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The University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge is one of the largest and most important natural history collections in the UK, with an extraordinarily rich history dating back to 1814. On 23rd June 2018 the Museum reopens after a five-year, £4.1million redevelopment to reveal thousands of incredible specimens from across the animal kingdom.​ The refurbished galleries bring the Museum into the

The world needs forests. By using advanced imaging technology, scientists are able to map on an unprecedentedly large scale -- and in remarkably accurate detail - what is happening to these precious resources worldwide. Forests are essential for life on earth. They provide a habitat for a myriad of different plant and animal species -- too numerous to count but certainly running into millions.

Hello and welcome back to Mind Over Chatter! This second series is all about the future - and in this first episode we’re going to be considering what the future even is… Have you ever wondered how time works? It turns out, the answer is a lot more complicated than we thought. Please fill out our survey https://forms.gle/r9CfHpJVUEWrxoyx9 to tell us what your mind thinks about our chatter.

In this video Dr Beverley Glover explains how a daisy is a collection of tiny flowers grouped together to make it look like a single big flower. Under the Microscope is a collection of videos produced by Cambridge University that show glimpses of the natural and man-made world in stunning close-up. Check out the rest of the series here: http://bit.ly/A6bwCE Dr Glover: "The flowering plants

An insect not much bigger than a grain of rice is able to repeatedly jump on the surface of water using specialised paddles on their hind legs, new research reveals. The pygmy mole cricket, which is really more closely related to a grasshopper than a cricket, is only 5mm (1/4 inch) long and weighs less than 10mg. They live in burrows that they dig into the muddy banks alongside fresh water, to

Professor Sir John Sulston (University of Manchester, UK) Abstract: Darwin liberated us from dogma by making biology comprehensible, so allowing us to move forward. But whilst natural selection provides an explanation for our existence, it does not tell us how to behave. We must ourselves face up to our future as a thinking and powerful animal.

In this video, you can see a group of isolated photoreceptors -- specialised light-detecting cells from the fly's eye - rapidly contract in response to light. This rapid contraction is believed to generate the electrical signal in the fly photoreceptor, which is the fastest visual response in the animal kingdom. Moving images courtesy of SCIENCE

Genomes: the books of life Professor Chris Ponting (University of Oxford, UK) Summary: DNA from across the tree of life presents a fascinating record of the impact of natural selection on animal evolution. Differences in anatomy and behaviour between species are reflected by changes both within genes and within DNA dark matter whose biology remains largely unknown.

Scientists in the Sampaziotis Lab have identified an off-patent drug that can be repurposed to prevent COVID-19 – and may be capable of protecting against future variants of the virus – in research involving a unique mix of ‘mini-organs’, donor organs, animal studies and patients. Find out more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05594-0

Researchers have captured the first 3D video of a living algal embryo turning itself inside out, from a sphere to a mushroom shape and back again. The results could help unravel the mechanical processes at work during a similar process in animals, which has been called the “most important time in your life.” Read more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/upside-down-and-inside-out