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As a national vaccination programme begins in the UK’s fight against COVID-19, we look back to 1950s America when a group of teenagers (and Elvis) inspired a fresh look at pro-vaccine public health information. Vaccination programmes are considered to be one of the greatest public health achievements in history. Yet recent years have seen a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases like measles as a

Get an insider's view of the Fitzwilliam Museum's new-look Greek & Roman gallery with curator Lucilla Burn and classics professor Mary Beard, as they discuss what went on behind the scenes of the recent redisplay, and reveal some of the untold histories behind these incredible ancient objects.

What has the ERC ever done for us? Prof Ruth Cameron (Materials Science and Metallurgy) explains how an ERC grant allowed her team to develop a new biomedical technology.

The episode explores the topic of extreme weather and its impact on communities and asks: What does extreme weather mean for us? The speakers highlight the importance of connecting research to real-world impacts and the need for collective action. They discuss the devastating losses of climate disasters, the challenges of adaptation and the power of nature. They also emphasise the importance of

From the collections at the Zoology Museum in Cambridge, marine biologist Dr Helen Scales and author of the new book The Brilliant Abyss, illuminates the majesty and marvels of the deep sea. The deep is the single biggest habitable space on the planet and home to fantastic creatures that have evolved unique ways to survive in extreme conditions of super-high pressure, little food or company, and

Cambridge University has produced a series of films about five of this year’s Pilkington Prize winners. These films go behind the scenes to show Cambridge teaching in action as well as inviting winners to explain their passion for teaching and reveal some of their trade secrets. The films feature Lecturer in German Thought, Martin Ruehl; Physics Lecturer Lisa Jardine-Wright; Sociologist Mónica

The Vice-Chancellor marked the start of the new academic year this morning by giving his annual address to the University in the Senate House.

In a new film, leading Cambridge University researchers discuss the far-reaching advances offered by artificial intelligence – and consider the consequences of developing systems that think far beyond human abilities.

Former Oxfam CEO, Dame Barbara Stocking (Murray Edwards, New Hall 1969), talks Dome Life with current student, Bethany Evans. Watch the sneak preview here.

Sir David Attenborough and BBC presenter Iolo Williams introduce ‘The Evidence Effect’, a film about a conservation revolution that’s helping to protect biodiversity across our planet. We face both the ‘sixth mass extinction’ of biodiversity and an ‘evidence emergency’ stopping us from conserving it in the way we need for the future of the planet. But change is afoot. A new approach

The discovery of a way to measure longitude revolutionised long-distance sea travel forever, but the institution which made it happen has all but disappeared from memory. Now researchers led by Professor Simon Schaffer are launching a new project to remember the Board of Longitude and tell its remarkable story in full for the first time.

A new Cambridge University study has found that wild honeyguide birds prefer to cooperate with people who have learned local cultural traditions, to find and access honey-filled bees’ nests.

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.

Asian elephants are able to recognise their bodies as obstacles to success in problem-solving, further strengthening evidence of their intelligence and self-awareness, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.

The Vice-Chancellor marked the start of the new academic year this morning by giving his annual address to the University in the Senate House. www.cam.ac.uk/consultation

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.

Researchers discover novel trapping mechanism for Nepenthes gracilis pitchers. During heavy rain, the lid of Nepenthes gracilis pitchers acts like a springboard, catapulting insects that seek shelter on its underside directly into the fluid-filled pitcher, new research has found. The findings were published today, Wednesday 13 June, in the journal PLoS ONE.

The House of Lords Reform Bill, which is currently before Parliament, is the latest of many attempts to reform the upper chamber of the UK Parliament. It is over a hundred years since the enactment of the Parliament Act 1911, which changed the balance of power between the Lords and the Commons, but which was intended only as a stopgap measure pending the transformation of the Lords into an

Ground-breaking new sensing technologies in the world's first 'smart tunnel' are providing engineers with an inexpensive and efficient method of monitoring, maintaining and protecting the UK's infrastructure, now and well into the future.

Join us for the premiere of An Everyday Family Practice, written by Patrick Morris, Co-Artistic Director of Menagerie Theatre Company. This touching, darkly humorous and at times challenging drama explores the impact on a family of a diagnosis of terminal illness. An Everyday Family Practice is an original short play, devised, filmed and premiered at the 2021 Cambridge Festival. Go to

The suitably sci-fi autonomous vehicle is a 12-seater shuttle, developed by engineering firm Aurrigo and Smart Cambridge, a workstream of the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP). Read more here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/universitys-expertise-advises-on-west-cambridge-site-trial-of-self-driving-shuttle

An international team of astronomers has found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar – a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion – ever recorded. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/astronomers-discover-the-mighty-mouse-of-stellar-remnants

How does a Killer T Cell Kill its target? Our new film captures the behaviour of cytotoxic T cells – the body’s ‘serial killers’ – as they hunt down and eliminate cancer cells before moving on to their next target.

The naked mole rat's weird biology can help us develop ways to combat painful human conditions like osteoarthritis. In Episode 2 of Naked Mole Ravolt, see what happens when a new queen arises and what a fight for supremacy reveals!

A female cricket mounted on a trackball walks towards the sound made by a male cricket. More information at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/neural-circuit-in-the-cricket-brain-detects-the-rhythm-of-the-right-mating-call

Professor Clare Bryant from Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine explains how reading AS Byatt’s Possession at a crucial point in her early career reminded her of the excitement of research and persuaded her not to turn her back on her life as a scientist. Here she talks about this favourite book as part of ‘Novel Thoughts’, a series exploring the literary reading habits of eight

The neo-Darwinian synthesis brought great simplicity to Darwins ideas, but at a cost. Today, new scientific developments require a re-conceptualization of Darwinism that may be of particular importance to the social sciences: evolution is not just about DNA; it also depends crucially on heritable changes that occur without a change in DNA sequence, behavioural and symbolic inheritance.

What or who has prevented urgent action on climate change? Why have policymakers lagged behind the science and technology? How much do individuals make a difference or has it needed people to work out how to make money out of climate change for politicians to take action? Is there a human tipping point - allied to the scientific tipping point - where more radical action becomes inevitable? And

An iconic building in the centre of Cambridge is, today, being named the David Attenborough Building, in honour of Sir David’s pioneering work in bringing the wonders of our natural world to our screens.

Playful naked mole-rats contribute to research into devastating medical conditions by Dr Ewan St. John Smith, Department of Pharmacology, who has been studying them for the past ten years. Find out more: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/n-is-for-naked-mole-rat

This alien glob is a piece of gum arabic from the hardened sap of the Acacia tree, most likely collected from a tree in Sudan. Rox Middleton, from the University of Cambridge, explains how the electron microscope has changed the way we are able to interact with objects at the nanoscale, allowing us just to enjoy a glimpse of the exquisite abstract forms around us. 'Nanomaterials Up Close' is a

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

New research shows that the whip-like appendages on many types of cells are able to synchronise their movements solely through interactions with the fluid that surrounds them. The paper, published in the journal eLife, is available at: http://elifesciences.org/lookup/doi/10.7554/elife.02750

The winning photos from this year's Department of Engineering photo competition, sponsored by ZEISS. See many more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/bullet-holes-and-graphene-caves-picturing-engineering Image credits: Rachel Garsed, Andrew Payne, Dilek Ozgit and Andrea De Luca, Kenichi Nakanishi, Alex Kendall.

Discover how the grounds of the Fitz were transformed for the second year running by this new display of contemporary sculpture. See behind-the-scenes photos and time-lapse footage showing how the Promenade was installed, and hear interviews with Museum Director Timothy Potts and the sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld, as well as featured sculptors Rob Ward, Angela Conner, Nick Turvey, Ann Christopher

Want to find out more? Sign up for an Open Day this month: https://bit.ly/Cambridge2021OpenDay Students will enjoy many new experiences in their first few days and weeks of University. Cambridge has some of its own unique ways of helping students feel at home here.

Transmissible cancers are incredibly rare in nature, yet have arisen in Tasmanian devils on at least two separate occasions. New research from the University of Cambridge identifies key anti-cancer drugs which could be trialled as a treatment for these diseases, which are threatening Tasmanian devils with extinction.

A team of researchers from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences have recently returned from Iceland where, thanks to a bit of luck, they have gathered the most extensive dataset ever from a volcanic eruption, which will likely yield considerable new insights into how molten rock moves underground, and whether or not it erupts.

Conference Summary Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5) aims to improve maternal health. Unlike other MDGs, few countries are on track to achieve even the first goal of MDG 5, namely, to reduce maternal mortality by 75%. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the highest regional maternal mortality rate (MMR) at 640 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and the annual decline has only been 0.1%. In

Conference Summary Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5) aims to improve maternal health. Unlike other MDGs, few countries are on track to achieve even the first goal of MDG 5, namely, to reduce maternal mortality by 75%. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the highest regional maternal mortality rate (MMR) at 640 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and the annual decline has only been 0.1%. In

A £2.5m gift to Cambridge sport funds two new hockey pitches at Wilberforce Sports Ground for use by the University and wider Cambridge community. The gift marks a defining moment in the mission of the University to improve sports facilities and recognise the many wide-ranging benefits sport gives to all who take part.

They'll be touring to London, Edinburgh, California, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more but first they have to rehearse. The Cambridge Footlights are preparing to perform 'Pillow Talk', a show featuring numerous sketches largely based on those late night thoughts that you daren't say out loud. To find out more about the troupe visit their website: https://footlightsontour.co.uk/

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.

Newnham College student Saffia Mahmoud uses vlogging to 'big up' the Islamic Society of Cambridge for helping her settle into her new life on campus.

Artist's impression of 55 Cancri e orbiting its parent star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid ‘cool’ side. Read more: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/map-of-rocky-exoplanet-reveals-a-lava-world

Built by undergraduates working for their exams, with funds raised by the students themselves, Cambridge's solar car is the only British entry into the World Solar Challenge. Despite the odds, however, its radical design could still secure victory. - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/resolution-ready-to-shine-down-under#sthash.J5JFhIVd.dpuf

The first in a new range of powerful superconductors which could revolutionise the production of machines like hospital MRI scanners and protect the national grid have been developed by engineers at the University of Cambridge. Professor David Cardwell explains what superconductors are, why we need them, and how he and his team have devised techniques to make them more powerful than ever before.

Last episode, we talked about how we got to where we are now with climate change, but do we even know what’s going on with climate change right now? In this episode we’ll talk about what tipping points we’re approaching, how and why we’re still struggling to gain momentum toward action on climate change, and what difference it would make if carbon dioxide was a brown smelly substance. To

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered a novel genetic cause of severe obesity which, although relatively rare, demonstrates for the first time that genes can reduce basal metabolic rate -- how the body burns calories. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/novel-genetic-mutations-cause-low-metabolic-rate-and-obesity

Why do you get a fountain? We have shown that, to get a fountain, when a link of the next link of chain from the is pulled into motion by the tension in the chain above it, it must also be pushed into motion by the pot. The existence of this new force will require us to re-examine some very old ideas about energy loss and chain pickup. We made an explanatory video