Why is it acceptable to say “I never could do maths” but not “I’ve never read any Shakespeare”? It’s symptomatic of the art-science divide that can only be addressed by reforming our education system, writes Professor Athene Donald from the Department of Physics and Master of Churchill College.
We need to think about how our teenagers spend their spare time, writes Dr Kirsten Corder from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, whose research has shown that even an hour a day of TV and internet use is linked to poorer GCSE grades.
David Cameron has been widely reported to have agreed to amend the wording on the forthcoming referendum about the UK's position in the EU. But the new wording may not be any better, writes Professor Kenneth Armstrong, Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies.
Olivia Remes, a PhD student at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, explores the relationship between deprivation and anxiety disorders, and in particular why women seem particularly vulnerable.
Christopher Clapham, Professor Emeritus at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge looks at the changes that Ethiopia has undergone since the assassination 40 years ago of its last emperor, Haile Selassie.
As Ukraine marks 24 years since its independence from the Soviet Union, it is embroiled in the most dangerous armed conflict in Europe – against the Russian Federation. The stakes are incredibly high, and yet the war is still being discussed in euphemisms, write Dr Rory Finnin (Department of Slavonic Studies) and Dr Thomas D Grant (Faculty of Law).
The number of people with dementia – both new cases and total numbers with the disease – appears to be stabilising in some Western European countries despite populations ageing, in direct contrast to the ‘dementia epidemic’ reported in some recent studies. Professor Carol Brayne and Yu-tzu Wu from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health explore what this means.
As the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence calls for curbs on inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics on the NHS, Dr Lara Marks from Department of History and Philosophy of Science, writing in The Conversation, explains how advances in DNA sequencing technology are helping in the fight against drug resistance.
Forty years ago, two researchers at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge developed a new technology that was to win him the Nobel Prize – and is now found in six out of ten of the world’s bestselling drugs. Dr Lara Marks from Department of History and Philosophy of Science discusses the importance of ‘monoclonal antibodies’.
New research has identified an increased risk of brain haemorrhage from the combined use of antidepressant medicines and medicines such as ibuprofen. Should we be worried? Dr Rupert Payne from the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research looks at the evidence.
© 2015 University of Cambridge
