St Edmund Hall Blog
The St Edmund Hall blog brings you the latest thought in academic research and interesting artefacts from our archive and library.
Please note that any opinions or views expressed by blog contributors are not shared or held by St Edmund Hall.
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Descartes goes to Hollywood
5 May 2021
What possible connection could there be between the philosopher René Descartes, androids, zombies, and Hollywood? More than you might have originally thought.
Reconstructing d’Holbach
28 Apr 2021
Begun in 2018, Digital d’Holbach will provide the scholarly community with the first critical edition of the complete works of one of the most important thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment.
Developing a Next Generation SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
23 Mar 2021
Discussion on the need for and research leading to a next generation vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 capable of targeting multiple variants.
Understanding Endometriosis
15 Mar 2021
Endometriosis is one such condition, affecting an estimated 1.6 million women in the UK alone and 190 million worldwide.
Reading Gone Awry
9 Mar 2021
We’ve all done it—used a word incorrectly, believing it means one thing when it really means another: saying “disinterested” when we mean “lacking in interest,” or “prostrate” ins…
What Will Genomics Mean for You?
3 Mar 2021
The first human genome was sequenced nearly 20 years ago, but what impact will this have for you? Understanding the information in our genes is already helping to decipher the molecular basis of rare diseases. Now genomic…
Are European Universities Building Alliances as Rhizomes?
24 Feb 2021
Using the concept of rhizome to examine the newly-established European University alliances and their influence on the formation of European students and re-formation of the idea of University.
Modern Politics, Medieval Monuments in Turkey
15 Feb 2021
Over the course of its 1500-year history, the late Roman building known as the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) has served as the setting for many ceremonies, religious, political, and more often than not, a combination of the two.
God, Gold, and the Gospel of the Poor in the Early Middle Ages
10 Feb 2021
Throughout history, the Church’s relationship to the poor and the powerful has been full of contradictions.
How to Link Palaeontology with… Cosmetics?!
3 Feb 2021
Find out more about the unexpected scientific connections in this research entailing minute enigmatic structures preserved in 100-million-year-old amber.
A Medieval Ink Recipe
27 Jan 2021
Medieval ink recipes provide fascinating descriptions of the materials, techniques, and patience required before a scribe could put pen to page.
The Magic of Colour
20 Jan 2021
Materials that change colour in response to their environment are fascinating and useful – but how can we find more without breaking the bank?
The Hierarchy of Gingerbread: Gift-Giving at Christmas in Medieval Convents
9 Dec 2020
Edmund Wareham delves into the world of medieval baking to discover the importance of gingerbread for a group of medieval German nuns.
Sir Richard Blackmore—The Worst English Poet?
2 Dec 2020
Tom MacFaul reconsiders the work of Sir Richard Blackmore (SEH, 1669); is he the worst English poet?
Should we go back to Pluto?
25 Nov 2020
In 2015 we saw Pluto for the first time through a single flyby, now we ponder should we return with an orbiter?
Remembering Aularian Sidney John Heath Smith
11 Nov 2020
I would say at the majority of enquiries that I get relating to the Hall Archives are from family historians; one of the many that I found on my return from furlough related to an Oxford man, who had come to the Hall in 1938 bu…
Who Gets the Ventilator?
11 Nov 2020
Suppose that you have a ventilator with which you can prevent either Ahmed or Barbara from dying. Whilst Ahmed would live for nine years were you to save him, Barbara would only live for five. There are no other relevant differ…
Whose Hall is it Anyway? Annotation, Mutilation and a Mystery in our copy of 'The History of the University of Oxford'
4 Nov 2020
Annotation, Mutilation and a Mystery in our copy of The History of the University of Oxford
Tom Rocks Russia
28 Oct 2020
This is Dr Tom Crawford’s video diary of his visit to ITMO University in St Petersburg Russia
How we make decisions: inferential reasoning in humans and mice
21 Oct 2020
Have you ever faced one of those situations where you are compelled to make an important decision, which you know is doable because it rings a bell from your own experience?
On genes, genetics and epigenetics
12 Oct 2020
What is a gene? Although the discipline within biology that we call genetics is well over 100 years old, this question remains an enigmatic one with fascinating new twists.
Update: A Coastal Mystery No More
24 Jun 2020
When the blog on the Hall’s painting by Edward Seago was published last month, I received numerous suggestions for its location.
Discovering the Earthworm’s Half a Billion Year Old Cousin
16 Jun 2020
The worms that gave rise to earthworms and leeches have half a billion years of history in the ocean. A new discovery of 514 million year old fossils from China unravels the early origins of annelids, the segmented worms.
This Time is Different: Economic Policy Challenges in the Time of COVID-19
9 Jun 2020
COVID-19 has already generated challenges to the global economy and the policy responses permeate political-financial-economic stability.
‘The same Sad Calamyties’: Oxford in a time of Plague
2 Jun 2020
One of the things about being a more than 700-year-old institution, as Teddy Hall is, is that we have faced many trials before. This is not the first time the Hall and the University have had to cope with the effects of a deadl…
Testing in a Pandemic
25 May 2020
What is the best way to use our limited capacity for infectious disease testing? This blog discusses how lives can be saved by optimal adaptive targeting of tests.
Did the Court of Appeal ‘Kill Off’ the Heathrow Third Runway?
19 May 2020
In February 2020 debates about the third runway at Heathrow took a new turn, but did the Court of Appeal really ‘kill off’ the proposal?
Don’t Stop! Your Reading! Hold on to that Fielding!
13 May 2020
Our Assistant Librarian, Sophie, updates us on the lengths the library team are going to ensure as comprehensive a service as possible is provided during ‘the weirdest Trinity Term most of us can remember’
A Coastal Mystery
6 May 2020
One of the best loved pictures in the college’s art collection is a coastal scene by the English landscape artist Edward Seago. However, despite many suggestions, the precise location of the scene is unknown. Can any…
A May Morning Portrait
1 May 2020
On one day in any given year (other than this), tens of thousands flock to the roads and gardens surrounding Magdalen College, Oxford, at six o’clock in the morning to hear the choir sing.