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3D reconstructions suggest that simple marine animals living over 560 million years ago drove the emergence of more complex life by mixing the seawater around them

A new postgraduate programme will train researchers to understand life's origins, search for habitable planets and consider the most profound question of all: are we alone?

Scientists from the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Harvard ̽»¨Ö±²¥, and the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Chicago have founded the Origins Federation, which will advance our understanding of the emergence and early evolution of life, and its place in the cosmos.

Twelve students, academics and professional members of staff from across the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge have received Vice-Chancellor’s Research Impact and Engagement Awards in areas as diverse as prostate cancer, family law, museum public engagement and police mental health.

Some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the earliest animals to exist – got big not to compete for food, but to spread their offspring as far as possible. 

A new study of 565 million-year-old fossils has identified how some of the first complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the first animals to exist – reproduced, revealing the origins of our modern marine environment.