Oxford Sparks Big Questions

What's the best gift you can give? To the millions of people whose lives have been saved by complete strangers, the answer would be simple: blood. But what exactly happens when blood has been donated, and how do we know it is safe? We chat to Dr Richard Mayne from Oxford's Experimental Medicine Division about genomics, Next-Generation Sequencing, blood screening (...and Star Trek). 

Could you be a blood-donating hero? Blood stocks ...

We've all been there...you're on the train, maybe tired after a long day, and all you can hear is one side of a fellow passenger's not-too-interesting phone conversation. Or worse, their choice of music, made tinny and monotonous by the awkward angle of their phone speaker. It's irritating, sure, but for some people it goes beyond mild annoyance, into the realms of anger and panic. For these people - who suffer from a condition cal...

With more than 70% of its surface covered in water, Earth is rightly known as the "blue planet". But where did this water - so essential to life - originate? While some theories suggest that hydrogen was delivered to Earth from space via asteroids, new research indicates that the building blocks for water may have been present on our planet all along. We chat to Tom Barrett from Oxford's Department of Earth Sciences to find out mor...

What do you do when the subject of your research lies deep beneath the waves? Send down an underwater robot, of course! We chat to volcanologist Sofia Della Sala about her recent fieldwork expedition to Santorini, where she used a Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, to search for hydrothermal vents in the Aegean Sea. These vents - which are like hot springs on the sea floor - could provide vital insight into the volcanic and tectoni...

"I still don't believe it happened..."

What's it like to face the most famous clock on television? We chat to Oxford mathematician Dr Tom Crawford - best known as the creator of the award-winning 'Tom Rocks Maths' outreach programme - about what it was like to step into Rachel Riley's shoes on Countdown. 

What's the best tactic for tackling the numbers round? How did he prepare? Did he really only have 30 seconds to find a solution...

In popular culture, Tourette's syndrome is wrongly associated solely with outbursts of swearing in the context of lazy jokes. But in reality, the condition is far more complex than this stereotype suggests. When people without Tourette's jokingly blame their lack of self-control on the condition, it spreads misinformation and invalidates those who actually live with it. Despite this, ...

If you were hunting for some fossilised dinosaur footprints, where would you go? To a remote part of North or South America, perhaps? A deserted wilderness for sure... But how about Oxfordshire? We chat to Dr Duncan Murdock from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History about an incredible discovery made right on our doorstep.

Photo © Dr Emma Nicholls / Oxford University Museum of Natu...

Shh...hedgehog! It always feels like a privilege to catch a glimpse of one, as it snuffles away under the garden fence. And come the spring, our spiny - and usually solitary - little friends will be feeling in the mood for...romance. But what exactly does a female look for in a mate? And how do their intimate encounters even work when things are so very... spiky? Join us for this special Valentine's Day edition of the Big Questions...

Whether it's the bottle of water that you hastily grab at the train station, or your favourite guilty-pleasure fizzy pop, you may have noticed something different about your drinks lately - or at least their containers. Since July 2024, it's been EU law that bottle caps are attached, or 'tethered', on all single-use plastic bottles. But what exactly is the reason for this change? Will it really help to save the planet, or is it jus...

Even if you'd never previously given much thought to the Northern Lights, chances are they were brought to your attention in 2024, when our social media feeds were set ablaze with beautiful images captured by awe-struck stargazers. Usually restricted to more northerly latitudes, this colourful natural phenomenon could be observed in the UK as far south as Cornwall. But why were we treated to this spectacle, and why now? Dr Carly Ho...

Mistletoe has long been associated with fertility, and even today, its presence hanging from the ceiling can prompt a few blushes. But, did you know, mistletoe is more than something beneath which to kiss at Christmas? It is actually a parasite, and has some rather peculiar biology behind it. We chat to mistletoe expert Ollie Spacey about what makes it so special, where you can spot it and - importantly - how you can get involved w...

Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense to have a lot of children. At the very least, we might expect a population to replace itself, with each couple having an average of two children. However, this evolutionary logic is not mirrored by current data: birth rates are falling in the UK, with many people choosing to either have one child, or no children at all. We speak to evolutionary anthropologist Dr Paula Sheppard about the drive...

Chances are, you didn't notice the week-long wind drought that the UK experienced towards the end of 2023. However, this period of low wind speeds, combined with a cold snap, drove up our energy prices - something that may have caught your attention. So, what exactly do we know about wind droughts, and how can we apply this knowledge to plan for the low-carbon energy systems of the future? We chat to Matthew Wright from Oxford's De...

Welcome back to the new series of the Oxford Sparks Big Questions Podcast! We are here to answer weird and wonderful questions about our world, with the help of science. And we're starting with a very big question! How do you sequence the genomes of 70,000 species?

Read more