Oxford University

As promising as a drug candidate may be, not all of them end up performing as hoped – but they can still find use. Researchers at Oxford University have managed to give second life to an experimental cancer drug known as tasquinimod, which has now shown promise in preventing Parkinson’s.

Every year, the world enters an arms race with the flu. Creating a universal flu vaccine would give us the upper hand for the foreseeable future, and a new study from Oxford has identified a way to make that possible.

Mummification is usually associated with the age of Pharaohs, but it didn't spring up overnight. Now an international team has found further evidence that deliberate mummification was taking place a millennium and a half earlier and across a much wider area of Egypt than previously believed.

A new study has used a VR-based treatment to help people overcome a fear of heights. The treatment is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of a completely automated therapy guided by a computer-generated virtual therapist that responds to the patient's voice.

From the time we choose whether to hit the snooze button or get up, we make countless decisions every day, but just how the brain manages this mundane task is still shrouded in mystery. Now, researchers at Oxford University have observed in detail the mechanism that lets fruit flies make decisions.

Humanity might not go out with a bang, but a sniffle – at least if the terrifyingly-plausible “superbug” scenario comes to pass. But now, researchers at Oxford University have discovered a “genetic catalyst” that lets the bugs develop resistance – and they might be able to switch it off.

A new radiocarbon dating study by Oxford University researchers on a bone attributed to St Nicholas has been dated to around the 4th century CE bringing us closer to uncovering the authentic remains of the original Santa Claus.

Oxford researchers studying the brains of dolphins have found clear signs of Alzheimer’s disease, marking the first time the illness has been detected in a wild. Interestingly the discovery may dash the hopes that an extreme calorie-restricted diet can extend our lifespans.

The flu virus is a crafty foe, constantly adapting to our best weapons. But now a universal flu vaccine has been cleared for widespread human trials in the UK, which should be much more effective at destroying different forms of the virus.

Is our entire universe just a computer simulation? Theoretical physicists believe they’ve found proof that our universe is far too complex to be captured in any simulation. According to the researchers, the hypothesis is done in by gravitational anomalies, tiny “twists” in the fabric of spacetime.

Humans will probably be long gone by the time our Sun dies, but at least one lifeform will likely still be alive: the unkillable tardigrade. According to a study from Harvard and Oxford, it’ll take the death of the Sun to kill the species, which bodes well for the resilience of life as a whole.

​​Back in 2003, the fossilized remains of a supposedly aquatic prehistoric lizard known as Eusaurosphargis dalsassoi were discovered in Italy. Now, however, thanks to a marvellously-complete skeleton found in the Alps of eastern Switzerland, that's no longer thought to be the case.​