University of Cambridge

The neuroscientist working to understand and prevent suicide in teenagers. We talk to Dr Anne-Laura van Harmelen, a neuroscientist, who became fascinated by the brain as a teenager, after her dad gave her a copy of Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Today she’s investigating adversity and resilience and is part of an international collaboration working to understand, and ultimat...

Is taxidermy a craft or art? Can natural history specimens be an artwork? Who made this putty-nosed monkey? And while we're here, can a fox snarl? Jack Ashby, Museum Manager at the University Museum of Zoology, tackles taxidermy and its inclusion in Artist: Unknown. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the Universi...

What would a young woman's CV from the past look like? Helen Ritchie, Research Assistant at The Fitzwilliam Museum, talks about samplers and the role they played for young women in the 17th and 18th century, and why in this instance the artist is unknown. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambr...

Nicholas Thomas, Director at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, talks about a 19th / early 20th century barkcloth. Both a museum object and an extraordinary work of art, the maker’s name was never recorded and the individual artistic value overlooked. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of...

What happens when the artist doesn't want to be known, and why would that be? Josh Nall, Curator of Modern Sciences at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, talks about the makers who aim to deceive. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art fr...

Eliza Spindel, Curatorial and Research Assistant at Kettle's Yard, tells us about a tea bowl from Kettle's Yard and a case of mistaken identity. Not only does the maker change, but so does its story. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art from acros...

Whalers. Expert Navigators, but also expert artists? Charlotte Connelly, Curator at The Polar Museum, tells us about some atmospheric ink drawings and scrimshaw created by whalers voyaging in the Arctic. This podcast series is part of an exhibition titled Artist: Unknown at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge Museums, it brings together works of art from a...

Every cast in the Museum of Classical Archaeology is a hybrid – the work of both the ancient sculptor and the modern cast maker. Dr Susanne Turner, Curator at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, talks to us about a plaster cast taken from a carved marble head, identified as that of the ancient Greek god Apollo. But who sculpted the original, and who made the cast? This podcast series is part of a...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

The Hay Festival is one of the most prestigious cultural and literary events in the world. The University of Cambridge has partnered with the Festival for 11 years to deliver The Cambridge Series which gives a taste of the research being conducted at the University. The Series is part of the University’s public engagement work and draws on the University’s two flagship public engagement events, th...

Throughout its ancient history, the UK has been home to many amazing creatures that are now long extinct. From dinosaurs to giant millipedes, discover how these animals shaped the land around them and what secrets are held within their prehistoric footprints.

Bill Sutherland, who holds the Miriam Rothschild Chair in Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge, described attempts to make global evidence available to all, improve the effectiveness of experts and change attitudes toward the use of evidence, especially in relation to conservation.

Black holes are nature’s most extreme objects. Professor Christopher Reynolds described how they stretch our understanding of space-time to the limits and power some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe.

The Industrial Revolution brings to mind famous male inventors and industrialists. In her new book economist Victoria Bateman instead argues that the everyday woman underpinned Britain’s – and indeed the West’s - rise.

The sequencing of the human genome has revolutionised how scientists search for the genetic causes of human diseases. Human geneticist Professor Nicole Soranzo described how the field has evolved in the last 15 years, and discussed how new genetic evidence is used to better understand the interplay between our DNA (‘nature’) and the environment (‘nurture’).

How do we counter fake news and can we inoculate public opinion against misinformation? Dr Van der Linden is Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab and is investigating the psychological mechanisms behind the spread of misinformation.

Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people – people battling for food, water and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. As the UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Robinson’s mission led all over the world, from Ma...

Shuckburgh is a climate scientist and mathematician, and is co-author of the Ladybird book on Climate Change. She will speak about her research on modelling localised effects of climate change – from Arctic warming to flooding in Tewkesbury, from severe drought in Malawi to record-breaking temperatures in Thailand, and from the acidification of the Barrier Reef to the hurricanes battering the Cari...

In this episode we chat to Duncan Astle, a developmental neuroscientist, who’s based at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Duncan and I talk about his recent study that uses machine learning to identify learning difficulties and why children may struggle at school. We also talk about his work with Pride in STEM and how the current scientific research publishing model needs to change.

It’s something that we all do, but no one talks about it: emptying your bowels. However, for many people with conditions that impair this most normal of bodily functions, it can impact your day-to-day life in unexpected and profoundly challenging ways. Scientists Dr Ewan St. John Smith and Dr James Hockley teamed up with DragonLight Films to produce a short film that explores how gut function goes...