Oxford today
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Oxford today
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RoBeRt MaclaRen and Mandeep sinGh<br />
Bodleian liBRaRies<br />
Looking good<br />
sight restored to blind mice<br />
17<br />
A team of researchers, led by <strong>Oxford</strong>’s Professor Robert<br />
MacLaren, has restored sight to blind mice by injecting<br />
new light-sensing cells into their eyes (above, green).<br />
The researchers injected “precursor” cells, which over<br />
time develop into the retina, into the eyes of mice that<br />
could not tell the difference between light and dark.<br />
Two weeks later, new retinas had formed and the mice<br />
reacted to light. The finding could be used to develop<br />
new treatments for humans with eye diseases.<br />
Dating ballads<br />
software helps to date illustrations<br />
A team of <strong>Oxford</strong> English scholars and engineers has<br />
developed software to identify the origins of 17thcentury<br />
illustrations which accompanied broadside<br />
ballads. The ballads – illustrated song-sheets, sold for a<br />
penny a time – were pinned on the walls of inns around<br />
the UK. Many give no indication of the date they were<br />
printed, but the software is allowing researchers to<br />
identify and date anonymous prints. The Bodleian<br />
Library holds more than 30,000 ballads, from the 16th<br />
to the 20th centuries, which can be viewed online.<br />
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
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