Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of patient autonomy?
06 April 2015New study questions whether doctors are not giving enough guidance to patients about end of life decisions.
Cambridge heads for Hay
04 April 2015The Cambridge Series at the prestigious Hay Festival takes place for the seventh year running in May.
The rise of the takeaway
02 April 2015The number of takeaway food outlets has risen substantially over the past two decades, with a large increase seen in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage, according to a study carried out across Norfolk by researchers at the University of Cambridge.
Words for mud and mountain, wind and wetland: answers on a postcard, please
01 April 2015‘Dumberdash’ is an old Cheshire term for a short but violent storm. A ‘lumpenhole’ is a deep trench for fluid farmyard waste. The man who remembers these words is among the scores of people who have written to Dr Robert Macfarlane in response to his latest book, Landmarks.
Ghosts from the past brought back to life
01 April 2015One of the UK’s most important medieval manuscripts is revealing ghosts from the past after new research and imaging work discovered eerie faces and lines of verse which had previously been erased from history.
Archaeologists unearth medieval graveyard beneath Cambridge College
01 April 2015Archaeological investigations discovered one of Britain’s largest medieval hospital cemeteries, containing over 1,000 human remains, when excavating beneath the Old Divinity School at St John’s College, Cambridge, a new report shows.
Pollution on the move – human activity in East Asia negatively affects air quality in remote tropical forests
31 March 2015New analysis shows that pollution from human activity in East Asia is having a negative effect on air quality in tropical rainforests thousands of kilometres away, and could harm the ozone layer if levels continue to increase.
Pig-borne disease jumped into humans when rearing practices changed
31 March 2015The most virulent strains of Streptococcus suis, the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in adult humans in parts of southeast Asia and in pigs around the world, are likely to have evolved and become widespread in pigs at the same time as changes in rearing practices, according to research from an international consortium published today in the journal Nature Communications.
Thinking inside the box
31 March 2015New research into the phenomenon of design fixation – allowing prior experience to blind us to new possibilities – may help in the development of new tools and strategies that help to stimulate the creative process without inadvertently limiting it.
Earliest humans had diverse range of body types, just as we do today
27 March 2015New research harnessing fragmentary fossils suggests our genus has come in different shapes and sizes since its origins over two million years ago, and adds weight to the idea that humans began to colonise Eurasia while still small and lightweight.
