Current affairs

An expert panel discussion about AI’s interaction with democracy will mark the launch of Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI today (16 February)

A group within the University called ‘HERO’ is working towards ecosystem restoration across Oxfordshire, and QUAD talks to one of its chief architects

Research shows that animal movies promote awareness, not harm

Tree-planting gained President Trump’s support this week as a tool to fight climate change. But done wrong, it could hurt people and the environment

Just in time for World Car-Free Day, alumnus Tom Standage discusses his new book and what he thinks we’ll be driving (or is that riding?) soon…

Richard Lofthouse considers Oxford’s latest traffic furore, the role of local policy towards global climate ambitions, and whether Network Rail is a secret superhero.

50 years since the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Alida Young notes the true source of some of his greatest words

For sheer absurdity and slapstick, no one serves it up quite like Mark Hanlon in The Pong of Power

Danny Dorling considers the real meaning of Brexit and how it relates to the end of Empire

Alumna Lucy Johnstone explains a sea change in thinking about mental health

Trees are shaping up as the best ‘carbon capture and storage’ opportunity, suggest preliminary results from an immensely important ongoing arboreal experiment.

Professor Gina Neff talks to Ruth Abrahams about gender and AI

Asha de Vos (Lincoln, 2003) on whale conservation and her time at Oxford

Author Thomas Mogford (St Catherine's College, 1996) gives his tips for writing your first novel

Dan Laurin (Oriel, 2018) talks to us about his time at Oxford, being indigenous, transgender and queer plus working as a Community Curator with the Pitt Rivers

We spoke to Jasmine Richards (LMH, 1999) about getting BAME representation into children's books. To celebrate Black History Month 2019, Jasmine spoke to us again about inclusivity at Oxford and what BHM means to her.

Jeetendr Sehdev (Wolfson, 2001) about his career as a bestselling author and ‘celebrity branding expert’, and his work with the UN to end modern slavery

We spoke to alumnus Ashleigh Ainsley (St Catherine’s, 2011) about co-founding colorintech, supporting racial diversity in the tech industry.

Filmmakers Cat Haigh (Keble, 2014) and Hannah Congdon (Pembroke, 2014) spoke to us about 'Women Behind the Wheel' - a road trip documentary exploring women's issues in Central Asia

Tarek Cheniti (Keble, 2005) on his time studying Management Studies at Oxford and his career in Human Rights

Jason Arora (St John's, 2005) on studying medicine at Oxford, and working for a new system for value-based healthcare

Akaash Maharaj reflects on the day he met the late bishop and political leader of South Africa

Global Environmental Politics is poised to be transformed by Artificial Intelligence

The true cost of ash dieback is far higher than you may assume

A collection of articles highlighting Black History Month

Oxford has helped craft a landmark marine protection plan

The bonds between alumni in a time of Brexit

Former diplomat Arthur Snell (Magdalen, 1994) discusses his book, 'How Britain Broke the World: War, Greed and Blunders from Kosovo to Afghanistan, 1997-2022'

The question will be debated at Blackwell's on 12 March

Dr Nicola Ranger is deputy director of the UK Centre for Greening Finance, a Government-backed organisation established to provide up-to-date analytics on the risks to the financial sector and investment of climate change

Developments in solar power are set to offer cheaper, better energy, reducing the impact of climate change

There is no ‘magic’ technology to solve climate change

The pandemic further agitated a furious debate that long-predated it

A packed Sheldonian Theatre was backdrop to a lively discussion around fake news and public misinformation

Oxford to host a special air quality conference

Dr Pete Walton at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute talks about the insights offered by education

A radical billionaire speaks out

A brilliant new history book takes the very long view

Popular attitudes in Russia and Ukraine show significant differences towards national identities and relations with the outside world. Russia's invasion of Ukraine will deepen this divide

In a series of powerful 'hopes' for Egypt, 20 leading researchers from across the University have recorded wishes and warnings in videos and written messages for the delegates to COP27.

Going green will be vastly cheaper than fossil fuels, argues a remarkable new report by Oxford researchers

Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC recounts a remarkable legal career and discusses his collection of radical literature

Oxford is likely to have electric scooters for rental very soon

Oxford’s Saïd Business School hosts Oxford Electric Vehicle Summit

A recent EV summit in Oxford pointed in an unanticipated direction

The electric MINI will be built in Cowley

Oxford launches new centre for energy demand solutions

Many meat alternatives, can have 90% less environmental impact than meat-based equivalents

Sohara Mehroze Shachi discusses her Oxford degree, her role at the UN and how her native Bangladesh is adapting to climate change

Consultant clinical psychologist and alumna Dr Lucy Maddox has published a wonderfully smart but accessible book to help us all

Oxford alumni founders of It Gets Brighter launch a campaign for Mental Health Week

The Graduate Scholarship Scheme for Ukraine Refugees will provide financial support and welfare assistance to those whose lives have been badly impacted by war and extends the University’s well established tradition of support for refugee scholars

QUAD readers have asked more questions about tomorrow’s transport

A green exit from COVID-19 would benefit the economy, says an important Oxford report

The University’s arboretum has received first stage support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to develop a new Visitor and Learning Centre

Billionaire Tom Steyer will speak in the Sheldonian on 3 June to the theme, 'How corporate money has subverted climate politics.'

Tom Fletcher discusses Oxford, diplomacy and the importance of the digital sphere in the twenty-first century

Artificial Intelligence and conservation

Oxford’s diet and population health expert, Professor Susan Jebb maintains that ‘we cannot meet Net Zero targets without changing our diet’

Lady Margaret Hall Bursar Bart Ashton on what it means to be green

Dr Friederike Otto explains the influence of climate change on extreme weather events

Marnie Howlett, Departmental Lecturer in Politics, shares insights on Ukraine based on deep knowledge of the country

It is essential to accurately understand the threats; for governments, populations and for investors

Laos has a brilliant DPhil student in Oxford

Infrastructure decisions underpin environmental sustainability, says a new Oxford-UN report

Transport is the third largest source of greenhouse gases in the world, says Professor Tim Schwanen, director of Oxford’s Transport Studies Unit, and there are no easy answers

28 October marks the centenary of Mussolini’s ‘March on Rome.’ Paul Corner debunks the tendency to go easy on Mussolini in a searing work of scholarship

The Bodleian Libraries and other museums across the University have answered a call to donate their Personal Protection Equipment to key workers and frontline healthcare professionals

Oxford University spin-out company Perspectum predicts a global healthcare policy challenge as millions of former patients now suffer multi-organ damage from Long-COVID

Matt Perkins explains how Oxford's culture of entrepreneurship has become 'real'

Numerous COVID-19 patients have been shown to be still suffering symptoms months after discharge from hospital

Ahead of COP 27, Oxford authors cycled to London to co-launch a Greta Thunberg book about the climate crisis

Putting on a new set of food spectacles was good for me

NZ Climate minister discusses the challenge

Sarah Whitebloom profiles Oxford’s Professor Sir Dieter Helm

Climate science pioneer dies aged 88

Oxford scientists have reconstructed ocean warming from 1871 to 2017

This month sees British identity and the ‘special relationship’ with the US under the spotlight, and a new history of the CIA

Punchy short stories, ecocriticism, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and an easy-reading encyclopedia

Author James Crowden offers a context for recent clashes between China and India

An interdisciplinary team of engineers and medics is addressing ways to increase the UK’s capacity for ventilator manufacture

Leading Oxford climate scientists today insisted there can be no doubt that human-driven climate change is a fact and urgent action is needed, as the IPCC’s report is released showing emissions are driving up temperatures.

Oxford are rapidly preparing a COVID-19 vaccine trial in the Thames Valley Region

'Capitalism and Slavery' by Eric Williams hits the best seller list in 2022; a lesson in history

A plan to help organisations link small actions to big goals

The University has launched a new centre of global research collaboration and excellence

At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), the University of Oxford and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the launch of the Nature Positive Universities Alliance

2021 saw Oxford crowned best for successful commercial spin-outs, measured over two decades

Alumni attending Meeting Minds with an electric car will be able to charge at one of Europe’s top sites

Professor John Tasioulas has been awarded an AI2050 Senior Fellowship by Schmidt Futures.

A generous gift of £3.5 million from Lakshmi Mittal and his family has secured the future of a critical professorship in vaccinology at the University

We take a look at the third of three reports tackling the ‘Final 25%’ of climate emissions – the hardest emissions to eliminate. This time the subject is petrochemicals and plastics.

We take a look at the second of three reports tackling the ‘Final 25%’ of climate emissions – the hardest emissions to eliminate. This time the subject is food

The Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment is forging ahead into often untested and under-researched areas of climate change mitigation, that go far beyond what readers might have encountered in the broader media

A test that works in 30 minutes will help health authorities globally

Oxford University has topped the THE World University Rankings for a fifth consecutive year

Working with the Seychelles Islands Foundation, a group of students will clean up an island

Organisations aiming to make their catering more sustainable can make genuine positive contributions, though it will take extremely ambitious action to come close to fully mitigating biodiversity loss within the current food system, reveal researchers fro

Potential COVID-19 hotspots can be identified using a new online tool from Oxford University’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science

In collaboration with AstraZeneca plc Oxford announces its candidate vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019, is effective at preventing COVID-19

October is a special month

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr David Prout explains the University’s position

Landmark climate book draws on unique Oxford records

The ‘ZEZ’ sets a national precedent not just a local one, and is set to expand in 2023

Oxford graduates are filling senior leadership roles in the new US government

Alumna Anna Turns has paddleboarded the entire Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary in south Devon, raising awareness about ocean pollution

A new Oxford University collaboration has shed light on the damaging health consequences of Britain’s car addiction

An Oxford professor discusses a blueprint for the reform of Capitalism

Paula Boddington discusses the infant field of ethics for Artificial Intelligence, with Richard Lofthouse

Good companies perform better, argues a Harvard professor in Oxford

Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Lisa Appignanesi and Phillip Pullman came to Oxford for an event in solidarity with Salman Rushdie

Genomic epidemiology has allowed a team of scientists to analyse the transmission chain behind the first wave of the epidemic in early 2020

The wide-scale introduction of large herbivores to the Arctic tundra to restore the ‘mammoth steppe’ grassland ecosystem and mitigate global warming is economically viable, suggests a new paper

Andriy Tymoshenko (Kellogg, 2014) shares his experience of the atrocities happening in Ukraine.

A new study to explore the effect of social distancing has launched, and seeks volunteers

Rhodes Scholar Kiron Neale discusses his doctoral research on solar energy

Recent Oxford alumna Beverly Leon on being a pro-footballer

Diet and food availability amidst climate change

A remarkable book about a slave who successfully sued her slaver has caught the broader reading public’s imagination

Two Balliol alums are achieving startling success tackling HIV in South Africa and beyond

Ahead of publication, Richard Lofthouse speaks to the author of an explosive new book about Facebook

Oxford’s renowned ecosystems expert Yadvinder Malhi talks trees

Yadvinder Malhi shares his rediscovery of nature at the local level

Extreme heat events in sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly worsening because of climate change, but they are not being adequately recorded, says a new Oxford report

Researchers at Oxford University, together with and international colleagues, have discovered jet stream patterns that could affect up to a quarter of global food production

Pakistan’s response to COVID and its broader implications

The living world is not a sideshow in the climate debate. Our climate benefits from a healthy and flourishing biosphere, just as ecosystems and the diversity of living organisms depend on climate

Professor Myles Allen says it is entirely possible to remove CO2 from the atmosphere on an effective scale.

The western half of Broad Street has been transformed

Human interference in the deep sea could already be outpacing our basic understanding of how it functions, University scientists have warned

Amid a furious debate about air quality, Nick Molden has buckled up his belt of truth

COVID-19 has transformed the NHS family doctor service

In a recent QUAD article, ‘The coming war over social media’, we spoke to US professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of a new Oxford University Press book, Anti-Social Media, How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

New Bodleian Library exhibition These Things Matter: Empire, Exploitation and Everyday Racism presents six examples of artefacts from the Bodleian Libraries’ colonial collections and considers how oppression can be normalised.

It's Biology's time now - the enthusiastically scary Professor Mike Bonsall talks aliens, bio-threats and cool science

The University has ambitious new environmental plans

Oxford chemists have made a breakthrough towards successfully producing sustainable aviation fuel directly from air (CO2 source) and water (H2 source)

Discover Oxford's research for a changing world in an exclusive new video series

Why did Russia invade Ukraine and who knew Ukrainians would be so resolute, asks Dr Marnie Howlett

Solidarity sculpture for Ukraine goes up in Broad Street

Two privately-educated alumni reject private schools

Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, explores the international response to Covid-19 and the role of universities, who are working with colleagues across the globe to understand the disease and protect our communities

The University promoted electric vehicles to its own wider community at an E-Fleet Business Breakfast on 12 June

Professor Louise Richardson has delivered her annual Oration to the University in the Sheldonian Theatre

New research into the HIV-1 virus has shed light on the evolution of viruses

Alumnus and geologist Dr Nick Gardiner (St Peter's, 1991) shares his reaction to the COP26

The academic field of existential risk is booming - should we worry?

The effectiveness of nature in fighting the impacts and drivers of climate change

‘How can we meet our long-terms goals, when our short-term targets fall radically short of what is necessary?’ asks Professor Lavanya Rajamani

It's the final convulsion of empire, say two Oxford academics

Investment is urgently needed into safer, permanent CO2 disposal, to reduce the burden of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and limit warming

Risk around radio frequency radiation

The graduate college by the Cherwell is forging ahead with a remarkable plan to achieve net zero by 2024