Terme Boxer makes an entrance at the Museum of Classical Archaeology
19 December 2015A heavyweight addition has joined the ranks at the Museum of Classical Archaeology after a cast of the Terme Boxer was placed on display.
How real is the science in Star Wars?
18 December 2015The anticipation is over: The Force Awakens is with us. To a self-confessed geek like Karen Yu from the Institute for Manufacturing, this is like all of her Christmases coming at once. It also raises some very important questions: what is the Force, how do you make a lightsaber – and does the new film finally put to rest the ghost of The Phantom Menace?
Opinion: How we built a robot that can evolve – and why it won’t take over the world
18 December 2015Fumiya Iida (Department of Engineering) discusses the "mother" robot he has built with his colleagues, and why reacting to developments in robotics with undue fear could stifle research and creativity.
‘Smoke detector’ enables fungal partnership that allowed plants to first survive on land
18 December 2015A protein that detects hormones in smoke has a much wider and more ancient role in the plant kingdom – detecting microscopic soil fungi which colonise plants and feed nutrients to their cells. This ancient symbiosis with soil fungi is thought to be how plants survived on land millions of years before they evolved roots.
‘Virtual fossil’ reveals last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals
18 December 2015New digital techniques have allowed researchers to predict structural evolution of the skull in the lineage of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, in an effort to fill in blanks in the fossil record, and provide the first 3D rendering of their last common ancestor. The study suggests populations that led to the lineage split were older than previously thought.
Stem cells likely to be safe for use in regenerative medicine, study confirms
18 December 2015Cambridge researchers have found the strongest evidence to date that human pluripotent stem cells – cells that can give rise to all tissues of the body – will develop normally once transplanted into an embryo. The findings, published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, could have important implications for regenerative medicine.
Opinion: Large Hadron Collider sees tantalising hints of a new particle that could revolutionise physics
17 December 2015Harry Cliff (Cavendish Laboratory) discusses the potential discovery of a new particle at the Large Hadron Collider and its implications for particle physics.
Landslides after Nepal earthquake 'could have been much worse'
17 December 2015Scientists join together to map and assess thousands of co-seismic and post-seismic landslides in aftermath of earthquake.
Areas of Britain most affected by ‘bedroom tax’ are hardest to downsize in, research finds
17 December 2015Research commissioned by government following housing benefit reforms finds increase in tenants self-selecting to downsize, but the areas hardest hit by reform are those least equipped with appropriate housing stock. Researchers found households increasingly cutting back on essentials such as food and heating to make up benefits shortfall.
Opinion: How close are we to successfully editing genes in human embryos?
17 December 2015Azim Surani (Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute) discusses gene editing of the human germline.
