#university of oxford

Webcam Model(sweety55) is live
LIVE
astronomyblog:At the very centre of the image above is something incredible - a single, positively

astronomyblog:

At the very centre of the image above is something incredible - a single, positively-charged strontium atom, suspended in motion by electric fields.

Not only is this an incredibly rare sight, it’s also difficult to wrap your head around the fact that this tiny point of blue light is a building block of matter.

The image was captured by physicist David Nadlinger from the University of Oxford, and it’s been awarded the overall prize in the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council photo competition.

To give you a little perspective on the size of this set-up, the atom is being held in place by electric fields emanating from those two metal needles on either side of it.

The distance between them is about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch).

The atom is being illuminated by a blue-violet laser. The energy from the laser causes the atom to emit photons which Nadlinger could capture on camera using a long exposure.

The whole thing is housed inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber and dramatically cooled to keep the atom still. Nadlinger took this photo through the window of the vacuum chamber.

To learn more, click here.


Post link
Zaha Hadid Architects, Middle East Centre, University of Oxford

Zaha Hadid Architects, Middle East Centre, University of Oxford


Post link

HOME LEARNING: Anglo Saxons

Have you seen our new Anglo Saxons home learning pack yet? ✏️

Travel back in time to Anglo Saxon England with a short video from our Learning team, try your hand at a quiz and have a go at two jigsaw puzzles. You can also learn how to make your own Anglo Saxon brooch in our short craft activity video.

Give it a try today: ashmolean.org/home-learning-anglo-saxons

These coins are from the Crondall Hoard, which was buried before AD 650 and includes the earliest-known Anglo Saxon coins. The hoard was found in Hampshire in 1828 and came into our collections in 1944.

From creepy crustacean to better biofuels (and regrowing a limb?) Could this creature from the deep From creepy crustacean to better biofuels (and regrowing a limb?) Could this creature from the deep

From creepy crustacean to better biofuels (and regrowing a limb?)

Could this creature from the deep be a part of the answer to not one, but two of the major challenges in 21st century bioscience?  

The top pic is the marine arthropod Parhyale hawaiensis, which, although looming large in this picture, is typically about 1mm long! But small size is no obstacle for scientists with huge ambitions – like finding out if humans could even regrow limbs. Parhyale can, and so researchers led by Dr Aziz Aboobaker at the University of Oxford have just sequenced this critter’s DNA and observed a few mutants along the way (second pic).

And lying undetected in this organism’s genome were the genes for digesting lignocellulose (that’s the posh term for ‘wood’). This is a big deal, because humans and 99.9% of other animals can’t digest wood, but it’s packed with energy. Engineering these wood-digesting genes into microbes could bring cheaper and better biofuels a step closer.

Images: Image: Anastasios Pavlopoulos and Igor Siwanowicz from HHMI Janelia Research Campus, published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Read the full paper here.


Post link
The Bayeux Tapestry with knobs on: what do the tapestry’s 93 penises tell us?The Bayeux Tapestry is The Bayeux Tapestry with knobs on: what do the tapestry’s 93 penises tell us?The Bayeux Tapestry is

The Bayeux Tapestry with knobs on:
what do the tapestry’s 93 penises tell us?

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous and recognisable historic documents in the world, telling the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 - particularly the battle of Hastings, which took place on 14 October 1066. But for all that has been written about the tapestry, one aspect has been widely overlooked: the 93 penises it depicts.

Read more


Post link
loading