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From Albatross to Zebrafish, the Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge’s connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. The articles are now being made available as a series of podcasts, and in our new publication on Medium. https://medium.com/cambridge-animal-alphabet

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, J is for Jay – a surprisingly clever corvid with the ability to mimic human voices and much more. Jays are corvids – members of the crow family. The jays we see in Britain are Eurasian jays. With their pinkish plumage, and characteristic flash of blue, they

Content warning: this film contains images of blood and surgery For people with organ failure, transplantation is the only option. A lack of suitable organs for transplantation means patients die every day. Researchers in the University’s Department of Surgery are using large animal models to understand why donated organs become damaged and unsuitable for transplantation, and to test promising

New three-dimensional reconstructions show how some of the earliest animals on Earth developed, and provide some answers as to why they went extinct. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/how-some-of-the-first-animals-lived-and-died A bizarre group of uniquely-shaped organisms known as rangeomorphs may have been some of the earliest animals to appear on Earth, uniquely suited to ocean conditions 575

Animal research plays an essential role in our understanding of health and disease and in the development of modern medicine and surgical techniques. As part of our commitment to openness, this film examines how mice are helping the fight against cancer. It takes a in-depth look at the facilities in which they are housed, exploring issues of animal welfare and the search for replacements. We

Science writer David Adam has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In the second of a series of films, he meets researchers at the University of Cambridge to find out what animals – rats and marmosets – can teach us about the condition and how this can help in the development of new treatments.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus that jumped from animals to humans - and then spread rapidly. The risk of this happening again, causing another pandemic, is very real. Cambridge researchers have looked at all the major ways this might happen, to work out what might be done to reduce the risk. Read more here:

Rotifers are tiny animals that survive against all the odds. They are also known for not having had sex for 80 million years. We follow Dr Alan Tunnacliffe, award-winning Cambridge researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology, as he tests their super-powers by draining 90% of the water in their microscopic bodies, heats them to boiling point and freezes them in liquid nitrogen. Still they thrive!

Give and Take explores the complex nature of gift giving for humans and their close animal relatives. The film brings biology, psychology, political studies, philosophy and theology into dialogue. Interviewees include Cambridge’s Professor Claire Hughes (Psychology), Professor Nicky Clayton (Psychology) and Dr Andrew Davison (Theology and Natural Sciences). Giving figures prominently in many

Rotifers are tiny animals that survive against all the odds. They are also known for not having had sex for 80 million years. We follow Dr Alan Tunnacliffe, award-winning Cambridge researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology, as he tests their super-powers by draining 90% of the water in their microscopic bodies, heats them to boiling point and freezes them in liquid nitrogen. Still they thrive!

Starting at 3pm on Friday June 22nd 2012, led by experts from the Museum of Zoology, volunteers and members of the public raced against time to count as many species of animals and plants as possible in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. The Garden knows the 8000 species it has planted there, but there was still a lot still to discover in these wonderful grounds near the centre of Cambridge.

The Balfour Chair of Genetics was established at Cambridge in 1912. As part of its centenary celebrations the Department of Genetics has produced a short film following the development of the subject in the University over the past 100 years. In the early 20th century the establishment of genetic research in Britain was driven primarily by William Bateson. As Steward of St John's College and

An experiment on coral reefs provides the first evidence of a fish that uses other animals for motion camouflage to approach prey without detection. Coral reefs around the world are being degraded due to the warming climate, pollution and overfishing. The researchers say the strategy of hiding behind other moving fish may help animals adapt to the impacts of environmental change. Researchers: Dr

Walking you dog in the snow? Cambridge University vet Charlotte has some advice if you are about to go out or if they have just come back in.

Entomics Biosystems, a company set up by a group of Cambridge students, is developing a sustainable feed of the future – based on maggots and food waste.

In Ilott v The Blue Cross [2017] UKSC 17 the Supreme Court considered the competing claims of the animal charities included in a woman's will and her estranged adult daughter, who was excluded from the will but living in necessitous circumstances. In this video, Brian Sloan considers the outcome of the case, which raised fundamental principles of succession law, and its broader implications.

New research led by Gates Cambridge Scholar Alison Greggor, shows urban birds are less afraid of litter than their country cousins. It suggests they may learn that it is not dangerous and shows how some animals can learn to adapt to human-dominated environments.

Like other social animals, baboons learn from each other about which foods are best to eat. Now, researchers at Cambridge have found that how well they learn from others depends on their personality, bold or anxious baboons learning more than those who are shy or laid back. - See more at:

Dr John Robb is an archaeologist and has been studying how people have understood the human body over the last 10,000 years. "It may seem surprising to think the human body has a history. We take it for granted it's a material thing, it's just there" Over time his research shows the body has been seen and portrayed in different ways: the body as an animal, the body politicised, God's body, the

Howler monkeys are about the size of a small dog, weighing around seven kilos, yet they are among the loudest terrestrial animals on the planet, and can roar at a similar acoustic frequency to tigers. Evolution has given these otherwise lethargic creatures a complex and powerful vocal system. For males, a critical function of the roar is for mating: to attract females and scare off rival males.