted correctly. Yet anecdotal evidence...
Unmasking inequalities: what COVID-19 revealed about the degree awarding gap at The Open University
Digital & Computing

Unmasking inequalities: what COVID-19 revealed about the degree awarding gap at The Open University

...work responsibilities and mental health challenges as key hurdles disproportionately affecting ethnic minority learners. These factors often intersected. A student juggling NHS shifts, caring responsibilities and unreliable broadband was more likely to disengage, defer or underperform – not due to lack of motivation, but due to overwhelming structural pressures. [Blue...
Improving the everyday lives of carers
Health, Sports & Psychology

Improving the everyday lives of carers

...work in order to provide full-time care. In our project over 60% of family carers were not in paid employment. Our own research has shown that despite the various white papers from the UK Government supporting carers and the introduction of the Carer’s Assessment and Carer’s Allowance, many carers feel undervalued by society and looked down on by some people because...
Afterword to Representing Religions: Race, Rationality, Colonialism and Anthropology
History & The Arts

Afterword to Representing Religions: Race, Rationality, Colonialism and Anthropology

...work of Andrew Lattas – that the radio masts could be understood as evidence not of irrationality but of bricolage and creativity, whereby local ritual technologies for communicating with the dead were blended together with Western communication technologies. Once posed in this way, the question about action became one of agency and power rather than one of rationality....
How to start a course
Get Started

How to start a course

...work through the course. The tracking bar will reach 100% when you have viewed all of the pages of the course and you have completed any quizzes and assessments, if they are available on that course. You can also use the Content screen to see which pages and sections you have completed. Scroll down to 'Expand all content' and you will see ticks alongside each completed...
The meaning of home in later life
Health, Sports & Psychology

The meaning of home in later life

...work and care continues to change as families, communities and society transform over time. Here the concept of home may take on new meanings in trying to maintain a sense of attachment, stability and refuge. Home has also embraced the technological and digital. For people in the UK, being able to stay in their own home in old age may involve the use of assistive...