An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a ‘primitive’, unmelted planetesimal (right).

How did the building blocks of life arrive on Earth?

11 October 2024

Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without ‘unmelted’ asteroids, there may not have been enough of these compounds on Earth for life to emerge.

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Priceless treasures: in a shot commissioned to celebrate Cambridge University Library’s 600th anniversary, Professor Stephen Hawking is pictured with Newton’s annotated first edition of Principia Mathematica.  Credit: Graham CopeKoga

Understanding gravity - from Newton to Hawking

29 April 2016

The most important publication in the history of science – Isaac Newton’s own annotated copy of Principia Mathematica – and other seminal works by Copernicus, Einstein and Stephen Hawking, feature in a new film, released today, celebrating 600 years of Cambridge University Library.

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Deep into the Patagonia Glacier

Ice Age, interrupted

09 January 2012

Research shows that a new Ice Age could well have been upon us in the next millennium were it not for increases in CO2 due to humans, despite the advantageous trend in solar radiation of our current age.

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icy world

Cambridge Ideas: This Icy World

30 March 2011

Cambridge University glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell has spent three years of his life in the polar regions.

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Coalport China Museum - former Coalport Chinaworks - by the River Severn

Reassessing the industrial revolution

21 September 2010

It was the dawn of an age of prosperity and transformed Britain into an economic superpower but our rose-tinted view of the industrial revolution masks another side of its legacy, a new history suggests.

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