1,169 search results

Are you a secret hoarder?
Health, Sports & Psychology

Are you a secret hoarder?

...physical presence of this information at hand, even if it's somewhere at the bottom of a metre high stack of old newspapers, cannot compare to getting the information from the net or the library. A variant of this is the archivist who feels a religious attachment to anything old, such as faded photos, greetings cards or receipts. A strong emotional attachment to inanimate...
DNA Profiling
Science, Maths & Technology

DNA Profiling

...physical characteristics of an individual. DNA profiling uses techniques that can reveal small variations in the sequence of nucleobases from one person to another. DNA profiling techniques have become a powerful resource for modern forensic science, and have even allowed old, unsolved cases to be reviewed with fresh evidence. When a person dies their DNA will begin to...
Article 10 mins
What is a virus?
Science, Maths & Technology

What is a virus?

...physical characteristics of organisms). But, how did viruses come about? One idea is that viruses evolved from short sequences of genetic material that were originally part of a larger entity. It is suggested that these short sequences of genetic material, encapsulating a viable viral genome, escaped from the original cell. Indeed, it is known that some sequences of DNA...
Brexit: What’s this fine mess you’ve gotten us into? (Apologies to Laurel and Hardy)
Society, Politics & Law

Brexit: What’s this fine mess you’ve gotten us into? (Apologies to Laurel and Hardy)

...physical systems before Einstein and quantum theory. The core of the system is the notion of competitive pricing of commodities and productive resources (labour and capital), leading towards a general equilibrium whereby output (renamed welfare) is maximised using all available inputs at any point in time. Where competition does not prevail (in practice all the time, of...
Introduction to Planetary Protection
Science, Maths & Technology

Introduction to Planetary Protection

...physical form, is not carbon-based, but it is a complex system. So, AI could satisfy some of the criteria for life, especially as it becomes more sophisticated. You may have different levels of understanding of each of the examples and so have quite different notes to those here, but this will have made you realise that defining life is very complex and may even change as...
Coaching neurodivergent athletes
Health, Sports & Psychology

Coaching neurodivergent athletes

...physical energy required can lead to poorer mental health outcomes, alongside clinical diagnoses of depression and anxiety (Graf-Kurtulus and Gelo, 2025). Sport and exercise psychologist and former athlete Kristin McGinty-Minister describes her personal experiences of neurodivergence in sport as follows: I believed that my sensory challenges, masking, and confusion about...
Level 1: Introductory 8 hrs
Software and the law
Science, Maths & Technology

Software and the law

...physical manifestation of that idea. Different countries may have enacted slightly different laws, but generally these kinds of laws have been thought beneficial and have been widely adopted, and have become the subject of international agreements. Activity 1 explores the different motivations for intellectual property laws. Activity 1: Why have intellectual-property...
Level 3: Advanced 8 hrs
Sound for music technology: An introduction
Science, Maths & Technology

Sound for music technology: An introduction

...physics behind travelling pressure waves as the physical manifestation of sound. You will also learn about the subjective perception of pitch and loudness, in particular their relationship to frequency and amplitude. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 2 study in Technology http://www.open.ac.uk/ courses/ find/ technology...Sound for music technology: An...