On World Population Day, University of Cambridge researchers bust some of the biggest myths about life in England since the Middle Ages, challenging assumptions about everything from sex before marriage to migration and the health/wealth gap.
Year 8 students work with Cambridge researchers to help their peers learn about the census.
Professor Kathy Niakan talks about why it’s vital to take a multidisciplined approach to understanding the urgent challenges posed by reproduction today – and introduces our Spotlight on some of this work, highlighted in the latest issue of Cambridge's Horizons magazine.
Thomas Robert Malthus, who was born 250 years ago, became notorious for his ‘principle of population’. He argued that, because poverty was inevitable, some people would not find a seat at ‘nature’s table’ and would perish. In a new book, historians at Cambridge and Harvard set the life and work of this contentious thinker within a wider context – and look in particular at his engagement with the world beyond Europe.
Researchers from the African Genome Variation Project (AGVP) have published the first attempt to comprehensively characterise genetic diversity across Sub-Saharan Africa. The study of the world’s most genetically diverse region will provide an invaluable resource for medical researchers and provides insights into population movements over thousands of years of African history. These findings appear in the journal Nature.
In a paper published in the autumn 2014 issue of History Workshop Journal Dr Amy Erickson unravels the fascinating history of the titles used to address women. Her research reveals the subtle and surprising shifts that have taken place in the usage of those ubiquitous M-words.
Latest research shows that the presence of the genetic mutation for lighter skin - found in “almost 100%” of Europeans - broadly conforms to many cultural and linguistic differences, as well as ancestral, in the wider Indian population.
EPIC-Norfolk, a long-term study of health and ageing that recently celebrated its 20th birthday, provides researchers with a wealth of data. Annalijn Conklin, a PhD candidate in the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), discusses what we can learn from the study about the impact of isolation, and a drop in quality of diet, on the older population.
A landmark longitudinal study of health in the community will celebrate its 20th anniversary in Norwich tomorrow (10 October). The research, which adds significantly to our knowledge of public health, relies on volunteers who consistently give their time to science.
With the world’s population already estimated to be over seven billion and rising fast, the challenge of how to produce enough food has never been more pressing. Three public debates will give people the chance to hear from and question politicians, researchers and journalists on the issues at stake.
© 2024 University of Cambridge