Tag Archives: University of Oxford

Ashmolean Museum Views: The ‘Tang Dynasty Camel’

Ashmolean Museum (June 26, 2023): This short film by Carina Hanslik shares an insight into the incredible story behind an ancient ceramic camel.

The object that inspired this animation, a ceramic camel dating back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), helps us to tell the story of Paul Jacobsthal, a Jewish professor of Archaeology at the University of Marburg in the 1930s, who was forced to leave Germany.

CAMEL TOMB FIGURE

A spiritual object intended to protect the dead from evil 

Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford | EA2012.189

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Listen to the story of Jewish professor Paul Jacobsthal, and how he escaped the Nazis with his Tang Dynasty camel.

BMJ Podcast: What Is “Long-Covid” Syndrome?

Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford has been a powerhouse of covid-19 evidence synthesis. She pulled together advice on doing remote consultations, on wearing masks to prevent spread, and a host of other information. She’s now turning her attention to “long-covid” – it’s becoming apparent that it’s not just an acute infection, patients are reporting chronic long term consequences of having the virus.

In this podcast, she describes what we know about long-covid, where the uncertainty lies, and what clinicians should be doing to help patients who are experiencing the symptoms.

Management of post-acute covid-19 in primary care https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3026

Archaeology Lectures: “The Scythians – Nomad Warriors Of The Steppe” Author Barry Cunliffe

Brilliant horsemen and great fighters, the Scythians were nomadic horsemen who ranged wide across the grasslands of the Asian steppe from the Altai mountains in the east to the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennium BC.

Their steppe homeland bordered on a number of sedentary states to the south – the Chinese, the Persians and the Greeks – and there were, inevitably, numerous interactions between the nomads and their neighbours. The Scythians fought the Persians on a number of occasions, in one battle killing their king and on another occasion driving the invading army of Darius the Great from the steppe.

Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford.

Barry Cunliffe taught archaeology at the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, Governor of the Museum of London, a Commissioner of English Heritage, and a Trustee of the British Museum.

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Debates: “AI Will Bring More Harm Than Good” (Cambridge Video)

MOTION:

“This House Believes AI Will Bring More Harm Than Good”

This debate was run in association with IBM Research.

AI Will Bring More Harm Than Good Cambridge Union Debate 2019

Proposition:

Project Debater Project Debater is designed by IBM research. It will deliver a speech based on over 1,100 arguments collected from Union members and others over the past week. It will not be taking points of information.

Sharmila Parmanand

Sharmila Parmanand is a PhD Candidate in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Gates Scholar. She has served as a debate trainer or chief judge in debating events in 45 countries. She served as a chief judge for most major global debating competitions (World Universities, World Schools, European Universities, Asian Universities, Austral-Asian Universities, North American Universities, and PanAmerican Universities).

Professor Neil Lawrence

Neil Lawrence is the DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge and the co-host of Talking Machines. Neil’s main research interest is machine learning through probabilistic models. He focuses on both the algorithmic side of these models and their application. His recent focus has been on the deployment of machine learning technology in practice, particularly under the banner of data science.

Opposition

Project Debater

Project Debater is designed by IBM research. It will deliver a speech based on over 1,100 arguments collected from Union members and others over the past week. It will not be taking points of information.

Harish Natarajan

Harish Natarajan is a graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a grand fnalist and 2nd best speaker at the 2016 World Debating Championships and won the European Debating Championship in 2012. Harish holds the record for most competition victories. He currently works as the Head of Economic Risk Analysis at AKE International in London.

Professor Sylvie Delacroix

Sylvie Delacroix is professor in Law and Ethics at the University of Birmingham. Her work has notably been funded by the Wellcome Trust, the NHS and the Leverhulme Trust, from whom she received the Leverhulme Prize. She has recently been appointed to the Public Policy Commission on the use of algorithms in the justice system.

Website: https://www.cus.org/