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Charles Darwin's mother Susannah Wedgwood died when he was just eight, and he could never remember her face - until he discovered a long-hidden portrait of her as a young woman. Hear Darwin's great-great-grandson Randal Keynes explain why finally seeing this miniature of his mother (on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum) was so significant for the great naturalist, and why portraits of loved ones

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?

In combining theory and experiments, we should have two objectives in mind. The first objective is to confront the theory with some data to see whether the theory is at all consistent with the behavior exhibited in the laboratory. Clearly, there is much that can be learned about the theory from the data, quite apart from any notion of "testing" the theory. We hope to learn whether the theory is

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.

Find out more details here: https://bit.ly/3gOa2Tm The Cambridge Bursary Scheme has been extended for students starting their course in 2021. Non-repayable bursaries of up to £3,500 will be available to students with Home Fees status starting in 2021 onwards with residual* household incomes of up to £62,215. All new undergraduates in 2021 will be eligible for the new bursary scheme, regardless

New research, from the laboratory of Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz of the University of Cambridge, enables scientists to view critical aspects of mammalian embryonic development which was previously unobservable. Around the fourth day, at which point the developing embryo implants into the mother's womb, its development becomes hidden from view as this is taking place. Yet this is a very

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

In early January, a team of Cambridge scientists set out on an expedition to study and map the Larsen C ice shelf in western Antarctica, and – ice conditions permitting – search for the wreckage of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance. Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, is chief scientist on the ambitious expedition, which will use drones, satellites

Meet Zoe: a digital talking head which can express human emotions on demand with “unprecedented realism” and could herald a new era of human-computer interaction. http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/face-of-the-future-rears-its-head

Douglas Kell, Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) looks back to C.P.Snow's famous "Two Cultures" lecture of 1959 and discusses the role the Biology research base to policy making today.