From college cooks to artists and craftsmen: the story of a Cambridge dynasty
For three centuries one family made an unacknowledged contribution to the life of Cambridge, first as cooks and inn keepers and later as artists and craftsmen. A series of Open Cambridge events will explore the untold story of the Leach family.
Changing global diets is vital to reducing climate change
Healthier diets and reducing food waste are part of a combination of solutions needed to ensure food security and avoid dangerous climate change, say the team behind a new study.
Nanotechnology used to create next-generation holograms for information storage
Holograms made of tiny particles of silver could double the amount of information that can be stored in digital optical devices, such as sensors, displays and medical imaging devices.
Fighting prostate cancer with a tomato-rich diet
Men who eat over 10 portions a week of tomatoes have an 18 per cent lower risk of developing prostate cancer, new research suggests.
The challenge of engineering the Kelpies
Recently, Falkirk in Scotland saw the opening of the Kelpies, two 30-metre high horse head sculptures either side of a lock in a new canal extension.
Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) creates a live laboratory
The Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) is preparing to create the Centre’s first-ever live laboratory on site at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
Cambridge startup wins Silicon Valley mentorship
Silicon Valley has long been revered for being the cradle of tech innovation. Increasingly innovation is happening elsewhere and the University of Cambridge is being recognised as a leading supplier of entrepreneurial talent.
Breastfeeding linked to lower risk of postnatal depression
A new study of over 10,000 mothers has shown that women who breastfed their babies were at significantly lower risk of postnatal depression than those who did not.
Misunderstood worm-like fossil finds its place in the Tree of Life
One of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever found - a worm-like creature with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail – has found its place in the evolutionary Tree of Life, definitively linking it with a group of modern animals for the first time.
The beetle’s white album
The physical properties of the ultra-white scales on certain species of beetle could be used to make whiter paper, plastics and paints, while using far less material than is used in current manufacturing methods.
Mind and body: Scientists identify immune system link to mental illness
Children with high everyday levels of a protein released into the blood in response to infection are at greater risk of developing depression and psychosis in adulthood, according to new research which suggests a role for the immune system in mental illness.
Big, spinning black hole blurs light
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured an extreme and rare event in the regions immediately surrounding a supermassive black hole.
'Trojan horse' treatment could beat brain tumours
A smart technology which involves smuggling gold nanoparticles into brain cancer cells has proven highly effective in lab-based tests.
Watching molecules ‘dance’ in real time could help researchers
A new technique which traps light at the nanoscale to enable real-time monitoring of individual molecules bending and flexing may aid in our understanding of how changes within a cell can lead to diseases such as cancer.
Volcano team gets measure of threat to Great Rift Valley
Little known volcanoes in one of Africa’s most stunning locations are to be explored in a bid to understand the threat they pose to life, livelihood and the landscape.
New research aims to improve energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and reduce costs
Against a world backdrop of increased concerns about energy security, price fluctuations and, of course, the need to address climate change, six new research projects that aim to gain a fuller understanding of how energy is managed in the country’s non-domestic buildings have been launched. A Cambridge project is among those benefiting from £3 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research…
Gene increases risk of breast cancer to one in three by age 70
Breast cancer risks for one of potentially the most important genes associated with breast cancer after the BRCA1/2 genes are reported this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. Women with mutations in the PALB2 gene have on average a one in three chance of developing breast cancer by the age of seventy.
Some saturated fatty acids may present a bigger risk to diabetes than others
The relationship between saturated fat and type 2 diabetes may be more complex than previously thought, according to the results of a large international study just published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Secrets of animal camouflage: Video reveals how predator vision works
How do animals see? It’s a question that vexes biologists and fascinates anyone who has watched animals go about their business: what does the world look like through their eyes? In a new video, BBSRC-funded scientists are attempting to answer some of these fundamental questions by studying the success of bird and egg camouflage.
Researchers find a new way to make microstructured surfaces
A team of researchers has created a new way of manufacturing microstructured surfaces that have novel three-dimensional textures. The method can produce strong, lightweight materials with specific surface properties.
LEDs made from ‘wonder material’ perovskite
Colourful LEDs made from a material known as perovskite could lead to LED displays which are both cheaper and easier to manufacture in future.
‘A sunlit picture of hell’: Sassoon’s war diaries go online for first time
Siegfried Sassoon’s First World War diaries – some bearing traces of mud from the Somme – are among 4,100 pages from his personal archive now freely available online, 100 years since Britain declared war on Germany.
Chemists develop MRI technique for peeking inside battery-like devices
A team of chemists from the University of Cambridge and New York University has developed a method for examining the inner workings of battery-like devices called supercapacitors, which can be charged up extremely quickly and can deliver high electrical power. Their technique, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), establishes a means for monitoring and potentially enhancing the performance…
Service to commemorate the start of the First World War
The University of Cambridge will be marking the centenary of British entry to the First World War by attending a Service of Commemoration in Great St Mary's Church, today (Monday 4 August) at 6pm.
Fitzwilliam Museum bids to acquire weeping Virgin
A remarkably realistic painted wood bust of the Mater Dolorosa (Virgin of Sorrows) by Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), one of the most celebrated sculptors of the Spanish Golden Age, has gone on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge as part of an appeal to acquire the sculpture.