Search

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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: