Oxford Sparks Big Questions

Volcanoes are pretty amazing! But how do they work on other planets?   Take Mars – it has the largest volcano in the solar system! But volcanologist Tamsin Mather reveals that the red planet is now considered geologically dead, with no volcanic activity for around 500 million years. How do we know how this volcano formed then? Well, space missions have put probes and landers on Mars’ surface, providing evidence of a long lost hot spot beneath the surface.   What about the rest of the solar system? There are glimpses of volcanism on Venus and Jupiter’s moon, Io, too. But how do scientists know? Listen to our latest podcast to find out!   If you would like to learn even more about the volcanoes of Earth and beyond, why not give Tamsin’s new book, Adventures in Volcanoland, a read!

We are out in the wild today talking to bees!   In this behind the scenes episode, we visited Dr Rachel Parkinson’s bee recording studio to see insect neuroscience research in action.    You might know that honeybees communicate with each other using the waggle dance, a minute choreography that shows other bees the way to the flower buffet. But little is known about how bumblebees communicate.   To understand more about bee behaviour, Rachel has created a series of small arenas with cameras and microphones. Using AI, visual and audio recordings can be matched up to create a database of sounds and behaviours which will, in time, hopefully reveal the secret language of bees!

Cats are pretty adorable! Those big eyes, fluffy paws and cheeky personalities mean that most people find felines cute. But what is the science behind this reaction? Neuroscientist Professor Morten Kringelbach reveals how special technology can track what happens to signals in the brain in response to sounds and images of babies and small animals. In just a thousandth of a second, our brain decides that something is cute. This almost instantaneous cuteness reaction is thought to be a deep-rooted evolutionary feature of humans, encouraging us to look after young babies and animals to help species to survive. Cats (and other fluffy pets) can bring us so much joy, so next time you find yourself smiling at a cat video or your beloved pet, make sure to spread the love and bring someone else a dose of happiness.

You might have seen them in a hotel. You might have read about them in the news. Maybe you’ve seen them star in social media videos filmed on the London underground. But should we really be worried about bed bugs?   The little critters evolved from feeding on bats and birds to humans thousands of years ago and were part of society for hundreds of years. But with the invention of synthetic pesticides, bed bug populations declined significantly after the Second World War. However, as pesticide resistance grows and the world becomes increasingly connected, bed bugs are making a resurgence.   Entomologist Liam Crowley, from the Department of Biology, tells us what to look out for and how to keep them at bay in our latest podcast. But don’t worry, they’re not as common as you might think!

Have you ever considered when kissing first started? Who, or what, first decided that this was a good way to show affection?   Ancient historian, Troels Pank Arbøll, and hedgehog researcher, Sophie Lund Rasmussen, joined forces to attempt to find an answer. Cuneiform scripts, which are the world’s oldest written text, have the first mention of romantic kissing in a mythological narrative dating back to 2500 BCE.   But animals can also help us to answer this question. Bonobos have been shown to kiss romantically to strengthen pair bonds and assess a mate’s suitability. Perhaps the origins of kissing could be much older than human history! Find out more by listening to our latest podcast.

How do we battle the energy use and soaring costs required to keep our homes warm? We spoke to Dr Brenda Boardman from the Environmental Change Institute about the best ways to keep out the winter chill. Did you know that draughts not only let cold air in, but they also push the warm out of your home? And that sitting or sleeping next to external walls can make you colder? Discover simple and inexpensive methods you can try to stay toasty, starting with the idea of heating the human rather than the home. Tune in to learn more!

People have been interested in wine growing and quality vintages since the Roman times, but as the climate warms, what does this mean for the future of wine growers in the UK (and beyond)?   Andrew Wood, from the Department of Biology, has been studying the records of wine critics, which reveal much more than whether the bottle is a good vintage or not. The vintage can tell scientists what the growing conditions were like for the grapes in a given year – was it hot or cold? Was there flooding or drought? Was light more intense?   As the UK experiences more ‘BBQ summers’, we may see new grape varieties flourishing, producing new flavours of wine. But it’s not good news for all vineyards. Find out why in our latest podcast!

As we count down to the festive season and the days get colder, will we see a white Christmas this year? In the last episode of the Big Questions podcast for 2023, Dr Neven Fučkar from the Environmental Change Institute tells us more about the science behind weather forecasts and how climate change is impacting Earth’s weather patterns. Using advanced modelling, scientists can predict weather patterns to different degrees of certainty. So in a few days’ time, we should know whether we will see snow on the big day. But what do the predictions look like for the next five or ten years? Find out in this podcast! We hope you have enjoyed getting into the science of the everyday questions you want to know the answers to. We’ll be back in the new year to share more science from the University of Oxford. See you in 2024!

Lions are iconic species, but they are threatened with extinction. In Zambia, researchers and conservationists are working together to find ways of conserving these majestic animals and preventing them from becoming by-catch of poaching. In this new episode of the Big Questions podcast, we speak to Dr Egil Dröge from the Department of Biology to share the steps involved in bringing lions back to a national park in Zambia. Careful selection of a few young female lions which are genetically similar to those lost from the national park, and collaboration with local communities could pave the way for lions to return to the area over the next decade.

As the UK government proposes new plans to reduce the number of people who smoke, we talk to behaviour change researcher Nicola Lindson from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences to find out how the plan would work. Could we see a generation that is smoke free? Would banning flavours in e-cigarettes stop children from taking up smoking? Tune in to the latest episode of the Big Questions podcast to find out more.

Welcome to the new series of the Big Questions podcast, where we ask Oxford scientists to shed light on everyday questions that you really want to know the answer to.   Remember those photos or videos online that don’t look quite right? Perhaps you’ve heard a celebrity’s voice somewhere unexpected? In this episode, we chat to computational social scientist Dr Bernie Hogan from the Oxford Internet Institute about deepfakes; media synthetically generated by technology to capture someone’s likeness. As AI and machine learning technology develop rapidly, how can we regulate the creation of deepfakes to know what is real? Tune in to find out!

About a year ago, we asked astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst why the James Webb Space Telescope is such a big deal. Her answers were pretty exciting, to say the least. So, in the months that have passed since then, what has it found out? What mysteries of the universe has it begun to unravel, and has it lived up to expectations? We got back in touch with Becky for an update.  This is the last episode in this series of the Big Questions Podcast! We hope you've enjoyed learning about everything from Martian craters to the human microbiome. Be sure to look out for our next series, beginning in October 2023, and until then, you can find a catalogue of our episodes on the Oxford Sparks website. Have a big question that you'd like answered next series? Let us know on social media!

What might an experimental petrologist (someone who makes rocks in the lab) and an immunologist (someone who studies the body's defence system) have in common? Well, it turns out, a shared interest in iron might be one thing. And what does all this have to do with aliens, and, specifically, whether you would want to meet one? Well, you'll have to listen to find out! With Prof Jon Wade from the Department of Earth Sciences.

"Life finds a way"...This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Stephen Spielberg and Universal Studio's dinosaur masterpiece 'Jurassic Park'. A rousing soundtrack, gutsy kids, and graphics which have stood the test of time remarkably well - the film has undeniably become a classic. But - here's the big question - could it actually happen? Using today's technologies, could we actually extract ancient dinosaur DNA from blood-sucking mosquitoes preserved in amber? And then use that DNA to clone a prehistoric beast? We ask palaeontologist Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente to help us sort the science fact from the science fiction.   

Many of us will have had to deal with a bacterial infection at some point or another. The solution? Often, antibiotics. But as the issue of antibiotic resistance becomes more and more of a concern, might there be an alternative to tackling bacterial infections with drugs? We chat to biomedical engineer Dr Sara Keller about how sound waves could potentially be used to break down bacterial cells.

Increasing levels of CO2 in our atmosphere are a big cause for concern. So what if we could find a way to not only remove some CO2 from the air, but turn it into something useful too? That's exactly what Dr Tiancun Xiao and his team have been working on...and they've found a way to turn CO2 into jet fuel!

Forced displacement of human populations owing to conflict or natural disasters is very difficult to measure. During these crises, the traditional methods of assessing changes in populations - which mostly rely on surveys - are simply not possible. We chat to Dr Douglas Leasure from Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science about how his team have been using social media data to assess the internal displacement of populations in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, in order to help ensure humanitarian aid is delivered as effectively as possible. If you would like to read the original research paper about Doug's work, you can access it here: 'Nowcasting Daily Population Displacement in Ukraine through Social Media Advertising Data'. You can find out more about the work of researchers at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science in this Oxford Sparks micro-documentary: 'Demography: Understanding Our World'.  

Demographers (researchers who study the statistics of human populations) look at factors such as birth rates, death rates, migration and life expectancy. But what exactly is meant by the term 'life expectancy'? How is it calculated, and how has it changed after the pandemic? We speak to Prof Jennifer Dowd from the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science to find out. You can find out more about Prof Dowd's work in our micro-documentary Demography: Understanding Our World: https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/videos/demography-understanding-our-world/

More than half the world's population is at risk from dengue fever, a viral infection that is spread via the bite of an infected mosquito. While some cases of the disease can be mild, others can be extremely dangerous and even fatal - particularly if someone has contracted the virus previously. When cases of dengue fever are high, those at risk can take some preventative measures, such as wearing clothing that covers as much skin as possible, using mosquito nets at night, and avoiding standing water. As such, some way of predicting high levels of the virus before they arrive would be invaluable. This is exactly what Dr Sarah Sparrow and her colleagues at the DART (Dengue Advanced Readiness Tools) project are hoping to achieve - using climate data to create a forecast, similar to a pollen forecast, for dengue fever.

Our gut microbiome (that's all the microorganisms - such as bacteria, viruses and fungi - living in our gut) is really important for healthy digestion. But did you know that it's also linked to our mental health? In this episode of the Big Questions Podcast we chat to neuroscientist Prof Philip Burnet from Oxford's Department of Psychiatry about how our gut is connected to our brain, and how taking prebiotic and probiotic supplements could even help in the treatment of mood and psychotic disorders.