Man on a mission to beat cancer
14 Nov 2016Thirty years ago, Professor Richard Gilbertson pledged to implement a 15 per cent reduction in mortality from children’s brain cancer. This is the story of what happened next.
Interview: Lucy Jolin
Man v fish in the Amazon rainforest
11 Nov 2016The Enawenê-nawê people of the Amazon rainforest make beautifully engineered fishing dams. Living alongside this indigenous community, Dr Chloe Nahum-Claudel observed how the act of trapping fish shapes their minds, bodies and relationships. The proximity of life and death brings human vulnerability sharply into focus.
A counterintuitive approach to fighting cancer
09 Nov 2016When you’re under attack, you fight back. You gather your troops and attack the invading enemy, hoping to wound and defeat them, while supporting and treating your own injured soldiers. It’s common sense.
A very hairy story
07 Nov 2016Beards are back in fashion. But today’s hipster styles convey rather different messages to the hair men cultivated in the early modern period. Historian Dr Stefan Hanß investigates the ways in which daily ‘performances of hair’ for men and women reflected the profound religious and social changes sweeping through Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Questions of life and death
04 Nov 2016An ambitious seminar series began last week with a discussion of a remarkable documentary. Filmed in a pioneering hospice, The Time to Die addresses a subject that remains taboo for many. Joining the conversation are health professionals, medical students and members of the public, as well as those interested in film and ethics. The series continues on 9 November 2016.
What makes a sand dune sing?
04 Nov 2016When solids flow like liquids they can make sand dunes sing, and they can also result in a potentially deadly avalanche. Cambridge researchers are studying the physics behind both of these phenomena, which could have applications in industries such as pharmaceuticals, oil and gas.
Pain in the machine: a Cambridge Shorts film
02 Nov 2016The pain we experience as humans has physical and emotional components. Could we develop a machine that feels pain a similar way – and would we want to? The first of four Cambridge Shorts looks at the possibilities and challenges.
Protecting our data and identity: how should the law respond?
28 Oct 2016Many of us see our privacy as a basic right. But in the digital world of app-addiction, geolocation tracking and social oversharing, some may have cause to wonder if that right is steadily and sometimes willingly being eroded away.
Elvis is alive and the Moon landings were faked: the (conspiracy) theory of everything
25 Oct 2016As a global population we are awash with conspiracy theories. But what effect do these really have on the public as we go about our day-to-day lives, asks a team of Cambridge researchers.
Combating cybercrime when there's plenty of phish in the sea
21 Oct 2016As more and more crime moves online, computer scientists, criminologists and legal academics have joined forces in Cambridge to improve our understanding and responses to cybercrime, helping governments, businesses and ordinary users construct better defences.