Opinion: Exam results: how mindfulness can help you make better life choices
16 August 2016Julieta Galante (Department of Psychiatry) discusses how self-observation can help you choose a career path.
Time of day influences our susceptibility to infection, study finds
15 August 2016We are more susceptible to infection at certain times of the day as our body clock affects the ability of viruses to replicate and spread between cells, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The findings, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help explain why shift workers, whose body clocks are routinely disrupted, are more prone to health problems, including infections and chronic disease.
Aesthetics over athletics when it comes to women in sport
12 August 2016Men are two to three times more likely than women to be mentioned when it comes to discussing sport and sporting achievement, according to new research by language experts at Cambridge University Press.
Beyond the harem: ways to be a woman during the Ottoman Empire
12 August 2016A new volume of essays looks afresh at women’s lives during the 600 years of the Ottoman empire. The book challenges the stereotypes of female lives confined to the harem and hamam – and reveals how women were surprisingly visible in public spaces.
Virus attracts bumblebees to infected plants by changing scent
11 August 2016Study of bee-manipulating plant virus reveals a “short-circuiting” of natural selection. Researchers suggest that replicating the scent caused by infection could encourage declining bee populations to pollinate crops – helping both bee and human food supplies.
Gene signature in healthy brains pinpoints the origins of Alzheimer’s disease
10 August 2016A specific gene expression pattern maps out which parts of the brain are most vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, decades before symptoms appear, and helps define the molecular origins of the disease.
Textbook story of how humans populated America is “biologically unviable”, study finds
10 August 2016Using ancient DNA, researchers have created a unique picture of how a prehistoric migration route evolved over thousands of years – revealing that it could not have been used by the first people to enter the Americas, as traditionally thought.
Where the river meets the sea: the making of ethical decisions
10 August 2016What is our place in the natural world – and how do we feel about the scientific advances that are changing the way we live? In her book Making a Good Life, Dr Katharine Dow explores the ethics of assisted reproductive technology in conversations with members of a small Scottish community dedicated to protecting the environment.
Positive teacher-student relationships boost good behaviour in teenagers for up to four years
09 August 2016The first study to look at the impact of the relationship with teachers on adolescent behaviour finds that a positive teacher-student relationship can be as effective as anti-bullying programmes at improving wellbeing in young people.
Liquid light switch could enable more powerful electronics
08 August 2016Researchers have built a record energy-efficient switch, which uses the interplay of electricity and a liquid form of light, in semiconductor microchips. The device could form the foundation of future signal processing and information technologies, making electronics even more efficient.
