An insect not much bigger than a grain of rice is able to repeatedly jump on the surface of water using specialised paddles on their hind legs, new research reveals.

The pygmy mole cricket, which is really more closely related to a grasshopper than a cricket, is only 5mm (1/4 inch) long and weighs less than 10mg. They live in burrows that they dig into the muddy banks alongside fresh water, to include creeks and ponds, in more tropical habitats. On land they can jump as far as 1 metre and as high as 0.7 metre, but accuracy is sacrificed for speed and they often end up in the nearby water.

Professor Malcolm Burrows, from the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology, first encountered pygmy mole crickets (family Tridactylidae) while eating his lunch near a pond in Cape Town, South Africa. Upon hearing sporadic noises coming from the water, he observed something he had never seen before in his 48 years of research -- an insect that was jumping on the surface of the water.

After collecting a few of the creatures and bringing them back to the lab, he analysed them jumping using a high speed camera. He and his engineer colleague, Dr Gregory Sutton, discovered that, unlike other animals that use the surface tension of water such as pond skater insects (also known as water striders) or basilisk (Jesus) lizards to traverse water, the pygmy mole cricket relies on its powerful hind legs to thrust a small ball of water down to propel itself off the surface.

In order to escape the water, where they are easy prey for fish, the pygmy mole cricket rapidly (the legs are extended in about 1 millisecond at an angular velocity of 130,000 degrees per second) push their powerful hind legs into the water. As they push downward, specialised spring-loaded paddles and spurs fan out to increase the surface area (which is increased by 2.4 times). This enables them to propel a ball of water downwards, launching them upwards into the air. Once the thrust has been applied, the paddles then rapidly snap closed to reduce the drag. On water, the jumps can reach distances of 33mm (5.4 times the length of their body) and 100mm high.

When you bury family members in a cemetery, you expect them to stay there. Not so 200 years ago, however, when body snatchers prowled the nation's burial grounds looking for subjects. An acute shortage of bodies eligible for dissection by student doctors in the late 17th century drove this cottage industry until the Anatomy Act of 1832, when dead bodies of all the unclaimed poor could legally undergo dissection. But what was the fate of these bodies after they were exhumed? A new book by Cambridge researcher Dr Piers Mitchell and colleagues from around the UK has brought together, for the first time, archaeological evidence of the fate of the corpses that helped improve understanding of how the human body worked.

The research described here has been published in 'Anatomical Dissection in Enlightenment England and Beyond: autopsy, pathology and display' (2012), edited by Piers Mitchell, Ashgate Publishing Company.

In this video interview with John Gurdon, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday 8th October, he talks about the research that revolutionised a field, his hopes for the future, and that now legendary school report.

New research at the University of Cambridge has lifted the lid on an unusual Spanish globe. Until now, the globe in the University of Cambridge's Whipple Museum of the History of Science has been shrouded in mystery: where, when and why was it made? Who would have used it? Most fundamentally, what is it -- some kind of scientific instrument or a child's toy?

The globe (c. 1907) is unlike any other currently known. Inside are beautiful illustrations, encyclopaedic entries and a planetarium that re-enacts the revolution of the planets around the sun at the turn of a cog. Research by Seb Falk in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science has brought us closer to understanding the puzzling object. Remarkably, his work highlights how it symbolises a wave of change that swept 19th-century Spain into the modern world -- from increasing trade in scientific instrumentation to a move of the education system towards interactive learning.

The Whipple Museum holds an internationally important collection of scientific instruments and models, dating from the Middle Ages to the present.

(www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/)

Fryderyk Chopin is one of the most enduring composers of all time, universally celebrated for the originality and expressive power of his music. But Chopin is as frustrating as he is fascinating, because he rarely left behind just one version of his works. More often, there are three, four or more versions -- any number of which might be an authoritative representation of how he wanted the piece to sound. Listeners, performers and researchers alike may find this liberating as well as bewildering because there are so many options from which to choose.

John Rink, Professor of Musical Performance Studies at the University of Cambridge, is director of a project that is transforming the way in which we understand Chopin's work by bringing this compositional cornucopia together in one place. Launched in 2005 with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Online Chopin Variorum Edition will eventually provide digital images of all the available primary sources of Chopin's music -- including sketches, complete manuscripts, first editions and later impressions. Thousands of pages from these documents are already available, and the entire site is free of charge. Users anywhere in the world can explore, compare and combine elements from the composer's music, comment on it as they go, and ultimately construct their own version of the Chopin work to an extent that has never before been possible.

In this film John Rink explains why Chopin's music retains such a hold on us. Referring to the composer's boundless genius, he describes the sources and provides examples of interesting and revelatory changes of mind on Chopin's part. His demonstrations on a Pleyel "pianino" from 1846 are accompanied by images of manuscripts and editions alike, along with action shots of the OCVE website.

"Music does not exist in a single, correct version," John Rink notes. "It constantly changes over time. Chopin reminds us of that because he himself kept changing his music. Whenever we perform or listen to it, our experience is different from the last. By putting his compositions into a digital space, we can model and capture that evolutionary process. In doing so, we breathe new life into Chopin's music and witness for ourselves his compositional genius at work."

www.ocve.org.uk

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.

The Balfour Chair of Genetics was established at Cambridge in 1912. As part of its centenary celebrations the Department of Genetics has produced a short film following the development of the subject in the University over the past 100 years.

In the early 20th century the establishment of genetic research in Britain was driven primarily by William Bateson. As Steward of St John's College and later Professor of Biology in the University,  Bateson played a key role in demonstrating the applicability of Mendel's laws to a variety of organisms, particularly animals. As well as laying the foundations for a renewed interest in the study of heredity, it was Bateson who coined the term Genetics. In 1912, largely as a result of Bateson's championing of the subject, the University established the Balfour Professorship of Genetics that in time would lead to the formation of the modern Department of Genetics. The first incumbent of the Chair was Reginald Punnett, known to students of biology throughout the world for his eponymous square. In the hundred years since this event Genetics has passed from being an eccentric mixture of mathematics, gardening and biology to become the core of the biological sciences. Our film tells the story of the role of Cambridge and the Department of Genetics in this journey.

Some of the world's oldest engravings of the human form -- prehistoric rock art from the Italian Alps -- have been brought to life by the latest digital technology.

P • I • T • O • T • I • is an innovative research project that applies insights from the new technologies of computer graphics to prehistoric pictures, specifically the rock art of Valcamonica, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It brings to life some of the earliest human figures in European rock art -- some made from as early as 7,000 BC -- with interactive graphics, 3D printing and video games, exploring the potential links between the world of archaeology and the world of film, digital humanities and computer vision.

A multimedia digital rock art exhibition with video projections, an ambient cinema and an interactive touch screen table is on display at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 7-23 March 2013.

P • I • T • O • T • I • is a joint venture between the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici and the University of St Pölten (Austria).

The placenta is the interface between the mother and her baby, which means it is not only key to a successful pregnancy, it determines the future health of every one of us. In this film Professor Graham Burton discusses how the Trophoblast Centre was established to generate a fresh approach into placental research. The Centre focuses on common complications during pregnancy that have their roots in poor placental development -- such as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia, stillbirth and low birth weight - and maternal-fetal interactions during pregnancy.

Saturday 23 June 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing - mathematical genius, hero of the WWII code breakers of Bletchley Park, and father of modern computing.

Alan Turing was a mathematician, cryptographer and pioneer of computer science who possessed one of the greatest brains of the 20th century. His life was one of secret triumphs shadowed by public tragedy.

Presented by Dr James Grime, Enigma Project Officer at the University's Millenium Mathematics Project