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Science, Maths & Technology
If Infinity Wars had peer review instead of script editors
Bill Sullivan imagines the feedback facing The Avengers, if Hollywood worked the way scientific journals work. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.
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Education & Development
Tomorrow's Ed
What's possible in the future of education? We've pulled together some of our best FREE learning content pondering this question...
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Nature & Environment
Plastic planet
The discovery of plastic unleashed humanity's creativity, as we embraced the magic of this versatile product. But it was at a cost - has the material which made the 21st Century brought about an environmental catastrophe?
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Science, Maths & Technology
Golden Globe Ocean Race 2018
OU alumni Antoine Cousot is currently circumnavigating the globe for 30,000 miles, alone. Here, our academics explore information, science and ideas about the ocean.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Are selfies a terrible thing?
Is the rise of the selfie a sign of a culture collapsing into narcissism - or is there something positive in the trend of arm's length self portraiture?
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level 3: advanced icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Approaches to software development
This free course, Approaches to software development, presents an engineering approach to the development of software systems – a software engineering approach. The course pays particular attention to issues of software quality, in terms of both product (what is built) and process (how we build it).
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Science, Maths & Technology
The civil engineer's fear of the penalty shoot-out: Predicting the World Cup
Civil Engineering uses a lot of predictions; World Cups generate a lot of predictions. Charles MacRobert brings the two worlds together.
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Languages
Can you learn a language with an app?
From Duolingo to busuu, there are a variety of apps out there promising to revolutionise language learning - but how effective are they? Fernando Rosell-Aguilar explores...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The monster has wings: Should we be worried about youth consumption of energy drinks?
Young people in the UK chug their way through more energy drinks that anywhere else in Europe. Amelia Lake and Shelina Visram ask if it's time to take action.
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Languages
Teaching a robot how to speak
Language is a defining feature of human interaction, and programmers have been gradually developing this capability in robots. But even with the vast progress made in artificial intelligence, is it really possible for robots to learn language? Watch the video below to learn more.
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level 2: intermediate icon
Science, Maths & Technology
An introduction to interaction design
From apps, phones and business systems to wearables, the Web and the Internet of Things, interactive products have become part of everyday life. But how can interactions be designed to best meet their purpose and offer good user experience? This free course, An introduction to interaction design, explores this topic. You will learn: what ...
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level 1: introductory icon
Science, Maths & Technology
An introduction to design engineering
This free course, An introduction to design engineering, looks at the way in which engineers use ideas and approaches from the discipline of design thinking to inform their work. The complexity that people bring to design problems is introduced, along with some basic methods of dealing with such complexity.