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Lighting the Industrial Revolution
History & The Arts

Lighting the Industrial Revolution

...studied for more than a century before that date? It was the invention of the battery by Count Alessandro Volta in 1800 which marked a turning point in understanding and controlling the strange "fluid". For the first time, electricity could be produced by placing two dissimilar metals together in a conducting and corrosive liquid. It is a simple experiment: just stick a...
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Article 5 mins
Do animals have sex for fun?
Nature & Environment

Do animals have sex for fun?

...study non-human primates, the animals perhaps most likely to display responses similar to humans, scientists have detected orgasm in many different species including macaques, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. In fact, very few primatologists doubt that non-human primates experience orgasm – at least, male non-human primates. There is debate as to whether female...
View article Do animals have sex for fun?
Article 5 mins
Heart of a heartless world, soul of soulless conditions
History & The Arts

Heart of a heartless world, soul of soulless conditions

...studied in Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds.) Ovid presents the reader with a numinous landscape in which anything can happen and where human beings might suffer traumatic transformations into wild animals or find themselves rooted to the spot as trees. The fascinating thing about such 'fantasy fiction' is that it created a space or place as much then as it does now...
View article Heart of a heartless world, soul of soulless conditions
Article 5 mins
Why is snow so hard to predict?
Nature & Environment

Why is snow so hard to predict?

...study how society could better respond to extreme weather, you need the help of political scientists, behavioural psychologists, media analysts, communication designers, town planners, engineers – and perhaps even some meteorologists. We will need time and in-depth research to assess precisely what happened in this event, but, on the face of it, the National Weather...
View article Why is snow so hard to predict?
Article 5 mins
Can I use 'we' and 'I' in my essay? Introducing corpus linguistics
Languages

Can I use 'we' and 'I' in my essay? Introducing corpus linguistics

...study of language. What is a corpus? But what exactly is meant by a corpus? A corpus (plural corpora) is basically a collection of texts, selected and organised in a principled way, and stored on a computer so that you can search easily. It could be anything from a few hundred words (e.g. a collection of your Facebook status updates) or several billion words (e.g. corpora...
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Article 10 mins
Evolutions in Education: The OU Education Conference
Education & Development

Evolutions in Education: The OU Education Conference

...Undergraduate qualifications | Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (open.ac.uk) Taught postgraduate | Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (open.ac.uk) Our work in the nations: Schools and colleges | Open University in Wales Schools and early learning education | Open University in Scotland Our work | The Open University in Ireland...
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Article 5 mins
What do we know about the seven Earth-like planets?
Science, Maths & Technology

What do we know about the seven Earth-like planets?

...study it with more powerful telescopes, including NASA’s Spitzer space telescope. This fuller survey has now revealed a total of seven transiting exoplanets there (see video). The amount of light blocked out by each exoplanet during a transit reveals its size. The repeat frequency reveals each exoplanet’s orbital period, from which the laws of gravity allow us to...
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Article 5 mins
Hands-free phone tech is dangerous - so why do car firms still promote it?
Digital & Computing

Hands-free phone tech is dangerous - so why do car firms still promote it?

...study, drivers who were heavily involved in a phone conversation failed to detect traffic signals and were less likely to recall billboards at the side of the road. By tracking the drivers’ eye movements, the researchers showed that distracted and undistracted drivers viewed the billboards the same amount. But those on the phone did not have the cognitive resources...
View article Hands-free phone tech is dangerous - so why do car firms still promote it?
Article 5 mins