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Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights holding that the UK's blanket ban on voting by convicted prisoners violates Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights have caused controversy in the UK. Professor David Feldman discusses the judgements of the European Court, and considers the principles behind allowing prisoners to vote. Professor Feldman is Rouse Ball

The idea that characteristics could be passed from one generation to another was crucial to Charles Darwin’s theory of how new forms of life develop. In the 1950s the structure of DNA, the compound that encodes genetic information, was finally deciphered by Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, all of whom were working in or trained in Cambridge. Cambridge

In January 2018 it was reported that the Parole Board had approved the release of John Worboys, the so-called ‘Black Cab Rapist’. Worboys had been incarcerated since his conviction for a number of sexual offences in March 2009, and it was believed that he was responsible for many attacks over which he was not charged. The announcement of the decision caused much public unrest, and led to

"How are we going to make sure that the next government, whoever wins the election, is ready to safeguard democracy in the face of Gen AI?" As we continue to witness the explosive growth of Generative AI, Professor Gina Neff suggests three simple steps the next government should adopt to protect democracy. ️ What is at stake for the UK General Election? In this new video series, students and

On Thursday 17th March leading UK ferry operator P&O Ferries sacked 800 British crew across its entire fleet and stopped all sailings. The move sparked fury amongst employees and unions, and consternation in parliament. Many asked was the move - and the proposal to use cheap agency staff instead - legal, and also was it a result of Brexit? In this video, Professor Catherine Barnard considers the

Lord Simon Woolley explains how a mobilised Black and Minoritised Ethnic vote can be an election game changer. ️ What is at stake for the UK General Election? In this new video series, students and academics from the University of Cambridge share their insights on some of the biggest themes facing our country at this crucial moment, from AI to racial inequity, levelling up to misinformation,

'How can the government stem the tide of migrant workers coming to the UK?'. This question has been asked with increasing vigour by those who perceive immigration as a threat rather than a benefit to the UK economy. In this video, Catherine Barnard considers whether it is possible to restrict free movement of workers under EU law, both as it now stands and going forward. Professor Barnard is

The case of Vinter v UK was recently decided by the European Court of Human Rights, and has raised a good deal of controversy regarding the right of the United Kingdom to sentence a prisoner to a life sentence (the Whole Life Tariff) without the chance of review. Mrs Nicola Padfield discusses the judgement of the European Court, and the corresponding reaction from members of the UK Government and

In this last episode of the series, we’ll be exploring how stories work for and against climate change. Subscribe to the podcast here: mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen We cover a lot of ground: from hippos and polar bears to how many times ‘sex’ and ‘tea’ were mentioned on TV between 2017 and 2018… so what’s all of this got to do with sustainability and climate change? Join us

Millions around the world this year are reflecting on the lives that were changed irrevocably, and those that were lost in the centenary year marking the end of the First World War. Some 65 million soldiers were mobilised across Europe during the First World War. Among them was Trinity College, Cambridge, student David Louis Clemetson. Cambridge alumna Sarah Lusack tells the story of Clemetson,

Discover more here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/medieval-money-mystery-solved What have the Eastern Romans ever done for us? Historians have theorised that bullion from the Byzantine Empire fuelled Europe’s revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-seventh century. Now laser ablation analysis on surviving Anglo-Saxon silver 'pennies' has provided scientific proof that this was the case

In eurosceptic circles it is widely stated that European criminal justice threatens to undermine the basic values of the common law, and this is put forward as a reason why the UK should 'withdraw from the Europe'. This argument was recently put forward by Nigel Farage, of the UK Independence Party, in an article he wrote for The Independent (10 November 2013). In this presentation Professor John

Ahead of the historic Boat Race, which will see women row for the first time on the iconic Thames Tideway course alongside their male counterparts, Cambridge athletes train at Ely. Go light blues! http://www.cam.ac.uk/news/history-made-as-women-and-men-take-to-the-thames-for-the-boat-race Cambridge and Oxford compete on the Thames for dominance in the annual Boat Races with women crews to take on

Each node of the network represents a different brain region and is colour-coded according to the larger area is located in. Pairs of nodes are linked if the activity of the two regions is found to synchronize a lot of the time during an fMRI brain scan, and the size of nodes represents how many other regions a given node is linked to. The resulting network is used to analyze information flow in

Our wellbeing is essential to our overall quality of life. But what is wellbeing? Why is it so hard to pin down? How is it different to mental health, and what can we do to understand, measure and improve it? We talked with psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Amy Orben, psychiatrist Dr Tamsin Ford, and welfare economist Dr Mark Fabian to try and get to grips with wellbeing. In doing so, we learnt

Dr Paolo Bombelli is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Howe, in the Department of Biochemistry. His research looks to utilise the photosynthetic chemistry of plants to create biophotovoltaic devices, a sustainable source of solar power. For over five years, Dr Bombelli has been taking his research out of the lab to science festivals, schools and design fairs;

A tree the height of 20 London double-decker buses has been discovered in Malaysia by conservation scientists from the University of Cambridge monitoring the impact of human activity on the biodiversity of a pristine rainforest. The Yellow Meranti stands 89.5m tall in an area of forest known as ‘Sabah’s Lost World’ – the Maliau Basin Conservation Area, one of Malaysia’s last few

Some of the world's oldest engravings of the human form -- prehistoric rock art from the Italian Alps -- have been brought to life by the latest digital technology. P • I • T • O • T • I • is an innovative research project that applies insights from the new technologies of computer graphics to prehistoric pictures, specifically the rock art of Valcamonica, Italy, a UNESCO World

What’s cancer got to do with crabs, artist Jackson Pollock, and artificial intelligence? It’s not a riddle; these are some of the things we’ll explore with surgeon Grant Stewart, computer scientist Mateja Jamnik and radiologist Evis Sala from the Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine. In this episode, we’ll discover how artificial intelligence is making it easier for

New research at the University of Cambridge has lifted the lid on an unusual Spanish globe. Until now, the globe in the University of Cambridge's Whipple Museum of the History of Science has been shrouded in mystery: where, when and why was it made? Who would have used it? Most fundamentally, what is it -- some kind of scientific instrument or a child's toy? The globe (c. 1907) is unlike any