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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.

Darwin and the evolution of why? Professor Daniel C Dennett (Centre for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA) Summary: We human beings are the only living things that can represent, transmit and criticize reasons for doing things and making things. This creates a perspective for us that we can then use to interpret all the rest of the life on the planet, cautiously.

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

Pain in The Machine is a short documentary that considers whether robots should feel pain. Once you've watched our film, please take a moment to complete our short survey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PainintheMachineSurvey Pain is a feeling that most would describe as being unpleasant, both physically and emotionally. Why then do humans and other animals have pain, and how is it useful?

Fumiya Iida’s research looks at how robotics can be improved by taking inspiration from nature, whether that’s learning about intelligence, or finding ways to improve robotic locomotion. A robot requires between ten and 100 times more energy than an animal to do the same thing. Iida’s lab is filled with a wide array of hopping robots, which may take their inspiration from grasshoppers,

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.

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

Read more about the research here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/male-dogs-four-times-more-likely-to-develop-contagious-cancer-on-nose-or-mouth-than-females Animation Credit: Emma Werner Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour (CTVT) is an unusual cancer – it is infectious and can spread between dogs when they come into contact. The living cancer cells physically ‘transplant’ themselves

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.

These Curious Objects are Asante gold weights and come from 19th or 20th century Ghana. They were made of brass, but we're used to measure gold dust which was the universal currency in West Africa at the time. Weights often featured animals, fish, weapons and tools – or human figures as demonstrated here. Their significance as an art form transcends their function and reflects wider Asante

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.

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

In Kenya, Dr Lauren Evans, a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Geography, is also researching the conflicts that arise when elephants and humans share the same rural landscape. She is an associate director of Space for Giants, a Kenyan-based elephant conservation charity that seeks to ensure a future for elephants through human-elephant conflict mitigation, anti-poaching, securing

This set of 29 papier mache models of horses' teeth (Wh. 6135) was made by Dr Louis Auzoux in France in the 1890s. The original wooden case opens out to reveal four rows of spaces for sets on each side. A hinged wooden flap holds the teeth in place. The models demonstrate the appearance of horses’ teeth at different ages, the effects of wind sucking and crib biting, and the fraudulent ways of

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

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.