Annual report 2015, a brief overview

Genetics of a canine transmissible tumour show how the world’s oldest cancer “metastasised” through the global dog population – and captured, maintained and rearranged its mitochondrial DNA along the way. Strakova et al. eLife 2016;5:e14552 More info here: http://www.tcg.vet.cam.ac.uk/

This short film provides some statistics from the academic year 2014-15.

A time-lapse day-in-the-life video celebrating the magic of Cambridge, featuring iconic views of the city and University.

This talk was part of the Departmental Seminars in History and Philosophy of Science series.

In 2010, Dr Stephen Leonard embarked on a year-long trip to live with the Inugguit of north-west Greenland, the northernmost settled people on Earth. His aim was to record the language, stories and songs of these communities. The traditional life of the community and its future is potentially threatened by a number of factors, one of which is climate change. Dr Leonard lived as a member of those communities, travelled on hunts, and recorded and filmed as he went. Here he talks about some of his experiences and reflects on a year spent in the midst of a fading culture. For more info visit: www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/living-with-the-inugguit

Dr Wendy Pullan discusses the work of her research group looking at veryday life and the possibilities for transformation in Belfast, Jerusalem and other divided cities. ‘Conflict in Cities and the Contested State’ focuses on divided cities as key sites in territorial conflicts over state and national identities, cultures and borders.

The film clip shows a nest of the most frequent host of the cuckoo finch, the tawny-flanked prinia, which has an extravagantly diverse range of eggs. The prinia parent has recognised that an egg in its nest is that of a cuckoo finch, and proceeds to eject it by spearing it on the end of its beak and carrying it away.

Scientists at Cambridge University take a closer look at algae and examine its potential as a renewable source of energy. In the near future algae could be used as a sustainable, carbon neutral biofuel.