Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Oxford Sparks Big Questions

Jun 17, 2016

Oxygen levels are slightly lower when you fly on commercial airlines, so what effects does this have on people? Can it cause any problems? Dr Thomas Smith is both a researcher and a clinician with an interest in heart and lung function, specifically in relation to aviation. He describes what happens to the body when...


May 13, 2016

Can a little electrical stimulation help people learn quicker? And how would technology that does this be used? And why would you want to use this over medicines? Professor Roi Cohen Kadosh describes a phenomena that they've noticed where giving people a little electrical stimulation to the scalp appears to help people...


Apr 12, 2016

How can working with people to understand how they use their local plants be used to protect them when industry moves in? How do we find and conserve areas of high 'bioquality'? William Hawthorn explains how being able to identify what plants are where, and what their value are to local people can help protect the...


Feb 23, 2016

Forensic psychiatry can help us understand the causes and best treatments for mentally disordered offenders inside and outside of the prison system What are the links between mental illness and violence? Do mental health disorders affect the risk of prisoners re-offending? Are rates of death and suicide higher in...


Dec 1, 2015

How do you start to pick apart speech at the genetic level? Dr Dianne Newbury explains what Specific Language Impairment is and how her research is unravelling a pretty complicated picture. Specific Language Impairment describes those who have difficulty learning, using and understanding language even though there...