ThinkLONG
The Oxford Martin School Blog
Entries by Author: Julia Banfield
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Nano: avoiding toxic shock
How do you regulate for the unknown? In the field of nanotechnology this has become a crucial question. We can currently buy on the open market a variety of products using silver nanoparticles…but scientists have recently discovered the tox... Read More »
Climate control
As a lad poring over his ‘Boys’ Book of Science', Professor Steve Rayner, Co-Director of the Oxford Geoengineering Programme, was thrilled by the technological optimism which gave rise to visions of futuristic looking cities under ... Read More »
A game of risk
Garry Kasparov, the world’s greatest ever chess player, is a man who knows a lot about risk. “If you want to win you have to take risks…which means you can fail,” he told an audience of over 450 people at Oxford’s Ex... Read More »
The Secret Life of Plants
As we struggle to feed the world’s growing population is it ethically wrong not to use all the tools at our disposal to help increase food production? To help the world’s poorest out of poverty, does it not make sense for them to farm ... Read More »
Medical ethics on trial
How do you balance the risks and benefits from trialling a new drug? After all, the people with the most to gain from a successful new vaccine for HIV or Hepatitis C are often those who are most vulnerable in the first place. Clinical trials are e... Read More »
Robot Wars
Imagine you are a sentry patrolling in Afghanistan. There is an explosion and a group of people run towards you. One is a man carrying a gun. The others are frightened women with young children. Are they all running for safety? Is ther... Read More »
Walk the line
Imagine a world where we could correct climate change with a scientific procedure; we could fight cancer using nanoparticles to target malignant cells; we could comfortably feed our growing population with disease and drought resistant crops; we c... Read More »
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Newcomers, names and numbers – a look back at 2012
Looking back over the past year, 2012 has been an extraordinary period for the Oxford Martin School. The School has inspired new collaborative research, global partnerships and supported Oxford academics who hope to help shape our global future.&n... Read More »
Electric Dreams
“If you can show people there is a way, there is plenty of will” Elon Musk told the 800 strong audience who flocked to Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre to hear his inspirational lecture on the Future of Energy and Transport. Showing t... Read More »
Can we transform humankind?
Sixty years ago, Dr James Martin, founder of the Oxford Martin School, matriculated into the University of Oxford to read Physics. Last night, he spoke to an auditorium filled to capacity in his old departmental building to talk about “The t... Read More »
Innovation or stagnation – a great debate
Oxford’s historic Union was buzzing with anticipation. On one side, arguably the greatest chess player of all time, Garry Kasparov, and perhaps Silicon Valley’s most successful and visionary innovator, Peter Thiel. On the other, a tech... Read More »
Brilliant plans to eliminate pandemics
Swine flu, bird flu, SARS, Hanta virus, Ebola virus… regularly we hear of a new virus which threatens to strike down humanity. We’re becoming familiar with the threat of epidemic. Does that make us blasé about the risks? When t... Read More »
- Alexander Leveringhaus
- Alison Stibbe
- Andrew Pontzen
- Caspar Henderson
- Clare Heywood
- David Rodin
- Devi Sridhar
- Eric Beinhocker
- Gilles Giacca
- Gillian Petrokofsky
- Guy Houlsby
- Hein de Haas
- Hugo Slim
- Ian Goldin
- James Marrow
- Javier Lezaun
- Jennifer Welsh
- Julia Banfield
- Julian Savulescu
- Justin Bishop
- Kazem Rahimi
- Lucy Crittenden
- Maria Villares Varela
- Marian Dawkins
- Mathias Czaika
- Megan Lynagh
- Natalie Day
- Nigel Moore
- Oliver Bakewell
- Peter Taylor
- Phil Renforth
- Quentin Sattentau
- Rafaela Hillerbrand
- Richard Branson
- Richard Reschen
- Richard Willden
- Serena Sharma
- Sophie Hackford
- Steve Rayner
- Stuart Armstrong
- Sunetra Gupta
- Susan Curran
- Takafumi Nishino
- Tim Kruger
- Toby Ord
- Tom Aubrey-Fletcher