News from Homerton College.
The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, I is for Iguanodon – a thousand ages underground, his skeleton had lain, but now his body’s big and round, and there’s life in him again!
First evidence for a species difference in the innate predisposition for tool use in our closest evolutionary cousins could provide insight into how humans became the ultimate tool-using ape.
Astronomers have partially solved an epic whodunit: what kills galaxies so that they can no longer produce new stars?
A test for a wide range of genetic risk factors could improve doctors’ ability to work out which women are at increased risk of developing breast cancer, a major study of more than 65,000 women has shown.
Scientists have discovered 15 previously unknown genetic ‘hot-spots’ that can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, according to research published today in Nature Genetics.
An international team of researchers has shown that it may be possible to improve the effectiveness of the seasonal flu vaccine by ‘pre-empting’ the evolution of the influenza virus.
When food is scarce, tool use among non-human primates does not increase. This counterintuitive finding leads researchers to suggest that the driving force behind tool use is ecological opportunity – and that the environment shapes development of culture.
Scientists in Cambridge have found hidden signatures in the brains of people in a vegetative state, which point to networks that could support consciousness even when a patient appears to be unconscious and unresponsive. The study could help doctors identify patients who are aware despite being unable to communicate.
New research shows that chimpanzees search for the right tools from a key plant species when preparing to ‘ant dip’ - a crafty technique enabling them to feast on army ants without getting bitten. The study shows that army ants are not a poor substitute for preferred foods, but a staple part of chimpanzee diets.
The University of Cambridge Institute for Continuing Education (ICE) will be leading the University’s major contribution to an initiative launched at Buckingham Palace today which will celebrate talented young people from across the Commonwealth over the next four years.
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