Features

Two of Oxford's museums opened late on Friday 30 October for Halloween-themed events. The Pitt Rivers Museum held an event called 'Day of the Dead' as part of its AfterHours series.

The evening explored how different cultures respond to death, focusing on mourning, memorialisation and celebration. The Ashmolean Museum ran an event called 'DeadFriday', as part of its LiveFriday series. The museum opened from 7pm to 10.30pm for visitors to enjoy talks, music and performances related to ghosts and spirits.

There were bite-size talks by over 25 Oxford Humanities researchers organised by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) at both events, exploring different objects in the museum's collections, as well as music, workshops and other live performances.

Professor Elleke Boehmer, Acting Director of TORCH and Professor of World Literature, says: 'One of TORCH's core strategic aims is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration through fostering creative research environments.

'Museums are fantastic places to communicate research, engage with a wide range of amazing objects and reach out to the wider public - we were delighted to be a part of the Ashmolean’s DEADFriday and the Pitt Rivers' Day of the Dead event.'

The LiveFriday and AfterHours series have been notable for bringing a younger audience to the museum, and for allowing academics in the University to engage directly with the public. Dr Alexandra Lumbers, Academic Director at Jesus College, has attended several LiveFriday events.

She says: 'Generally I am not a huge museum-goer as I often find them a bit static but with the Live Fridays, it really brings the museum to life and really helps a wide variety of visitors to appreciate its treasures and understand them better.

It's great to see all from young children right through to quite elderly guests mingling and enjoying the evening together

Dr Alexandra Lumbers

'I really like the diversity of those who attend – it's great to see all from young children right through to quite elderly guests mingling and enjoying the evening together.

'There’s a great buzz with all the music, dance, interactive activities and that brings out the best in the museum and those who attend – it brings all these wonderful artefacts and treasures back to life.'

The World Series is the biggest contest in baseball so a lot is at stake for the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals as they face off this week.

The contest has also divided two leading American historians at Oxford and Cambridge, who have come up with an unusual bet on the outcome of the match.

Professor Jay Sexton, director of Oxford University's Rothermere American Institute (RAI), is a Kansas native and diehard support of the Kansas City Royals. Gary Gerstle, the Mellon Professor of US History at Cambridge University, loves the New York Mets.

They have agreed that if Kansas City Royals win, Professor Gerstle will wear a Royals hat when he speaks at the RAI this January for the launch of his new book. If the Mets win, Professor Sexton will reluctantly wear a Mets cap.

'I am certain that all subjects of the British Royal family are siding with Oxford's Rothermere American Institute in this bet. Go Royals!', says Professor Sexton.

'People outside of North America often balk at the name "World Series". The hope is that this bet increases interest in Britain in one of the world’s most storied sporting events.'

Things are looking good for Professor Sexton so far, with the Royals 2-0 up in the best-of-seven series. The third game takes place tonight.

Oxford University's Wytham Woods were visited by a "National Living Treasure" last weekend.

No, Dame Judy Dench did not visit (as far as we know, anyway) but the University welcome famous Japanese potter Isezaki Jun, who has the title of the fifth National Living Treasure of Bizen, a place in Japan famous for its pottery.

Mr Jun launched the Oxford Anagama Project in the Woods on Saturday (24 October), when he began the loading of the Brick Anagama - one of two kilns that have been built over the past few months.

The first firing of the kiln will take place towards the end of November. But pots have already been produced from the first firing of the Willow Anagama.

Mr Jun also visited Keble College and gave a lecture at the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History.

At the lecture he said: 'I hope Oxford Anagama will give birth to a new conception of pottery and ceramics.

'The National Living Treasure is the preserver of important intangible crafts, in this case pottery. It preserves an ancient tradition.'

He said the Oxford Anagama project represents “another stage in Anglo-Japanese collaboration” and gives artists from both countries the chance to “learn from each other in a major international collaboration”.

'Where better to do it than Oxford?', he added.

The Oxford Anagama Project is co-directed by Dr Robin Wilson of the Wytham Studio at Wytham Woods and the School of Anthropology, and Jim Keeling of Whichford Pottery.

'It's certainly one of the more unusual interviews I've given,' said Professor Nicole Grobert, fresh from stepping out of a 1981 DeLorean being driven around a Surrey airfield by legendary broadcaster Peter Snow.

It sounds bizarre, but there was a point to it: October 21, 2015 was the date to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown travelled in Back to the Future II, and the BBC's Newsnight programme was keen to find out if the film's vision of the future had become a reality.

Nicole, a nanoscientist in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, talked to Peter (who, thankfully, didn't reach anywhere near the 88mph required to activate the flux capacitor…) about her work in a segment broadcast on Tuesday evening's Newsnight.

Speaking to Science Blog, Nicole said: 'Being interviewed in a DeLorean was surreal, scary and exciting. Almost crashing into a barrier added another boost of adrenalin. It was a lot of fun, but for now I'll continue working on the future of materials.'

Those materials are nanomaterials, which exist in a range of different shapes – including nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanosheets (for example graphene) – and are so tiny that we need modern techniques such as electron microscopy in order to see them. By definition, all nanomaterials are no bigger than 100 nanometres (100 billionths of a metre) in at least one direction.

Nicole said: 'The fact that nanomaterials are so small makes them special, because the properties of materials strongly depend on how individual atoms are arranged. In nanomaterials, with at least one dimension being below 100 nanometres, the ratio of the number of atoms that make up the surface to those that constitute the body of that material changes, in that there are more surface atoms that behave differently to those atoms in the bulk. As a result, nanomaterials become more reactive.

'Take gold, for example. Precious gold as we know it in the form of jewellery is heavy, shiny and does not change appearance with time. In contrast, gold in the form of nanoparticles can exhibit different colours depending on the nanoparticle size, and it can be used as efficient catalyst material in the chemical industry. The change in properties and behaviour of materials at the nanometre scale is purely owing to the change in size and the ratio of surface atoms to atoms located in the centre of the particles.'

She added: 'By manipulating the structure and composition of nanomaterials, their properties can be tuned further, and if we can find ways to produce these tailored nanomaterials in a controlled fashion, it will allow us to exploit their extraordinary properties.

'In theory, nanomaterials can outperform traditional materials. They can be highly conductive, lightweight and ultra strong. If we tackle current practical challenges related to manufacturing, characterisation, processing and handling, nanomaterials could be the answer to many of modern society's problems – not just in the areas of energy or health care.'

Nicole has already received some positive feedback from a mother whose daughter watched the Newsnight piece and has now decided she wants to become a nanoscientist.

Nicole said: 'I never saw myself as a role model until the day I gave a talk to school children at the Department of Materials open day, when a girl came up to me to ask me what she had to do to become like me. That was a bit of an eye opener. Since then, I've been actively trying to encourage both young women and men to get into or stay in the STEM subjects.

'As a supervisor, it is my personal goal to inspire students to think independently and take control over their projects from day one. Where possible, I also let students and post-docs shape their own projects, while providing them with a safety net in case things don't work out as planned. That's because I very strongly believe that developing independent research ideas and achieving personal success based on those ideas is key to building up the confidence necessary to follow one's dreams.

'Personally, I just followed my interests and was not put off by the fact there were so few female scientists around. I never even thought about it until I saw girls and young women react very differently to this fact.

'Needless to say, science and research are crucially important for society to survive, and, from my point of view, jobs in the STEM subjects are among the most versatile, inspiring, flexible and fun jobs around.'

Watch Nicole’s Newsnight appearance.

The wait is over. The Ruskin School of Art's new building at 128 Bullingdon Road has officially opened today.
 
Featuring state-of-the-art facilities including a multi-media lab, three editing suites, a print room and wood and metal workshops, the new building makes the School a technologically sophisticated teaching and research environment.   

For the first time in its long history, the Ruskin has its own project space that can be used for exhibitions, performances and film screenings. Even the glass frontage of the building has a hi-tech element. Its large window facing the street can be transformed by one touch of a button into an outfacing computer display with its several panels serving as separate screens or as one enormous public interface.
 
Hanneke Grootenboer, Head of the Ruskin School of Art, said: 'The new studio facilities have been erected on the footprint of the previous studio space: the old Bullingdon Road spirit has risen from its ashes in the purpose-built industrial architectural setting that includes multimedia studios, a "fab lab", editing suites, print and casting rooms, metal and wood workshops and a seminar room.

'The Ruskin sees art as a vital component of contemporary culture with a broad range of practical, historical and theoretical references. Our dynamic interdisciplinary set-up allows us to sustain close relations with other departments and institutions across the University. 

'Committed to the highest standards of teaching and artistic research, we aim to strengthen the profile of fine art within the university community and beyond.'

Jon Roome from the Ruskin School of Art said: 'We were trying to achieve a space for making things, a place for making things happen. This building is our "cultural" particle accelerator, we collide ideas, generate high energy in the hope of creating new things in the world.'

Located on a predominantly residential street, the new building will bring the Ruskin School of Art closer to the vibrant, artistic community along the Cowley Road and in East Oxford. It is expected that the building will become a popular exhibition space for local residents.

This is the culmination of important changes to the Ruskin School of Art in recent years. Its name has changed from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, to reflect the diversity of forms of art offered by the School. Its Master of Fine Art programme was launched under Turner Prize-winner Dr Elizabeth Price.