In a paper published today in Nature Genetics, scientists at the University of Cambridge and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre analysed the full DNA sequence of 4,775 tumours from seven types of cancer. They used that data from Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project to create an algorithm capable of identifying tumours with faults in their DNA that makes them easier to treat.

The algorithm, called PRRDetect, could one day help doctors work out which patients are more likely to have successful treatment. That could pave the way for more personalised treatment plans that increase people’s chances of survival.

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Professor Serena Nik-Zainal  from the Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge, lead author of the study, said: “Genomic sequencing is now far faster and cheaper than ever before. We are getting closer to the point where getting your tumour sequenced will be as routine as a scan or blood test.

“To use genomics most effectively in the clinic, we need tools which give us meaningful information about how a person’s tumour might respond to treatment. This is especially important in cancers where survival is poorer, like lung cancer and brain tumours.

“Cancers with faulty DNA repair are more likely to be treated successfully. PRRDetect helps us better identify those cancers and, as we sequence more and more cancers routinely in the clinic, it could ultimately help doctors better tailor treatments to individual patients.”

The research team looked for patterns in DNA created by so-called ‘indel’ mutations, in which letters are inserted or deleted from the normal DNA sequence.  

They found unusual patterns of indel mutations in cancers that had faulty DNA repair mechanisms – known as ‘post-replicative repair dysfunction’ or PRRd. Using this information, the scientists developed PRRDetect to allow them to identify tumours with this fault from a full DNA sequence.

PRRd tumours are more sensitive to immunotherapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. The scientists hope that the PRRd algorithm could act like a ‘metal detector’ to allow them to identify patients who are more likely to have successful treatment with immunotherapy.

The study follows from a previous ‘archaeological dig’ of cancer genomes carried out by Professor Nik-Zainal, which examined the genomes of tens of thousands of people and revealed previously unseen patterns of mutations which are linked to cancer.

This time, Professor Nik-Zainal and her team looked at cancers which have a higher proportion of tumours with PRRd. These include bowel, brain, endometrial, skin, lung, bladder and stomach cancers. Whole genome sequences of these cancers were provided by the 100,000 Genomes Project - a pioneering study led by Genomics England and NHS England which sequenced 100,000 genomes from around 85,000 NHS patients affected by rare diseases or cancer.

The study identified 37 different patterns of indel mutations across the seven cancer types included in this study. Ten of these patterns were already linked to known causes of cancer, such as smoking and exposure to UV light. Eight of these patterns were linked to PRRd. The remaining 19 patterns were new and could be linked to causes of cancer that are not fully understood yet or mechanisms within cells that can go wrong when a cell becomes cancerous.

Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, Dr Iain Foulkes, said: “Genomic medicine will revolutionise how we approach cancer treatment. We can now get full readouts of tumour DNA much more easily, and with that comes a wealth of information about how an individual’s cancer can start, grow and spread.

“Tools like PRRDetect are going to make personalised treatment for cancer a reality for many more patients in the future. Personalising treatment is much more likely to be successful, ensuring more people can live longer, better lives free from the fear of cancer.”

NIHR Scientific Director, Mike Lewis, said: “Cancer is a leading cause of death in the UK so it's impressive to see our research lead to the creation of a tool to determine which therapy will lead to a higher likelihood of successful cancer treatment.”

Chief Scientific Officer at Genomics England, Professor Matt Brown, said: “Genomics is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare and these findings show how genomic data can be used to drive more predictive, preventative care leading to better outcomes for patients with cancer.

“The creation of this algorithm showcases the immense value of whole genome sequencing not only in research but also in the clinic across multiple diverse cancer types in advancing cancer care.”

Reference

Koh, GCC et al. Redefined indel taxonomy reveals insights into mutational signatures. Nat Gen; 10 Apr 2025; DOI:

Adapted from a press release from Cancer Research UK

Cambridge researchers have created a ‘metal detector’ algorithm that can hunt down vulnerable tumours, in a development that could one day revolutionise the treatment of cancer.

Genomic sequencing is now far faster and cheaper than ever before. We are getting closer to the point where getting your tumour sequenced will be as routine as a scan or blood test

Serena Nik-Zainal

Serena Nik-Zainal at the Early Cancer Institute

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Yes

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, developed a device that makes it easy for people with or without medical training to record heart sounds accurately. Unlike a stethoscope, the device works well even if it’s not placed precisely on the chest: its larger, flexible sensing area helps capture clearer heart sounds than traditional stethoscopes.

The device can also be used over clothing, making it more comfortable for patients – especially women – during routine check-ups or community heart health screening programmes.

The heart sound recordings can be saved on the device, which can then be used to detect signs of heart valve disease. The researchers are also developing a machine learning algorithm which can detect signs of valve disease automatically. The results are reported in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

Heart valve disease (valvular heart disease or VHD) has been called the ‘next cardiac epidemic,’ with a prognosis worse than many forms of cancer. Up to 50% of patients with significant VHD remain undiagnosed, and many patients only see their doctor when the disease has advanced and they are experiencing significant complications.

In the UK, the NHS and NICE have identified early detection of heart valve disease as a key goal, both to improve quality of life for patients, and to decrease costs.

An examination with a stethoscope, or auscultation, is the way that most diagnoses of heart valve disease are made. However, just 38% of patients who present to their GP with symptoms of valve disease receive an examination with a stethoscope.

“The symptoms of VHD can be easily confused with certain respiratory conditions, which is why so many patients don’t receive a stethoscope examination,” said Professor Anurag Agarwal from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “However, the accuracy of stethoscope examination for diagnosing heart valve disease is fairly poor, and it requires a GP to conduct the examination.”

In addition, a stethoscope examination requires patients to partially undress, which is both time consuming in short GP appointments, and can be uncomfortable for patients, particularly for female patients in routine screening programmes.

The ‘gold standard’ for diagnosing heart valve disease is an echocardiogram, but this can only be done in a hospital and NHS waiting lists are extremely long – between six to nine months at many hospitals.

“To help get waiting lists down, and to make sure we’re diagnosing heart valve disease early enough that simple interventions can improve quality of life, we wanted to develop an alternative to a stethoscope that is easy to use as a screening tool,” said Agarwal.

Agarwal and his colleagues have developed a handheld device, about the diameter of a drinks coaster, that could be a solution. Their device can be used by any health professional to accurately record heart sounds, and can be used over clothes.

While a regular or electronic stethoscope has a single sensor, the Cambridge-developed device has six, meaning it is easier for the doctor or nurse – or even someone without any medical training – to get an accurate reading, simply because the surface area is so much bigger.

The device contains materials that can transmit vibration so that it can be used over clothes, which is particularly important when conducting community screening programmes to protect patient privacy. Between each of the six sensors is a gel that absorbs vibration, so the sensors don’t interfere with each other.

The researchers tested the device on healthy participants with different body shapes and sizes and recorded their heart sounds. Their next steps will be to test the device in a clinical setting on a variety of patients, against results from an echocardiogram.

In parallel with the development of the device, the researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm that can use the recorded heart sounds to detect signs of valve disease automatically. Early tests of the algorithm suggest that it outperforms GPs in detecting heart valve disease.  

“If successful, this device could become an affordable and scalable solution for heart health screening, especially in areas with limited medical resources,” said Agarwal.

The researchers say that the device could be a useful tool to triage patients who are waiting for an echocardiogram, so that those with signs of valve disease can be seen in a hospital sooner.

A patent has been filed on the device by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm. Anurag Agarwal is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

 

Reference:
Andrew McDonald et al. ‘A flexible multi-sensor device enabling handheld sensing of heart sounds by untrained users.’ IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (2025). DOI: 10.1109/JBHI.2025.3551882

Researchers have developed a handheld device that could potentially replace stethoscopes as a tool for detecting certain types of heart disease.

This device could become an affordable and scalable solution for heart health screening, especially in areas with limited medical resources

Anurag Agarwal

Person demonstrating use of a handheld device for heart disease screening

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Yes

The team, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, created the network, which uses standard fibreoptic infrastructure, but relies on a variety of quantum phenomena to enable ultra-secure data transfer.

The network uses two types of quantum key distribution (QKD) schemes: ‘unhackable’ encryption keys hidden inside particles of light; and distributed entanglement: a phenomenon that causes quantum particles to be intrinsically linked.

The researchers demonstrated the capabilities of the network via a live, quantum-secure video conference link, the transfer of encrypted medical data, and secure remote access to a distributed data centre. The data was successfully transmitted between Bristol and Cambridge – a fibre distance of over 410 kilometres.

This is the first time that a long-distance network, encompassing different quantum-secure technologies such as entanglement distribution, has been successfully demonstrated. The researchers presented their results at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) in San Francisco.

Quantum communications offer unparalleled security advantages compared to classical telecommunications solutions. These technologies are immune against future cyber-attacks, even with quantum computers, which – once fully developed – will have the potential to break through even the strongest cryptographic methods currently in use.

In the past few years, researchers have been working to build and use quantum communication networks. China recently set up a massive network that covers 4,600 kilometres by connecting five cities using both fibreoptics and satellites. In Madrid, researchers created a smaller network with nine connection points that use different types of QKD to securely share information.

In 2019, researchers at Cambridge and Toshiba demonstrated a metro-scale quantum network operating at record key rates of millions of key bits per second. And in 2020, researchers in Bristol built a network that could share entanglement between multiple users. Similar quantum network trials have been demonstrated in Singapore, Italy and the USA.

Despite this progress, no one has built a large, long-distance network that can handle both types of QKD, entanglement distribution, and regular data transmission all at once, until now.

The experiment demonstrates the potential of quantum networks to accommodate different quantum-secure approaches simultaneously with classical communications infrastructure. It was carried out using the UK’s Quantum Network (UKQN), established over the last decade by the same team, supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and as part of the Quantum Communications Hub project.

“This is a crucial step toward building a quantum-secured future for our communities and society,” said co-author Dr Rui Wang, Lecturer for Future Optical Networks in the Smart Internet Lab's High Performance Network Research Group at the University of Bristol. “More importantly, it lays the foundation for a large-scale quantum internet—connecting quantum nodes and devices through entanglement and teleportation on a global scale.”

“This marks the culmination of more than ten years of work to design and build the UK Quantum Network,” said co-author Adrian Wonfor from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Not only does it demonstrate the use of multiple quantum communications technologies, but also the secure key management systems required to allow seamless end-to-end encryption between us.”

“This is a significant step in delivering quantum security for the communications we all rely upon in our daily lives at a national scale,” said co-author Professor Richard Penty, also from Cambridge and who headed the Quantum Networks work package in the Quantum Communications Hub. “It would not have been possible without the close collaboration of the two teams at Cambridge and Bristol, the support of our industrial partners Toshiba, BT, Adtran and Cisco, and our funders at UKRI.”

“This is an extraordinary achievement which highlights the UK’s world-class strengths in quantum networking technology,” said Gerald Buller, Director of the IQN Hub, based at Heriot-Watt University. “This exciting demonstration is precisely the kind of work the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub will support over the coming years, developing the technologies, protocols and standards which will establish a resilient, future-proof, national quantum communications infrastructure.”

The current UKQN covers two metropolitan quantum networks around Bristol and Cambridge, which are connected via a ‘backbone’ of four long-distance optical fibre links spanning 410 kilometres with three intermediate nodes.

The network uses single-mode fibre over the EPSRC National Dark Fibre Facility (which provides dedicated fibre for research purposes), and low-loss optical switches allowing network reconfiguration of both classical and quantum signal traffic.

The team will pursue this work further through a newly funded EPSRC project, the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub, whose vision is to establish quantum networks at all distance scales, from local networking of quantum processors to national-scale entanglement networks for quantum-safe communication, distributed computing and sensing, all the way to intercontinental networking via low-earth orbit satellites.

 

Reference:
R. Yang et al. ‘A UK Nationwide Heterogeneous Quantum Network.’ Paper presented at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC): https://www.ofcconference.org/en-us/home/schedule/

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the UK’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the UK’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call.

Abstract background

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Yes

The gene in question, FLCN, is linked to a condition known as Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, symptoms of which include benign skin tumours, lung cysts, and an increased risk of kidney cancer.

In a study published today in the journal Thorax, a team from the University of Cambridge examined data from UK Biobank, the 100,000 Genomes Project, and East London Genes & Health – three large genomic datasets encompassing more than 550,000 people.

They discovered that between one in 2,710 and one in 4,190 individuals carries the particular variant of FLCN that underlies Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome. But curiously, whereas patients with a diagnosis of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome have a lifetime risk of punctured lung of 37%, in the wider cohort of carriers of the genetic mutation this was lower at 28%. Even more striking, while patients with Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome have a 32% of developing kidney cancer, in the wider cohort this was only 1%.

Punctured lung – known as pneumothorax – is caused by an air leak in the lung, resulting in painful lung deflation and shortness of breath. Not every case of punctured lung is caused by a fault in the FLCN gene, however. Around one in 200 tall, thin young men in their teens or early twenties will experience a punctured lung, and for many of them the condition will resolve itself, or doctors will remove air or fluid from their lungs while treating the individual as an outpatient; many will not even know they have the condition.

If an individual experiences a punctured lung and doesn’t fit the common characteristics – for example, if they are in their forties – doctors will look for tell-tale cysts in the lower lungs, visible on an MRI scan. If these are present, then the individual is likely to have Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome.

Professor Marciniak is a researcher at the University of Cambridge and an honorary consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He co-leads the UK’s first Familial Pneumothorax Rare Disease Collaborative Network, together with Professor Kevin Blyth at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and University of Glasgow. The aim of the Network is to optimise the care and treatment of patients with rare, inherited forms of familial pneumothorax, and to support research into this condition. 

Professor Marciniak said: “If an individual has Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, then it’s very important that we’re able to diagnose it, because they and their family members may also be at risk of kidney cancer.

“The good news is that the punctured lung usually happens 10 to 20 years before the individual shows symptoms of kidney cancer, so we can keep an eye on them, screen them every year, and if we see the tumour it should still be early enough to cure it.”

Professor Marciniak says he was surprised to discover that the risk of kidney cancer was so much lower in carriers of the faulty FLCN gene who have not been diagnosed with Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome.

“Even though we’ve always thought of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome as being caused by a single faulty gene, there’s clearly something else going on,” Professor Marciniak said. “The Birt-Hogg-Dubé patients that we've been caring for and studying for the past couple of decades are not representative of when this gene is broken in the wider population. There must be something else about their genetic background that’s interacting with the gene to cause the additional symptoms.”

The finding raises the question of whether, if an individual is found to have a fault FLCN gene, they should be offered screening for kidney cancer. However, Professor Marciniak does not believe this will be necessary.

“With increasing use of genetic testing, we will undoubtedly find more people with these mutations,” he said, “but unless we see the other tell-tale signs of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, our study shows there's no reason to believe they’ll have the same elevated cancer risk.”

The research was funded by the Myrovlytis Trust, with additional support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Katie Honeywood, CEO of the Myrovlytis Trust, said: "The Myrovlytis Trust are delighted to have funded such an important project. We have long believed that the prevalence of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome is far higher than previously reported. It highlights the importance of genetic testing for anyone who has any of the main symptoms associated with BHD including a collapsed lung. And even more so the importance of the medical world being aware of this condition for anyone who presents at an emergency department or clinic with these symptoms. We look forward to seeing the impact this projects outcome has on the Birt-Hogg-Dubé and wider community."

Reference
Yngvadottir, B et al. Inherited predisposition to pneumothorax: Estimating the frequency of Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome from genomics and population cohorts. Thorax; 8 April 2025; DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2024-221738

As many as one in 3,000 people could be carrying a faulty gene that significantly increases their risk of a punctured lung, according to new estimates from Cambridge researchers. Previous estimates had put this risk closer to one in 200,000 people.

If an individual has Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, then it’s very important that we’re able to diagnose it, because they and their family members may also be at risk of kidney cancer

Stefan Marciniak

Chest pain

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Yes

Now in its eighth year, the Fellowship provides financial support for a postdoctoral placement of one to two years at a world-class research institution.

The funding equips scientists to apply their knowledge to a new field of study with the goal of accelerating discoveries, and to develop their leadership potential.

Dr Poppy Oldroyd, a 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow from the Department of Engineering, plans to pioneer a new frontier in understanding brain communication through optical measurements, ultimately advancing treatments for memory-related diseases.

The human brain communicates through intricate networks of neurons, crucial for learning and memory. However, how these neural conversations translate into memory formation remains a mystery in neuroscience. Oldroyd’s research aims to use light-based tools, like advanced optogenetics, to explore these pathways in detail. By uncovering how specific brain circuits contribute to learning and memory, this research could revolutionise our understanding of these essential brain functions. 

Ultimately, this knowledge may enhance our comprehension of memory-related disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.

Dr Matthew McLouglin, a 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow from the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, plans to develop tools to study how our cells age in real time. This will help us understand why we age and how we might promote healthy aging to improve quality of life in the elderly.

Our DNA is organised into structures called chromosomes. Each chromosome has a protective cap, the ‘telomere’, which is partially lost with each cell division. In old age, cells cannot function properly due to the loss of telomeres, increasing the risk of age-related diseases such as cancer and dementia. McLoughlin will use cutting-edge imaging technology to track the loss of telomeres over time, understanding how telomeres are lost and why this stops cells from functioning.

Oldroyd and McLoughlin join a community of 209 Schmidt Science Fellows from nearly 40 countries who are leaders in interdisciplinary science.

“Philanthropic funding of scientific research, and especially support of early-career researchers, has never been more important,” said Wendy Schmidt, who co-founded Schmidt Science Fellows with her husband, Eric.

“By providing Schmidt Science Fellows with support, community, and freedom to work across disciplines and gain new insights, we hope they’ll tackle some of the world’s most vexing challenges, achieve breakthroughs and help create a healthier, more resilient world for all.”

Established in 2017, Schmidt Science Fellows is a programme of Schmidt Sciences delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust.

The 2025 Fellows represent 15 nationalities, including researchers from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates for the first time in the programme’s history.

This year’s cohort will work on a range of problems from cancer treatment to quantum technologies to sustainability.

Alongside their research Placement, Fellows participate in a 12-month interdisciplinary Science Leadership Programme.

Each year, Schmidt Science Fellows works in partnership with more than 100 universities to identify candidates for the Fellowship.

Nominees are selected via an application process that includes an academic review with panels of experts in their original disciplines and final interviews with a multidisciplinary panel of scientists and private sector leaders.

“The Schmidt Science Fellows Program is cultivating a dynamic global community of remarkable scientists and champions of interdisciplinary research,” said Stu Feldman, Chief Scientist at Schmidt Sciences.

“Their work exemplifies Schmidt Sciences’ commitment to support pioneering approaches that will drive the next era of discovery and innovation.”

The 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows represent 27 nominating universities, including, for the first time, McGill University in Canada, RWTH Aachen University in Germany, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, University of California, Los Angeles in the US, and University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Two University of Cambridge researchers are among the thirty-two early career researchers, tackling issues from improving food security to developing better medical implants, who have been announced as the 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows.

Poppy Oldroyd (left) and Matthew McLoughlin (right)

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Yes

The UK government is taking steps to research potential interventions that could reduce global warming by reflecting sunlight into space.

New research will model the risks and impacts of using solar radiation modification (SRM) to guide informed decision-making on climate interventions.

Read more at the Centre for Climate Repair

 

Cambridge is leading one of four projects receiving new funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to model the risks and impacts of solar radiation modification (SRM).

We need to build up our understanding

Dr Shaun Fitzgerald

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Yes

Play should be a core feature of children’s healthcare in forthcoming plans for the future of the NHS, according to a new report which argues that play ‘humanises’ the experiences of child patients.

The report, by University of Cambridge academics for the charity Starlight, calls for play, games and playful approaches to be integrated into a ‘holistic’ model of children’s healthcare – one that acknowledges the emotional and psychological dimensions of good health, alongside its physical aspects.

Both internationally and in the UK, health systems have, in recent decades, increasingly promoted play in paediatric healthcare. There is a growing understanding that making healthcare more child-friendly can reduce stress and positively improve younger patients’ experiences.

Despite this recognition, play often remains undervalued and inconsistently integrated across healthcare contexts. For the first time, the report compiles evidence from over 120 studies to make the case for its more systematic incorporation.

In the case of the UK, the authors argue that the Government’s forthcoming 10-year health plan for the NHS offers an important opportunity to embed play within a more holistic vision for childhood health.

The report was produced by academics at the Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Starlight, which commissioned the review, is a national charity advocating to reduce trauma through play in children’s healthcare.

Dr Kelsey Graber, the report’s lead author, said: “Play and child-centred activities have a unique capacity to support the emotional and mental aspects of children’s healthcare experiences, whether in hospital or during a routine treatment at the GP. It won’t directly change the course of an illness, but it can humanise the experience by reducing stress and anxiety and enhancing understanding and comfort. Hospital-based play opens up a far more complete understanding of what it means for a child to be a healthy or well.”

Adrian Voce, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Starlight, said: “With the government promising to create the healthiest generation of children ever as part of its new long term health plan, this compelling evidence of the benefits of play to children’s healthcare is very timely. We encourage ministers and NHS leaders to make health play teams an integral part of paediatric care.”

The report synthesised evidence from 127 studies in 29 countries. Most were published after 2020, reflecting intensified interest in children’s healthcare interventions following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Some studies focused on medically-relevant play. For example, hospital staff sometimes use role-play, or games and toys like Playmobil Hospital to familiarise children with medical procedures and ease anxiety. Other studies focused on non-medical play: the use of activities like social games, video games, arts and crafts, music therapy and storytelling to help make patients more comfortable. Some hospitals and surgeries even provide “distraction kits” to help children relax.

In its survey of all these studies, the report finds strong evidence that play benefits children’s psychological health and wellbeing. Play is also sometimes associated with positive physical health; one study, for example, found that children who played an online game about dentistry had lower heart rates during a subsequent dental procedure, probably because they felt more prepared.

The authors identify five main ways in which play enhances children’s healthcare based on the available body of evidence:

Reducing stress and discomfort during medical procedures. Play is sometimes associated with physiological markers of reduced distress, such as lower heart rates and blood pressure. Therapeutic play can also ease pain and anxiety.

Helping children express and manage emotions. Play can help to alleviate fear, anxiety, boredom and loneliness in healthcare settings. It also provides an outlet for emotional expression among all age groups.

Fostering dignity and agency. In an environment where children often feel powerless and a lack of personal choice, play provides a sense of control which supports mental and emotional wellbeing.

Building connection and belonging. Play can strengthen children’s relationships with other patients, family members and healthcare staff, easing their experiences in a potentially overwhelming environment. This may be particularly important for children in longer term or palliative care.

Preserving a sense of childhood. Play helps children feel like children, and not just patients, the report suggests, by providing “essential moments of happiness, respite and emotional release”.

While play is widely beneficial, the report stresses that its impact will vary from child to child. This variability highlights a need, the authors note, for informed, child-centred approaches to play in healthcare settings. Unfortunately, play expertise in these settings may often be lacking: only 13% of the studies reviewed covered the work of health play specialists, and most of the reported activities were directed and defined by adults, rather than by children themselves.

The report also highlights a major gap in research on the use of play in mental healthcare. Just three of the 127 studies focused on this area, even though 86% emphasised play’s psychological benefits. The report calls for greater professional and academic attention to the use of play in mental health support, particularly in light of escalating rates of mental health challenges among children and young people. More work is also needed, it adds, to understand the benefits of play-based activities in healthcare for infants and adolescents, both of which groups were under-represented in the research literature.

Embedding play more fully in healthcare as part of wider Government reforms, the authors suggest, could reduce healthcare-related trauma and improve long-term outcomes for children. “It is not just healthcare professionals, but also policy leaders who need to recognise the value of play,” Graber said. “That recognition is foundational to ensuring that children’s developmental, psychological, and emotional health needs are met, alongside their physical health.”

The Cambridge report argues that play should be a recognised component of children’s healthcare in the Government’s forthcoming 10-year plan for the NHS.

Hospital-based play opens up a far more complete understanding of what it means for a child to be a healthy or well

Dr Kelsey Graber

Children’s hospital ward

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Yes

With just over 2 weeks to go until the showdown on the River Thames, the Light Blues are gearing up to defend their titles. Cambridge leads the historic tally in both the men’s and women’s events and will be looking to extend their dominance when they take on Oxford on Sunday 13 April 2025.

Cambridge Crews for The Boat Race 2025

Women’s Blue Boat:
•    Cox: Jack Nicholas (Pembroke College)
•    Stroke: Samy Morton (Hughes Hall)
•    Tash Morrice (Jesus College)
•    Claire Collins (Peterhouse)
•    Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius)
•    Annie Wertheimer (St Edmund’s College)
•    Sophia Hahn (Hughes Hall)
•    Gemma King (St John’s College)
•    Bow: Katy Hempson (Christ’s College)

Men’s Blue Boat:
•    Cox: Ollie Boyne (Downing College)
•    Stroke: Douwe de Graaf (St Edmund’s)
•    Luca Ferraro (Peterhouse)
•    James Robson (Peterhouse)
•    George Bourne (Peterhouse)
•    Gabriel Mahler (Peterhouse)
•    Tom Macky (St Edmund’s)
•    Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall)
•    Bow: Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse)

Countdown to The Boat Race 2025
The prestigious race, one of the oldest amateur sporting events in the world, will take place along the 6.8 km Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake. The Women's Boat Race will commence at 1:21pm British Summer Time (BST), followed by the Men's Boat Race at 2:21pm BST.

Cambridge’s women’s crew enters the race as the defending champions and currently leads the overall tally at 48-30. Meanwhile, Cambridge’s men’s crew also holds the advantage, leading Oxford 87-81, with one historic dead heat in 1877.

Praise for the athletes

Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of The Boat Race Company, congratulated the athletes on their selection for one of the Blue Boats. “I am not sure that everyone appreciates just what it takes to compete at this level,” she told the event.

“Having witnessed the intense training over a number of years, I can tell you these guys are no ordinary students; they combine their academic courses with a high-performance rowing programme. Their commitment to excellence on and off the water is truly extraordinary. It is nothing short of superhuman.”

Renowned BBC Sport commentator Andrew Cotter, who hosted the event, emphasised the purity of The Boat Race in today’s sporting landscape. “In the modern era of sport, when so much is inflated by money and professionalism, this is sport stripped back to its essence,” he said. 

“It is pure competition, it is about winning and losing. And I know that’s how the athletes feel about it, but they also feel that this is where they will make friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Historic firsts and environmental commitments

This year’s event will also see a landmark moment in Boat Race history. Sarah Winckless MBE will become the first woman to umpire the Men’s Boat Race on the Championship Course. Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE will oversee the Women’s Boat Race.

Additionally, The Boat Race Company, alongside the Cambridge and Oxford University Boat Clubs, have given their support to the London Rivers’ Pledge, a 10-year environmental initiative focused on improving water quality and sustainability on the Thames and beyond.

With the crews now announced and excitement continuing to build, all eyes will be on the Thames this April as Cambridge and Oxford prepare to write the next chapter in their historic rivalry.
 

The stage has been set for The Boat Race 2025, with Cambridge University Boat Club announcing its Women’s and Men’s Blue Boats at the historic Battersea Power Station in London.

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Yes

On 27 March 2025, Gaia’s control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre switched off the spacecraft’s subsystems and sent it into a ‘retirement orbit’ around the Sun.

Though the spacecraft’s operations are now over, the scientific exploitation of Gaia’s data has just begun.

Launched in 2013, Gaia has transformed our understanding of the cosmos by mapping the positions, distances, motions, and properties of nearly two billion stars and other celestial objects. It has provided the largest, most precise multi-dimensional map of our galaxy ever created, revealing its structure and evolution in unprecedented detail.

The mission uncovered evidence of past galactic mergers, identified new star clusters, contributed to the discovery of exoplanets and black holes, mapped millions of quasars and galaxies, and tracked hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets. The mission has also enabled the creation of the best visualisation of how our galaxy might look to an outside observer.

“The data from the Gaia satellite has and is transforming our understanding of the Milky Way, how it formed, how it has evolved and how it will evolve,” said Dr Nicholas Walton from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, lead of the Gaia UK project team. “Gaia has been in continuous operation for over 10 years, faultless, without interruption, reflecting the quality of the engineering, with significant elements of Gaia designed and built in the UK. But now it is time for its retirement. Gaia has finished its observations of the night sky. But the analysis of the Gaia mission data continues. Later in 2026 sees the next Gaia Data Release 4, to further underpin new discovery unravelling the beauty and mystery of the cosmos.”

Gaia far exceeded its planned lifetime of five years, and its fuel reserves are dwindling. The Gaia team considered how best to dispose of the spacecraft in line with ESA’s efforts to responsibly dispose of its missions.

They wanted to find a way to prevent Gaia from drifting back towards its former home near the scientifically valuable second Lagrange point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system and minimise any potential interference with other missions in the region.

“Switching off a spacecraft at the end of its mission sounds like a simple enough job,” said Gaia Spacecraft Operator Tiago Nogueira. “But spacecraft really don’t want to be switched off.

“We had to design a decommissioning strategy that involved systematically picking apart and disabling the layers of redundancy that have safeguarded Gaia for so long, because we don’t want it to reactivate in the future and begin transmitting again if its solar panels find sunlight.”

On 27 March, the Gaia control team ran through this series of passivation activities. One final use of Gaia’s thrusters moved the spacecraft away from L2 and into a stable retirement orbit around the Sun that will minimise the chance that it comes within 10 million kilometres of Earth for at least the next century.

The team then deactivated and switched off the spacecraft’s instruments and subsystems one by one, before deliberately corrupting its onboard software. The communication subsystem and the central computer were the last to be deactivated.

Gaia’s final transmission to ESOC mission control marked the conclusion of an intentional and carefully orchestrated farewell to a spacecraft that has tirelessly mapped the sky for over a decade.

Though Gaia itself has now gone silent, its contributions to astronomy will continue to shape research for decades. Its vast and expanding data archive remains a treasure trove for scientists, refining knowledge of galactic archaeology, stellar evolution, exoplanets and much more.

“No other mission has had such an impact over such a broad range of astrophysics. It continues to be the source of over 2,000 peer-reviewed papers per year, more than any other space mission,” said Gaia UK team member Dr Dafydd Wyn Evans, also from the Institute of Astronomy. “It is sad that its observing days are over, but work is continuing in Cambridge, and across Europe, to process and calibrate the final data so that Gaia will still be making its impact felt for many years in the future.”

A workhorse of galactic exploration, Gaia has charted the maps that future explorers will rely on to make new discoveries. The star trackers on ESA’s Euclid spacecraft use Gaia data to precisely orient the spacecraft. ESA’s upcoming Plato mission will explore exoplanets around stars characterised by Gaia and may follow up on new exoplanetary systems discovered by Gaia.

The Gaia control team also used the spacecraft’s final weeks to run through a series of technology tests. The team tested Gaia’s micro propulsion system under different challenging conditions to examine how it had aged over more than ten years in the harsh environment of space. The results may benefit the development of future ESA missions relying on similar propulsion systems, such as the LISA mission.

The Gaia spacecraft holds a deep emotional significance for those who worked on it. As part of its decommissioning, the names of around 1500 team members who contributed to its mission were used to overwrite some of the back-up software stored in Gaia’s onboard memory.

Personal farewell messages were also written into the spacecraft’s memory, ensuring that Gaia will forever carry a piece of its team with it as it drifts through space.

As Gaia Mission Manager Uwe Lammers put it: “We will never forget Gaia, and Gaia will never forget us.”

The Cambridge Gaia DPAC team is responsible for the analysis and generation of the Gaia photometric and spectro-photometric data products, and it also generated the Gaia photometric science alert stream for the duration of the satellite's in-flight operations.

Adapted from a media release by the European Space Agency. 

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has been powered down, after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.

Artist's impression of the Milky Way

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Yes

We were delighted to welcome pupils from Warrington’s Lymm High School, Ipswich High School, The Charter School in North Dulwich, Rickmansworth School, Sutton Valance School in Maidstone as well as schools closer to home such as St Peter’s Huntingdon, Fenstanton Primary School, Barton Primary School, Impington Village College and St Andrews School in Soham. 

Running over two days (25/26 March 2025) and held in the Cambridge Sports Centre, students went on a great alien hunt with Dr Matt Bothwell from the Institute of Astronomy, stepped back in time to explore Must Farm with Department of Archaeology and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit as well as learning to disagree well with Dr Elizabeth Phillips from The Woolf Institute. 

Schools had a choice of workshops from a range of departments including, how to think like an engineer and making sustainable food with biotechnology with researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, as well as the chance to get hands-on experience in the world of materials science and explore how properties of materials can be influenced by temperature at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. 

The Department of Veterinary Medicine offered students the opportunity to find out what a career in veterinary medicine may look like with workshops on animal x-rays, how different professionals work together to treat animals in a veterinary hospital as well as meeting the departments horses and cows and learn how veterinarians diagnose and treat these large animals. 

Students also had the opportunity to learn about antibodies and our immune system with the MRC Toxicology Unit. The students learnt about the incredible job antibodies do defending our bodies against harmful invaders like bacteria and viruses. 

Alongside this, a maths trail, developed by Cambridgeshire County Council, guided students around the West Cambridge site whilst testing their maths skills with a number of problems to solve. 

Now in their third year, the Cambridge Festival schools days are offering students the opportunity to experience studying at Cambridge with a series of curriculum linked talks and hands on workshops.   

The Cambridge Festival runs from 19 March – 4 April and is a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge. The public have the chance to meet some of the researchers and thought-leaders working in some of the pioneering fields that will impact us all.

Over 500 KS2 and KS3 students from as far away as Warrington got the chance to experience studying at the University of Cambridge with a selection of lectures and workshops held as part of the Cambridge Festival. 

Students make antibody keychains during a workshop with the MRC Toxicology Unit

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Yes

The memorable evening, witnessed by over 2,000 spectators, set the perfect stage for the announcement of a new formal partnership between Cambridge University Association Football Club (CUAFC) and Cambridge United FC, strengthening the bond between the historic footballing institutions of the city.

The women’s match opened the night in dramatic fashion, with Cambridge securing a thrilling 3-2 comeback victory. Despite trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Light Blues displayed resilience and attacking intent in the second half. Johanna Niggemann (Gonville & Caius) equalised before Sakina Dhirani (Newnham) put Cambridge ahead. Oxford responded with a goal to level the score, but Alissa Sattentau (King’s) struck late to seal a hard-fought win, sending the home fans into jubilation.

Buoyed by the women’s success, the men’s team delivered a commanding performance, clinching a dominant 4-1 victory to secure their first Varsity triumph since 2019. Cambridge's attacking pressure paid off in the 38th minute when Cai La-Trobe Roberts (Jesus) broke the deadlock with a composed finish. Moments before halftime, he doubled his tally from the penalty spot. Asa Campbell (Fitzwilliam) extended the lead early in the second half, before La-Trobe Roberts completed his hat-trick with another spot-kick, sealing a comprehensive win. Although Oxford’s Captain, Noah Fletcher, converted a penalty late on, Cambridge’s dominance was never in doubt, with midfielders Captain Reece Linney (Girton) and Jesse Tapnack (Trinity) controlling the game throughout.

Following the Light Blues’ sensational Varsity double, Cambridge United FC and CUAFC announced a groundbreaking new partnership intended to deepen and develop collaboration between the two clubs to benefit the wider City of Cambridge community.

Professor David Cardwell, President Elect of CUAFC, highlighted the significance of the partnership, stating:“Cambridge can rightly lay claim to being the global birthplace of football, and CUAFC is proud to be unofficially ‘the oldest football club in the world’. The DNA of the game was discovered here in the city in 1848 when the first game took place on Parker’s Piece under what are now the modern rules.

“Over the last two years, Cambridge United and the University have developed a strong partnership in a number of different areas. We were very grateful that the Varsity matches were once again hosted so well at the Cledara Abbey Stadium. We agree that now is the right time to build on this and seek to deepen the relationship between our two football clubs. There is much we can potentially do together to help each other as clubs, and we share a desire to do more to help the City of Cambridge celebrate its status as the birthplace of the global game.”

Godric Smith CBE, Chair of the Cambridge United Foundation and Director at the Club, echoed these sentiments, emphasising the potential benefits of the collaboration: “Cambridge United is proud to be the professional football club from the university city that gave football to the world, so it is logical and long overdue to have a formal partnership between our two football clubs on both the men’s and women’s side.

“We are at the beginning and will work out the detail of the first steps over the coming months, but there is a united desire to explore how we can best help each other and, most importantly, the City of Cambridge. Areas of collaboration could include merchandising, facilities, sports science and coaching, data, community work and mentoring. We have a lot of resources and expertise between us, and it will be exciting to see how we can potentially make best use of them together over the months and years ahead.”

The announcement of the partnership capped off a remarkable night of football at the Cledara Abbey Stadium. With both the men’s and women’s teams showcasing their talent and determination on the pitch, and a new era of cooperation between Cambridge United and CUAFC beginning, the city’s footballing future looks brighter than ever.

Cambridge University football teams enjoyed a historic night on Friday 21 March, as both the men’s and women’s squads claimed stunning victories over Oxford in the football Varsity matches at Cambridge United FC’s Cledara Abbey Stadium.

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Yes

A key goal of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has been to see further than ever before into the distant past of our Universe, when the first galaxies were forming after the Big Bang, a period know as cosmic dawn.

Researchers studying one of those very early galaxies have now made a discovery in the spectrum of its light, that challenges our established understanding of the Universe’s early history. Their results are reported in the journal Nature.

Webb discovered the incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed at just 330 million years after the Big Bang. Researchers used the galaxy’s brightness in different infrared filters to estimate its redshift, which measures a galaxy’s distance from Earth based on how its light has been stretched out during its journey through expanding space.

The NIRCam imaging yielded an initial redshift estimate of 12.9. To confirm its extreme redshift, an international team led by Dr Joris Witstok, previously of the University of Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology, observed the galaxy using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument.

The resulting spectrum confirmed the redshift to be 13.0. This equates to a galaxy seen just 330 million years after the Big Bang, a small fraction of the Universe’s present age of 13.8 billion years.

But an unexpected feature also stood out: one specific, distinctly bright wavelength of light, identified as the Lyman-α emission radiated by hydrogen atoms. This emission was far stronger than astronomers thought possible at this early stage in the Universe’s development.

“The early Universe was bathed in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen,” said co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino from Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “Most of this haze was lifted in a process called reionisation, which was completed about one billion years after the Big Bang.

“GS-z13-1 is seen when the Universe was only 330 million years old, yet it shows a surprisingly clear, telltale signature of Lyman-α emission that can only be seen once the surrounding fog has fully lifted. This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise.”

Before and during the epoch of reionisation, neutral hydrogen fog surrounding galaxies blocked any energetic ultraviolet light they emitted, much like the filtering effect of coloured glass. Until enough stars had formed and were able to ionise the hydrogen gas, no such light — including Lyman-α emission — could escape from these fledgling galaxies to reach Earth.

The confirmation of Lyman-α radiation from this galaxy has great implications for our understanding of the early Universe. “We really shouldn’t have found a galaxy like this, given our understanding of the way the Universe has evolved,” said co-author Kevin Hainline from the University of Arizona. “We could think of the early Universe as shrouded with a thick fog that would make it exceedingly difficult to find even powerful lighthouses peeking through, yet here we see the beam of light from this galaxy piercing the veil.”

The source of the Lyman-α radiation from this galaxy is not yet known, but it may include the first light from the earliest generation of stars to form in the Universe. “The large bubble of ionised hydrogen surrounding this galaxy might have been created by a peculiar population of stars — much more massive, hotter and more luminous than stars formed at later epochs, and possibly representative of the first generation of stars,” said Witstok, who is now based at the Cosmic Dawn Center at the University of Copenhagen. A powerful active galactic nucleus, driven by one of the first supermassive black holes, is another possibility identified by the team.

The team plans further follow-up observations of GS-z13-1, aiming to obtain more information about the nature of this galaxy and origin of its strong Lyman-α radiation. Whatever the galaxy is concealing, it is certain to illuminate a new frontier in cosmology.

JWST is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The data for this result were captured as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES).

Reference:
Joris Witstok et al. ‘Witnessing the onset of reionization through Lyman-α emission at redshift 13.’ Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08779-5

Adapted from an ESA media release.

Astronomers have identified a bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in the very early Universe. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.

This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise

Roberto Maiolino

JADES-GS-z13-1 in the GOODS-S field

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Yes

An international team of scientists have uncovered a thriving underwater ecosystem off the coast of Antarctica that had never before been accessible to humans.

The team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, were working in the Bellingshausen Sea off the coast of Antarctica when a massive iceberg broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf in January of this year.

The team, on board Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too), changed their plans and reached the newly exposed seafloor 12 days later, becoming the first to investigate the area.

Their expedition was the first detailed study of the geology, physical oceanography, and biology beneath such a large area once covered by a floating ice shelf. The A-84 iceberg was approximately 510 square kilometres (209 square miles) in size, and revealed an equivalent area of seafloor when it broke away from the ice shelf.

"We seized upon the moment, changed our expedition plan, and went for it so we could look at what was happening in the depths below," said expedition co-chief scientist Dr Patricia Esquete from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. "We didn't expect to find such a beautiful, thriving ecosystem. Based on the size of the animals, the communities we observed have been there for decades, maybe even hundreds of years.”

Using Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle, ROV SuBastian, the team observed the deep seafloor for eight days and found flourishing ecosystems at depths as great as 1300 meters.

Their observations include large corals and sponges supporting an array of animal life, including icefish, giant sea spiders, and octopus. The discovery offers new insights into how ecosystems function beneath floating sections of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Little is known about what lies beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves. In 2021, British Antarctic Survey researchers first reported signs of bottom-dwelling life beneath the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in the Southern Weddell Sea. The current expedition was the first to use an ROV to explore this remote environment.

The team was surprised by the significant biomass and biodiversity of the ecosystems and suspect they have discovered several new species.

Deep-sea ecosystems typically rely on nutrients from the surface slowly raining down to the seafloor. For centuries, the ecosystems under the ice shelf have been covered by ice almost 150 metres thick, completely cutting them off from surface nutrients. "The fact that we found long-living species suggests that the lateral transport, which mostly consists of glacial meltwater from the ice shelf, could be the source of the nutrients to sustain the life we found," said team member Dr Laura Cimoli, from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

The newly exposed Antarctic seafloor also allowed the team, with scientists from Portugal, the United Kingdom, Chile, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, and the United States, to gather critical data on the past behaviour of the larger Antarctic ice sheet. The ice sheet has been shrinking and losing mass over the last few decades due to climate change.

“The ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is a major contributor to sea level rise worldwide,” said expedition co-chief scientist Sasha Montelli of University College London (UCL). “Our work is critical for providing longer-term context of these recent changes, improving our ability to make projections of future change — projections that can inform actionable policies. We will undoubtedly make new discoveries as we continue to analyse this data.”

“We were thrilled by the opportunity to explore the newly exposed seafloor,” said team member Dr Svetlana Radionovskaya from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “The research will provide key insights into ice sheet dynamics, oceanography and sub-ice shelf ecosystems. At a time when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting at an alarming rate, understanding these dynamics and their impacts is crucial.”

The oceanography team, led by Cimoli in collaboration with the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, used autonomous underwater vehicles to characterise the ocean circulation of the region and study the impacts of glacial meltwater on the physical and chemical seawater properties. "Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are a nexus point for ocean circulation, so changes that happen around Antarctica can affect global ocean circulation and global climate," said Cimoli.

The researchers are also investigating how the iceberg calving event has contributed to mix the upper ocean, not just in the recently exposed area, but also further downstream as the iceberg floats away. As the giant iceberg drifts, it can generate turbulence that mixes water properties and could potentially mix the deep nutrient-rich water with the surface waters, fuelling biological productivity. 

The expedition was part of Challenger 150, a global cooperative focused on deep-sea biological research and endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) as an Ocean Decade Action.

“The science team was originally in this remote region to study the seafloor and ecosystem at the interface between ice and sea,” said Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director, Dr Jyotika Virmani. “Being right there when this iceberg calved from the ice shelf presented a rare scientific opportunity. Serendipitous moments are part of the excitement of research at sea – they offer the chance to be the first to witness the untouched beauty of our world.” 

Svetlana Radionovskaya is a Junior Research Fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Laura Cimoli is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.

Adapted from a media release by the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Inset image: Dr Cimoli (right) and Dr Meyer (UEA, left) prepare an underwater glider for deployment. Credit: Alex Ingle/Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Scientists explore a seafloor area newly exposed by iceberg A-84; discover vibrant communities of ancient sponges and corals. 

Deep-sea coral at a depth of 1200 metres

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Yes

The Spotlight on Spinouts 2025 report, produced by the Royal Academy of Engineering in collaboration with Beauhurst, analyses annual trends in UK spinouts. The University of Cambridge ranks second to Oxford for the number of spinouts created since 2011, with Imperial in third. However, in the last year, Cambridge has spun out 26 new companies, showing the largest increase in the number of spinouts among the top three.

According to the report, East of England spinouts secured 35.0% of total investment, leading all regions. The area hosted two of the top five spinout fundraisings in 2024, including a £450 million raise by Cambridge spinout, Bicycle Therapeutics. The South Cambridgeshire-based company develops cancer treatments, with the investment aimed at supporting its R&D efforts.

Dr Jim Glasheen, Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm, said: “This rapid increase in the number of spinouts coming out of Cambridge reflects our continued focus on accelerating Cambridge innovations as well as the impact of our newer initiatives, such as the Founders at the University of Cambridge programme and the Technology Investment Fund.”

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge added: “It’s heartening to see the growth in spinouts from Cambridge and across the sector as a whole. University entrepreneurship has an increasingly vital role to play in driving UK economic growth and addressing some of our most pressing societal challenges. As one of the world’s top science and tech clusters, Cambridge has a responsibility to deliver innovation-led economic growth for the UK and we have ambitious plans to further strengthen our capabilities in this regard.”

Read more about Cambridge spinouts in Cambridge Enterprise's Annual Review 2025

Of the UK’s top three universities for spinouts – Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial - Cambridge saw the most growth in 2024, according to a new report on trends in UK academic spinouts.

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Yes

During his visit he saw the proposed city-centre site of Cambridge’s new flagship innovation hub, which was endorsed by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves earlier this year, and heard about plans for the space to support venture-backed, rapidly scaling companies. The hub will connect entrepreneurs, investors, and corporates, serving as the UK’s equivalent to Lab Central in Boston or Station F in Paris – a beacon for global talent and capital.

While he was in the city, the Minister unveiled Innovate Cambridge’s new Advisory Council. Featuring global tech and science pioneers, the Council will catalyse the Cambridge cluster’s potential to deliver substantial societal, environmental and economic benefits, and empower the city to become a global centre for responsible innovation.

He also spoke on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme about Cambridge’s role in the development of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor. In a special edition, the programme focused on government plans to boost UK science and technology growth by linking up the two cities to create new homes, infrastructure, leisure facilities, office and laboratory space.

As part of his visit, the Minister toured the Cambridge West Innovation District, the transformative project that will allow industry to co-locate at scale with the University’s world-leading academic community. Once complete, the campus is expected to employ 14,000 people and will be the leading location in Europe for AI, quantum and climate research.

At the West Hub, a publicly accessible multi-purpose facility, Lord Vallance met with local authority leaders from across the region. He then toured the site and saw key research locations including the Whittle Laboratory, home to the UK’s Integrated Technology Accelerator for zero-carbon flight, and the Computer Lab, a long-standing driver of tech spinouts.

Visiting the Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics), he heard about the impact of industry collaboration with major companies like Hitachi and ARM, and the role that the Department’s new state-of-the-art facilities will play in setting the stage for a new era of scientific discovery in areas such as ‘green tech’ – including long-lasting batteries – next-generation ICT devices, and quantum healthcare technology.”

The visit concluded with a roundtable discussion, where senior representatives from across Cambridge’s innovation ecosystem discussed ways to accelerate company growth, attract global talent, and secure new foreign direct investment – delivering growth which will benefit the whole UK.

Lord Vallance said: "The Oxford and Cambridge Corridor is a world-leading, high-growth, innovation cluster and we need to harness the opportunities that innovators are coming up with here. By backing our strengths in the Corridor, we can boost economic growth across the country, unlocking up to £78 billion for our economy, and deliver on our Plan for Change."

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: "Cambridge is a mature innovation ecosystem spanning many high-growth sectors, including AI, technology, and life sciences. By working with the government and other partners, we can accelerate our impact even further, unlock the amazing potential of University research and innovation, and help drive UK growth."

Science Minister and Oxford-Cambridge Innovation Champion, Lord Patrick Vallance, visited Cambridge to see how the world’s most intensive science and technology cluster can drive economic growth.

The Oxford and Cambridge Corridor is a world-leading, high-growth, innovation cluster and we need to harness the opportunities that innovators are coming up with here.

Lord Patrick Vallance, Science Minister

From left, Dr Diarmuid O'Brien, Lord Patrick Vallance, and Professor Deborah Prentice at the proposed innovation hub site.

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Yes

The system, Aardvark Weather, has been supported by the Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft Research and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts. It provides a blueprint for a new approach to weather forecasting with the potential to transform current practices. The results are reported in the journal Nature.

“Aardvark reimagines current weather prediction methods offering the potential to make weather forecasts faster, cheaper, more flexible and more accurate than ever before, helping to transform weather prediction in both developed and developing countries,” said Professor Richard Turner from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “Aardvark is thousands of times faster than all previous weather forecasting methods.”

Current weather forecasts are generated through a complex set of stages, each taking several hours to run on powerful supercomputers. Aside from daily usage, the development, maintenance and use of these systems require significant time and large teams of experts.

More recently, research by Huawei, Google, and Microsoft has shown that one component of the weather forecasting pipeline, the numerical solver (which calculates how weather evolves over time), can be replaced with AI, resulting in faster and more accurate predictions. This combination of AI and traditional approaches is now being used by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

But with Aardvark, researchers have replaced the entire weather prediction pipeline with a single, simple machine learning model. The new model takes in observations from satellites, weather stations and other sensors and outputs both global and local forecasts.

This fully AI driven approach means predictions that were once produced using many models – each requiring a supercomputer and a large support team to run – can now be produced in minutes on a desktop computer.

When using just 10% of the input data of existing systems, Aardvark already outperforms the United States national GFS forecasting system on many variables. It is also competitive with United States Weather Service forecasts that use input from dozens of weather models and analysis by expert human forecasters.

“These results are just the beginning of what Aardvark can achieve,” said first author Anna Allen, from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology. “This end-to-end learning approach can be easily applied to other weather forecasting problems, for example hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes. Beyond weather, its applications extend to broader Earth system forecasting, including air quality, ocean dynamics, and sea ice prediction.”

The researchers say that one of the most exciting aspects of Aardvark is its flexibility and simple design. Because it learns directly from data it can be quickly adapted to produce bespoke forecasts for specific industries or locations, whether that's predicting temperatures for African agriculture or wind speeds for a renewable energy company in Europe.

This contrasts to traditional weather prediction systems where creating a customised system takes years of work by large teams of researchers.

“The weather forecasting systems we all rely on have been developed over decades, but in just 18 months, we’ve been able to build something that’s competitive with the best of these systems, using just a tenth of the data on a desktop computer,” said Turner, who is also Lead Researcher for Weather Prediction at the Alan Turing Institute.

This capability has the potential to transform weather prediction in developing countries where access to the expertise and computational resources required to develop conventional systems is not typically available.

“Unleashing AI’s potential will transform decision-making for everyone from policymakers and emergency planners to industries that rely on accurate weather forecasts,” said Dr Scott Hosking from The Alan Turing Institute. “Aardvark’s breakthrough is not just about speed, it’s about access. By shifting weather prediction from supercomputers to desktop computers, we can democratise forecasting, making these powerful technologies available to developing nations and data-sparse regions around the world.”

“Aardvark would not have been possible without decades of physical-model development by the community, and we are particularly indebted to ECMWF for their ERA5 dataset which is essential for training Aardvark,” said Turner.

“It is essential that academia and industry work together to address technological challenges and leverage new opportunities that AI offers,” said Matthew Chantry from ECMWF. “Aardvark’s approach combines both modularity with end-to-end forecasting optimisation, ensuring effective use of the available datasets."

“Aardvark represents not only an important achievement in AI weather prediction but it also reflects the power of collaboration and bringing the research community together to improve and apply AI technology in meaningful ways,” said Dr Chris Bishop, from Microsoft Research.

The next steps for Aardvark include developing a new team within the Alan Turing Institute led by Turner, who will explore the potential to deploy Aardvark in the global south and integrate the technology into the Institute’s wider work to develop high-precision environmental forecasting for weather, oceans and sea ice.

Reference:
Anna Allen, Stratis Markou et al. ‘End-to-end data-driven weather prediction.’ Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08897-0

Adapted from a media release by The Alan Turing Institute

A new AI weather prediction system, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, can deliver accurate forecasts tens of times faster and using thousands of times less computing power than current AI and physics-based forecasting systems.

Professor Richard Turner using Aardvark Weather

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Yes

This year’s report analyses the UK’s innovation landscape, by benchmarking industrial sectors against global competitors and delivering key insights into the country’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities. 

The report arrives at a particularly significant moment, with the UK Government placing industrial strategy at the core of its plans to deliver growth, emphasising investment, technology adoption, and high-growth sectors. 

Recent national consultations on scale-up financing, technology adoption, and industrial strategy have highlighted the demand for stronger data and analysis to guide decision making. 

The UK Innovation Report 2025 addresses this call by providing fresh data, deep insights, and expert perspectives to support informed policy making and strategic investment, which have significant implications for the UK's industrial strategy.

 Key findings from this year’s report include:

• There has been a significant decline in the UK’s share of global manufacturing value-added, from 3.1% in 2000 to 1.9% in 2022 
• The UK remains a global leader in government financial support for business research and development but lags in direct funding
• Skills mismatches persist, with 37% of UK workers feeling overqualified for their jobs
• The UK is a leading innovator in renewable energy technologies, ranking fourth in public R&D spending on low-carbon energy
• Compiled by policy experts from the University of Cambridge, the report provides an easy-to-navigate overview of key trends across UK industry.  

Read the full report.

As the UK Government continues to develop its national industrial strategy, the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy group at Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing has unveiled the UK Innovation Report 2025. 

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Yes

Michael Omari Owuo Junior, better known as Stormzy, will receive a Doctorate in Law in recognition of his philanthropic work and impact in a number of fields, including education, music, sport and literature. He launched his Scholarship programme at the University of Cambridge in 2018 funding two Black British students each year covering both their tuition fees and maintenance costs. Three years later, the programme was expanded after HSBC UK agreed to fund a further ten students per year. So far, 55 students have been supported by a Stormzy Scholarship and 2025 will see the largest group graduate so far. The ‘Stormzy effect’ has been credited with being a contributor to an increase in applications to Cambridge from Black students across the UK.

An honorary Doctorate in Letters will be conferred upon the actor Sir Simon Russell Beale.  Renowned for his stage, film and television roles, Sir Simon is an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, where he studied for his undergraduate degree. He is the recipient of two BAFTA awards, three Laurence Olivier Awards and a Tony. He was knighted in 2019.

Professor Angela Davis, the political activist, philosopher and author, will also receive a Doctorate in Letters. A Distinguished Professor Emerita from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor Davis is a radical feminist thinker and prominent civil rights campaigner who was an active member of the Communist Party and champion of the prison abolition movement. She is a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

Lady Arden of Heswall, former Justice of the UK’s Supreme Court, and an Honorary Fellow of Girton College, will receive a Doctorate in Law. She was previously a Judge in the Court of Appeal and before that, at the High Court of Justice, where she was the first female judge assigned to the Chancery Division. She is a former Chair of the Law Commission and a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. She was made a Privy Counsellor in 2000.

A Doctorate in Law will also be conferred on former Olympic rower and current chair of UK Sport, Dame Katherine Grainger. She is one of the most decorated British female Olympians and the only British woman to have won medals at five successive Olympic Games. In November, she was elected as the next chair of the British Olympic Association, the first woman to hold the post. She is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Sir Oliver Hart, is to receive a Doctorate in Science. He is currently the Lewis P and Linda L Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. Hart’s work focuses on the theory of contracts, how parties can write better contracts, and on the social responsibility of business. He was knighted in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours.

Professor Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council, is to be conferred with a Doctorate in Medical Science. Formerly a Staff Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, she is a developmental biologist and immunologist. She is best known for her work on the mechanisms that allow a developing body to take on its correct shape. She was formerly Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization in Heidelberg.

Sir John Rutter is no stranger to Cambridge, being an Honorary Fellow at Clare College and Director of Music at the College from 1975 to 1979. A composer, arranger and conductor of choral music, his work has been performed all over the world. Founder and Director of the Cambridge Singers, Sir John, who was knighted in 2024, will receive a Doctorate in Music.

All eight distinguished individuals have accepted the University Council’s nomination to receive an honorary doctorate. Subject to final approval by the Regent House, the University’s governing body, they are now due to be admitted to their degrees at a special Congregation in the Senate-House on Wednesday 25 June, at which the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, will preside and which will be attended by staff, students and alumni as well as specially invited guests.

Talented individuals from the world of science, music, drama, law, economics, sport and political activism are recognised in the list of distinguished people nominated for honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge this year.

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Yes

The tour included visits to CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center), Greentown Labs, LabCentral, The Engine, MassRobotics, and Harvard Innovation Labs – each playing a vital role in supporting technology startups and scientific enterprise.

The delegates met with entrepreneurs, investors, and research leaders to understand how these organisations facilitate the transition from cutting-edge research to commercial success. They observed how dedicated innovation hubs provide early-stage companies with access to lab space, venture funding, and corporate partnerships, creating an environment where ideas can rapidly develop into high-growth businesses.

The visit highlighted the impact of physical infrastructure in driving innovation. The Engine, for example, supports startups developing breakthrough technologies by offering 200,000 square feet (more than 18,500 m²) of lab space, funding, and specialised resources. Greentown Labs, the largest climate tech incubator in North America, and LabCentral, a shared lab facility for biotech startups, provide entrepreneurs with critical resources and networks to scale their businesses.

These hubs foster dense, high-energy ecosystems where startups, researchers, and investors work in close proximity. Co-location with major research institutions and established tech companies further accelerates innovation by facilitating knowledge exchange and collaboration.

Cambridge, UK, is already a leading centre for research and innovation. However, the visit reinforced the need for investment in dedicated innovation infrastructure alongside the existing world-class science to scale up commercial success. Boston’s innovation growth has been underpinned by over $1.5bn (£1.16bn) in state funding over the past 15 years, ensuring startups have access to space, funding, and industry connections.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, said: "Kendall Square demonstrates what is possible when world-class research, investment, and entrepreneurial ambition come together in a concentrated ecosystem.

"Cambridge, UK, has all the ingredients to be a global leader in science-driven enterprise, but we must ensure our innovation infrastructure matches our research excellence. This visit reinforced the urgency of scaling up our support for deep-tech and life sciences startups to drive economic growth and tackle global challenges."
 

A delegation of university representatives and innovation leaders from Cambridge, UK, recently visited Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to examine one of the world’s most successful innovation hubs.

The British Cambridge delegation in the American Cambridge

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Yes

Today sees the launch of the POrtal for Patient and Public Engagement in Dementia Research (POPPED) website, where anyone can give their feedback on dementia research projects.

Dementia affects 50 million people worldwide and 1 million people in the UK. Current treatments are limited, but research has led to some significant recent advances. For example, the first drugs which slow down the disease are now licensed in the UK and potential dementia blood tests are being trialled.

Scientists are also turning to existing drugs to see if they may be repurposed to treat dementia. As the safety profile of these drugs is already known, the move to clinical trials can be accelerated significantly. Researchers want to ask members of the public which drugs they would like to see prioritised for these clinical trials.

Dr Ben Underwood, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: “One thing that always improves research into medical conditions is the involvement of people with experience of them – in many respects, you are the experts, rather than us.

“As dementia is common, almost everyone has some experience of it, either through family, friends, work or meeting people with dementia in general life. It’s a problem across society and we want a wide range of opinions for the best way to tackle it.”

Dr Underwood has teamed up with Linda Pointon, a Programme Manager at the Department of Psychiatry, to create a website where everyone can give their feedback on dementia research projects. Linda herself has experience of caring for her mother-in-law, who had frontotemporal dementia and passed away in 2020.

Linda said: “We’re launching our website because we want as many people as possible to share their views and help us guide the direction of our research. It’s a great opportunity for all of us who have been affected by dementia, either directly or caring for a friend or relative, to help researchers understand what aspects of these potential treatments are important and meaningful, both in terms of benefits and side-effects.”

The information collected by the POPPED team will be used to help inform AD-SMART, a trial to be led by Imperial College London, which will test several existing drugs alongside a placebo to quickly determine if any can slow early Alzheimer’s progression.

Dr Underwood added: “Instead of asking a few people what might be helpful, our website gives us the opportunity to ask thousands of people. The more people who use it, the more powerful it will be, so I’d encourage everyone to visit the site and tell us what they think. We can use it to work together to beat dementia, a condition whose effects I see in my clinic every day.”

Cambridge researchers are seeking the views of people with lived experience of dementia – patients and their friends and families – on which existing drugs should be repurposed for clinical trials to see whether they can slow or halt the progress of dementia.

One thing that always improves research into medical conditions is the involvement of people with experience of them – in many ways, they are the experts, not us

Ben Underwood

Elderly woman putting pills into pill box for the week - stock photo

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Yes

Using advanced analysis based on full genome sequences, researchers from the University of Cambridge have found evidence that modern humans are the result of a genetic mixing event between two ancient populations that diverged around 1.5 million years ago. About 300,000 years ago, these groups came back together, with one group contributing 80% of the genetic makeup of modern humans and the other contributing 20%.

For the last two decades, the prevailing view in human evolutionary genetics has been that Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, and descended from a single lineage. However, these latest results, reported in the journal Nature Genetics, suggest a more complex story.

“The question of where we come from is one that has fascinated humans for centuries,” said first author Dr Trevor Cousins from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics. “For a long time, it’s been assumed that we evolved from a single continuous ancestral lineage, but the exact details of our origins are uncertain.”

“Our research shows clear signs that our evolutionary origins are more complex, involving different groups that developed separately for more than a million years, then came back to form the modern human species,” said co-author Professor Richard Durbin, also from the Department of Genetics.

While earlier research has already shown that Neanderthals and Denisovans – two now-extinct human relatives – interbred with Homo sapiens around 50,000 years ago, this new research suggests that long before those interactions – around 300,000 years ago – a much more substantial genetic mixing took place. Unlike Neanderthal DNA, which makes up roughly 2% of the genome of non-African modern humans, this ancient mixing event contributed as much as 10 times that amount and is found in all modern humans.

The team’s method relied on analysing modern human DNA, rather than extracting genetic material from ancient bones, and enabled them to infer the presence of ancestral populations that may have otherwise left no physical trace. The data used in the study is from the 1000 Genomes Project, a global initiative that sequenced DNA from populations across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The team developed a computational algorithm called cobraa that models how ancient human populations split apart and later merged back together. They tested the algorithm using simulated data and applied it to real human genetic data from the 1000 Genomes Project.

While the researchers were able to identify these two ancestral populations, they also identified some striking changes that happened after the two populations initially broke apart.

“Immediately after the two ancestral populations split, we see a severe bottleneck in one of them—suggesting it shrank to a very small size before slowly growing over a period of one million years,” said co-author Professor Aylwyn Scally, also from the Department of Genetics. “This population would later contribute about 80% of the genetic material of modern humans, and also seems to have been the ancestral population from which Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged.”

The study also found that genes inherited from the second population were often located away from regions of the genome linked to gene functions, suggesting that they may have been less compatible with the majority genetic background. This hints at a process known as purifying selection, where natural selection removes harmful mutations over time.

“However, some of the genes from the population which contributed a minority of our genetic material, particularly those related to brain function and neural processing, may have played a crucial role in human evolution,” said Cousins.

Beyond human ancestry, the researchers say their method could help to transform how scientists study the evolution of other species. In addition to their analysis of human evolutionary history, they applied the cobraa model to genetic data from bats, dolphins, chimpanzees, and gorillas, finding evidence of ancestral population structure in some but not all of these.

“What’s becoming clear is that the idea of species evolving in clean, distinct lineages is too simplistic,” said Cousins. “Interbreeding and genetic exchange have likely played a major role in the emergence of new species repeatedly across the animal kingdom.”

So who were our mysterious human ancestors? Fossil evidence suggests that species such as Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis lived both in Africa and other regions during this period, making them potential candidates for these ancestral populations, although more research (and perhaps more evidence) will be needed to identify which genetic ancestors corresponded to which fossil group.

Looking ahead, the team hopes to refine their model to account for more gradual genetic exchanges between populations, rather than sharp splits and reunions. They also plan to explore how their findings relate to other discoveries in anthropology, such as fossil evidence from Africa that suggests early humans may have been far more diverse than previously thought.

“The fact that we can reconstruct events from hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago just by looking at DNA today is astonishing,” said Scally. “And it tells us that our history is far richer and more complex than we imagined.”

The research was supported by Wellcome. Aylwyn Scally is a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. Trevor Cousins is a member of Darwin College, Cambridge.

 

Reference:
Trevor Cousins, Aylwyn Scally & Richard Durbin. ‘A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans.’ Nature Genetics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02117-1

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least 2 ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.

Our history is far richer and more complex than we imagined

Aylwyn Scally

Plaster reconstructions of the skulls of human ancestors

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Yes

The South West of England has one of the country’s lowest levels of student progression into higher education. One of the key objectives of the visit was to engage with pupils and teachers in an area that is conspicuously under-represented in applications and admissions to Cambridge.

First stop was Colyton Grammar School, in east Devon, where Professor Prentice talked to school leaders about the barriers encountered by students from the region wishing to attend university. Joining her were representatives from Downing College, which has a particular connection to the area. They were also joined by Mike Nicholson, the University’s Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Participation, and Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation and Collaborative Outreach.

The University of Cambridge and Downing College have partnered with the University of Bristol and the Sutton Trust to support the Colyton Foundation Your Future Story – a programme that aims to support high attaining students from under-resourced backgrounds in the South West to pursue higher education opportunities.

In the evening, the Vice-Chancellor attended a reception in Bristol which was attended by nearly 50 Cambridge alumni, including one who matriculated in 1949.

The following day the Vice-Chancellor travelled to North Somerset for a visit to Priory Community School, part of an Academy Trust in Worle, near Weston-super-Mare. Mike Nicholson led a school assembly for year 11 students. Later that morning, Xanthe Robertson, Access and Recruitment Officer of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, led assemblies for 1,500 students in Years 7 through to 10.

The Vice-Chancellor and colleagues were interviewed by members of a student news team named after the journalist Jill Dando, who grew up in Worle. The visitors noted that among the school’s notable alumni was Stephen Jenkins, Professor of Physical and Computational Surface Chemistry at Cambridge.

The next stop was Weston College, a further and higher education College in Weston-super-Mare that provides education and vocational training to students from the age of 14 through to adulthood. There the group met Sixth Form students to hear about their aspirations.

The final leg of the journey took the Cambridge delegation to St Bede’s Catholic and Sixth Form College in Bristol. The school is part of the HE+ network, through which the University of Cambridge and Colleges work together with schools FE establishments across the country to encourage applications from talented students.

Reflecting on her visit, the Vice-Chancellor said: “Travelling to the South West allowed me to learn more about the region and to understand some of the barriers to aspiration and attainment that prevent bright students from pursuing higher education. The students we met were impressive. Their teachers’ commitment to supporting their educational journey is outstanding. I hope that the outreach partnerships between the University, the Colleges and local schools will help us attract talented students to Cambridge, and will more generally encourage them to consider going to university.”

This visit to the South West followed the Vice-Chancellor’s trip to Rochdale, Manchester and Liverpool a year ago and her visit to Peterborough in the autumn of 2024.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, has led a delegation to Devon, North Somerset and Bristol. It was the first time a serving Cambridge Vice-Chancellor had travelled to the region in an official capacity to engage with local schools and alumni.

The students we met were impressive

Professor Deborah Prentice

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Yes

The visit provided the Minister with an opportunity to meet with senior academics to discuss the success of EU funding streams, such as Horizon, and collaboration with EU institutions, and how this has enabled decisive breakthroughs at Cambridge. 

Professor Erwin Reisner, Professor of Energy and Sustainability, greeted the Minister at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and demonstrated a history of the Chemistry Department’s scientific breakthroughs, before welcoming him to the Reisner Laboratory. During their tour of the Laboratory, Mr Thomas-Symonds also met with Professor Reisner’s team of researchers, some of whom are in receipt of funding from the EU’s prestigious Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship programme.  

Professor Reisner, who has a successful history of securing ERC and Horizon funding awards, then introduced his own work, which focuses on the development of concepts to make fuels, chemicals and plastics from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.  

Mr Thomas-Symonds also received an insight into their research through a series of demonstrations. PhD student Beverly Low supervised him in the Lab’s glovebox, preparing a sample for the solar reforming of biomass waste. Her colleague Andrea Rogolino showed how the team use sunlight to produce hydrogen from biomass waste. 

Professor Erwin Reisner said: “The Minister showed great talent in the lab – he handled a glovebox very well and prepared a sample to produce hydrogen from biomass using solar energy. The visit provided us an opportunity to emphasise the importance of a close alliance with our friends and colleagues in Europe.”

After his tour of the Reisner Lab, the Minister attended a roundtable discussion with Cambridge ERC grant-holders and University leaders. He was joined by academics from across disciplines and heard from those in receipt of funding from a variety of EU funding streams.

The Minister spoke to Professor Chiara Ciccarelli (Professor of Physics), Professor Erwin Reisner (Professor of Energy and Sustainability), Professor Marcos Martinón-Torres (Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science) and Professor David Fairen-Jimenez (Professor of Molecular Engineering and co-founder of successful Cambridge spinouts).

The roundtable was chaired by leading Professor of EU Law, Professor Catherine Barnard, and also included the University’s Director of Research Services, Dr Andrew Jackson. 

Following his visit to the Department of Chemistry, the Minister delivered the Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture, at the University’s Centre for European Legal Studies. 

The Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the Paymaster General and Minister with responsibility for EU relations, visited Cambridge on Thursday 13 March.

Photo credit: Nick Saffell / Cambridge University

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Yes

“Many thousands of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing are missing out on school in India,” said Dr Abhimanyu Sharma, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics, the study’s author. “This has a huge impact on their wellbeing and life chances.”

“One of the main reasons for this very high dropout rate is that their schools do not offer education in sign language.”

Dr Sharma’s study, published today in Language Policy, explains that sign language continues to be ‘shunned’ in most Indian schools because it is still stigmatised as a visible marker of deafness. But, he argues, the alternative preferred by many schools, ‘oralism’ harms the school attainment of deaf students.

“Outside of India, ‘oralism’ is widely criticised but the majority of schools in India continue to use it,” Dr Sharma says. “Gesturing is not sign language, sign language is a language in its own right and these children need it.”

“When I was in primary school in Patna, one of my fellow students was deaf. Sign language was not taught in our school and it was very difficult for him. I would like to support the charities, teachers and policymakers in India who are working hard to improve education for such students today.”

Dr Sharma acknowledges that the Indian Government has taken important steps to make education more inclusive and welcomes measures such as the establishment of the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre in 2015. But, he argues, far more work is needed to ensure that DHH students receive the education which they need and to which they are legally entitled.

Sharma calls for constitutional recognition for Indian Sign Language (ISL) as well as recognition of ISL users as a linguistic minority. Being added to India’s de facto list of official languages would direct more Government financial support to Indian Sign Language.

“Central and state governments need to open more schools and higher education institutes for deaf and hard-of-hearing students,” Sharma also argues.

“In the whole of India, there are only 387 schools for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The Government urgently needs to open many more specialist schools to support the actual number of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, which has been underestimated.”

He points out that deaf and hard-of-hearing people were undercounted in India’s last census because of the use of problematic terminology. The 2011 census reported around 5 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the country but in 2016, the National Association of the Deaf estimated that the true figure was closer to 18 million people.

Sharma also highlights the need for more higher education institutions for these students as there are very few special colleges for them, such as the St. Louis Institute for Deaf and Blind (Chennai, Tamil Nadu). He also calls for an increase in the number of interpreter training programs available across Indian universities.

Dr Sharma advises central and state governments to conduct regular impact assessments of new policy measures to ensure that they are improving inclusion for deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

He also calls on the government to invest in research to support more targeted approaches to teaching and learning for DHH students, and to support public awareness campaigns to tackle biases and negative social attitudes towards deafness.

Dr Sharma’s study examines developments in Indian legislation and policy relating to DHH people since the 1950s. He highlights the fact that parliamentary debates in the Upper House about DHH people declined from 17 in the 1950s, to just 7 in the 1990s, before rising to 96 in the 2010s.

India’s language policy requires pupils to learn three languages at the secondary stage of schooling. Given the problematic nature of the three-language formula for deaf students, the 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act rescinds this requirement for these learners and decrees that they should learn only one language.

The drawback of the 1995 Act, however, is that it does not mention the use of sign language and does not specify how language learning for such learners will be realised. Dr Sharma recognises that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 brought significant improvements but highlights the gap between decrees and implementation. The 2016 Act decrees that the Government and local authorities shall take measures to train and employ teachers who are qualified in sign language and to promote the use of sign language.

“In practice, India does not have enough teachers trained to support deaf and hard-of-hearing students, but I am positive that the country can achieve this,” Dr Sharma said.

References

A Sharma, ‘India’s language policy for deaf and hard-of-hearing people’, Language Policy (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s10993-025-09729-7

For the % of India’s deaf and hard-of-hearing children out-of-school in 2014, see National Sample Survey of Estimation of Out-of-School Children in the Age 6–13, Social and Rural Research Institute 2014

Around one in five (over 19%) of India’s deaf and hard-of-hearing children were out-of-school in 2014, according to a survey conducted for the Indian Government. A new study calls on the Government to address this ongoing educational crisis by recognising Indian Sign Language as an official language; rejecting ‘oralism’, the belief that deaf people can and should communicate exclusively by lipreading and speech; and opening more schools and higher education institutes for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students.

India does not have enough teachers trained to support deaf and hard-of-hearing students

Abhimanyu Sharma

Female students in an Indian classroom. Photo: Yogendra Singh via Unsplash

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Yes

The technique – known as deep brain stimulation – is to be trialled at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and King’s College Hospital, London. The team behind the Brain-PACER: Brain Pacemaker Addiction Control to End Relapse study will soon be recruiting individuals with severe alcohol or opioid addiction who are interested in taking part.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that delivers ongoing stimulation to the brain. DBS acts as a brain pacemaker to normalise abnormal brain activity. It is well-tolerated, effective and widely used for neurological disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Although there have been several proof-of-concept studies that suggest DBS is effective in addictions, Brain-PACER – a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Kings College London and the University of Oxford – is the first major, multicentre study to use DBS to treat craving and relapse in severe addiction.

Chief Investigator Professor Valerie Voon, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, said: “While many people who experience alcohol or drug addiction can, with the right support, control their impulses, for some people, their addiction is so severe that no treatments are effective. Their addiction is hugely harmful to their health and wellbeing, to their relationships and their everyday lives.

“Initial evidence suggests that deep brain stimulation may be able to help these individuals manage their conditions. We’ve seen how effective it can be for other neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addiction.”

The primary aim of the Brain-PACER study is to assess the effects of DBS to treat alcohol and opioid addiction in a randomised controlled trial study. Its mission is twofold: to develop effective treatments for addiction and to understand the brain mechanisms that drive addiction disorders.

DBS is a neurosurgical treatment that involves implanting a slender electrode in the brain and a pacemaker under general anaesthesia. These electrodes deliver electrical impulses to modulate neural activity, which can help alleviate symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Keyoumars Ashkan, Professor of Neurosurgery at King’s College Hospital and the lead surgeon for the study, said: “Deep brain stimulation is a powerful surgical technique that can transform lives. It will be a major leap forward if we can show efficacy in this very difficult disease with huge burden to the patients and society.”

During surgery, thin electrodes are carefully placed in precise locations of the brain. These locations are chosen based on the condition being treated. For addiction, the electrodes are placed in areas involved in reward, motivation, and decision-making.

Harry Bulstrode, Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, said: "We see first-hand how deep brain stimulation surgery can be life-changing for patients with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Thanks to this trial, I am now hopeful that we can help patients and their families – who have often struggled for years – by targeting the parts of the brain linked to addiction."

Dr David Okai, Visiting Senior Lecturer from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, added: “DBS is safe, reversible and adjustable, so it offers a flexible option for managing chronic conditions. We hope it will offer a lifeline to help improve the quality of life for patients whose treatment until now has been unsuccessful.”

Details on the trial, including criteria for participation, can be found on the Brain-PACER website.

The research is supported by the Medical Research Council, UK Research & Innovation.

People suffering from severe alcohol and opioid addiction are to be offered a revolutionary new technique involving planting electrodes in the brain to modulate brain activity and cravings and improve self-control.

We’ve seen how effective deep brain stimulation can be for neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addiction

Valerie Voon

Graphic demonstrating deep brain stimulation

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Yes

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge and the Eindhoven University of Technology, have created an organic semiconductor that forces electrons to move in a spiral pattern, which could improve the efficiency of OLED displays in television and smartphone screens, or power next-generation computing technologies such as spintronics and quantum computing.

The semiconductor they developed emits circularly polarised light—meaning the light carries information about the ‘handedness’ of electrons. The internal structure of most inorganic semiconductors, like silicon, is symmetrical, meaning electrons move through them without any preferred direction.

However, in nature, molecules often have a chiral (left- or right-handed) structure: like human hands, chiral molecules are mirror images of one another. Chirality plays an important role in biological processes like DNA formation, but it is a difficult phenomenon to harness and control in electronics.

But by using molecular design tricks inspired by nature, the researchers created a chiral semiconductor by nudging stacks of semiconducting molecules to form ordered right-handed or left-handed spiral columns. Their results are reported in the journal Science.

One promising application for chiral semiconductors is in display technology. Current displays often waste a significant amount of energy due to the way screens filter light. The chiral semiconductor developed by the researchers naturally emits light in a way that could reduce these losses, making screens brighter and more energy-efficient.

“When I started working with organic semiconductors, many people doubted their potential, but now they dominate display technology,” said Professor Sir Richard Friend from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, who co-led the research. “Unlike rigid inorganic semiconductors, molecular materials offer incredible flexibility—allowing us to design entirely new structures, like chiral LEDs. It’s like working with a Lego set with every kind of shape you can imagine, rather than just rectangular bricks.”

The semiconductor is based on a material called triazatruxene (TAT) that self-assembles into a helical stack, allowing electrons to spiral along its structure, like the thread of a screw.

“When excited by blue or ultraviolet light, self-assembled TAT emits bright green light with strong circular polarisation—an effect that has been difficult to achieve in semiconductors until now,” said co-first author Marco Preuss, from the Eindhoven University of Technology. “The structure of TAT allows electrons to move efficiently while affecting how light is emitted.”

By modifying OLED fabrication techniques, the researchers successfully incorporated TAT into working circularly polarised OLEDs (CP-OLEDs). These devices showed record-breaking efficiency, brightness, and polarisation levels, making them the best of their kind.

“We’ve essentially reworked the standard recipe for making OLEDs like we have in our smartphones, allowing us to trap a chiral structure within a stable, non-crystallising matrix,” said co-first author Rituparno Chowdhury, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “This provides a practical way to create circularly polarised LEDs, something that has long eluded the field.”

The work is part of a decades-long collaboration between Friend’s research group and the group of Professor Bert Meijer from the Eindhoven University of Technology. “This is a real breakthrough in making a chiral semiconductor,” said Meijer. “By carefully designing the molecular structure, we’ve coupled the chirality of the structure to the motion of the electrons and that’s never been done at this level before.”

The chiral semiconductors represent a step forward in the world of organic semiconductors, which now support an industry worth over $60 billion (about £45 billion). Beyond displays, this development also has implications for quantum computing and spintronics—a field of research that uses the spin, or inherent angular momentum, of electrons to store and process information, potentially leading to faster and more secure computing systems.

The research was supported in part by the European Union’s Marie Curie Training Network and the European Research Council. Richard Friend is a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Rituparno Chowdhury is a member of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Reference

Rituparno Chowdhury, Marco D Preuss et al. ‘Circularly polarized electroluminescence from chiral supramolecular semiconductor thin films.’ Science (2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adt3011

Researchers have advanced a decades-old challenge in the field of organic semiconductors, opening new possibilities for the future of electronics.

It’s like working with a Lego set with every kind of shape you can imagine, rather than just rectangular bricks

Richard Friend

Confocal microscopy image of a chiral semiconductor

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Yes

Too Hot to Think Straight, Too Cold to Panic, a new report from Cambridge Judge Business School, BCG and the University of Cambridge’s climaTraces Lab argues that failing to invest comes with significant economic consequences. 

Allowing global warming to reach 3°C by 2100 could reduce cumulative economic output by 15% to 34%. Alternatively, investing 1% to 2% in mitigation and adaptation would limit warming to 2°C, reducing economic damages to 2% to 4%. This net cost of inaction is equivalent to 11% to 27% of cumulative GDP—equivalent to three times global health care spending, or eight times the amount needed to lift the world above the global poverty line by 2100.

“Research on climate change impacts across all regions and sectors is expanding rapidly,” said Kamiar Mohaddes, an Associate Professor in Economics and Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School and Director of the climaTRACES Lab.

Read: The compelling economic case

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) offer a strong case for investing in climate mitigation and adaptation to avoid damage to the global economy. 

Research on climate change impacts across all regions and sectors is expanding rapidly

Kamiar Mohaddes

Front page of report

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Yes

Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn.

Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry medication into the lungs.

The majority of asthma attacks occur at nighttime or early in the morning. Although this may in part be due to cooler nighttime air and exposure to dust mites and allergens, it also suggests that circadian rhythms – our ‘body clocks’ – likely play a role.

Researchers at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute, a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RPH), wanted to explore whether these circadian rhythms may also have an impact on our ability to diagnose asthma, using routinely performed clinical testing.

Typically, people with suspected asthma will be offered a spirometry test, which involves taking a deep breath in, then breathing out hard and fast for as long as possible into a tube to assess lung function. They will then be administered the drug salbutamol via an inhaler or nebuliser, and shortly afterwards retake the spirometry test.

Salbutamol works by opening up the airways, so a positive test result – that is, a difference in readings between the initial and follow-up spirometry tests – means that the airways must have been narrower or obstructed to begin with, suggesting that the patient could have asthma.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) has recently set up the Electronic Patient Record Research and Innovation (ERIN) database so that researchers can access patient data in a secure environment to help in their research and speed up improvements in patient care.

Using this resource, the Cambridge team analysed data from 1,600 patients referred to CUH between 2016 and 2023, adjusted for factors such as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking history, and the severity of the initial impairment in lung function.

In findings published today in Thorax, the researchers found that starting at 8.30am, with every hour that passed during the working day, the chances of a positive response to the test – in other words, the patient’s lungs responding to treatment, suggesting that they could have asthma – decreased by 8%.

Dr Ben Knox-Brown, Lead Research Respiratory Physiologist at RPH, said: “Given what we know about how the risk of an asthma attack changes between night and day, we expected to find a difference in how people responded to the lung function test, but even so, we were surprised by the size of the effect.

“This has potentially important implications. Doing the test in the morning would give a more reliable representation of a patient's response to the medication than doing it in the afternoon, which is important when confirming a diagnosis such as asthma.”

The researchers also discovered that individuals were 33% less likely to have a positive result if tested during autumn when compared to those tested during winter.

Dr Akhilesh Jha, a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at CUH, said that there may be a combination of factors behind this difference.

“Our bodies have natural rhythms – our body clocks,” Jha said. “Throughout the day, the levels of different hormones in our bodies go up and down and our immune systems perform differently, for example. Any of these factors might affect how people respond to the lung function test.

“The idea that the time of day, or the season of the year, affects our health and how we respond to treatments is something we’re seeing increasing evidence of. We know, for example, that people respond differently to vaccinations depending on whether they’re administered in the morning or afternoon. The findings of our study further support this idea and may need to be taken into account when interpreting the results of these commonly performed tests.”

Reference
Knox-Brown, B et al. The effect of time of day and seasonal variation on bronchodilator responsiveness: The SPIRO-TIMETRY study. Thorax; 12 March 2025; DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2024-222773

A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found.

Throughout the day, the levels of different hormones in our bodies go up and down and our immune systems perform differently. Any of these factors might affect how people respond to the lung function test

Akhilesh Jha

Man testing breathing function by spirometry - stock photo

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Yes

CamGraPhIC - co-founded Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre, and Dr Marco Romagnoli of CNIT in Italy - is developing new types of photonic circuits for energy-efficient, high-bandwidth, optical interconnect technology.

The investment will support continued innovation in graphene photonics transceivers, a technology that could improve energy efficiency, reduce latency, and increase bandwidth for artificial intelligence (AI) and cellular data transmission.

With the investment, CamGraPhIC will enhance its research and development capabilities and establish a pilot manufacturing line. The facility will demonstrate a scalable mass production process compatible with commercial semiconductor and photonics foundries.

The funding round was co-led by CDP Venture Capital, NATO Innovation Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, and Join Capital, with participation from Bosch Ventures, Frontier IP Group plc, and Indaco Ventures.

CamGraPhIC’s graphene-based transceivers provide a viable, stable, and scalable alternative to current silicon-based photonics. These transceivers deliver higher bandwidth density, and exceptional latency performance, while consuming 80% less energy than traditional pluggable data centre optical transceivers.

The company say their innovation is particularly effective for transferring large volumes of data between graphic processing units (GPUs) and high bandwidth memory (HBM), which are fundamental to generative AI and high-performance computing.

The transceivers operate efficiently across a broad temperature range, eliminating the need for complex and costly cooling systems. Thanks to a simplified device architecture enabled by the integration of graphene into the photonic structure, these transceivers are also more cost-effective to manufacture.

Thanks to this funding, CamGraPhIC will expand to applications in avionics, automotive advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and space, where rugged, high-performance transceivers offer significant technical and commercial advantages over existing technologies.

“We are thrilled for this new phase in the journey towards commercialisation of CamGraPhIC groundbreaking and energy efficient devices, to speed up development of AI hardware, without impacting global emissions,” said Ferrari. “Having Sony, Bosch and NATO as shareholders and board members will help focus the work towards the most relevant applications, including defence and security.”

“With the backing of renowned investors, we are excited to propel towards commercialisation the Graphene Photonics technology to overcome the interconnection bottleneck of regenerative AI processing systems and driving the next leap in scaling bandwidth and reducing energy consumption for the future of optical data communications, ” said Romagnoli, former Head of Research Sector - Advanced Technologies for Photonic Integration of the Pisa National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT), and now Chief Scientific Officer of CamGraPhIC.

A University of Cambridge spin-out company working to improve AI efficiency and bandwidth has raised €25 million in new funding.

Marco Romagnoli (L) and Andrea Ferrari (R)

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Yes

25 new spinouts were formed in 2023-24, taking Cambridge Enterprise’s total portfolio to 174 companies. In the same period, it has helped with the submission of more than 450 patent applications and more than 750 approvals for commercial and research licences.  

New initiatives designed to further boost the number of high-potential spinouts emerging from the University, include the Technology Investment Fund (TIF) which during its first 9 months has invested more than £2 million across 20 projects.

Founders at the University of Cambridge, a Cambridge Enterprise initiative to support University entrepreneurs, launched 2 new programmes, START 1.0 and SYNC in 2023-24. START 1.0 is an accelerator programme for very early-stage founders. Its first cohort included 11 companies, working to address global challenges ranging from climate change to healthcare with 7 securing further funding within 6 months. SYNC is a new co-founder matching programme that will support, accelerate and scale new founders and companies from the University.

Dr Jim Glasheen, Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise, said: “Cambridge Enterprise remains committed to ensuring the innovations that spring from the University achieve their broader positive impact on society, and to our vital role in activating and enhancing the globally recognised Cambridge innovation ecosystem.”

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, added: “Cambridge Enterprise is crucial in translating the University’s research into positive social and economic change. From the full spectrum of innovation services that it provides for the University to its critical role in enabling transformational impact from University research, Cambridge Enterprise sets the standard for university innovation.”

Reflecting on the success of Cambridge Enterprise's innovation activities, its Chair, Ajay Chowdhury, said: “Cambridge Enterprise is in an incredibly strong position, with consultancy and research tools revenues at an all-time high, new initiatives to accelerate innovation and spinout formation, record levels of venture investment and great achievements for our portfolio companies.”

In partnership with the University and Cambridge Innovation Capital, Cambridge Enterprise leads Innovate Cambridge, an inclusive, ambitious innovation roadmap for Cambridge to encourage collaboration and action to help Cambridge realise its potential as a globally leading cluster. In October 2024, a ten-year plan for the city and region was unveiled at the Innovate Cambridge Summit, attended by over 400 leaders.

Read Cambridge Enterprise's Annual Review 2024

In its 2024 Annual Review, Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm, reports significant growth across a wide range of activities supporting the translation of University research into societal benefit and helping Cambridge realise its potential as a globally leading cluster.

Cambridge Enterprise is crucial in translating the University’s research into positive social and economic change.

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, University of Cambridge

University building

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Yes

The men’s match saw Cambridge open the scoring with a fifth-minute penalty from George Bland (King’s), but Oxford responded with two tries, both converted, to establish a 21-6 lead. Despite the early setback, Cambridge rallied before halftime with tries from Matt Riddington (St Edmund’s) and Alex Christey (St John’s), both converted by Bland, to narrow the gap to 21-18.

Oxford extended their lead early in the second half but Cambridge refused to relent. A try from Ryan Santos (Jesus), followed by a decisive score from Luke John (Emmanuel), turned the tide in Cambridge’s favour. Bland’s conversion and a late penalty sealed a dramatic 35-28 victory, marking the Light Blues’ third consecutive Varsity Match win. 

The women’s match proved to be a tougher challenge and despite a valiant defensive effort, the Light Blues were unable to contain a strong Oxford side. The Dark Blues scored two early tries and added a third before halftime to give Oxford a 15-0 lead.

Cambridge showed renewed determination in the second half, with Zoe Wright (Clare) scoring a try after a quick tap penalty. Phoebe Jackson’s (Jesus) conversion brought the score to 15-7, but Oxford crossed the line twice more to secure a 27-7 victory for the Dark Blues. While the women’s team didn’t go home with the trophy their relentless tackling and commitment to the game earned them praise.

Congratulations to all four teams who competed on the day, their Coaches and everyone working behind the scenes. It was a day that demonstrated the spirit and determination that define University sports and The Varsity Matches.

Cambridge men’s team:

Bland; Santos, John, Riddington, Andrew; Bottomley, Holdroyd; Collins, Gompels, Edwards, Beaumont, Kantolinna, Hughes, Christey, Tosa. 

Replacements: Petty (Collins, 40), Hide (Holdroyd, 55), Allinson (Bottomley, 55), Jones (Beaumont, 55), Day (Santos, 77). Not used: Du Roy, Addai, Evans.

Cambridge women’s team: 

Smith; Embil, Yau, Jackson, Chaoui; McGregor, Glazier; Jones, Warner, Heathfield, Harding, Wright, Millar, Martin, Brown.

Replacements: Haspel (McGregor, 31). Latimer (Harding, 40), Crozier (Martin, 40), Lord (Chaoui, 40), Ubom (Jones, 41), Weatherhogg (Heathfield, 71), Newton-Ingham (Smith, 74), Chadirchi (Warner, 79).

Cambridge University experienced a day of two halves at The Varsity Matches on Saturday 8 March, with the men’s team securing a thrilling 35-28 victory over Oxford University’s Dark Blues while the women’s side fell to a 27-7 defeat in a hard-fought contest at Saracens’ StoneX Stadium.

 

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Yes

Researchers studying British Labrador retrievers have identified multiple genes associated with canine obesity and shown that these genes are also associated with obesity in humans.  

The dog gene found to be most strongly associated with obesity in Labradors is called DENND1B. Humans also carry the DENND1B gene, and the researchers found that this gene is also linked with obesity in people.  

DENND1B was found to directly affect a brain pathway responsible for regulating the energy balance in the body, called the leptin melanocortin pathway.  

An additional four genes associated with canine obesity, but which exert a smaller effect than DENND1B, were also mapped directly onto human genes. 

“These genes are not immediately obvious targets for weight-loss drugs, because they control other key biological processes in the body that should not be interfered with.

But the results emphasise the importance of fundamental brain pathways in controlling appetite and body weight,” said Alyce McClellan in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, and joint first author of the report.

“We found that dogs at high genetic risk of obesity were more interested in food,” said Natalie Wallis in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, and joint first author of the report.

She added: “We measured how much dogs pestered their owners for food and whether they were fussy eaters. Dogs at high genetic risk of obesity showed signs of having higher appetite, as has also been shown for people at high genetic risk of obesity.”

The study found that owners who strictly controlled their dogs’ diet and exercise managed to prevent even those with high genetic risk from becoming obese - but much more attention and effort was required.

Similarly, people at high genetic risk of developing obesity will not necessarily become obese, if they follow a strict diet and exercise regime - but they are more prone to weight gain.

As with human obesity, no single gene determined whether the dogs were prone to obesity; the net effect of multiple genetic variants determined whether dogs were at high or low risk.

The results were published on 6 March in the journal 'Science'.

“Studying the dogs showed us something really powerful: owners of slim dogs are not morally superior. The same is true of slim people. If you have a high genetic risk of obesity, then when there’s lots of food available you’re prone to overeating and gaining weight unless you put a huge effort into not doing so,” said Dr Eleanor Raffan, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience who led the study. 

She added: “By studying dogs we could measure their desire for food separately to the control owners exerted over their dog’s diet and exercise. In human studies, it’s harder to study how genetically driven appetite requires greater willpower to remain slim, as both are affecting the one person.” 

The current human obesity epidemic is mirrored by an obesity epidemic in dogs. About 40-60% of pet dogs are overweight or obese, which can lead to a range of health problems. 

Dogs are a good model for studying human obesity: they develop obesity through similar environmental influences as humans, and because dogs within any given breed have a high degree of genetic similarity, their genes can be more easily linked to disease. 

To get their results, the researchers recruited owners with pet dogs in which they measured body fat, scored ‘greediness’, and took a saliva sample for DNA. Then they analysed the genetics of each dog. By comparing the obesity status of the dog to its DNA, they could identify the genes linked to canine obesity. 
Dogs carrying the genetic variant most associated with obesity, DENND1B, had around 8% more body fat than those without it.  

The researchers then examined whether the genes they identified were relevant to human obesity. They looked at both large population-based studies, and at cohorts of patients with severe, early onset obesity where single genetic changes are suspected to cause the weight gain.  

The researchers say owners can keep their dogs distracted from constant hunger by spreading out each daily food ration, for example by using puzzle feeders or scattering the food around the garden so it takes longer to eat, or by choosing a more satisfying nutrient composition for their pets. 

Raffan said: “This work shows how similar dogs are to humans genetically. Studying the dogs meant we had reason to focus on this particular gene, which has led to a big advance in understanding how our own brain controls our eating behaviour and energy use.”  

The research was funded by Wellcome, the BBSRC, Dogs Trust, Morris Animal Foundation, MRC, France Genomique consortium, European Genomic Institute for Diabetes, French National Center for Precision Diabetic Medicine, Royal Society, NIHR, Botnar Foundation, Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Endowment, Leducq Fondation, Kennel Club Charitable Trust. 

Reference
Wallis, N J et al: ‘Canine genome-wide association study identifies DENND1B as an obesity gene in dogs and humans.’ Science, March 2025. DOI: 10.1126/science.ads2145

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered genes linked to obesity in both Labradors and humans. They say the effects can be over-ridden with a strict diet and exercise regime.

Dogs at high genetic risk of obesity showed signs of having higher appetite, as has also been shown for people at high genetic risk of obesity.

Natalie Wallis

Labrador licking nose

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Yes

In the battle against climate disinformation, native advertising is a fierce foe. A study published in the journal npj Climate Action by researchers from Boston University (BU) and the University of Cambridge, evaluates two promising tools to fight misleading native advertising campaigns put forth by big oil companies.

Many major news organisations now offer corporations the opportunity to pay for articles that mimic in tone and format the publication’s regular reported content. These ‘native advertisements’ are designed to camouflage seamlessly into their surroundings, containing only subtle disclosure messages often overlooked or misunderstood by readers. Fossil fuel companies are spending tens of millions of dollars to shape public perceptions of the climate crisis.

“Because these ads appear on reputable, trusted news platforms, and are formatted like reported pieces, they often come across to readers as genuine journalism,” said lead author Michelle Amazeen from BU’s College of Communication. “Research has shown native ads are really effective at swaying readers’ opinions.”

The study is the first to investigate how two mitigation strategies — disclosures and inoculations — may reduce climate misperceptions caused by exposure to native advertising from the fossil fuel industry. The authors found that when participants were shown a real native ad from ExxonMobil, disclosure messages helped them recognise advertising, while inoculations helped reduce their susceptibility to misleading claims.

“As fossil fuel companies invest in disguising their advertisements, this study furthers our understanding of how to help readers recognise when commercial content is masquerading as news and spreading climate misperceptions,” said co-author Benjamin Sovacool, also from BU.

“Our study showed that communication-led climate action is possible and scalable by countering covert greenwashing campaigns, such as native advertising, at the source,” said co-author Dr Ramit Debnath from Cambridge’s Department of Architecture. “The insights we’ve gained from this work will help us design better interventions for climate misinformation.”

The research builds on a growing body of work assessing how people recognise and respond to covert misinformation campaigns. By better understanding these processes, the researchers hope that they can prevent misinformation from taking root and changing people’s beliefs and actions on important issues like climate change.

‘The Future of Energy’ ad

Starting in 2018, readers of The New York Times website encountered what appeared to be an article, titled “The Future of Energy,” describing efforts by oil and gas giant ExxonMobil to invest in algae-based biofuels. Because it appeared beneath the Times’ masthead, in the outlet’s typical formatting and font, many readers likely missed the small banner at the top of the page mentioning that it was an ad sponsored by ExxonMobil.

The ad, part of a $5-million-dollar campaign, neglected to mention the company’s staggering carbon footprint. It also omitted key context, The Intercept reported, like that the stated goal for algae-based biofuel production would represent only 0.2% of the company’s overall refinery capacity. In a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Massachusetts cited the ad as evidence of the company’s “false and misleading” communications, with several states pursuing similar cases.

Putting two interventions to the test

The researchers examined how more than a thousand participants responded to “The Future of Energy” ad in a simulated social media feed.

Before viewing the ad, participants saw one, both, or neither of the following intervention messages:

An inoculation message designed to psychologically ‘inoculate’ readers from future influence by broadly warning them of potential exposures to misleading paid content. In this study, the inoculation message was a fictitious social media post from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminding people to be wary of online misinformation.

A disclosure message with a simple line of text appearing on a post. In this study, the text “Paid Post by ExxonMobil” accompanied the piece. Studies have shown that more often than not, when native ads are shared on social media, this disclosure disappears.

Bolstering psychological resilience to native ads

The team found that the ad improved opinions of ExxonMobil’s sustainability across the study’s many participants, regardless of which messages they saw, but that the interventions helped to reduce this effect. Some of the key findings include:

The presence of a disclosure more than doubled the likelihood that a participant recognised the content as an ad. However, the participants who had seen a disclosure and those who had not were equally likely to agree with the statement “companies like ExxonMobil are investing heavily in becoming more environmentally friendly.”

Inoculation messages were much more effective than disclosures at protecting people’s existing beliefs on climate change, decreasing the likelihood that participants would agree with misleading claims presented in the ad.

“Disclosures helped people recognise advertising. However, they didn’t help them recognise that the material was biased and misleading,” said Amazeen. “Inoculation messaging provides general education that can be used to fill in that gap and help people resist its persuasive effects. Increasing general awareness about misinformation strategies used by self-interested actors, combined with clearer labels on sponsored content, will help people distinguish native ads from reported content.”

Reference

Michelle A Amazeen et al. ‘The “Future of Energy”? Building resilience to ExxonMobil’s disinformation through disclosures and inoculation.’ npj climate action (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44168-025-00209-6

Adapted from a Boston University story.

A sneaky form of advertising favoured by oil giants influences public opinion with climate action misperceptions, but researchers are studying potential solutions.

Fueling the Fire of Misinformation - stock photo

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Yes

The pledge, made in February 2020 by the UK’s nine leading game shooting and rural organisations, aimed to benefit wildlife and the environment and ensure a market for the healthiest game meat food products. 

But a Cambridge team, working with the University of the Highlands and Islands, has consistently shown that lead shot was not being phased out quickly enough to achieve a complete voluntary transition to non-toxic ammunition by 2025. In a final study, published on 6 March in the journal Conservation Evidence, the team concludes that the intended transition has failed.

The team has closely monitored the impact of the pledge every year since its introduction, recruiting expert volunteers to buy whole pheasants from butchers, game dealers and supermarkets across Britain and recover embedded shotgun pellets for analysis.

In 2025, the study - called SHOT-SWITCH - found that of 171 pheasants found to contain shot, 99% had been killed with lead ammunition. 

This year, for the first time, the team also analysed shotgun pellets found in red grouse carcasses shot in the 2024/25 shooting season and on sale through butchers’ shops and online retailers. In all 78 grouse carcasses from which any shot was recovered, the shot was lead.

“Many members of the shooting community had hoped that the voluntary pledge away from lead ammunition would avert the need for regulation. But the voluntary route has now been tested - with efforts made by many people - and it has not been successful,” said Professor Rhys Green in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and lead author of the report.

Eating game meat killed using lead shot will expose people unnecessarily to additional dietary lead. Lead is toxic to humans even in very small concentrations; the development of the nervous system in young and unborn children is especially sensitive to its effects. As a result, many food safety agencies now advise that young children and pregnant women should avoid, or minimise, eating game meat from animals killed using lead ammunition.

Discarded shot from hunting also poisons and kills many tens of thousands of the UK’s wild birds each year.

Despite proposing the voluntary change, many shooting organisations and some individual shooters do not support proposed regulatory restrictions on lead ammunition.

Green said: “Private individuals pay a lot of money to shoot pheasants on some private estates - and people don’t like to change their habits. It’s a bit like wearing car seatbelts, or not smoking in pubs. Despite the good reasons for doing these things, some people were strongly against using regulation to achieve those changes, which are now widely accepted as beneficial. The parallel with shooting game with lead shotgun ammunition is striking.” 

Danish shooters now say that the legal ban on lead introduced in Denmark around 30 years ago was justified. They say it has not reduced the practicality or popularity of their sport, and has increased its acceptability to wider society.

“Although a few large UK estates have managed to enforce non-lead ammunition on pheasant shoots, some have had to be quite draconian in order to do it, with the estate gamekeepers insisting on loading the guns for the shooters,” added Green.

In the 2020/21 and 2021/22 shooting seasons, over 99% of the pheasants studied were shot using lead ammunition. This figure dropped slightly to 94% in 2022/23 and 93% in 2023/24, with the remaining pheasants killed by ammunition made of steel or a metal called bismuth, before rising to 99% again in 2024/25.

Retail pressure

The researchers also checked up on a pledge made by Waitrose in 2019 to stop selling game killed with lead ammunition. 

They found that the retailer had been largely let down by suppliers, and that some of their shooters continued to shoot using lead despite making assurances to the contrary. As a result, Waitrose did not sell oven-ready pheasants at all between 2021 and 2023. It sold pheasants again in January 2024 and the 2024/25 season, but the researchers showed that the majority had been killed using lead shot.

In 2022 the National Game Dealers Association (NGDA), which buys game and sells it to the public and food retailers, also announced it would no longer sell game of any kind that had been shot using lead ammunition. But this pledge has since been withdrawn. The researchers bought 2024/25 season pheasants from three NGDA member businesses and found that all had been shot with lead ammunition.

Inside influence 

The researchers also analysed all articles relating to the voluntary transition published in the magazine of the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. They found that articles near the beginning of the five-year pledge communicated clear, frequent and positive messages about the effectiveness and practicality of non-lead shotgun ammunition.

But by 2023, mentions of the transition and encouragement to follow it had dropped dramatically. 

The upshot

At the request of the Defra Secretary of State, the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has assessed the risks to the environment and human health posed by lead in shot and bullets. Its report, published in December 2024, proposes that the UK Government bans the use of lead shot and large calibre bullets for game shooting because of the risks they pose to the environment and health. This recommendation is currently under review by Defra ministers, with a response due in March 2025.

Steel shotgun pellets are a practical alternative to lead and can be used in the vast majority of shotguns, as can other safe lead-free alternatives. But the results of this study indicate UK hunters remain unwilling to make the switch voluntarily.

Since 2010, UK governments have preferred voluntary controls over regulation in many areas of environment and food policy and have suggested that regulation be used only as a last resort.

“Shooting organisations did a lot of questionnaire surveys when the pledge was introduced in 2020, and the results suggested many shooters thought the time had come to switch away from lead ammunition. Those responses stand in contrast to what we’ve actually measured for both pheasant and grouse,” said study co-author Dr Mark Taggart at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Toxic lead

A previous study led by Green and colleagues found that pheasants killed by lead shot contained many fragments of lead too small to detect by eye or touch, and too distant from the shot to be removed without throwing away a large proportion of otherwise useable meat. This means that eating pheasant killed using lead shot is likely to expose consumers to raised levels of lead in their diet, even if the meat is carefully prepared to remove whole shotgun pellets and the most damaged tissue.

Lead has been banned from use in paint and petrol for decades. It is toxic to humans when absorbed by the body and there is no known safe level of exposure. Lead accumulates in the body over time and can cause long-term harm, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and kidney disease in adults. Lead is known to lower IQ in young children and affect the neurological development of unborn babies.

The studies were part-funded by the RSPB, Waitrose & Partners, and an anonymous donor. They were supported by a group of unpaid volunteers, who are co-authors of the reports.
 

References

Green, R E et al: ‘The proportion of common pheasants shot using lead shotgun ammunition in Britain has barely changed despite five years of voluntary efforts to switch from lead to non-lead ammunition.’ March 2025, Conservation Evidence. DOI: 10.52201/CEJ22/EXYS6184

Green, R E et al.: ‘Sampling of red grouse carcasses in Britain indicates no progress during an intended five-year voluntary transition from lead to non-lead shotgun ammunition.’ February 2025, Conservation Evidence. DOI: 10.52201/CEJ22/YYWM1722
 

A voluntary pledge made by UK shooting organisations in 2020 to replace lead shot with non-toxic alternatives by 2025 has failed, analysis by Cambridge researchers finds.

The voluntary route has now been tested - with efforts made by many people - and it has not been successful.

Rhys Green

Adult pheasant

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Yes

They say that discovering the mechanism will support ongoing clinical trials, and could lead to the targeted use of aspirin to prevent the spread of susceptible types of cancer, and to the development of more effective drugs to prevent cancer metastasis.

The scientists caution that, in some people, aspirin can have serious side-effects and clinical trials are underway to determine how to use it safely and effectively to prevent cancer spread, so people should consult their doctor before starting to take it.

Studies of people with cancer have previously observed that those taking daily low-dose aspirin have a reduction in the spread of some cancers, such as breast, bowel, and prostate cancers, leading to ongoing clinical trials. However, until now it wasn’t known exactly how aspirin could prevent metastases.

Professor Rahul Roychoudhuri in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, who led the work, said: “Despite advances in cancer treatment, many patients with early stage cancers receive treatments, such as surgical removal of the tumour, which have the potential to be curative, but later relapse due to the eventual growth of micrometastases – cancer cells that have seeded other parts of the body but remain in a latent state.

“Most immunotherapies are developed to treat patients with established metastatic cancer, but when cancer first spreads there’s a unique therapeutic window of opportunity when cancer cells are particularly vulnerable to immune attack. We hope that therapies that target this window of vulnerability will have tremendous scope in preventing recurrence in patients with early cancer at risk of recurrence.”

The study was published on 5 March in the journal 'Nature'.

The scientists say their discovery of how aspirin reduces cancer metastasis was serendipitous. They were investigating the process of metastasis, because, while cancer starts out in one location, 90% of cancer deaths occur when cancer spreads to other parts of the body.

The scientists wanted to better understand how the immune system responds to metastasis, because when individual cancer cells break away from their originating tumour and spread to another part of the body they are particularly vulnerable to immune attack. The immune system can recognise and kill these lone cancer cells more effectively than cancer cells within larger originating tumours, which have often developed an environment that suppresses the immune system. 

The researchers previously screened 810 genes in mice and found 15 that had an effect on cancer metastasis. In particular, they found that mice lacking a gene which produces a protein called ARHGEF1 had less metastasis of various primary cancers to the lungs and liver. 

The researchers determined that ARHGEF1 suppresses a type of immune cell called a T cell, which can recognise and kill metastatic cancer cells. 

To develop treatments to take advantage of this discovery, they needed to find a way for drugs to target it. The scientists traced signals in the cell to determine that ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a clotting factor called thromboxane A2 (TXA2).

This was an unexpected revelation for the scientists, because TXA2 is already well-known and linked to how aspirin works. 

TXA2 is produced by platelets - a cell in the blood stream that helps blood clot, preventing wounds from bleeding, but occasionally causing heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin reduces the production of TXA2, leading to the anti-clotting effects, which underlies its ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes. 

This new research found that aspirin prevents cancers from spreading by decreasing TXA2 and releasing T cells from suppression. They used a mouse model of melanoma to show that in mice given aspirin, the frequency of metastases was reduced compared to control mice, and this was dependent on releasing T cells from suppression by TXA2.

Dr Jie Yang in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, first author of the report, said: “It was a Eureka moment when we found TXA2 was the molecular signal that activates this suppressive effect on T cells. Before this, we had not been aware of the implication of our findings in understanding the anti-metastatic activity of aspirin. It was an entirely unexpected finding which sent us down quite a different path of enquiry than we had anticipated.” 

“Aspirin, or other drugs that could target this pathway, have the potential to be less expensive than antibody-based therapies, and therefore more accessible globally.”

In the future, the researchers plan to help the translation of their work into potential clinical practice by collaborating with Professor Ruth Langley, of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, who is leading the Add-Aspirin clinical trial, to find out if aspirin can stop or delay early stage cancers from coming back. 

Professor Langley, who was not involved in this study, commented: “This is an important discovery. It will enable us to interpret the results of ongoing clinical trials and work out who is most likely to benefit from aspirin after a cancer diagnosis.” 

“In a small proportion of people, aspirin can cause serious side-effects, including bleeding or stomach ulcers. Therefore, it is important to understand which people with cancer are likely to benefit.”

The research was principally funded by the Medical Research Council, with additional funding from the Wellcome Trust and European Research Council. 

The Add-Aspirin clinical trial is funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Medical Research Council and the Tata Memorial Foundation of India. 

Reference: J Yang, et al: “Aspirin prevents metastasis by limiting platelet TXA2 suppression of T cell immunity.” Nature, March 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08626-7

Adapted from a press release by the Medical Research Council.

Scientists have uncovered the mechanism behind how aspirin could reduce the metastasis of some cancers by stimulating the immune system.

Aspirin has the potential to be less expensive than antibody-based therapies, and therefore more accessible globally.

Jie Yang

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Yes

More than 160 students from across the region met at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to hear more about the application process and what it’s like to study for a degree at either Cambridge or Oxford.

Presentations focused on the unique elements of a Cambridge and Oxford education, the importance of super-curricular study to university applications, advice on writing personal statements, admissions tests and interview guidance.

Cambridge and Oxford Universities used to jointly host an annual regional conference for would-be applicants but these were disbanded during the Covid pandemic.

This latest roadshow was the brainchild of Elaine Effard, who is Corpus Christi’s North East Access and Outreach Coordinator (based in South Shields) and Richard Petty, Senior Access Officer for North-East England at Oxford.

“We are all passionate about working with students in the North-East of England to make sure that they’re best equipped to make competitive applications to Oxford, Cambridge and other higher education providers. We also strongly believe that increased North-East representation at Oxbridge is a fundamental good,” said Elaine. 

Students attending were full of appreciation for the event.

One said: “I enjoyed hearing the experiences of the students as it gave me a good insight as to what different aspects of the university are like, such as workload, finance and community.”

Another added: “It gave an in-depth view on super-curricular activities that I wouldn’t have accessed otherwise, and a range of options for super curricular activities.”

The other two Cambridge Colleges present were Jesus and King’s, both of which, like Corpus, have connections with the North-East. Oxford was represented by the Oxford for North East team of colleges, which are Christ Church, Trinity, and St Anne’s. 

Corpus Christi is one of three Cambridge Colleges with school liaison officers based in the north of England. Both Queens' and Selwyn Colleges have staff based in Bradford. St Catharine's College also has strong links with North Yorkshire. 

Three Cambridge Colleges have teamed up to co-host an outreach event in the North-East of England with the aim of encouraging more applications from students in the area. They were joined by colleagues from Oxford. 

We are all passionate about working with students in the North-East of England

Elaine Effard

Outreach officers on steps of museum

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Yes

A study involving over 3,000 participants – both patients and clinicians – found that these misdiagnoses (sometimes termed “in your head” by patients) were often associated with long term impacts on patients’ physical health and wellbeing and damaged trust in healthcare services.

The researchers are calling for greater awareness among clinicians of the symptoms of such diseases, which they recognise can be difficult to diagnose, and for more support for patients.

Autoimmune rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and vasculitis are chronic inflammatory disorders that affect the immune system and can damage organs and tissues throughout the body. They can be very difficult to diagnose as people report a wide range of different symptoms, many of which can be invisible, such as extreme fatigue and depression.

Dr Melanie Sloan from the University of Cambridge led a study exploring patient-reported experiences from two large groups, each of over 1,500 patients, and in-depth interviews with 67 patients and 50 clinicians. The results are published today in Rheumatology.

Patients who reported that their autoimmune disease was misdiagnosed as psychosomatic or a mental health condition were more likely to experience higher levels of depression and anxiety, and lower mental wellbeing. For example, one patient with multiple autoimmune diseases said: “One doctor told me I was making myself feel pain and I still can’t forget those words. Telling me I’m doing it to myself has made me very anxious and depressed.”

More than 80% said it had damaged their self-worth and 72% of patients reported that the misdiagnosis still upset them, often even decades later. Misdiagnosed patients also reported lower levels of satisfaction with every aspect of medical care and were more likely to distrust doctors, downplay their symptoms, and avoid healthcare services. As one patient reported, it “has damaged my trust and courage in telling doctors very much. I even stopped taking my immunosuppressive medicine because of those words”.

Following these types of misdiagnoses, patients often then blamed themselves for their condition, as one individual described: “I don’t deserve help because this is a disease I’ve brought on myself. You go back to those initial diagnosis, you’ve always got their voices in your head, saying you’re doing this to yourself. You just can’t ever shake that. I’ve tried so hard.”

One patient described the traumatising response their doctor’s judgement had on them: “When a rheumatologist dismissed me I was already suicidal, this just threw me over the edge. Thankfully I am terrible at killing myself, it’s so much more challenging than you think. But the dreadful dismissiveness of doctors when you have a bizarre collection of symptoms is traumatizing and you start to believe them, that it’s all in your head.”

Dr Melanie Sloan, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: “Although many doctors were intending to be reassuring in suggesting a psychosomatic or psychiatric cause for initially unexplainable symptoms, these types of misdiagnoses can create a multitude of negative feelings and impacts on lives, self-worth and care. These appear to rarely be resolved even after the correct diagnoses. We must do better at helping these patients heal, and in educating clinicians to consider autoimmunity at an earlier stage.”      

Clinicians highlighted how hard it was to diagnose autoimmune rheumatic diseases and that there was a high risk of misdiagnosis. Some doctors said they hadn’t really thought about the long-term problems for patients, but others talked about the problems in regaining trust, as one GP from England highlighted: “They lose trust in anything that anyone says…you are trying to convince them that something is OK, and they will say yes but a doctor before said that and was wrong.”

However, there was evidence that this trust can be rebuilt. One patient described having been “badly gaslit by a clinician”, but that when they told the clinician this, “She was shocked and had no idea … She was great. Took it on the chin. Listened and heard. Apologised profusely…For me, the scar of the original encounter was transformed into something much more positive.”

Mike Bosley, autoimmune patient and co-author on the study, said: “We need more clinicians to understand how a misdiagnosis of this sort can result in long-standing mental and emotional harm and in a disastrous loss of trust in doctors. Everyone needs to appreciate that autoimmune conditions can present in these unusual ways, that listening carefully to patients is key to avoiding the long-lasting harm that a mental health or psychosomatic misdiagnosis can cause.”

The study authors recommend several measures for improving support for patients with autoimmune rheumatological diseases. These are likely to apply for many other groups of patients with chronic diseases that are often misunderstood and initially misdiagnosed.

They propose that clinicians should talk about previous misdiagnoses with patients, discuss and empathise with their patients as to the effects on them, and offer targeted support to reduce the long-term negative impacts. Health services should ensure greater access to psychologists and talking therapies for patients reporting previous misdiagnoses, which may reduce the long-term impact on wellbeing, healthcare behaviours, and patient-doctor relationships. Education may reduce misdiagnoses by encouraging clinicians to consider systemic autoimmunity when they assess patients with multiple, seemingly unconnected, physical and mental health symptoms.

Professor Felix Naughton, from the Lifespan Health Research Centre at the University of East Anglia, said: “Diagnosing autoimmune rheumatic diseases can be challenging, but with better awareness among clinicians of how they present, we can hopefully reduce the risk of misdiagnoses. And while there will unfortunately inevitably still be patients whose condition is not correctly diagnosed, with the correct support in place, we may be able to lessen the impact on them.”

The research was funded by LUPUS UK and The Lupus Trust.

Reference
Sloan, M, et al. “I still can’t forget those words”: mixed methods study of the persisting impacts of psychosomatic and psychiatric misdiagnoses. Rheumatology; 3 Mar 2025; DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keaf115

A ‘chasm of misunderstanding and miscommunication’ is often experienced between clinicians and patients, leading to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and vasculitis being wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric or psychosomatic conditions, with a profound and lasting impact on patients, researchers have found.

These types of misdiagnoses can create a multitude of negative feelings and impacts on lives, self-worth and care

Mel Sloan

A person laying in a bed under a blanket

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Yes

Rare earth elements are vital components in many everyday and high-tech devices, from smartphones and lightbulbs to clean energy solutions like wind turbines and electric vehicles.

With the global shift towards low-carbon energy sources, the demand for rare earths is soaring. While there are rare earth deposits around the world, China dominates the global supply chain, accounting for 70% of rare earth ore extraction and 90% of rare earth ore processing. The UK and EU currently have no domestic source or refining capabilities, leading to concerns over the security of supplies.

“These are critical raw materials; critical both because we need them in almost every gadget and technology, but also because the supply chain is so precarious,” said Professor Sally Gibson from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.

US President Donald Trump’s recent statements about accessing rare earth deposits in Greenland and Ukraine have once again highlighted how fragile the supply chain is for these vital minerals. 

“We really need to identify rare earth deposits which have a security of supply,” said Gibson, who currently holds a £1-million project to investigate how rare earth element deposits form, research that could help guide efforts to pinpoint new, economically viable sources.

Rare earth deposits are typically associated with a type of igneous rock called carbonatite. Packed full of calcium, these rocks are unlike other magmas because their chemistry is rich in CO2 and rare earth elements.

Gibson has been studying carbonatites for around 30 years. “Carbonatites have long been seen as geological curiosities, things that no one was that interested in in terms of big-picture science,” she said.

But that outlook has changed in recent years, she added, as the need for rare earths has come to the fore. “How these rocks form is becoming an increasingly important question.”

It’s a question that many geoscientists are asking, but what makes Gibson’s project unique is that, rather than focusing on how individual localities or ‘provinces’ of rare earth deposits form, she is zooming out and examining their global distribution.

Gibson and her colleagues are also looking deeper into Earth’s interior for clues that might explain the surface expression of carbonatites. Project co-lead, Professor Sergei Lebedev, also from Cambridge Earth Sciences, is a geophysicist who uses earthquake waves to ‘see’ into the Earth’s interior, similar to how sonar pings can pick out features on the seabed.

“By combining the geophysical and geochemical evidence, we are learning more about both the deep dynamics and evolution of the Earth’s continents, and the generation of carbonatites and the associated mineral resources,” Lebedev said.

The REE-LITH project was inspired by Gibson and Lebedev’s hunch that differences in the properties of Earth’s lithosphere – the outermost layers of our planet’s structure – might play a guiding role in where carbonatites form, and perhaps their level of rare earth element enrichment.

“We know that lithospheric thickness matters for other special igneous rocks that host diamonds,” said Gibson. “Typically, diamond-hosting ‘kimberlite’ rocks only occur in areas where the lithosphere is particularly thick. I thought it was time we tested if there was a similar relationship for carbonatites.”

Mapping rare earths

Over the last year, the team, which includes postdoctoral researchers Siyuan Sui and Emilie Bowman from Cambridge, have been building their new map, drawing on a bank of data on carbonatites and related rare earth deposits and combining this with information about the lithosphere.

As part of this mission, Sui has been using new seismic data extracted from earthquakes to create computer-generated images of the lithosphere, its thickness and other properties. Alongside this, Bowman has been running statistical analyses of geochemical data on magmas to test their relationship to associated rare earth deposits. 

When the researchers started to plot occurrences of carbonatites on a map of lithosphere thickness, they quickly saw a pattern.

“We can already tell that carbonatites occur in specific areas, limited to the steep margins that border Earth’s thickest and oldest lithosphere,” said Gibson. “These regions are typically found in the cores of our planet’s major continents.”

Gibson said that while the resolution of their map is increasing, and they can narrow down the regions where carbonatites should occur, they now need to establish why only certain carbonatites generate economically important rare earths. “Having some kind of model that could predict the most likely locations for rare earth deposits is really the ultimate goal for many geologists,” she said.

Collaboration will be key to unlocking that mystery, Gibson said. Her project brings together researchers from across Cambridge Earth Sciences, drawing on the extensive bank of seismic data collected by geophysicists at the Bullard Laboratory and the Department’s expertise in igneous petrology and geochemistry. The team also includes collaborators at the Universities of St Andrews and Exeter.

“Without that multidisciplinary approach, we wouldn’t have been able to pick out these global-scaled patterns in carbonatite occurrence,” she said.

Cambridge geoscientists are developing an atlas that could lead to a more complete understanding of how viable rare earth element deposits form and help locate more secure sources, by mapping the global distribution of critical metals deposits within unusual igneous rocks.

These are critical raw materials; critical both because we need them in almost every gadget and technology, but also because the supply chain is so precarious

Sally Gibson

Professor Sally Gibson (centre) and colleagues

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Yes

These are some of the questions being addressed by a new initiative launched today at the University of Cambridge, which seeks to address the urgent challenge of managing the risks of future engineered pandemics.

The Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme aims to understand the social and biological factors that might drive an engineered pandemic and to make a major contribution to building the UK’s capability for managing these risks. It will build a network of experts from academia, government, and industry to tackle the problem.

Increased security threats from state and non-state actors, combined with increased urbanisation and global mobility, means the threat of deliberate pathogen release must be taken seriously as must other intertwined aspects of pandemic risk such as mis- and disinformation, the erosion of trust in a number of institutions and an increasingly volatile geopolitical context. Further potential risks are posed by recent developments in gene-editing tools and artificial intelligence, which have rapidly advanced technological capability that may make it easier to engineer potential pandemic pathogens.

Professor Clare Bryant from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge said: “There is a great opportunity to take a joined-up approach to managing the risks posed by engineered pandemics. We need experts and agencies across the spectrum to work together to develop a better understanding of who or what might drive such events and what their likely impact would be. And we need evidence-informed policies and networks in place that would help us respond to – or better still, prevent – such an eventuality.”

• The aims of the Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme are:
• To develop the conceptual underpinnings for the risk management of engineered pandemics based on interdisciplinary research
• To support the capability of the UK’s engineered pandemic risk policy and practice, including building and maintaining networks that connect government, academia and industry.
• To strengthen the international networks that will support this work globally

There are four main strands of work:

Social determinants of engineered pandemic threat

This strand will look at the actors who have the potential to engineer harmful pathogens, either deliberately or accidentally. It will ask questions such as: What could motivate bioterrorism in the coming decades? Who might the relevant actors be? What are the kinds of engineered pandemic that someone might want to create?

Dr Rob Doubleday, Executive Director of the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, said: “The common narrative is that there’s a wide range of potential actors out there who want to create bioweapons but don’t yet have the technical means. But in fact, there’s been very little work to really understand who these people might be, and their relationship to emerging technology. To explore these questions, we need a broad network including social scientists, biosecurity researchers, criminologists, experts in geopolitics and counterterrorism.”

The strand will also look at the governance of scientific research in areas that may facilitate an engineered pandemic, whether unwittingly or maliciously, aiming to deliver a policy framework that enables freedom of intellectual research while managing real and apparent risk in infectious disease research.

Professor Bryant said: “As scientists, we’re largely responsible for policing our own work and ensuring integrity, trustworthiness and transparency, and for considering the consequences of new knowledge and how it might be used. But with the rapid progress of genomic technologies and AI, self-regulation becomes more difficult to manage. We need to find governance frameworks that balance essential scientific progress with its potential misapplication.”

Biological determinants of engineered pandemic threat

Recognising that the most likely cause of an engineered pandemic would be the deliberate release of a naturally-occurring pathogen – viral or bacterial, for example – rather than a man-made pathogen, this strand aims to understand what might make a particular pathogen infectious and how our immune systems respond to infection. This knowledge will allow researchers to screen currently available drugs to prevent or treat infection and to design vaccines quickly should a pandemic occur.

Modelling threats and risk management of engineered pandemics

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted practical problems of dealing with pandemic infections, from the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensuring a sufficient supply of vaccine doses and availability of key medications. Modelling the potential requirements of a pandemic, how they could be delivered, how ventilation systems could be modified, what biosafety measures could be taken, for example, are all key challenges for managing any form of pandemic. This strand will address how existing modelling approaches would need to be adapted for a range of plausible engineered pandemics.

Policy innovation challenges

Working with the policy community, the Cambridge team will co-create research that directly addresses policy needs and involves policy makers. It will support policy makers in experimenting with more joined-up approaches through testing, learning and adapting solutions developed in partnership.

The Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme is supported by a £5.25 million donation to the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge. The team intends it to form a central component of a future Pandemic Risk Management Centre, for which it is now fundraising.

Professor Joanna Page, Director of CRASSH, said: “Cambridge has strengths across a broad range of disciplines – from genetics and immunology to mathematical modelling to existential risk and policy engagement – that can make a much-needed initiative such as this a success.”

To find out more, visit the Engineered Pandemic Risk Management website.

Covid-19 showed us how vulnerable the world is to pandemics – but what if the next pandemic were somehow engineered? How would the world respond – and could we stop it happening in the first place?

There is a great opportunity to take a joined-up approach to managing the risks posed by engineered pandemics

Clare Bryant

Illustration showing global pandemic spread

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Yes

More fires, taking hold over more months of the year, are causing more carbon to be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Fires on peatlands, which are carbon-rich, can almost double global fire-driven carbon emissions. Researchers found that despite accounting for only a quarter of the total UK land area that burns each year, dwarfed by moor and heathland, wildfires that burn peat have caused up to 90% of annual UK fire-driven carbon emissions since 2001 – with emissions spikes in particularly dry years.

Peat only burns when it’s hot and dry enough - conditions that are occurring more often with climate change. The peatlands of Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District, and Flow Country in northern Scotland, have both been affected by huge wildfires in recent years.

Unlike heather moorland which takes up to twenty years to regrow after a fire, burnt peat can take centuries to reaccumulate. The loss of this valuable carbon store makes the increasing wildfire frequency on peatlands a real cause for concern. 

The researchers also calculated that carbon emissions from fires on UK peatland are likely to rise by at least 60% if the planet warms by 2^oC. 

The findings, which are broadly relevant to peatlands in temperate climates, are published today in the journal 'Environmental Research Letters'.

“We found that peatland fires are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of the carbon emissions caused by UK wildfires, which we project will increase even more with climate change,” said Dr Adam Pellegrini in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the study.

He added: “Peatland reaccumulates lost carbon so slowly as it recovers after a wildfire that this process is limited for climate change mitigation. We need to focus on preventing that peat from burning in the first place, by re-wetting peatlands.”

"We found that in dry years, peatland wildfires were able to burn into the peat and release significant quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. In particularly dry years this contributed up to 90% of the total wildfire-driven carbon emissions from the UK," said Dr Sarah Baker, lead author of the study which she conducted while at the University of Cambridge. Baker is now based at the University of Exeter.

The researchers found that the UK’s ‘fire season’ - when fires occur on natural land - has lengthened dramatically since 2011, from between one and four months in the years 2011-2016 to between six and nine months in the years 2017-2021. The change is particularly marked in Scotland, where almost half of all UK fires occur.

Nine percent of the UK is covered by peatland, which in a healthy condition removes over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year. 

The researchers estimate 800,000 tonnes of carbon were emitted from fires on UK peatlands between 2001 and 2021. The 2018 Saddleworth Moor fire emitted 24,000 tonnes of carbon, and the 2019 Flow Country fire emitted 96,000 tonnes of carbon from burning peat.

To get their results, the researchers mapped all UK wildfires over a period of 20 years – assessing where they burn, whether peat burned, how much carbon they emit, and how climate change is affecting fires. This involved combining data on fire locations, vegetation type and carbon content, soil moisture, and peat depth. Using UK Met Office model outputs, the team also used simulated climate conditions to project how wildfires in the UK could change in the future.

The study only considered land where wildfires have occurred in the past, and did not consider the future increases in burned area that are likely to occur with hotter, drier UK summers.

An average of 5,600 hectares of moor and heathland burns across the UK each year, compared to 2,500 hectares of peatland.

“Buffering the UK’s peatlands against really hot, dry summers is a great way to reduce carbon emissions as part of our goal to reach net zero. Humans are capable of incredible things when we’re incentivised to do them,” said Pellegrini.

The research was funded by Wellcome, the Isaac Newton Trust and UKRI.

Reference: Baker, S J et al: ‘Spikes in UK wildfire emissions driven by peatland fires in dry years.’ February 2025, Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adafc6.
 

A new study led by the University of Cambridge has revealed that as our springs and summers get hotter and drier, the UK wildfire season is being stretched and intensified.

Peatland fires are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of the carbon emissions caused by UK wildfires, which we project will increase even more with climate change

Adam Pellegrini

Fire on UK moorland

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Yes

The UK government should resist allowing AI companies to scrape all copyrighted works unless the holder has actively ‘opted out’, as it puts an unfair burden on up-and-coming creative talents who lack the skills and resources to meet legal requirements.

This is according to a new report from University of Cambridge experts in economics, policy and machine learning, who also argue the UK government should clearly state that only a human author can hold copyright – even when AI has been heavily involved.

A collaboration between three Cambridge initiatives – the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, and ai@cam – the report argues that unregulated use of generative AI will not guarantee economic growth, and risks damaging the UK’s thriving creative sector. 

If the UK adopts the proposed ‘rights reservation’ for AI data mining, rather than maintaining the legal foundation that automatically safeguards copyright, it will compromise the livelihoods of many in the sector, particularly those just starting out, say researchers.

They argue that it risks allowing artistic content produced in the UK to be scraped for endless reuse by offshore companies.

“Going the way of an opt-out model is telling Britain’s artists, musicians, and writers that tech industry profitability is more valuable than their creations,” said Prof Gina Neff, Executive Director at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“Ambitions to strengthen the creative sector, bolster the British economy and spark innovation using GenAI in the UK can be achieved – but we will only get results that benefit all of us if we put people’s needs before tech companies.”

'Ingested' by technologies

Creative industries contribute around £124.6 billion or 5.7% to the UK’s economy, and have a deep connection to the tech industry. For example, the UK video games industry is the largest in Europe, and contributed £5.12 billion to the UK economy in 2019.

While AI could lead to a new generation of creative companies and products, the researchers say that little is currently known about how AI is being adopted within these industries, and where the skills gaps lie.

“The Government ought to commission research that engages directly with creatives, understanding where and how AI is benefiting and harming them, and use it to inform policies for supporting the sector’s workforce,” said Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning and Chair of ai@cam.

“Uncertainty about copyright infringement is hindering the development of Generative AI for public benefit in the UK. For AI to be trusted and widely deployed, it should not make creative work more difficult.”

In the UK, copyright is vested in the creator automatically if it meets the legal criteria. Some AI companies have tried to exploit ‘fair dealing’ – a loophole based around use for research or reporting – but this is undermined by the commercial nature of most AI.

Now, some AI companies are brokering licensing agreements with publishers, and the report argues this is a potential way to ensure creative industries are compensated.

While rights of performers, from singers to actors, currently cover reproductions of live performances, AI uses composites harvested from across a performer’s oeuvre, so rights relating to specific performances are unlikely to apply, say researchers.

Further clauses in older contracts mean performers are having their work ‘ingested’ by technologies that didn’t exist when they signed on the dotted line.

The researchers call on the government to fully adopt the Beijing Treaty on Audio Visual Performance, which the UK signed over a decade ago but is yet to implement, as it gives performers economic rights over all reproduction, distribution and rental.

"The current lack of clarity about the licensing and regulation of training data use is a lose-lose situation. Creative professionals aren't fairly compensated for their work being used to train AI models, while AI companies are hesitant to fully invest in the UK due to unclear legal frameworks,” said Prof Diane Coyle, the Bennett Professor of Public Policy.

“We propose mandatory transparency requirements for AI training data and standardised licensing agreements that properly value creative works. Without these guardrails, we risk undermining our valuable creative sector in the pursuit of uncertain benefits from AI."

'Spirit of copyright law'

The Cambridge experts also look at questions of copyright for AI-generated work, and the extent to which ‘prompting’ AI can constitute ownership. They conclude that AI cannot itself hold copyright, and the UK government should develop guidelines on compensation for artists whose work and name feature in prompts instructing AI.

When it comes to the proposed ‘opt-out’ solution, the experts it is not “in the spirit of copyright law” and is difficult to enforce. Even if creators do opt out, it is not clear how that data will be identified, labelled, and compensated, or even erased.

It may be seen as giving ‘carte blanche’ to foreign-owned and managed AI companies to benefit from British copyrighted works without a clear mechanism for creators to receive fair compensation.

“Asking copyright reform to solve structural problems with AI is not the solution,” said Dr Ann Kristin Glenster, Senior Policy Advisor at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and lead author of the report.

“Our research shows that the business case has yet to be made for an opt-out regime that will promote growth and innovation of the UK creative industries.

“Devising policies that enable the UK creative industries to benefit from AI should be the Government’s priority if it wants to see growth of both its creative and tech industries,” Glenster said.

The UK government’s proposed ‘rights reservation’ model for AI data mining tells British artists, musicians, and writers that “tech industry profitability is more valuable than their creations” say leading academics.

We will only get results that benefit all of us if we put people’s needs before tech companies

Gina Neff

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Yes

The team, led by the University of Cambridge, developed printed fabric sensors that can monitor breathing by detecting tiny movements in the skin, even when the pyjamas are worn loosely around the neck and chest.

The sensors embedded in the smart pyjamas were trained using a ‘lightweight’ AI algorithm and can identify six different sleep states with 98.6% accuracy, while ignoring regular sleep movements such as tossing and turning. The energy-efficient sensors only require a handful of examples of sleep patterns to successfully identify the difference between regular and disordered sleep.

The researchers say that their smart pyjamas could be useful for the millions of people in the UK who struggle with disordered sleep to monitor their sleep, and how it might be affected by lifestyle changes. The results are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Sleep is vital for human health, yet more than 60% of adults experience poor sleep quality, leading to the loss of between 44 and 54 annual working days, and an estimated one percent reduction in global GDP. Sleep behaviours such as mouth breathing, sleep apnoea and snoring are major contributors to poor sleep quality, and can lead to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression.

“Poor sleep has huge effects on our physical and mental health, which is why proper sleep monitoring is vital,” said Professor Luigi Occhipinti from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research. “However, the current gold standard for sleep monitoring, polysomnography or PSG, is expensive, complicated and isn’t suitable for long-term use at home.”

Home devices that are simpler than PSG, such as home sleep tests, typically focus on a single condition and are bulky or uncomfortable. Wearable devices such as smartwatches, while more comfortable to wear, can only infer sleep quality, and are not effective for accurately monitoring disordered sleep.

“We need something that is comfortable and easy to use every night, but is accurate enough to provide meaningful information about sleep quality,” said Occhipinti.

To develop the smart pyjamas, Occhipinti and his colleagues built on their earlier work on a smart choker for people with speech impairments. The team re-designed the graphene-based sensors for breath analysis during sleep, and made several design improvements to increase sensitivity.

“Thanks to the design changes we made, the sensors are able to detect different sleep states, while ignoring regular tossing and turning,” said Occhinpinti. “The improved sensitivity also means that the smart garment does not need to be worn tightly around the neck, which many people would find uncomfortable. As long as the sensors are in contact with the skin, they provide highly accurate readings.”

The researchers designed a machine learning model, called SleepNet, that uses the signals captured by the sensors to identify sleep states including nasal breathing, mouth breathing, snoring, teeth grinding, central sleep apnoea (CSA), and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). SleepNet is a ‘lightweight’ AI network, that reduces computational complexity to the point where it can be run on portable devices, without the need to connect to computers or servers.

“We pruned the AI model to the point where we could get the lowest computational cost with the highest degree of accuracy,” said Occhinpinti. “This way we are able to embed the main data processors in the sensors directly.”

The smart pyjamas were tested on healthy patients and those with sleep apnoea, and were able to detect a range of sleep states with an accuracy of 98.6%. By treating the smart pyjamas with a special starching step, they were able to improve the durability of the sensors so they can be run through a regular washing machine.

The most recent version of the smart pyjamas are also capable of wireless data transfer, meaning the sleep data can be securely transferred to a smartphone or computer.

“Sleep is so important to health, and reliable sleep monitoring can be key in preventative care,” said Occhipinti. “Since this garment can be used at home, rather than in a hospital or clinic, it can alert users to changes in their sleep that they can then discuss with their doctor. Sleep behaviours such as nasal versus mouth breathing are not typically picked up in an NHS sleep analysis, but it can be an indicator of disordered sleep.”

The researchers are hoping to adapt the sensors for a range of health conditions or home uses, such as baby monitoring, and have been in discussions with different patient groups. They are also working to improve the durability of the sensors for long-term use.

The research was supported in part by the EU Graphene Flagship, Haleon, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Chenyu Tang, Wentian Yi et al. ‘A deep learning-enabled smart garment for accurate and versatile monitoring of sleep conditions in daily life.’ PNAS (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2420498122

Researchers have developed comfortable, washable ‘smart pyjamas’ that can monitor sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea at home, without the need for sticky patches, cumbersome equipment or a visit to a specialist sleep clinic.

We need something that is comfortable and easy to use every night, but is accurate enough to provide meaningful information about sleep quality

Luigi Occhipinti

Illustration and photograph of 'smart pyjamas'

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Yes

The long-running programme provides families with opportunities to explore local museums through a variety of illuminated and themed activities after regular closing times. 

This year’s events include nighttime nature hunts, torchlit trails, and space-themed science and storytelling sessions. Highlights include:  

- A night time explorer activity at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, where visitors can search for dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that once roamed Cambridgeshire.  

- An aquatic adventure at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, inspired by the mythical realm of Poseidon, God of the sea, and the journey of Greek hero Odysseus.  

- A nocturnal orchid hunt at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, showcasing species from around the world and their unique adaptations.  

- A magic lantern display at the Museum of Cambridge, where visitors can create their own Victorian-style lanterns to guide them through the exhibits.  

The full programme for Twilight at the Museums is available on the University of Cambridge Museums website: http://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/theme/twilight.

All events are free or low-cost, with a mix of book-ahead and drop-in activities. Many venues are within walking distance of each other, allowing families to visit multiple locations in one evening.  

 

David Cahill Roots, Head of Collections’ Programmes and Collaborations at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’re delighted to bring back Twilight at the Museums this half term. Families will be able to experience the magic and excitement of exploring their local museums as the night falls, as well as enjoying hands-on activities, crafts, and performances. Remember to wrap up warm and bring your torch to see what you can discover!”  

In addition to the evening events, daytime activities will also be available across the museums during the half term. These include a chance to ‘meet’ fossil hunter Mary Anning at the Sedgwick Museum and a penguin-themed craft workshop at the Polar Museum, inspired by chalk drawings from Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton.  

The University of Cambridge Museums will also host one of their regular Disability Friendly Openings, providing a quieter environment and sensory activities tailored for children with special educational needs and disabilities, as well as their families.  

Participating organisations in Twilight at the Museums 2025 include:  

- The Centre for Computing History  

- Cambridge Museum of Technology  

- Cambridge Science Centre  

- Cambridge University Botanic Garden  

- The Fitzwilliam Museum  

- Great St Mary's Church

- Museum of Cambridge  

- Museum of Classical Archaeology  

- The Norris Museum (St Ives)  

- Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences  

- Whipple Museum of the History of Science  

- Museum of Zoology  

For further updates, follow the University of Cambridge Museums on social media (@camunivmuseums) and the hashtag #TwilightAtTheMuseums.

Read the full programme of events and plan your visit here: http://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/theme/twilight.

 

From Monday 17 to Sunday 23 February 2025, the University of Cambridge Museums will host their annual Twilight at the Museums event series, offering events and after-hours access at museums and galleries across Cambridge.

Families will be able to experience the magic and excitement of exploring their local museums as the night falls, as well as enjoying hands-on activities, crafts, and performances.

David Cahill Roots, Head of Collections’ Programmes and Collaborations

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Yes

Some efforts to preserve or rewild natural habitats are shifting harmful land use to other parts of the world – and this could drive an even steeper decline in the planet’s species, according to a team of conservation scientists and economists led by the University of Cambridge.

Researchers from over a dozen institutions worldwide have come together to call on the global community to acknowledge the ‘biodiversity leak’: the displacement of nature-damaging human activities caused by ringfencing certain areas for protection or restoration.

They argue that rewilding productive farmland or forestry in industrialised nations that have low levels of biodiversity may do more harm than good on a planetary scale.

Exploratory analysis by the team suggests that reclaiming typical UK cropland for nature may be five times more damaging for global biodiversity than the benefit it provides local species, due to the displacement of production to more biodiverse regions.

While this ‘leakage’ has been known about for decades, it is largely neglected in biodiversity conservation, say the researchers. They argue it undermines actions ranging from establishing new nature reserves to the EU’s environmental policies.

Writing in the journal Science, the experts point out that even the UN’s landmark Global Biodiversity Framework – aiming for 30% of the world’s land and seas to be conserved – makes no mention of the leakage problem.

“As nations in temperate regions such as Europe conserve more land, the resulting shortfalls in food and wood production will have to be made up somewhere,” said Professor Andrew Balmford, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology. 

“Much of this is likely to happen in more biodiverse but often less well-regulated parts of the world, such as Africa and South America. Areas of much greater importance for nature are likely to pay the price for conservation efforts in wealthy nations unless we work to fix this leak.”

“The first thing we need to do is collectively acknowledge that these leaks exist,” said co-author Professor Brendan Fisher from the University of Vermont. “If protesting a logging concession in the USA increases demand for pulp from the tropics, then we are unlikely to be helping biodiversity.”

Co-author Dr Ben Balmford of the University of Exeter said: “This issue demands far greater attention from a sector that seeks to shape how 30% of an ever hungrier and more connected planet is managed.”

‘Leakage’ is already a major issue for carbon credits tied to forest preservation, say researchers. But they argue it’s a real problem for biodiversity conservation efforts too.

While protected areas can slow deforestation inside their borders, there’s evidence it can simply shift to neighbouring areas. Production can also be displaced much further. Efforts to protect the Pacific Northwest’s old-growth forests resulted in increased logging in other North American regions, for example.

Yet a survey of site managers of tropical conservation projects conducted by the Cambridge team found that 37% had not come across the concept of leakage, and less than half of the projects were attempting to curb any displacement damage.*

The researchers explored how leakage caused by protected areas could affect global biodiversity by applying real-world food and biodiversity data to two hypothetical conservation projects.

They found that rewilding a sizeable area of Brazilian soybean farms would push production to nations such as Argentina and USA, but because Brazil is so important for biodiversity, the local conservation gains could be around five times greater than the displacement harms.

The opposite would be true if the equivalent area of UK arable farmland was reclaimed for nature. Here, production would be displaced to Australia, Germany, Italy and Ukraine.**

As the UK has fewer species than these other countries, damage from ‘leakage’ could be five times greater than the local benefit to British biodiversity. 

The experts offer a number of ways to help plug the biodiversity leak. They call on governments and the conservation sector to take leakage far more seriously when making environmental policy at national and global level.

They also point out that leakage could be reduced if conservation projects work with others to reduce demand – especially for high-footprint commodities such as red meat.

There’s scope to limit leakage by targeting conservation to areas high in biodiversity but where current or potential production of food or timber is limited, say researchers. One example is restoring abandoned tropical shrimp farms to mangroves.

However, we should also be much more cautious about restoring natural habitats on currently productive farmland in less biodiverse parts of the world, they argue.

Beyond planning where to conserve, major conservation initiatives should work with partners in other sectors to support local farmers, so that overall levels of production are maintained in the region despite protected areas. The team cite examples ranging from forest-friendly chocolate to herding practices that protect snow leopards.

Where local yield increases are difficult, larger-scale programmes could establish long-range partnerships with suppliers in the same markets to make up shortfalls in production.

“Without attention and action, there is a real risk that the biodiversity leak will undermine hard-won conservation victories,” said co-author Dr Fiona Sanderson of the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, who works on reducing the impacts of cocoa production in Sierra Leone.

Lead author from Cambridge, Prof Andrew Balmford, added: “At its worst, we could see some conservation actions cause net global harm by displacing production to regions which are much more significant for biodiversity.” 

*Survey of 100 practitioners involved in area-based tropical conservation projects, including directors, managers, coordinators, and researchers. Respondents came from 36 countries across all five continents. Further details: https://zenodo.org/records/14780198

** Two hypothetical habitat restoration programmes covering 1000km2 of Brazilian soy-producing land, and restoring 1000km2 of arable farmland in the UK that produces wheat, barley and oilseed rape.

Researchers call on the international community to recognise and start tackling the ‘biodiversity leak’.

Areas of much greater importance for nature are likely to pay the price for conservation efforts in wealthy nations unless we work to fix this leak

Andrew Balmford

The Gola Rainforest Project in Sierra Leone. This conservation project has limited leakage while slowing deforestation by supporting nearby farmers such as Mallo Samah to increase their yields and get higher prices for their cocoa.

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Yes

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, say their solar-powered reactor could be used to make fuel to power cars and planes, or the many chemicals and pharmaceuticals products we rely on. It could also be used to generate fuel in remote or off-grid locations.

Unlike most carbon capture technologies, the reactor developed by the Cambridge researchers does not require fossil-fuel-based power, or the transport and storage of carbon dioxide, but instead converts atmospheric CO2 into something useful using sunlight. The results are reported in the journal Nature Energy.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been touted as a possible solution to the climate crisis, and has recently received £22bn in funding from the UK government. However, CCS is energy-intensive and there are concerns about the long-term safety of storing pressurised CO2 deep underground, although safety studies are currently being carried out.

“Aside from the expense and the energy intensity, CCS provides an excuse to carry on burning fossil fuels, which is what caused the climate crisis in the first place,” said Professor Erwin Reisner, who led the research. “CCS is also a non-circular process, since the pressurised CO2 is, at best, stored underground indefinitely, where it’s of no use to anyone.”

“What if instead of pumping the carbon dioxide underground, we made something useful from it?” said first author Dr Sayan Kar from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. “CO2 is a harmful greenhouse gas, but it can also be turned into useful chemicals without contributing to global warming.”

The focus of Reisner’s research group is the development of devices that convert waste, water and air into practical fuels and chemicals. These devices take their inspiration from photosynthesis: the process by which plants convert sunlight into food. The devices don’t use any outside power: no cables, no batteries – all they need is the power of the sun.

The team’s newest system takes CO2 directly from the air and converts it into syngas: a key intermediate in the production of many chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The researchers say their approach, which does not require any transportation or storage, is much easier to scale up than earlier solar-powered devices.

The device, a solar-powered flow reactor, uses specialised filters to grab CO2 from the air at night, like how a sponge soaks up water. When the sun comes out, the sunlight heats up the captured CO2, absorbing infrared radiation and a semiconductor powder absorbs the ultraviolet radiation to start a chemical reaction that converts the captured CO2 into solar syngas. A mirror on the reactor concentrates the sunlight, making the process more efficient.

The researchers are currently working on converting the solar syngas into liquid fuels, which could be used to power cars, planes and more – without adding more CO2 to the atmosphere.

“If we made these devices at scale, they could solve two problems at once: removing CO2 from the atmosphere and creating a clean alternative to fossil fuels,” said Kar. “CO2 is seen as a harmful waste product, but it is also an opportunity.”

The researchers say that a particularly promising opportunity is in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector, where syngas can be converted into many of the products we rely on every day, without contributing to climate change. They are building a larger scale version of the reactor and hope to begin tests in the spring.

If scaled up, the researchers say their reactor could be used in a decentralised way, so that individuals could theoretically generate their own fuel, which would be useful in remote or off-grid locations.

“Instead of continuing to dig up and burn fossil fuels to produce the products we have come to rely on, we can get all the CO2 we need directly from the air and reuse it,” said Reisner. “We can build a circular, sustainable economy – if we have the political will to do it.”

The technology is being commercialised with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm. The research was supported in part by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the European Research Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Cambridge Trust. Erwin Reisner is a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Sayan Kar et al. ‘Direct air capture of CO2 for solar fuels production in flow.’ Nature Energy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01714-y

For more information on energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit the Energy IRC, which brings together Cambridge’s research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come. 

Researchers have developed a reactor that pulls carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into sustainable fuel, using sunlight as the power source.

We can build a circular, sustainable economy – if we have the political will to do it

Erwin Reisner

Solar-powered flow reactor

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Yes

The findings, published today in Science Advances, suggest that such individuals will need regular vaccine boosters to protect them and reduce the risk of infections that could be severe and also lead to new ‘variants of concern’ emerging.

Almost 16 million people worldwide are estimated to have died from Covid-19 during 2020 and 2021, though nearly 20 million deaths are thought to have been prevented as a result of the rapid rollout of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the pandemic.

During the pandemic, researchers discovered that immunocompromised individuals had difficulty clearing the virus, even when vaccinated. These are people whose immune systems are not functioning correctly, either as a direct result of disease or because they are on medication to dampen down their immune systems, for example to prevent organ transplant rejection. This meant that their infections lasted longer, giving the virus more opportunities to mutate.

Research from early in the pandemic showed that chronic infections can give rise to variants of concern that can then cause new waves of infection in the wider population.

When an individual is vaccinated, their immune systems produce antibodies that recognise and launch an attack on the virus. Such a process is known as seroconversion. Additional ‘booster’ vaccinations increase seroconversion and hence the likelihood of clearing infection.

However, although most immunocompromised individuals will have received three or more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, they still account for more than a fifth of hospitalisations, admissions to intensive care units, and overall deaths associated with the disease.

To see why this is the case, scientists at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID) at the University of Cambridge examined immunocompromised individuals who had been vaccinated against Covid-19. These patients, recruited from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were living with vasculitis, a group of disorders that cause inflammation of blood vessels. Data from this group was compared against individuals who were not immunocompromised.

Treatments for vasculitis rely on immunosuppressant medicines. These include drugs such as rituximab, which depletes the number of B-cells in the body – but B-cells are the immune cells responsible for producing antibodies. As such, these individuals are a severely at-risk population.

When the researchers analysed bloods samples from the vasculitis patients, they found that even though vaccination induced seroconversion, this in itself was not always sufficient to neutralise the virus. Every immunocompromised individual required at least three doses of the vaccine to protect them across a range of variants up to and include Omicron (the variant that appeared towards the end of 2021 and caused a new wave of infections). In some cases, even four vaccinations were not sufficient to adequately protect them.

Kimia Kamelian, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at CITIID and St Edmund's College, Cambridge, said: “We know that immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as Covid-19 because their immune systems struggle to clear infections. Vaccinations offer some protection, but our study shows that only repeated vaccinations – often four or more – offer the necessary protection.”

Professor Ravi Gupta, also from CITIID and a Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, added: “This of course has implications for the individual, who is more likely to have prolonged infection and a much greater risk of severe infection, but it also gives the virus multiple opportunities to mutate.

“We know from our previous work that at least some of the variants of concern probably emerged during chronic infections. That’s why these individuals must be given priority for updated vaccines against new variants.”

The research was funded by Wellcome, Gates Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and Vasculitis UK, with additional support by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Kamelian, K et al. Humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in vasculitis-related immune suppression. Sci Adv; 12 Feb 2025; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq3342

Vaccinations alone may not be enough to protect people with compromised immune systems from infection, even if the vaccine has generated the production of antibodies, new research from the University of Cambridge has shown.

We know that immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as Covid-19 because their immune systems struggle to clear infections

Kimia Kamelian

Vaccination of an senior male

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Yes

Developed collaboratively by representatives from across the UK’s research and innovation sector, including universities, research institutes and funding organisations, the Concordat is a commitment and shared ambition to embed environmental sustainability in research practice, culture, and approach throughout the signed organisations, and collectively as a sector. 

"Not only is the Concordat a very welcome initiative to bring the sector together and address the environmental impacts of research and innovation activities, which otherwise detract from their net benefits," says Professor Judy Hirst, chair of the University's Sustainable Research Working Group, “it is also a clear signal from funders of their increasing expectations of both institutions and individuals to cut the environmental costs of the research they fund." 

By signing the Concordat (Nov 2024), the University commits to progressively embed environmental sustainability into its research and innovation practices through action in 6 priority areas: 

• Leadership and system change 
• Sustainable infrastructure 
• Sustainable procurement 
• Emissions from business and academic travel 
• Collaborations and partnerships 
• Environmental impact and reporting data 

While the University is taking action on a number of fronts to improve its operational environmental sustainability performance, the Concordat helps us to go further by embedding environmental commitments into the design and delivery of our research, focused towards the 6 priority areas. This in turn will strengthen the University’s ability to respond to the increasing expectations of research funding bodies in relation to environmental sustainability. 

"The University’s efforts to enhance the sustainability of research practices are a key part of a wider commitment to operational environmental sustainability. Many funders, policymakers, and institutions across the higher education sector recognise that more must be done, and the Concordat provides an important foundation for ensuring our approaches are aligned and enabling researchers to take meaningful action," says Dr Andrew Jackson, Director of Research Services. "To effectively reduce environmental harm, we must learn from each other, establish best practice, and create the right conditions to implement it within our research community." 

Last year, the University announced plans to strengthen its leadership on environmental sustainability, across both its academic and operational activities. You can read about Cambridge’s approach to academic environmental sustainability on our Climate and Nature page, and operational environmental sustainability on the Environmental Sustainability website. Further information will be shared as the University develops its plans to deliver on the commitments of the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice. 

Professor Sir John Aston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, says "Signing the Concordat marks the beginning of a deeper focus on the environmental impact of doing research at the University of Cambridge. University leaders, departments, institutes, laboratories and individual researchers will all have a part to play, and I’m excited to see where bringing together the best minds in the world will lead us in enhancing the sustainability of the University’s research operations. I would very much like to thank Professor Judy Hirst and the whole Sustainable Research Working Group for their leadership in this area."

Lab-based staff and students can currently get tailored support to improve their environmental performance using the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). 

The University of Cambridge has become a signatory to the ground-breaking Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, joining 70 signatories and supporting organisations at the time of writing. 

This is a very welcome initiative to bring the sector together and address the environmental impacts of research and innovation activities.

Professor Judy Hirst, chair of the University's Sustainable Research Working Group

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Yes

Published today in Nature, this comprehensive resource, called HYPOMAP, provides an unparalleled view of the brain’s appetite centre and promises to accelerate the development of treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The hypothalamus is often described as the brain’s ‘control centre’, orchestrating many of the body’s most vital processes. While much of our knowledge of the hypothalamus comes from animal studies, especially in mice, translating these findings to humans has long been a challenge. HYPOMAP bridges this gap by providing an atlas of the individual cells within the human hypothalamus. This resource not only charts over 450 unique cell types but also highlights key differences between the human and mouse hypothalamus — differences that have major implications for drug development.

“This is a game-changer for understanding the human hypothalamus,” said Professor Giles Yeo, senior author of the study from the Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories (IMS-MRL) and MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge.

“HYPOMAP confirms the critical role of the hypothalamus in body-weight regulation and has already allowed us to identify new genes linked to obesity. It gives us a roadmap to develop more effective, human-specific therapies.”

Together with researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Professor Yeo and colleagues used cutting-edge technologies to analyse over 400,000 cells from 18 human donors. HYPOMAP allows researchers to pinpoint specific cell types, understand their genetic profiles, and explore how they interact with neighbouring cells. This detailed cellular resolution offers invaluable insights into the circuits that regulate appetite and energy balance, as well as other functions such as sleep and stress responses.

Comparison with a mouse hypothalamus atlas revealed both similarities and critical differences. Notably, some neurons in the mouse hypothalamus have receptors for GLP-1 — targets of popular weight-loss drugs like semaglutide — that are absent in humans.

"While drugs like semaglutide have shown success in treating obesity, newer therapies target multiple receptors such as GLP-1R and GIPR. Understanding how these receptors function specifically in the human hypothalamus is now crucial for designing safer and more effective treatments," said Dr Georgina Dowsett from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and formerly at the IMS-MRL.

“Our map of the human hypothalamus is an essential tool for basic and translational research,” added Professor Jens C. Brüning, Director at the Max Planck Institute. “It allows us to pinpoint which mouse nerve cells are most comparable to human cells, enabling more targeted preclinical studies.”

HYPOMAP’s open-access nature ensures that it will be an invaluable resource for scientists worldwide. By offering insights into the hypothalamus’s role in conditions ranging from obesity to cachexia (a wasting condition associated with several illness, which involves extreme loss of muscle and fat), it provides a foundation for tackling some of the most pressing health challenges of our time.

Dr John Tadross, Consultant Pathologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and lead author from IMS-MRL, said: “This is just the beginning. The atlas itself is a milestone, but what could really make a difference for patients is understanding how the hypothalamus changes in people who are overweight or underweight. This could fundamentally shift our approach to metabolic health and enable more personalised therapies.”

With HYPOMAP, researchers have a new tool to unlock the secrets of the human brain’s metabolic control centre. By better understanding the human hypothalamus, science takes a significant step toward combating obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related conditions.

Reference
Tadross, JA, Steuernagel, L & Dowsett, GKC et al. A comprehensive spatio-cellular map of the human hypothalamus. Nature; 5 Feb 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08504-8

Adapted from a story by the Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories and the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research

Scientists have created the most detailed map to date of the human hypothalamus, a crucial brain region that regulates body weight, appetite, sleep, and stress.

HYPOMAP confirms the critical role of the hypothalamus in body-weight regulation and has already allowed us to identify new genes linked to obesity

Giles Yeo

Person holding burger bun with vegetables and meat

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Yes

Mr McFadden was welcomed by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, to DAWN, the fastest supercomputer in Europe, where he was given a tour of the cutting-edge facility by Dr Paul Calleja, Director of the University’s Research Computing Services. He also spoke with engineers who work on the supercomputer, with industry partners at Dell, and the UK's Atomic Energy Authority. 

Professor Prentice said: "I was very pleased to welcome the Minister to Cambridge to explore the rapidly-developing ways in which the University's research, and DAWN-powered AI, are driving improvements in everyday life. From improving diagnostics to speeding up planning applications, Cambridge AI research is producing positive impact in people's lives."

Following the tour of DAWN, the Minister visited Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) to witness firsthand the practical applications of DAWN-powered AI. Mr McFadden was shown two use cases of this technology in healthcare. 

Professor Fleur Kilburn-Toppin discussed the potential for AI in breast cancer diagnosis through the EDITH trial, a multicentre mammography study assessing AI’s role in enhancing cancer detection. This discussion coincided with the Government’s launch of the EDITH trial to tackle breast cancer on World Cancer Day. 

The second case study was presented in the Department of Radiology, by Dr Suthesh Sivapalaratnam and Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb, who spoke to the Minister about the Blood Counts AI project which harnesses AI to revolutionise disease detection. The project provides an early warning system for infectious diseases, improving public health responses across the NHS. 

The day concluded with a roundtable conversation with academics and clinicians around how the UK can harness the potential of AI to improve public services across various areas, ranging from healthcare to productivity and local government services.  

This visit underscored the University's pivotal role in harnessing AI for societal benefit and the potential for University research in cutting-edge technology to help public service transformation. 

Mr McFadden said: "AI has the power to transform our public services, and the DAWN supercomputer is an excellent example of cutting-edge work being done right here in the UK, with an amazing partnership between Cambridge University and Addenbrooke's Hospital, improving medical diagnosis for patients.

"What's happening in Cambridge is really exciting, but we are only at the foothills of this technology and its potential to improve people's lives. Which is why we are putting innovation at the forefront of our Plan for Change."

The University welcomed the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP, to tour the DAWN supercomputer and discuss the ways in which AI can transform public services and healthcare.  

From improving diagnostics to speeding up planning applications, Cambridge AI research is producing positive impact in people's lives.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice

Professor Deborah Prentice with Pat McFadden, centre, and Dr Paul Calleja

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Yes

The Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement, formerly the Vice-Chancellor's Award, are held annually to recognise exceptional achievement, innovation, and creativity in developing research engagement and impact plans with significant economic, social, and cultural potential. Awarded in 3 categories, the winners for 2024 are:

Established Academic

Winner: Professor Sander van der Linden (Department of Psychology, School of Biological Sciences and Churchill College) and his team at the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab (Team application)

Project: A psychological vaccine against misinformation

Professor Sander van der Linden and team have developed a novel approach to countering the spread of harmful misinformation. This ‘psychological vaccine’ resulted in award-winning public impact tools that have shown millions of people how to spot fake news online. These games have been adopted by the World Health Organization, United Nations, UK Government and Google, and led to key policy changes in the EU Digital Services Act.

Early Career Researcher

Winner: Dr Gabriel Okello (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, School of Technology)

Project: Applying multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches to tackle air pollution in rapidly urbanising African cities

The project catalysed Uganda’s first-ever air quality standards, advancing policy and public health. It drove transformative growth in the e-mobility sector and battery-swapping stations. The Clean Air Network was established as a multi-regional community of practice for air quality management across Africa. The platform now provides real-time air quality data enabling evidence-based decision-making in Uganda and 8 other African countries.

Collaboration Award

Winner: 

Lead: Professor Paul Fletcher (Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, Clare College), Dr Dervila Glynn (Cambridge Neuroscience IRC), Dominic Matthews (Ninja Theory Ltd), Sharon Gilfoyle (Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust)

Project: Representing psychosis in video games: communicating clinical science and tackling stigma

This work draws together expertise in video game design and clinical neuroscience, with lived experience of mental illness to co-produce two award-winning video games vividly conveying the nature of altered experience of reality in a character with psychosis. Within conversations around mental health, psychosis is neglected and highly stigmatised.

In creating a powerful character and telling her story through gameplay, the project has enabled sensitive and thoughtful conversations about psychosis, and mental illness in general. It has had a measurably positive impact on stigma.

More about the Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement

Find out more about the winning projects and meet our runners-up. 

From helping to inoculate the public against misinformation to tackling air pollution in rapidly urbanising African cities, researchers from across the University of Cambridge were honoured at the Cambridge Awards on 3 February.

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Yes

Hitting the current national 2030 quotas for solar and wind energy could reduce the volatility of electricity markets by an average of 20% across 29 European countries, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.  

The intensity of spikes in power prices are predicted to fall in every country by the end of the decade if commitments to green energy are met, as natural gas dependency is cut.   

The UK and Ireland would be the biggest beneficiaries, with 44% and 43% reductions in the severity of electricity price spikes by 2030, compared with last year.

Germany could experience a 31% decline in electricity price volatility, with the Netherlands and Belgium seeing price spikes ease by 38% and 33% respectively.

The simulations conducted for the new study show that scaling up renewable energy minimises the market impact of fluctuations in natural gas price – increasing stability even when considering the reliance of renewable technologies on weather.

Some EU leaders and energy ministers have called for renewables targets on grounds of energy security as well as decarbonisation, particularly since Putin’s war on Ukraine stemmed the flow of Russian gas.

The study, published in the journal Nature Energy, calculates in detail how such aims would affect the volatility of wholesale electricity prices in energy markets across Europe.

“The volatility of energy prices is a major cause of damage to national economies,” said Laura Diaz Anadon, the University of Cambridge’s Professor of Climate Change Policy.

“Consumers are still reeling from sharp increases in electricity prices brought about by natural gas shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Anadon. “We show that hitting renewables targets reduce the likelihood of such price spikes in the future.”

Daniel Navia, a researcher with the University’s Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG), said: “Meeting renewable energy targets is not only good for carbon neutrality, but we can see it is a boost to economic resilience”

“We had probably underestimated how costly energy price shocks are to our societies, and the last crisis has been a stark reminder.”

The Cambridge researchers used the University’s high performance computing facilities to model a wide range of factors – from fluctuations in weather patterns and energy demands to fuel capacity – to map the current and future grids of all 27 EU nations plus the UK and Switzerland.

They assessed electricity markets in 2030 based on the commitments to renewables as stated in each nation’s national energy and climate plan.

“The UK in particular is projected to see major benefits to its energy market stability from renewables,” said Anadon.

“The UK has struggled with its exposure to gas prices due to a lack of energy storage and limited connections to the European grid. This has led to more hours where electricity prices are set by natural gas.”

The research also suggests that wholesale prices of electricity could fall by over a quarter on average across all countries in the study by decade’s end if they stick to current national renewables targets.

Again, populations in the UK and Ireland stand to gain significantly, with electricity prices predicted to fall by around 45% by 2030, compared with the current situation.

Several of the Nordic nations could see over 60% reductions in electricity costs by 2030, while in Germany the price is predicted to fall by 34%, with Belgium seeing a similar drop of 31%. The study suggests the Netherlands could see the price of electricity fall by 41%.

While the study’s authors caution that trends in electricity prices depend on factors that are “impossible to predict”, they say their results are in line with recent outputs by institutions such as the International Energy Agency.

In fact, Navia and Anadon say their modelling may even underestimate the potential for electricity price stability across Europe, as the projections were calculated using data from 1990-2021 – before the energy crisis created by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

“It makes sense to think about renewables as a security investment, and if we lose the momentum towards green energy, we are clearly harming the climate, but we also exposing ourselves to unknowable risks down the line,” said Anadon.  

The new study also charts the effects on electricity prices if countries overshoot on renewables. If Europe exceeds its renewable energy goals by 30%, electricity prices could become 50% less sensitive to natural gas, compared to just meeting renewables targets.

However, the study suggests there are tipping points where renewables cause the price of power to fall so far that it stops providing sufficient return on investment, and the green energy industries may stall. 

Added Navia: “If we are to fully utilise solar and wind as a security tool, Europe might have to rethink how its energy markets are designed, and what incentives it can offer the private sector to maintain the societal insurance value it gets from renewable energy.”

National targets for solar and wind power will see reliance on natural gas plummet, reducing electricity price volatility across Europe, with major beneficiaries including the UK and Ireland, the Nordics, and the Netherlands.

The UK in particular is projected to see major benefits to its energy market stability from renewables

Laura Diaz Anadon

High voltage electricity towers combined with economic charts

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Yes

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley, developed a practical way to make hydrocarbons – molecules made of carbon and hydrogen – powered solely by the sun.

The device they developed combines a light absorbing ‘leaf’ made from a high-efficiency solar cell material called perovskite, with a copper nanoflower catalyst, to convert carbon dioxide into useful molecules. Unlike most metal catalysts, which can only convert CO₂ into single-carbon molecules, the copper flowers enable the formation of more complex hydrocarbons with two carbon atoms, such as ethane and ethylene — key building blocks for liquid fuels, chemicals and plastics.

Almost all hydrocarbons currently stem from fossil fuels, but the method developed by the Cambridge-Berkeley team results in clean chemicals and fuels made from CO2, water and glycerol – a common organic compound – without any additional carbon emissions. The results are reported in the journal Nature Catalysis.

The study builds on the team’s earlier work on artificial leaves, which take their inspiration from photosynthesis: the process by which plants convert sunlight into food. “We wanted to go beyond basic carbon dioxide reduction and produce more complex hydrocarbons, but that requires significantly more energy,” said Dr Virgil Andrei from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, the study’s lead author.

Andrei, a Research Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, carried out the work as part of the Winton Cambridge-Kavli ENSI Exchange programme in the lab of Professor Peidong Yang at University of California, Berkeley.

By coupling a perovskite light absorber with the copper nanoflower catalyst, the team was able to produce more complex hydrocarbons. To further improve efficiency and overcome the energy limits of splitting water, the team added silicon nanowire electrodes that can oxidise glycerol instead. This new platform produces hydrocarbons much more effectively — 200 times better than earlier systems for splitting water and carbon dioxide.

The reaction not only boosts CO₂ reduction performance, but also produces high-value chemicals such as glycerate, lactate, and formate, which have applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and chemical synthesis.

“Glycerol is typically considered waste, but here it plays a crucial role in improving the reaction rate,” said Andrei. “This demonstrates we can apply our platform to a wide range of chemical processes beyond just waste conversion. By carefully designing the catalyst’s surface area, we can influence what products we generate, making the process more selective.”

While current CO₂-to-hydrocarbon selectivity remains around 10%, the researchers are optimistic about improving catalyst design to increase efficiency. The team envisions applying their platform to even more complex organic reactions, opening doors for innovation in sustainable chemical production. With continued improvements, this research could accelerate the transition to a circular, carbon-neutral economy.

“This project is an excellent example of how global research partnerships can lead to impactful scientific advancements,” said Andrei. “By combining expertise from Cambridge and Berkeley, we’ve developed a system that may reshape the way we produce fuels and valuable chemicals sustainably.”

The research was supported in part by the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, St John’s College, the US Department of Energy, the European Research Council, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Virgil Andrei et al. ‘Perovskite-driven solar C2 hydrocarbon synthesis from CO2.’ Nature Catalysis (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41929-025-01292-y

Tiny copper ‘nano-flowers’ have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and manufacturing.

Solar fuel generator

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Yes

The report, carried out by analytics firm Clarivate, looks at the critical role of research in shaping global industrial innovation and societal impact, using data and expert insights derived from academic research and patent citations.

The report highlights how knowledge flows between academia and industry across countries and regions, underscoring the global nature of innovation. It identifies the top 50 universities named on the academic papers that received the highest number of citations from patents granted to the companies and organisations on the Top 100 Global Innovators 2024 list.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge has a thriving community of spin-outs, start-ups and partnerships that demonstrates how academia and industry can work together to transform ideas into real-world impact. The University is key to this, and we are developing hugely ambitious plans that will transform the UK economy and reinforce the UK’s status as a leader in global innovation.”

The report comes the day after Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves unveiled her strategy to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor by catalysing the growth of UK science and technology. The plan recognises the University of Cambridge as the world’s leading science and technological cluster by intensity, and its potential to rapidly build on the £30bn contribution it already makes to the UK economy.

According to the report, the top 10 universities influencing patented inventions are: 

1. Harvard University (US)
2. Stanford University (US)
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT (US)
4. University of California, Berkeley (US)
5. Université Paris Cité (France)
6. University of Cambridge (UK)
7. University of Washington, Seattle (US)
8. University of California, San Diego (US)
9. University of Michigan (US)
10. University of Toronto (Canada)

Among the report’s key findings was that the UK demonstrates particularly diverse international influence, with its research often serving as a bridge across regions.

Gordon Rogers, report author and Senior Manager, Data Science at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, said: “Groundbreaking ideas driving the world’s most innovative companies often originate from academic research. Our report demonstrates that by fostering collaboration between academia and industry, we can fuel technological advancements, providing solutions to societal challenges in healthcare, sustainability, and economic development.”

Read more at: The top 50 universities powering global innovation

The University of Cambridge has been named as the leading UK university in a new report on the top 50 universities powering global innovation.

Cambridge has a thriving community of spin-outs, start-ups and partnerships that demonstrates how academia and industry can work together to transform ideas into real-world impact

Deborah Prentice

Student at Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge

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Yes

During a speech in Oxfordshire, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves unveiled her strategy to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor by catalysing the growth of UK science and technology. The plan recognises the University of Cambridge as the world’s leading science and technological cluster by intensity, and its potential to rapidly build on the £30 billion contribution it already makes to the UK economy.

As part of the announcement, the Chancellor welcomed Cambridge’s proposal for a new large-scale innovation hub in the city centre:

“I am delighted that Cambridge University has come forward with plans for a new flagship innovation hub at the centre of Cambridge – to attract global investment and foster a community that catalyses innovation. As other cities around the world like Boston and Paris have done.”

Modelled on The Engine in Boston and Station F in Paris, the hub will be a hothouse to rapidly transform the best research ideas from across the UK into the companies of tomorrow.

Significant investment will also be made in transport and infrastructure across Cambridge and the wider Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, as well as in securing water supplies and delivering new homes and associated community spaces such as schools, leisure facilities, and office and laboratory space.

Commenting on the speech and the importance of Cambridge as a partner in delivering UK growth, University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said:

“It is great to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer recognising how Cambridge can help drive transformational growth for the UK. We welcome the Government's commitment to the vital infrastructure that will support sustainable growth across the region, and we are delighted to partner with the Government to establish a national innovation hub in the heart of this city. The hub will bring together brilliant tech and life sciences companies, entrepreneurs and investors in one location to deliver innovation at scale.”

The announcement follows an open letter to the Government from the University and Cambridge businesses at the start of the year that sets out the case for renewed support for a region with a proven track record and which stands ready to deliver economic growth.

Cambridge is at the heart of Government plans announced on 29 January to go ‘further and faster’ to kick start economic growth in the UK.

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Yes

The increase in physical activity was mainly seen in those doing semi-routine occupations such as bus driving or hairdressing, and routine occupations such as cleaning or waiting, or technical jobs. There was little change seen among people entering managerial or professional occupations.

People who work from home saw a decrease in levels of physical activity – though their sleep levels did not change when they started work.

Young adulthood – ages 16 to 30 years – is an important time in terms of health. Although we are typically at our peak physical health, it is also a time when many risk factors for long term diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer begin to develop.

Health guidelines recommend young adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night, engage in 150 minutes or more of moderate physical activity per week, and consume at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.

Young adulthood is also the time when most people start work, which changes their daily routines and activities, resources such as time and money, and social and physical environments – all of which affect health behaviours and health in later life.

To quantify the impact that starting work has on health-related behaviours, a team led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge examined repeated data taken over time from more than 3,000 participants in the UK Household Longitudinal Study. All the participants were aged 16–30 years and started work for the first time between 2015 and 2023.  

The results are published today in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Dr Eleanor Winpenny, who was based at the University of Cambridge when she carried out the work, but is now at Imperial College London, said: “We know about physical activity and sleep patterns among young people while they’re at school, but very little about what happens when they start work. Given the impact that work can have on our lives – and the lasting impacts this can have on our health – it’s important to try and understand what happens at this transition.”

The analysis showed that when people started work, their physical activity increased by an amount equivalent to around 28 min of moderate activity (such as cycling) per day on average – but then decreased each year after starting work by around 7 min per day.

The biggest increase was among males – up by an equivalent of around 45 min of moderate activity per day compared to an increase of around 16 min for females. People who did not have a university degree also showed a greater increase in physical activity compared to those with a university degree – equivalent to around a 42 min increase of moderate physical activity per day compared to 15 min per day.

Working from home, however, appeared to be associated with an initial decrease in physical activity, equivalent to around 32 min of moderate activity per day.

When young adults started work, the amount of time they slept per night dropped immediately by almost 10 minutes and remained stable at this level over time; however, people without a degree showed a continuing decrease of about 3 minutes of sleep per night each year after starting work, while those with a degree slowly increased back to their pre-work sleep levels.

There was little change in the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed after starting work.

Alena Oxenham, from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “Beginning work can have a profound impact on our lifestyles and on behaviours that might make a difference to our health, if not immediately then later in life.

“Although we found that people tend to do more physical activity when they begin work, which is good news, these are averages, and some people – particularly those who work from home and, to a lesser degree, those with office-based jobs – may do less.

“If we want to stay healthy throughout our lives, we need to remember that keeping active is an important way of helping us achieve this goal. Those working at home might want to consider incorporating physical activity into their day, for example by going for a walk before or after work, or during a lunch break.”

Dr Winpenny added: “Workplaces provide an opportunity to create environments and cultures that support healthier diets, more physical activity and better sleep for young adults. This could result in healthier employees and fewer sick days in the immediate term, but also have long term benefits, helping prevent health issues in later life.”

The research was funded by the MRC and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Reference
Oxenham, AF, et al. New job, new habits? A multilevel interrupted time series analysis of changes in diet, physical activity and sleep among young adults starting work for the first time. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity; 28 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1186/s12966-024-01682-8

When young adults start working, the amount of daily physical activity they do increases sharply, only to fall away again over the next few years, while the amount of sleep they get falls slightly, according to new research led by scientists at the University of Cambridge.

If we want to stay healthy throughout our lives, we need to remember that keeping active is an important way of helping us achieve this goal

Alena Oxenham

Cyclist in London

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Yes

A major study of botanic gardens around the world has revealed their struggles with one fundamental aim: to safeguard the world’s most threatened plants from extinction.

Researchers analysed a century’s worth of records - from 1921 to 2021 - from fifty botanic gardens and arboreta currently growing half a million plants, to see how the world’s living plant collections have changed over time. 

The results suggest that the world’s living collections have collectively reached peak capacity, and that restrictions on wild plant collecting around the world are hampering efforts to gather plant diversity on the scale needed to study and protect it.

There is little evidence that institutions are managing to conserve threatened plants within collections, on a global scale, despite accelerating rates of elevated extinction risk.

The findings imply that tackling the loss of biodiversity has not been prioritised across the world’s botanic gardens as a collective - a fact the researchers say must be urgently addressed.

Curator of Cambridge University Botanic Garden Professor Samuel Brockington, who led the work, said: “A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants, and to make them available for research and future reintroduction into the wild.”

In their report, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers say the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has effectively halved the level at which plants are being collected from the wild, and also created obstacles to the international exchange of plants.

Brockington, who is also Professor of Evolution in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, said: “The impact of the Convention on Biological Diversity is a remarkable demonstration of the power and value of international agreements. But it seems to be preventing individual botanic gardens from working with many globally threatened plant species that we could help save from extinction.”

Collective thinking

As much as 40% of the world’s plant diversity is at elevated risk of extinction. Acceptance that individual collections have limited capacity to single-handedly prevent species extinction demands a rethink as to how they collaborate to store and safeguard diversity in living collections.

The researchers say it will be vital for the living collections to be considered as a ‘meta-collection’ in future: only by working closely together will the world’s botanic gardens be able to hold the range of plants needed to make a meaningful contribution to conservation efforts. This will include sharing data and expertise and supporting the development of new collections in the global south, where much of the world’s biodiversity is located. 

The researchers point out that some individual institutions, like the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, have successfully targeted and measurably conserved threatened conifer species. Similarly, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has established numerous global conservation consortia. However, these initiatives are the exception.

Wild decline

Plants must be regularly replaced or propagated within living collections: the average lifetime of a specimen is just 15 years. But the team’s analysis found that the number of wild-origin plants - those collected in the wild - in the collections peaked in 1993 and has been in decline ever since. 

“It is certainly not getting any easier to sustain the diversity of our collections. This is especially true for wild-collected plants, and they’re the most valuable for us in terms for supporting research, and in finding solutions to the twin challenges of climate change and global biodiversity loss,” said Brockington.

Weather worries

As climate change alters growing conditions in different regions of the world, it will become more challenging for individual botanic gardens to continue to grow such a diverse range of species.

Brockington said: “Climate change affects our work directly by altering local weather conditions - we’ve already seen record-breaking temperatures in Cambridge in recent years. That’s going to affect how well our plants survive, so we need to think rationally and collectively about the best locations to hold different species across the global network of living collections.” 

On 25 July 2019, Cambridge University Botanic Garden reached 38.7⁰C - the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK at that time.

Diversity is key

Genetic diversity is important when it comes to protecting plants at risk of extinction, because it allows for breeding populations of species that can adapt to future challenges.

The more individual plants of a particular species in a collection, the greater the genetic diversity is likely to be. 

The team says data from the International Conifer Conservation Programme, run by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, shows that living collections can make a valuable contribution to conservation efforts - given the right resource and focus. By distributing threatened species across a network of safe sites, the trees are grown where they grow best, and as a whole they represent a strong sample of the genetic diversity of this important group.
Ethical collecting

Last year, Cambridge University Botanic Garden advertised for a new ‘Expedition Botanist’ to lead global plant-collection expeditions and contribute to vital conservation efforts. 

Brockington says these expeditions remain vital to work to safeguard and study the world’s plant species. He suggests that collaborative collecting work is possible, in a fair and ethical way, that builds equitable international partnerships. 

The CBD is a global agreement, signed by 150 government leaders in 1992, dedicated to promoting sustainable development. It makes each country responsible for protecting its own biodiversity, and supports fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of that biodiversity.

There are 3,500 botanic gardens and arboreta worldwide. They exist so that scientists can study, conserve and provide access to the world’s plants, as well as showcasing them to the public.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a charity whose purpose is to mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

Reference: Cano, A. et al: ‘Insights from a century of data reveal global trends in ex situ living plant collections.’ Nature Ecology and Evolution, January 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02633-z
 

The world’s botanic gardens must pull together to protect global plant biodiversity in the face of the extinction crisis, amid restrictions on wild-collecting, say researchers.

A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants.

Samuel Brockington

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

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Yes

As part of a £69 million funding programme supported by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering will co-lead a project that uses small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids to develop a new type of brain implant, which will be tested in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.

The project led by Malliaras and Professor Roger Barker from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which involves colleagues from the University of Oxford, the University of Lund and BIOS Health, is one of 18 projects funded by ARIA as part of its Precision Neurotechnologies programme, which is supporting research teams across academia, non-profit R&D organisations, and startups dedicated to advancing brain-computer interface technologies.

The programme will direct £69 million over four years to unlock new methods for interfacing with the human brain at the neural circuit level, to treat many of the most complex neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, from Alzheimer’s to epilepsy to depression.

By addressing bottlenecks in funding and the lack of precision offered by current approaches, the outputs of this programme will pave the way for addressing a much broader range of conditions than ever before, significantly reducing the social and economic impact of brain disorders across the UK.

Parkinson’s disease occurs when the brain cells that make dopamine (a chemical that helps control movement) die off, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Current treatments, like dopamine-based drugs, work well early on, but can cause serious side effects over time.

In the UK, 130,000 people have Parkinson’s disease, and it costs affected families about £16,000 per year on average – more than £2 billion in the UK annually. As more people age, the number of cases will grow, and new treatments are urgently needed.

One idea is to replace the lost dopamine cells by transplanting new ones into the brain. But these cells need to connect properly to the brain’s network to fix the problem, and current methods don’t fully achieve that.

In the ARIA-funded project, Malliaras and his colleagues are working on a new approach using small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids. These will be placed in the right part of the brain in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. They’ll also use advanced materials and electrical stimulation to help the new cells connect and rebuild the damaged pathways.

“Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s,” said Malliaras.

“To date, there’s been little serious investment into methodologies that interface precisely with the human brain, beyond ‘brute force’ approaches or highly invasive implants,” said ARIA Programme Director Jacques Carolan. “We’re showing that it’s possible to develop elegant means of understanding, identifying, and treating many of the most complex and devastating brain disorders. Ultimately, this could deliver transformative impact for people with lived experiences of brain disorders.”

Other teams funded by the programme include one at Imperial College London who is developing an entirely new class of biohybridised technology focused on engineering transplanted neurons with bioelectric components. A Glasgow-led team will build advanced neural robots for closed-loop neuromodulation, specifically targeting epilepsy treatment, while London-based Navira will develop a technology for delivering gene therapies across the blood-brain barrier, a crucial step towards developing safer and more effective treatments.

Adapted from an ARIA media release.

Cambridge researchers are developing implants that could help repair the brain pathways damaged by Parkinson’s disease.

Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s

George Malliaras

Substantia nigra in the human brain, illustration

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Yes

The study will lead to new guidance encouraging both the comics industry and enthusiasts to make comics communities better places for neurodivergent fans and artists. It is being led by academics at the University’s Faculty of Education and will begin this month with an open, online survey aimed at autistic comics fans.

Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) – which will also be part of the collaboration – indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.

The CCIC also suggests, however, that neurodivergent enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel ‘siloed’. How to address that – and what it is about comics that attracts so many autistic people in the first place – have never been fully explored.

The online survey will begin to answer these questions by collecting information from autistic comics fans and creators. Professor Jenny Gibson, an expert in neurodiversity and autism and one of the project’s academic leads, described it as “kick-starting a wider conversation about comics and autism”.

“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” Gibson said.

“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people. What we lack is information about how we can best do that, partly because we don’t know enough about the perspectives and experiences of autistic comics enthusiasts.”

The project is called ‘The Collaboration for Comics and Autism’. As well as the CCIC, Gibson and co-lead Dr Joe Sutliff Sanders will be working with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Dekko Comics (a specialist publisher supporting neurodivergent learners), the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.

Beyond this, they want to involve as many autistic artists and fans as possible by gathering their experiences of engaging with comics culture and of the opportunities and barriers they have encountered.

Various explanations have been proposed for why comics seem to have such appeal for autistic people. Dekko Comics argues on its website that many autistic young people, who may often find verbal communication challenging, respond positively to the clear and accessible sensory material in comics, which may be an important bridge between their inner and outer worlds. Research by Dr Neil Cohn suggests that over 90% of children with autism spectrum disorder and language disorders enjoy comics, compared with about 60% of neurotypical children.

Comics and art also provide many autistic people with a valuable outlet for self-expression. The Cambridge project, for example, originated from a workshop at the People’s History Museum in Manchester for autistic comics artists, which Gibson and Sanders co-led with the editor of Sensory: Life on the Spectrum, an anthology by dozens of autistic creators.

Sanders, a leading comics scholar, also highlights the richly detailed imaginative world of comics in which fans immerse themselves, often becoming aficionados in the process. This may mean comics are particularly well suited to helping autistic people satisfy psychological needs that we all share, such as the need for a sense of belonging, competence, and having control over our own lives.

“Comics have the power to spark a particular kind of obsession and passion among fans,” Sanders said. “They enable a sort of flow state; that pure joy that comes from losing yourself in something that you find interesting and engaging. They are almost ready-made for accumulating knowledge and sharing it with like-minded people who will really value what you have to say.”

“The problem is that, like so many other parts of society, fan conventions and communities – and the comics industry as a whole – can sometimes inadvertently brush aside neurodivergent people. We need to understand what we can do differently in order to make this world as inclusive and accessible as possible.”

The results of the online survey will provide the basis for a series of workshops in Cambridge later this year, during which artists, fans and people involved in the industry will begin to develop a best-practice guide for autistic inclusion.

Gibson and Sanders plan to launch it at the Lakes International Festival in September. The guide will also be distributed to a wider network including fan groups, publishers, galleries and professional bodies. It will be released as a comic book, and its impact will be tested through a follow-up survey so that it can be refined as necessary in future editions.

“Too often the question of how to support autistic people is addressed from a deficit perspective, as if the problem is that they lack neurotypical skills,” Gibson said. “This project will flip that perspective. By learning more about how autistic fans connect with comics, we will begin to understand what we can do differently to make the most of their knowledge, talents and enthusiasm.”

See the initial survey for The Collaboration for Comics and Autism.

Autistic people in the UK are being invited to participate in a University of Cambridge-led project exploring the uniquely powerful connection between autism and comics.

Too often the question of how to support autistic people is addressed from a deficit perspective

Prof Jenny Gibson

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Yes

The Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme will be led by Antonis Antoniou, Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge. It is funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The programme aims to access and link data from different sources - including health records, genomics, family history, demographics, and behavioural data - to develop statistical models that help scientists accurately predict who is most likely to get cancer. Alongside this, the programme will develop powerful new tools that use AI to analyse the data and calculate an individual’s risk of cancer throughout their lifetime.

Professor Antoniou said: “Finding people at the highest risk of developing cancer, including those with vague symptoms, is a major challenge. The UK’s strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers.”

Over the next five years, the funding will build the infrastructure required to access and link these datasets, train new data scientists, create the algorithms behind the risk models and evaluate the algorithms and AI tools to ensure that they are giving accurate and clinically useful information about cancer risk. The scientific programme will be guided by partnerships with cancer patients, the public, clinical experts and industry, while addressing ethical and legal considerations to ensure that the models and tools work well in practice.

Professor Antoniou added: “Ultimately, [the Cancer Data Driven Detection programme] could inform public health policy and empower individuals and their healthcare providers to make shared decisions. By understanding individual cancer risks, people can take proactive steps to stop cancer before it gets worse or even begins in the first place.”

The models generated from this research could be used to help people at higher risk of cancer in different ways. For example, the NHS could offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, whilst those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests. People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible cancer signs or symptoms. Individuals at higher risk could also access different ways to prevent cancer.

Earlier diagnosis of cancer saves lives, yet according to analysis of NHS figures by Cancer Research UK, only 54% of cancers in England are diagnosed at stages one and two, where treatment is more likely to be successful. NHS England has set a target to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages one and two by 2028, and this will only be achieved with research and embracing new technologies to catch cancer earlier.  

Last week, the Prime Minister announced backing for the power of big data and AI, which has the potential to help even more patients, including those with cancer.

Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “There are huge opportunities in AI to improve UK healthcare, from scans detecting illnesses earlier to bringing NHS waiting lists down by planning appointments more efficiently, and these will continue to develop.

“This investment in harnessing the potential of data to spot those at risk of cancer represents the sort of innovation the Government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out to realise, so this technology improves lives, while transforming public services and boosting growth.”

Minister for Public Health and Prevention, Andrew Gwynne said: “Using the latest technology could revolutionise how the NHS diagnoses and treats patients. As part of this government’s Plan for Change, we will transform our health service from analogue to digital, and innovative projects like this show exactly how we will achieve it.” 

The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme is jointly supported by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health & Care Research, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and Administrative Data Research UK.

Head of Prevention and Early Detection Research at Cancer Research UK, Dr David Crosby, said: “The single most important thing we can do to beat cancer is to find it earlier, when treatment is more likely to be successful. With half a million cancer cases per year expected in the UK by 2040, we need a major shift towards more accurate diagnosis and detection of early cancer.”

Find out how Cambridge is Changing the Story of Cancer

Adapted from a press release from Cancer Research UK

Cambridge researchers are to lead a £10 million project that could result in doctors being able to predict your individual chances of getting cancer and offer personalised detection and prevention.

The UK’s strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers

Antonis Antoniou

Image representing AI and Big Data

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Yes

The study, led by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Exeter, identified several drugs already licensed and in use that have the potential to be repurposed to treat dementia.

Dementia is a leading cause of death in the UK and can lead to profound distress in the individual and among those caring for them. It has been estimated to have a worldwide economic cost in excess of US$1 trillion dollars.

Despite intensive efforts, progress in identifying drugs that can slow or even prevent dementia has been disappointing. Until recently, dementia drugs were effective only for symptoms and have a modest effect. Recently, lecanemab and donanemab have been shown to reduce the build-up in the brain of amyloid plaques – a key characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease – and to slow down progression of the disease, but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded that the benefits were insufficient to justify approval for use within the NHS.

Scientists are increasingly turning to existing drugs to see if they may be repurposed to treat dementia. As the safety profile of these drugs is already known, the move to clinical trials can be accelerated significantly.  

Dr Ben Underwood, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We urgently need new treatments to slow the progress of dementia, if not to prevent it. If we can find drugs that are already licensed for other conditions, then we can get them into trials and – crucially – may be able to make them available to patients much, much faster than we could do for an entirely new drug. The fact they are already available is likely to reduce cost and therefore make them more likely to be approved for use in the NHS.”

In a study published today in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, Dr Underwood, together with Dr Ilianna Lourida from the University of Exeter, led a systematic review of existing scientific literature to look for evidence of prescription drugs that altered the risk of dementia. Systematic reviews allow researchers to pool several studies where evidence may be weak, or even contradictory, to arrive at more robust conclusions.

In total, the team examined 14 studies that used large clinical datasets and medical records, capturing data from more than 130 million individuals and 1 million dementia cases. Although they found a lack of consistency between studies in identifying individual drugs that affect the risk of dementia, they identified several drug classes associated with altered risk.

One unexpected finding was an association between antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines, and a reduced risk of dementia. This finding supports the hypothesis that common dementias may be triggered by viral or bacterial infections, and supports recent interest in vaccines, such as the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis, and decreased risk of dementia.

Anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen were also found to be associated with reduced risk. Inflammation is increasingly being seen to be a significant contributor to a wide range of diseases, and its role in dementia is supported by the fact that some genes that increase the risk of dementia are part of inflammatory pathways.

The team found conflicting evidence for several classes of drugs, with some blood pressure medications and anti-depressants and, to a lesser extent, diabetes medication associated with a decreased risk of dementia and others associated with increased risk.

Dr Ilianna Lourida from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC), University of Exeter, said: “Because a particular drug is associated with an altered risk of dementia, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it causes or indeed helps in dementia. We know that diabetes increases your risk of dementia, for example, so anyone on medication to manage their glucose levels would naturally also be at a higher risk of dementia – but that doesn’t mean the drug increases your risk.

“It’s important to remember that all drugs have benefits and risks. You should never change your medicine without discussing this first with your doctor, and you should speak to them if you have any concerns.”

The conflicting evidence may also reflect differences in how particular studies were conducted and how data was collected, as well as the fact that different medications even within the same class often target different biological mechanisms.

The UK government is supporting the development of an Alzheimer’s trial platform to evaluate drugs rapidly and efficiently, including repurposed drugs currently used for other conditions.

“Pooling these massive health data sets provides one source of evidence which we can use to help us focus on which drugs we should try first,” said Dr Underwood. “We’re hopeful this will mean we can find some much-needed new treatments for dementia and speed up the process of getting them to patients.”

Reference
Underwood, BU & Lourida, I et al. Data-driven discovery of associations between prescribed drugs and dementia risk: A systematic review. Alz & Dem; 21 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1002/trc2.70037

Antibiotics, antivirals, vaccinations and anti-inflammatory medication are associated with reduced risk of dementia, according to new research that looked at health data from over 130 million individuals.

We urgently need new treatments to slow the progress of dementia, if not to prevent it. If we can find drugs that are already licensed for other conditions, then we can get them into trials much faster than we could do for an entirely new drug

Ben Underwood

Elderly Woman's Hands and Orange Pills

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Yes

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH) will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. It will bring together world-leading research and clinical excellence to change the lives of cancer patients across the East of England, the UK and beyond.

The Hospital was part of the government’s review of its New Hospitals Programme. In naming the project as one of the schemes that has advanced plans in place, including significant progress on our full business case, the Government confirmed the good news that we can prepare for construction to start in 2026. It remains on track to be built by 2029.

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Cambridge, will combine NHS clinical space with three new state-of-the-art research institutes that will support the ambitions set out in the government's new NHS ten-year plan.

Bringing together world-class NHS clinicians with cutting-edge University and industry-led research, the hospital will accelerate the early detection of cancer and prevention of illness, and lead the way in delivering bespoke, precision treatments that will radically improve patient outcomes.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “This is excellent news for the future of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to have a huge impact on how we diagnose and treat cancer, not only in our region, but globally.

“Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the University. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital.”

Find out more about the hospital that will change the story of cancer forever here.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced that ambitious plans can proceed for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to change the story of cancer forever.

Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the University. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital

Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital - artist's impression

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Researchers at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University found that these individuals also report experiencing lower quality healthcare than both autistic and non-autistic people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth (cisgender).

The findings have important implications for the healthcare and support of autistic transgender/gender diverse (TGD) individuals. This is the first large-scale study on the experiences of autistic TGD people and the results are published today in Molecular Autism.  

Previous research suggests that both autistic people and TGD people separately have poorer healthcare experiences and are more likely to be diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions than other people. In addition, a 2020 study of over 640,000 people, carried out by the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, found that TGD people are more likely to be autistic and have higher levels of autistic traits than other people. Several other studies now confirm this finding and show that autistic people are more likely to experience gender dysphoria than others. Despite these findings, there are no studies that consider risks of mental health conditions, physical health conditions, and healthcare quality among autistic TGD people.

In the largest study to date on this topic, the team at the Autism Research Centre used an anonymous, self-report survey to compare the experiences of 174 autistic TGD individuals, 1,094 autistic cisgender individuals, and 1,295 non-autistic cisgender individuals.

The survey assessed rates of mental health conditions and physical health conditions, as well as the quality of 51 different aspects of healthcare experiences. The healthcare experiences questions were wide-ranging and included questions about communication, anxiety, access and advocacy, system-level issues, and sensory experiences among others. They addressed several very basic aspects of healthcare, including asking participants to endorse statements such as ‘If I need to go to see a healthcare professional, I am able to get there’, ‘I am able to describe how bad my pain feels’, and ‘I usually understand what my healthcare professional means when they discuss my health’.

Both autistic TGD and autistic cisgender adults reported significantly poorer healthcare experiences across 50 out of 51 items compared with non-autistic cisgender people, confirming that autistic people appear to have poorer quality healthcare than non-autistic cisgender individuals, regardless of their own gender identity.

Compared to non-autistic cisgender individuals, autistic TGD people were three to 11 times more likely to report anxiety, shutdowns, and meltdowns related to common healthcare experiences.

For every 10 cisgender non-autistic adults who endorsed the following statements, on average, only two autistic cisgender adults and only one autistic TGD adult stated that they: (i) understood what their healthcare professional meant when discussing their health; (ii) knew what was expected of them when seeing a healthcare professional; or (iii) were able to describe how bad their pain felt.

Autistic TGD people and autistic cisgender people were more likely to report both long-term physical and mental health conditions that were formally diagnosed, suspected, or that had been recommended for assessment by clinicians. For every 10 non-autistic cisgender people who had at least one diagnosed physical health condition, there were 15 autistic cisgender people and 23 autistic TGD people. For every 10 non-autistic cisgender people who reported at least one diagnosed mental health condition, there were 50 autistic cisgender people and 109 autistic TGD people who reported the same.

Alarmingly, it is now well-established that autistic people and TGD people are each at a much higher risk of suicide and suicide-related behaviours than other people. In 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care specifically recognized autistic people as a priority group in their Suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028. The new study found that, compared to people who are non-autistic and cisgender, autistic cisgender individuals were 4.6 times more likely and autistic TGD people were 5.8 times more likely to report self-harm.

Dr Elizabeth Weir, a postdoctoral scientist at the Autism Research Centre, and one of the lead researchers of the study, said: “These findings add to the growing body of evidence that many autistic people experience unacceptably poor mental health and are at a very high risk of suicide-related behaviours. We need to consider how other aspects of identity, including gender, influence these risks.” 

These results emphasise the importance of considering intersectionality in clinical settings, including health risks for individuals who hold multiple minoritised identities. The researchers say clinicians should be aware of these risks and the unique barriers to healthcare that autistic TGD people may experience. The findings also underscore that people who are autistic and transgender/gender diverse experience particularly high rates of mental health conditions and risks of self-harm.

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre and a member of the team, said: “We need to consider how to adapt healthcare systems and individual care to meet the needs of autistic transgender/gender diverse people. Policymakers, clinicians, and researchers should work collaboratively with autistic people to improve existing systems and reduce barriers to healthcare.”

Reference
Green, K.*, Weir, E.*, Wright, L.*, Allison, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. Autistic and transgender/gender diverse people’s experiences of health and healthcare. Molecular Autism; 21 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1186/s13229-024-00634-0

Autistic transgender/gender diverse individuals are more likely to have long-term mental and physical health conditions, including alarmingly high rates of self-harm, new research from the University of Cambridge suggests.

These findings add to the growing body of evidence that many autistic people experience unacceptably poor mental health and are at a very high risk of suicide-related behaviours

Elizabeth Weir

Woman with transgender flag make-up

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Yes

The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages – from those that are just emerging to those in more mature systems like our own Solar System.

The REASONS (REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars) study, led by Trinity College Dublin and involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, is a milestone in the study of exocometary belts because its images and analyses reveal where the pebbles, and the exocomets, are located. They are typically tens to hundreds of astronomical units (the distance from Earth to the Sun) from their central star.

In these regions, it is so cold (-250 to -150 degrees Celsius) that most compounds are frozen as ice on the exocomets. What the researchers are therefore observing is where the ice reservoirs of planetary systems are located. REASONS is the first programme to unveil the structure of these belts for a large sample of 74 exoplanetary systems. The results are reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

This study used both the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawai‘i to produce the images that have provided more information on populations of exocomets than ever before. Both telescope arrays observe electromagnetic radiation at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths.

“Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice, at least one kilometre in size, which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here with the ALMA and SMA arrays of telescopes,” said lead author Luca Matrà from Trinity College Dublin. “Exocometary belts are found in at least 20% of planetary systems, including our own Solar System.”

“The images reveal a remarkable diversity in the structure of belts,” said co-author Dr Sebastián Marino from the University of Exeter. “Some are narrow rings, as in the canonical picture of a ‘belt’ like our Solar System’s Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. But a larger number of them are wide, and probably better described as ‘disks’ rather than rings.”

Some systems have multiple rings/disks, some of which are eccentric, providing evidence that yet undetectable planets are present and their gravity affects the distribution of pebbles in these systems.

“The power of a large study like REASONS is in revealing population-wide properties and trends,” said Matrà.

For example, the study confirmed that the number of pebbles decreases for older planetary systems as belts run out of larger exocomets smashing together, but showed for the first time that this decrease in pebbles is faster if the belt is closer to the central star. It also indirectly showed – through the belts’ vertical thickness – that objects as large as 140 km across and even Moon-size objects are likely present in these belts.

“We have been studying exocometary belts for decades, but until now only a handful had been imaged,” said co-author Professor Mark Wyatt from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “This is the largest collection of such images and demonstrates that we already have the capabilities to probe the structures of the planetary systems orbiting a large fraction of the stars near to the Sun.”

“Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings,” said co-author Dr David Wilner from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian “The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.”

Reference:
L. Matrà et al. ‘REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars. REASONS: A population of 74 resolved planetesimal belts at millimetre wavelengths.’ Astronomy & Astrophysics (2025). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451397

Adapted from a Trinity College Dublin media release.

An international team of astrophysicists has imaged a large number of exocomet belts around nearby stars, and the tiny pebbles within them.

Millimetre continuum images for the REASONS resolved sample of 74 exocomet belts

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Yes

Research led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, raises serious concerns about bias in the UK criminal justice system due to negative stereotyping of accents.

These stereotypes, the researchers argue, can affect all parts of the system from arrest to sentencing, and undermine not only suspects and defendants, but also the testimony of witnesses. The study is particularly concerned about accented speakers being incorrectly selected from voice identification parades.

The findings, published in Frontiers in Communication, suggest that despite progress in equality and diversity in some parts of British life, including ‘working-class’ and regional accents becoming more prominent on television and radio, harmful stereotypes remain.

“Our findings bring into sharp focus the disadvantage that speakers of some accents may still face in the criminal justice system,” said lead author, Alice Paver, from the University of Cambridge’s Phonetics Laboratory and Jesus College, Cambridge.

“Voices play a powerful role in the criminal justice system and police officers, lawyers and juries are all susceptible to judging voices based on stereotypes, whether they're aware of it or not. As things stand, listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that.”

The test

The researchers, from Cambridge and Nottingham Trent University, asked 180 participants (~50:50 gender split) from across the UK to listen to recordings of ten regionally-accented male voices: Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Standard Southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP.  

Participants were then asked to rate the voices on 10 social traits – ‘Educated’, ‘Intelligent’, ‘Rich’, ‘Working class’, ‘Friendly’, ‘Honest’, ‘Kind’, ‘Trustworthy’, ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Confident’; as well as on 10 morally ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘ambiguous behaviours’, which included a range of crime types.

These behaviours included: ‘Return a lost wallet to its owner’, ‘Stand up for someone who is being harassed’, ‘Cheat on a romantic partner’, ‘Report a relative to the police for a minor offence’, ‘Drive dangerously’, ‘Physically assault someone’, ‘Shoplift’, ‘Touch someone sexually without consent’, ‘Vandalize a shop front.’

The study used a wider range of recorded accents, behaviours and criminal offences than previous research which has tended to focus on criminal behaviour in general or the binary of white versus blue-collar crime. This study included crimes which are not class stratified, such as a driving offence and a sexual offence, and is the first to identify links between listener perceptions of morality, criminality, and social traits.

To ensure their results would be valid in a criminal justice context, the researchers created voice samples in a similar way to how they are constructed for voice ID parades. The aim was to mimic, as closely as possible, how a juror or earwitness would experience them.  

Findings: Status, class and regions

The results show that people with non-standard accents are more likely to be associated with criminal behaviour but that there is significant variation in perceptions between accents.

The RP-like accent was perceived as the least likely to behave in criminal ways, while the Liverpool and Bradford accents were the most likely.

Alice Paver said: “The strongest connection we found was between people's perceptions of class or status, negative traits such as aggression, and how they think someone is going to behave, particularly when it comes to crime. This is the first time that a concrete link between traits and behaviours has been made in the context of accent judgements.”

Unlike previous findings, the researchers did not observe a relationship between ‘solidarity traits’ (such as kindness and trustworthiness) and any behaviours. Status proved a much more important predictor of behaviours, re-enforcing the link between social class and expectations of behaviour in the UK.

However, non-English accents, in particular Belfast’s and Glasgow’s, were rated significantly less likely to behave in criminal ways than almost all other accents. They were also thought most likely to ‘stand up for someone being harassed’ (‘honourable behaviour’) and least likely to exhibit ‘morally bad’ behaviours.

Alice Paver said: “Our findings show that perceptions of speakers of regional accents and how status, social attractiveness and morality interact are much more complex than previously assumed. We need a much more nuanced understanding of how accents are evaluated when it comes to different crime types.”

Findings: Sexual offences

The London and Liverpool accents were rated most likely to touch someone sexually without consent, but they were very closely followed by the RP accent. Participants thought the RP accent was more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offences tested.

“This finding simultaneously undermines certain traditional stereotypes about both higher status and working-class men,” Alice Paver said. “This may indicate shifting perceptions of the ‘type’ of man who can and does commit sexual offences.”

The Glasgow and Belfast speakers were thought the least likely to commit this sexual offence.

The study found that participants perceived this sexual offence as distinct from other criminal behaviours. Poor ratings for it clustered with those for non-criminal ‘morally bad’ behaviours, namely ‘being unfaithful to a romantic partner’ and ‘lying on a CV’.

Findings: Newcastle and Birmingham

Previous studies have found that the Newcastle accent rates highly for traits such as friendliness, but this study recorded less positive ratings for kindness, honesty, friendliness and trustworthiness.

By contrast, the Birmingham accent, which has rated poorly in previous research across these measures, performed better than Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London and Newcastle in this study.

“Although relatively stable over time, language attitudes can change,” Alice Paver said. “This might be the case for the Birmingham and Newcastle accents. But previous studies have often asked people what they think of an accent label whereas we played them an actual voice. That’s a very different stimulus so we’re not surprised people reacted differently.”

Bringing about change

The study contributes to the Improving Voice Identification Procedures project. Its team of researchers is currently drafting revised guidelines for voice identification parades aimed at police officers and legal professionals.

They support the use of pre-tests to screen for bias against foil or suspect voices to make sure that they don't stand out as sounding unduly guilty or untrustworthy.

“Jurors are not currently made aware of or warned against letting voice- or accent-based prejudice sway their decisions,” Paver said. “If we're asked to judge whether someone is guilty or not, and they've got a particular accent, we need to be sure we're not making that judgment because we think they sound like a bad guy.”

The researchers hope that future studies will examine even more offence types; further explore the relationships between perceptions of criminality and other, non-criminal, behaviours; and make use of a broader range of voices for each accent to tease apart the effect of individual voices and the strength of regional accents.

The research was carried out in collaboration with Professor Natalie Braber and Dr David Wright of Nottingham Trent University’s School of Arts and Humanities, and Dr Nikolas Pautz, of NTU's Dept. of Psychology.

 

Funding

This research was supported by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council as part of the project Improving Voice Identification Procedures (IVIP), reference ES/S015965/1. Additional funding was provided by the Isaac Newton Trust.

Reference

A. Paver, D. Wright, N. Braber and N. Pautz, ‘Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour’, Frontiers in Communication (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013

People who speak with accents perceived as ‘working-class’ including those from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London risk being stereotyped as more likely to have committed a crime, and becoming victims of injustice, a new study suggests.

Listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that

Alice Paver

The Old Bailey in London. Photo: Art De Cade via Flikr under a CC license

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Yes

The work has been commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after a review by the UK Chief Medical Officer in 2019 found the evidence base around the links to children’s mental health were insufficient to provide strong conclusions suitable to inform policy.

The project – led by a team at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with researchers at several leading UK universities – is aimed at improving policymakers’ understanding of the relationship between children’s wellbeing and smartphone use, including social media and messaging. It will help direct future government action in this area.

Project lead Dr Amy Orben from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU) at the University of Cambridge said: “There is huge concern about the impact of smartphone use on children's health, but the evidence base remains fairly limited. While the government is under substantial time pressure to make decisions, these will undoubtedly be better if based on improved evidence.

“This is a complex and rapidly evolving issue, with both potential harms and benefits associated with smartphone use. Technology is changing by the day, and scientific evidence creation needs to evolve and innovate to keep up.

“Our focus will be on deepening our causal understanding of the effects of new technologies, particularly over short timescales, to ensure that decisions are informed, timely and evidence-based.”

Dr Orben will lead a Project Delivery Team, with Consortium Members from the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and York and the London School of Economics. It will aim to identify which research methods and data sources will be most effective at identifying potential causal relationships between social media, smartphones, and the health and development of children and young people

Deputy project lead Dr Amrit Kaur Purba, also from the MRC CBU at Cambridge, said: “The impact of social media on young people is a pressing issue, and our project will ensure the research community is in a strong position to provide policymakers with the causal and high-quality insights they need. While we don’t expect this to be straightforward, our research will leverage diverse expertise from across the UK to deliver a comprehensive and informed response to make recommendations for how research in this area should be supported in future.”

The researchers will review and summarise existing research on the impact of smartphones and social media on children and young people’s mental health, wellbeing, physical health, lifestyle and health behaviours, and educational attainment. The review will recognise the diversity of perspectives that exist in this area and consider where further research could add valuable new insights to the evidence base. 

They will assess the various methods and data available to understand the causal impacts, including recognising that online habits and emerging technologies are changing at a rapid pace, and considering how the experiences of vulnerable children and young people – for example, LGBTQ+ young people and those with special needs or mental health issues – can be captured in future research projects.

This will allow the team to recommend and outline how future research studies could deliver robust and causal evidence on the impact of smartphones and social media on child development factors in the next two to three years.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, said: "The online world offers immense opportunities for young people to connect and learn. Ensuring they can do so in an environment which puts their safety first is my priority and will guide this government’s action on online safety.  

“That’s why we have launched new research, led by the University of Cambridge with support from other top UK universities, to better understand the complex relationship between technology and young people's wellbeing.

“This vital research will build a trusted evidence base for future action, helping us to protect and empower the next generation towards a safer and more positive digital future."

Cambridge researchers are leading the first phase of a new research project that will lay the groundwork for future studies into the impact on children of smartphone and social media use.

This is a complex and rapidly evolving issue, with both potential harms and benefits associated with smartphone use. Technology is changing by the day, and scientific evidence creation needs to evolve and innovate to keep up

Amy Orben

Teenager holding a smartphone

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Yes

Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’s fuel tank is now approaching empty – it uses about a dozen grams of cold gas per day to keep it spinning with pinpoint precision. But this is far from the end of the mission. Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before Gaia is moved to its ‘retirement’ orbit, and two massive data releases are tabled for around 2026 and the end of this decade, respectively.

“Today marks the end of science observations and we are celebrating this incredible mission that has exceeded all our expectations, lasting for almost twice its originally foreseen lifetime,” said ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell.

“The treasure trove of data collected by Gaia has given us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and Solar System science in ways that we are yet to fully appreciate. Gaia built on unique European excellence in astrometry and will leave a long-lasting legacy for future generations.”

“Today marks the last day of science data collection from Gaia, these observations to form part of the final data release,” said Dr Nicholas Walton from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, lead of the UK Gaia Project team and ESA Gaia Science Team member. “Our Gaia team in the UK is now working hard on the incredibly complex data analysis for the upcoming Gaia data releases. These will enable a wealth of new discovery, adding to the science from one of the world’s most productive science discovery machines.”

Gaia delivers best Milky Way map

Gaia has been charting the positions, distances, movements, brightness changes, composition and numerous other characteristics of stars by monitoring them with its three instruments many times throughout the mission.

This has enabled Gaia to deliver on its primary goal of building the largest, most precise map of the Milky Way, showing us our home galaxy like no other mission has done before.

Gaia’s repeated measurements of stellar distances, motions and characteristics are key to performing ‘galactic archeology’ on our Milky Way, revealing missing links in our galaxy’s complex history to help us learn more about our origins. From detecting ‘ghosts’ of other galaxies and multiple streams of ancient stars that merged with the Milky Way in its early history, to finding evidence for an ongoing collision with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy today, Gaia is rewriting the Milky Way’s history and making predictions about its future.

Warning! More ground-breaking science ahead

The Gaia scientific and engineering teams are already working on the preparations for Gaia Data Release 4 (DR4), expected in 2026.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data,” said Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC based at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Astronomical Observatory of Padua, Italy. “Even though the mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be business as usual for us for many years to come as we make these incredible datasets ready for use.”

“Over the next months we will continue to downlink every last drop of data from Gaia, and at the same time the processing teams will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final major data release at the end of this decade, covering the full 10.5 years of mission data,” said Rocio Guerra, Gaia Science Operations Team Leader based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain.

Gaia’s retirement plan

While today marks the end of science observations, a short period of technology testing now begins. The tests have the potential to further improve the Gaia calibrations, learn more about the behaviour of certain technology after ten years in space, and even aid the design of future space missions.

After several weeks of testing, Gaia will leave its current orbit around Lagrange point 2, 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction away from the Sun, to be put into its final heliocentric orbit, far away from Earth’s sphere of influence. The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025, to avoid any harm or interference with other spacecraft.

Wave farewell to Gaia

During the technology tests Gaia’s orientation will be changed, meaning it will temporarily become several magnitudes brighter, making observations through small telescopes a lot easier (it won’t be visible to the naked eye). A guide to locating Gaia has been set up here, and amateur astronomers are invited to share their observations.

“Gaia will treat us with this final gift as we bid farewell, shining among the stars ahead of its well-earned retirement,” said Uwe Lammers, Gaia Mission Manager.

“It’s a moment to celebrate this transformative mission and thank all of the teams for more than a decade of hard work operating Gaia, planning its observations, and ensuring its precious data are returned smoothly to Earth.”

Adapted from a European Space Agency press release. 

The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.

This is a new artist’s impression of our galaxy, the Milky Way, based on data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope.

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Yes

Feryal Clark MP was welcomed to the University’s DAWN supercomputer facility, located on the University’s West Cambridge Innovation District, by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor John Aston, and Dr Paul Calleja, Director of Research Computing Services at the University.  

Together they toured the DAWN supercomputer and met with representatives from academia and industry partners who have ambitious plans for AI and supercomputing in Cambridge. The visit comes as the Government opens a UK-wide call for early access to the new AI Research Resource service, of which DAWN is part of.

Now up and running in its state-of-the-art Data Centre in Cambridge, DAWN is currently the most powerful AI supercomputer in the UK, with more than a thousand top-end Intel graphics processing units (GPUs) operating inside its server stacks. The supercomputer’s bespoke innovations in hardware and software result from a long-term co-design partnership between the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, directed by Dr Paul Calleja, and global tech leaders Intel and Dell Technologies, with support from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), StackHPC and UK Research & Innovation.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, also welcomed the Minister to the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where they were able to learn about the impact of DAWN and AI on patients, with a demonstration of the advances in healthcare. 

Feryal Clark MP later toured the University’s latest brain imaging scanner and heard from leading University researchers who are utilising DAWN supercomputing capabilities and AI to improve patient outcomes, and develop new and innovative treatments.  

The Minister moved on to meet with Professor Zoe Kourtzi, whose team are working on improving the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, for which AI can help develop tools by combining diverse data sources that provider a richer picture of a patient’s brain health. Professor James Brenton also presented on his work developing a comprehensive clinical decision-making support platform that integrates and refines cancer patient data from multiple sources into a single, much more manageable tool. Feryal Clark MP further heard from researcher Bill McGough, who is working on a project to develop an AI tool to detect renal cancers in non-contrast and low-dose CT, to enable kidney screening in the UK. 

The University of Cambridge is home to world-leading researchers in AI, to students enthusiastic about the potential of AI, and to an innovation ecosystem that is successfully translating this research into innovative new start-ups and creating jobs. The University’s flagship AI@Cam is harnessing the University's interdisciplinary research to drive a new wave of AI innovation that delivers public value. 

The Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark MP, visited the University of Cambridge on the day the Government announced their new AI Action Plan.  

Left to right: Nicola Ayton, Deputy Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), Feryal Clark MP, Minister for AI and Digital Government, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Deborah Prentice

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Yes

The group of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella, E.coli and others, is present at low levels as part of a healthy human gut microbiome. But at high levels - caused for example by increased inflammation in the body, or by eating contaminated food - these bugs can cause illness and disease. In extreme cases, too much Enterobacteriaceae in the gut can be life-threatening.

Researchers have used computational approaches including AI to analyse the gut microbiome composition of over 12,000 people across 45 countries from their stool samples. They found that a person’s microbiome ‘signature’ can predict whether a person’s gut is likely to be colonised by Enterobacteriaceae. The results are consistent across different states of health and geographic locations.

The researchers identified 135 gut microbe species that are commonly found in the absence of Enterobacteriaceae, likely protecting against infection.

Notable amongst the protective gut species are a group of bacteria called Faecalibacterium, which produce beneficial compounds called short-chain fatty acids by breaking down fibre in the foods we eat. This seems to protect against infection by a range of disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs.

The researchers suggest that eating more fibre in our diet will support the growth of good bacteria - and crowd out the bad ones to significantly reduce the risk of illness.

In contrast, taking probiotics - which don’t directly change the environment in the gut - is less likely to affect the likelihood of Enterobacteriaceae infection.

The results are published today in the journal Nature Microbiology. 

“Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria, including E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, because this changes our gut environment to make it more hostile to invaders,” said Dr Alexandre Almeida, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and senior author of the paper.

He added: “By eating fibre in foods like vegetables, beans and whole grains, we can provide the raw material for our gut bacteria to produce short chain fatty acids - compounds that can protect us from these pathogenic bugs.”

Klebsiella pneumonia can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other infections. The alarming global rise in antibiotic resistance to this bacterial pathogen has led scientists to look for new ways of keeping it, and other similar infectious bacteria, under control. 

“With higher rates of antibiotic resistance there are fewer treatment options available to us. The best approach now is to prevent infections occurring in the first place, and we can do this by reducing the opportunities for these disease-causing bacteria to thrive in our gut,” said Almeida.

A new understanding of gut microbe interactions

Earlier research to understand interactions between the different bacteria in our gut has used mouse models. But some of these new results are at odds with previous findings. 

The new study revealed that 172 species of gut microbe can coexist with disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs. Many of these species are functionally similar to the bugs: they need the same nutrients to survive. Previously it was thought that competition for resources would stop the disease-causing bacteria from getting established in the gut.

This has important implications for treatment: taking probiotics that compete for the same nutrients with the bad bacteria to try and starve them out isn’t going to work. The researchers say that it will be more beneficial to change the environment in the gut, for instance through diet, to reduce the risk of infection with Enterobacteriaceae.

“This study highlights the importance of studying pathogens not as isolated entities, but in the context of their surrounding gut microbiome,” said Dr Qi Yin, a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and first author of the report.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council.

Reference: Yin, Q et al: 'Ecological dynamics of Enterobacteriaceae in the human gut microbiome across global populations.’ Jan 2025, Nature Microbiology. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01912-6.

READ MORE

A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other bugs - and it may be altered by changing your diet.

Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria.

Alexandre Almeida

Intestine with microbiome

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

The letter highlights the role that the Greater Cambridge region – which generates over £50bn of turnover per year for the UK – can play in driving national economic growth. The signatories set out the ambitions and opportunities which the region offers, and a sense of unity of purpose.

Open New Year Letter 2025

If science were a country then Cambridge would likely be its capital, and if discovery were a global competition the city and region would regularly be winning for Britain. That’s because Greater Cambridge is where innovation makes history and where the future comes first.

The ‘can-do’ spirit and ingenuity is hardwired, running from Newton’s law of gravity, through the rules of football codified here 175 years ago, the discovery of the structure of DNA, the medical and technological breakthroughs of IVF and microprocessor design. All of them discoveries that have changed how we think and how we live. The number of Nobel Prizes awarded to members of the University of Cambridge for significant advances recently reached an extraordinary 125. We believe that innovation not only makes history – it also makes a better world.

So, we are rightly proud of our city, its region and its people - past and present. But as we enter a new year the question before us is how we can collectively do more for the country now and in the future. Our future success must seek to include everyone, be shareable and sustainable.

Britain is at a critical fork in the road. There are important choices for the summer Spending Review which will help chart the course we take as a country for years to come. The tough economic environment puts a premium on investing in growth sectors for the long term and prioritising delivery, working together as never before. 

We know that the Greater Cambridge region can be the beating heart of this national renewal. It is home to world-class clusters in strategically valuable emerging sectors including AI, Genomics, Life Sciences, Cybersecurity, Advanced Therapies and Semiconductor Design.  It is home to two Universities where world leading research sits at the heart of this innovation community. It is incubating the technologies and unicorns of the future with an economy that generates over £50bn of turnover per year and is a net contributor of around £1bn to the Treasury annually.

The success of the Cambridge economy has a direct positive impact across the country, creating jobs elsewhere in priority sectors and supporting the emergence of other innovation clusters. We know we need to move faster together to help support the UK economy even more which is why Innovate Cambridge has brought people together to accelerate the pace of innovation across sectors and the wider ecosystem, working with the NHS as a key partner to develop the life sciences strategy

But if we are to maximise the potential benefits of those future Cambridge innovations - the ‘software’ breakthroughs - it will mean investing in the ‘hardware’ of the city.  Lack of investment in housing, water and transport needs has meant we have not been able to maximise growth for Cambridge, the region and Britain.

We trust that the new Government recognises that any change cannot simply be done to the City and South Cambridgeshire but must be done with us in partnership, and we welcome the reappointment of Peter Freeman to the Cambridge Growth Company. The Government have renewed their commitment to Greater Cambridge which is why today we are renewing our commitment to Britain. As business and elected leaders across the city and region, we know that we must always balance long term strategic planning with delivery in the short term so we are facing into this important moment with a collective mindset - ‘Cambridge Can 2030’ - with three core priorities; purpose, partnership and pace. All united in endeavour by the power of possibility.

First, we are aligned on our collective purpose and what we believe Greater Cambridge can do for Britain, what it will require from all of us and what we need as a city and region to make it happen. To invest in homes with a new Development Corporation, to build new hospitals, to find creative ways to unlock lab and clinical space, to accelerate East West Rail and develop better transport links across the city and region and to build new reservoirs to fix the water crisis. And it must first and foremost be about people - their jobs, skills and community as well as their cultural, sport and leisure opportunities. New houses do not necessarily equate to good homes. What fits around them is equally important. Invest here and, in return, you will find an aligned and committed leadership group who will help drive delivery and make change happen.

We know progress depends on working with others right across the country. To that end we are excited by our developing partnerships with Manchester. City leaders have met at a senior level in recent months to map the future - with Mayors Andy Burnham and Dr Nik Johnson and the two Combined Authorities working closely together. We all believe there is a real opportunity to be seized through this regional first and are always looking to learn from others.

It is encouraging that increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and institutions are signing up to the Cambridge Pledge - committing a percentage of their future wealth to drive transformative change through social impact investment in the community. This is another example of how Cambridge does development differently and is an exemplar of inclusive change.

And finally pace. We have got to move at speed as there is not a moment to waste. Britain is in a global race for talent and ideas. The competition and the offer from international centres of innovation is growing, and it is increasingly being felt by firms in Cambridge.

Our past success has been hard earned and should give confidence that Greater Cambridge can be a beacon for Britain in the future. Backing Cambridge means backing regional job creation right across the country. and creating the path for the £10 billion life science and tech companies of the future. It is not a gamble. It can happen. Equally it can’t be taken for granted.

So it is time to embrace the possibility of now. Whilst no one is underestimating the challenges ahead of us we fervently believe we need to face into them with realism about what it will take to succeed but also with optimism and ambition about what we can deliver and the prize to be seized.

Britain’s best days can lie ahead. Our potential as a country is huge because the ingenuity, talents and spirit of its people are limitless. We have a shining past and the next chapter can be brighter still - and Cambridge can and will help write it.

Ahead of the Spending Review, an open letter to government from leaders across Cambridge, including the University’s Vice-Chancellor, sets out the clear case for renewed support for a region with a proven track record and which stands ready to deliver economic growth.

Student at the Maxwell Centre

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Yes

The size and spin of black holes can reveal important information about how and where they formed, according to new research. The study tests the idea that many of the black holes observed by astronomers have merged multiple times within densely populated environments containing millions of stars.

The team, involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, examined the public catalogue of 69 gravitational wave events involving binary black holes detected by The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Observatory for clues about these successive mergers, which they believe create black holes with distinctive spin patterns.

They discovered that a black hole’s spin changes when it reaches a certain mass, suggesting it may have been produced through a series of multiple previous mergers.

Their study, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows how spin measurements can reveal the formation history of a black hole and offers a step forward in understanding the diverse origins of these astrophysical phenomena.

“As we observe more black hole mergers with gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo, it becomes ever clearer that black holes exhibit diverse masses and spins, suggesting they may have formed in different ways,” said lead author Dr Fabio Antonini from Cardiff University. “However, identifying which of these formation scenarios is most common has been challenging.”

The team pinpointed a clear mass threshold in the gravitational waves data where black hole spins consistently change.

They say this pattern aligns with existing models which assume black holes are produced through repeat collisions in clusters, rather than other environments where spin distributions are different.

This result supports a robust and relatively model-independent signature for identifying these kinds of black holes, something that has been challenging to confirm until now, according to the team.

“Our study gives us a powerful, data-driven way to identify the origins of a black hole’s formation history, showing that the way it spins is a strong indicator of it belonging to a group of high-mass black holes, which form in densely populated star clusters where small black holes repeatedly collide and merge with one another,” said co-author Dr Isobel Romero-Shaw, from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

Their study will now help astrophysicists further refine computer models which simulate the formation of black holes, helping to shape how future gravitational wave detections are interpreted.

“Collaborating with other researchers and using advanced statistical methods will help to confirm and expand our findings, especially as we move toward next-generation detectors,” said co-author Dr Thomas Callister from the University of Chicago. “The Einstein Telescope, for example, could detect even more massive black holes and provide unprecedented insights into their origins.”

Reference:
Fabio Antonini, Isobel M Romero-Shaw, and Thomas Callister. 'Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data.' Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.011401

Adapted from a Cardiff University media release. 

Gravitational waves data held clues for high-mass black holes’ violent beginnings.

Computer-simulated image of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy.

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Yes

While male brains tended to be greater in volume than female brains, when adjusted for total brain volume, female infants on average had significantly more grey matter, while male infants on average had significantly more white matter in their brains.

Grey matter is made up of neuron cell bodies and dendrites and is responsible for processing and interpreting information, such as sensation, perception, learning, speech, and cognition.  White matter is made up of axons, which are long nerve fibres that connect neurons together from different parts of the brain. 

Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, who led the study, said: “Our study settles an age-old question of whether male and female brains differ at birth. We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life.

“Because these sex differences are evident so soon after birth, they might in part reflect biological sex differences during prenatal brain development, which then interact with environmental experiences over time to shape further sex differences in the brain.”

One problem that has plagued past research in this area is sample size. The Cambridge team tackled this by analysing data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, where infants receive an MRI brain scan soon after birth. Having over 500 newborn babies in the study means that, statistically, the sample is ideal for detecting sex differences if they are present.

A second problem is whether any observed sex differences could be due to other factors, such as differences in body size.  The Cambridge team found that, on average, male infants had significantly larger brain volumes than did females, and this was true even after sex differences in birth weight were taken into account.

After taking this difference in total brain volume into account, at a regional level, females on average showed larger volumes in grey matter areas related to memory and emotional regulation, while males on average had larger volumes in grey matter areas involved in sensory processing and motor control.

The findings of the study, the largest to date to investigate this question, are published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.

Dr Alex Tsompanidis who supervised the study, said: “This is the largest such study to date, and we took additional factors into account, such as birth weight, to ensure that these differences are specific to the brain and not due to general size differences between the sexes.

“To understand why males and females show differences in their relative grey and white matter volume, we are now studying the conditions of the prenatal environment, using population birth records, as well as in vitro cellular models of the developing brain. This will help us compare the progression of male and female pregnancies and determine if specific biological factors, such as hormones or the placenta, contribute to the differences we see in the brain.”

The researchers stress that the differences between males and females are average differences.

Dr Carrie Allison, Deputy Director of the Autism Research Centre, said: “The differences we see do not apply to all males or all females, but are only seen when you compare groups of males and females together. There is a lot a variation within, and a lot of overlap between, each group.”  

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, added: “These differences do not imply the brains of males and females are better or worse. It’s just one example of neurodiversity. This research may be helpful in understanding other kinds of neurodiversity, such as the brain in children who are later diagnosed as autistic, since this is diagnosed more often in males.”

The research was funded by Cambridge University Development and Research, Trinity College, Cambridge, the Cambridge Trust, and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

Reference
Khan, Y T, Tsompanidis, A, Radecki, M A, et al. Sex differences in human brain structure at birth. Biol Sex Differ; 17 Oct 2024; DOI: 10.1186/s13293-024-00657-5

Sex differences in brain structure are present from birth, research from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge has shown.

We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life

Yumnah Khan

Photograph of a young girl hugging a baby boy

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Yes

Researchers from the UK and China drew this conclusion after studying proteins from blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Social relationships play an important role in our wellbeing. Evidence increasingly demonstrates that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health and an early death. Despite this evidence, however, the underlying mechanisms through which social relationships impact health remain elusive.

One way to explore biological mechanisms is to look at proteins circulating in the blood. Proteins are molecules produced by our genes and are essential for helping our bodies function properly. They can also serve as useful drug targets, allowing researchers to develop new treatments to tackle diseases.

A team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fudan University, China, examined the ‘proteomes’ – the suite of proteins – in blood samples donated by over 42,000 adults aged 40-69 years who are taking part in the UK Biobank. This allowed them to see which proteins were present in higher levels among people who were socially isolated or lonely, and how these proteins were connected to poorer health.

The team calculated social isolation and loneliness scores for individuals. Social isolation is an objective measure based on, for example, whether someone lives alone, how frequently they have contact with others socially, and whether they take part in social activities. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a subjective measure based on whether an individual feels lonely.

When they analysed the proteomes and adjusted for factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic background, the team found 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 proteins associated with loneliness (though there was substantial overlap, with approximately 85% of the proteins associated with loneliness being shared with social isolation). Many of these proteins are produced in response to inflammation, viral infection and as part of our immune responses, as well as having been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and early death.

The team then used a statistical technique known as Mendelian randomization to explore the causal relationship between social isolation and loneliness on the one hand, and proteins on the other. Using this approach, they identified five proteins whose abundance was caused by loneliness.

Dr Chun Shen from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, said: “We know that social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health, but we’ve never understood why. Our work has highlighted a number of proteins that appear to play a key role in this relationship, with levels of some proteins in particular increasing as a direct consequence of loneliness.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick said: "There are more than 100,000 proteins and many of their variants in the human body. AI and high throughput proteomics can help us pinpoint some key proteins in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in many human diseases and revolutionise the traditional view of human health.

"The proteins we’ve identified give us clues to the biology underpinning poor health among people who are socially isolated or lonely, highlighting why social relationships play such an important part in keeping us healthy.”

One of the proteins produced in higher levels as a result of loneliness was ADM. Previous studies have shown that this protein plays a role in responding to stress and in regulating stress hormones and social hormones such as oxytocin – the so-called ‘love hormone’ – which can reduce stress and improve mood.

The team found a strong association between ADM and the volume of the insula, a brain hub for interoception, our ability to sense what's happening inside our body – the greater the ADM levels, the smaller the volume of this region. Higher ADM levels were also linked to lower volume of the left caudate, a region involved in emotional, reward, and social processes. In addition, higher levels of ADM were linked to increased risk of early death.

Another of the proteins, ASGR1, is associated with higher cholesterol and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, while other identified proteins play roles in the development of insulin resistance, atherosclerosis (‘furring’ of the arteries) and cancer progression, for example.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”

The research was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Shanghai Rising-Star Program, National Key R&D Program of China, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, 111 Project, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, and Zhangjiang Lab.

Reference
Shen, C et al. Plasma proteomic signatures of social isolation and loneliness associated with morbidity and mortality. Nat Hum Behav; 3 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02078-1

Interactions with friends and family may keep us healthy because they boost our immune system and reduce our risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy

Barbara Sahakian

Person looking out through window

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Yes

The new approach uses samples from infected humans to allow real-time monitoring of pathogens circulating in human populations, and enable vaccine-evading bugs to be quickly and automatically identified. This could inform the development of vaccines that are more effective in preventing disease.

The approach can also quickly detect emerging variants with resistance to antibiotics. This could inform the choice of treatment for people who become infected - and try to limit the spread of the disease.

It uses genetic sequencing data to provide information on the genetic changes underlying the emergence of new variants. This is important to help understand why different variants spread differently in human populations.

There are very few systems in place to keep watch for emerging variants of infectious diseases, apart from the established COVID and influenza surveillance programmes. The technique is a major advance on the existing approach to these diseases, which has relied on groups of experts to decide when a circulating bacteria or virus has changed enough to be designated a new variant.

By creating ‘family trees’, the new approach identifies new variants automatically based on how much a pathogen has changed genetically, and how easily it spreads in the human population – removing the need to convene experts to do this. 

It can be used for a broad range of viruses and bacteria and only a small number of samples, taken from infected people, are needed to reveal the variants circulating in a population. This makes it particularly valuable for resource-poor settings.

The report is published today in the journal Nature.

“Our new method provides a way to show, surprisingly quickly, whether there are new transmissible variants of pathogens circulating in populations - and it can be used for a huge range of bacteria and viruses,” said Dr Noémie Lefrancq, first author of the report, who carried out the work at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.

Lefrancq, who is now based at ETH Zurich, added: “We can even use it to start predicting how new variants are going to take over, which means decisions can quickly be made about how to respond.” 

“Our method provides a completely objective way of spotting new strains of disease-causing bugs, by analysing their genetics and how they’re spreading in the population. This means we can rapidly and effectively spot the emergence of new highly transmissible strains,” said Professor Julian Parkhill, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine who was involved in the study.

Testing the technique

The researchers used their new technique to analyse samples of Bordetella pertussis, the bacteria that causes whooping cough. Many countries are currently experiencing their worst whooping cough outbreaks of the last 25 years. It immediately identified three new variants circulating in the population that had been previously undetected.

“The novel method proves very timely for the agent of whooping cough, which warrants reinforced surveillance given its current comeback in many countries and the worrying emergence of antimicrobial resistant lineages,” said Professor Sylvain Brisse, Head of the National Reference Center for whooping cough at Institut Pasteur, who provided bioresources and expertise on Bordetella pertussis genomic analyses and epidemiology.

In a second test, they analysed samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis. It showed that two variants with resistance to antibiotics are spreading.

“The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible,” said Professor Henrik Salje in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics, senior author of the report.

He added: “If we see a rapid expansion of an antibiotic-resistant variant, then we could change the antibiotic that’s being prescribed to people infected by it, to try and limit the spread of that variant.”

The researchers say this work is an important piece in the larger jigsaw of any public health response to infectious disease.

A constant threat

Bacteria and viruses that cause disease are constantly evolving to be better and faster at spreading between us. During the COVID pandemic, this led to the emergence of new strains: the original Wuhan strain spread rapidly but was later overtaken by other variants, including Omicron, which evolved from the original and were better at spreading. Underlying this evolution are changes in the genetic make-up of the pathogens.

Pathogens evolve through genetic changes that make them better at spreading. Scientists are particularly worried about genetic changes that allow pathogens to evade our immune system and cause disease despite us being vaccinated against them. 

“This work has the potential to become an integral part of infectious disease surveillance systems around the world, and the insights it provides could completely change the way governments respond,” said Salje.

The research was primarily funded by the European Research Council.

Reference: Lefrancq, N. et al: ‘Learning the fitness dynamics of pathogens from phylogenies.’ January 2025, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08309-9
 

Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.

The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible.

Henrik Salje

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Yes

Former University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Homerton College and St Edmund's College, is made Knight Grand Cross (GBE) for services to cancer research, clinical research, medicine and to charities.

Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu, who has been President of Wolfson College since October 2024, becomes a Dame (DBE) for services to chemical sciences and inclusion and diversity. Professor Uchegbu is a renowned expert in the field of pharmaceutical science and was most recently Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London. Her research has focussed on methods that can be used to help drugs reach their target more effectively and reduce the likelihood of uncomfortable side effects. While at UCL she spearheaded a project to improve outcomes for both staff and students from under-represented ethnic groups. She is is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

She said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. I wouldn’t say I’m humbled – I know people say that, but when I saw the letter at the Porters’ Lodge what I felt was an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride. In my wildest dreams I never believed I would get such an award.”

Professor Ashley Moffet, Professor of Reproductive Immunology, is made Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) for services to reproductive health. A Fellow of King's College, she is the foremost international authority on the immunology of human reproduction and her work on genetic research has helped explain high rates of pre-eclampsia and maternal mortality in Ugandan populations. She is a Fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 

She said: "I am delighted by this honour that is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of my many colleagues both here in Cambridge and in Uganda who are working together so tirelessly to support women in the field of maternal health."

Professor Gilly Carr is Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage and receives an OBE for services to Holocaust research and education. Professor Carr, a Fellow of St Catharine's College, is a member of both the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the academic advisory board for the UK Holocaust Memorial Centre. Professor Carr has a particular research interest in wartime incarceration, internment and imprisonment. 2024 saw the publication of her latest book, 'A Materiality of Internment', which drew on over 15 years of research and interviews with more than 65 former internees. 

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled for my research and teaching to be recognised in this way. I've been working hard on behalf of victims of Nazism and the Holocaust for 15 years and for this to be seen as nationally important and worthwhile encourages me to continue my work with vigour.”

Professor Rachel Oliver, who also receives an OBE, is a materials engineer, inventor and commercial spinout founder. A Fellow of Robinson College, she is currently Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride and Chief Scientific Officer of Poro Technologies Ltd (Porotech). Her research is in understanding and engineering the small-scale structure of semiconductor materials to enable new technologies to develop. Professor Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering and is a passionate advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in science and engineering. 

She said: “I am delighted to receive this honour and it is vital that I acknowledge the fabulous teams that I work with both in the University of Cambridge and at Porotech, a company that spun out from my research group.  I hope I can encourage more people to get involved in semiconductors in the UK. The semiconductor ecosystem has been an exciting place to work throughout my career, but never more so than right now, with both research and industry rapidly growing and stepping up to address some of the most pressing challenges we face.”

Dr James Biddulph, former headteacher of the University of Cambridge Primary School, has been awarded an MBE for services to education. Dr Biddulph was the inaugural headteacher of the school from 2015 until 2023, and under his leadership it attained an Outstanding Ofsted rating in 2018.

Eleanor Sharpston KC, an Emeritus Fellow of King's College, has been made Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) for services to Justice and to the Education of Law in the UK and Europe. Dame Eleanor has combined a career as a barrister (specialising in European Union and European Convention on Human Rights law) with an academic career first at University College London and then at the University of Cambridge where she continues as a Yorke Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Law Faculty. She was also Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor in Legal Science from 2023 to 2024.

Academics and staff at both the University of Cambridge and Colleges feature in the 2025 list, which recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK.

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Yes

The near future could see AI assistants that forecast and influence our decision-making at an early stage, and sell these developing ‘intentions’ in real-time to companies that can meet the need – even before we have made up our minds.

This is according to AI ethicists from the University of Cambridge, who say we are at the dawn of a “lucrative yet troubling new marketplace for digital signals of intent”, from buying movie tickets to voting for candidates. They call this the Intention Economy.

Researchers from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) argue that the explosion in generative AI, and our increasing familiarity with chatbots, opens a new frontier of ‘persuasive technologies’ – one hinted at in recent corporate announcements by tech giants.

‘Anthropomorphic’ AI agents, from chatbot assistants to digital tutors and girlfriends, will have access to vast quantities of intimate psychological and behavioural data, often gleaned via informal, conversational spoken dialogue.

This AI will combine knowledge of our online habits with an uncanny ability to attune to us in ways we find comforting – mimicking personalities and anticipating desired responses – to build levels of trust and understanding that allow for social manipulation on an industrial scale, say researchers.

“Tremendous resources are being expended to position AI assistants in every area of life, which should raise the question of whose interests and purposes these so-called assistants are designed to serve”, said LCFI Visiting Scholar Dr Yaqub Chaudhary.

“What people say when conversing, how they say it, and the type of inferences that can be made in real-time as a result, are far more intimate than just records of online interactions”

“We caution that AI tools are already being developed to elicit, infer, collect, record, understand, forecast, and ultimately manipulate and commodify human plans and purposes.”

Dr Jonnie Penn, an historian of technology from Cambridge’s LCFI, said: “For decades, attention has been the currency of the internet. Sharing your attention with social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram drove the online economy.”

“Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer, and sell human intentions.”

“We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press, and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences.”

In a new Harvard Data Science Review paper, Penn and Chaudhary write that the intention economy will be the attention economy ‘plotted in time’: profiling how user attention and communicative style connects to patterns of behaviour and the choices we end up making.

“While some intentions are fleeting, classifying and targeting the intentions that persist will be extremely profitable for advertisers,” said Chaudhary.

In an intention economy, Large Language Models or LLMs could be used to target, at low cost, a user’s cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, online history, and even preferences for flattery and ingratiation, write the researchers.

This information-gathering would be linked with brokered bidding networks to maximize the likelihood of achieving a given aim, such as selling a cinema trip (“You mentioned feeling overworked, shall I book you that movie ticket we’d talked about?”).

This could include steering conversations in the service of particular platforms, advertisers, businesses, and even political organisations, argue Penn and Chaudhary.

While researchers say the intention economy is currently an ‘aspiration’ for the tech industry, they track early signs of this trend through published research and the hints dropped by several major tech players.

These include an open call for ‘data that expresses human intention… across any language, topic, and format’ in a 2023 OpenAI blogpost, while the director of product at Shopify – an OpenAI partner – spoke of chatbots coming in “to explicitly get the user’s intent” at a conference the same year.

Nvidia’s CEO has spoken publicly of using LLMs to figure out intention and desire, while Meta released ‘Intentonomy’ research, a dataset for human intent understanding, back in 2021.

In 2024, Apple’s new ‘App Intents’ developer framework for connecting apps to Siri (Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant), includes protocols to “predict actions someone might take in future” and “to suggest the app intent to someone in the future using predictions you [the developer] provide”.

“AI agents such as Meta’s CICERO are said to achieve human level play in the game Diplomacy, which is dependent on inferring and predicting intent, and using persuasive dialogue to advance one’s position,” said Chaudhary.

“These companies already sell our attention. To get the commercial edge, the logical next step is to use the technology they are clearly developing to forecast our intentions, and sell our desires before we have even fully comprehended what they are.”

Penn points out that these developments are not necessarily bad, but have the potential to be destructive. “Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong path,” he said.

Conversational AI agents may develop the ability to covertly influence our intentions, creating a new commercial frontier that researchers call the “intention economy”.

Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong path

Jonnie Penn

Young woman talking with AI voice virtual assistant on smartphone

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Yes

Desert locusts typically lead solitary lives until something - like intense rainfall - triggers them to swarm in vast numbers, often with devastating consequences. 

This migratory pest can reach plague proportions, and a swarm covering one square kilometre can consume enough food in one day to feed 35,000 people. Such extensive crop destruction pushes up local food prices and can lead to riots and mass starvation.

Now a team led by the University of Cambridge has developed a way to predict when and where desert locusts will swarm, so they can be dealt with before the problem gets out of hand. 

It uses weather forecast data from the UK Met Office, and state-of the-art computational models of the insects’ movements in the air, to predict where swarms will go as they search for new feeding and breeding grounds. The areas likely to be affected can then be sprayed with pesticides.

Until now, predicting and controlling locust swarms has been ‘hit and miss’, according to the researchers. Their new model, published today in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, will enable national agencies to respond quickly to a developing locust threat.

Desert locust control is a top priority for food security: it is the biggest migratory pest for smallholder farmers in many regions of Africa and Asia, and capable of long-distance travel across national boundaries.

Climate change is expected to drive more frequent desert locust swarms, by causing trigger events like cyclones and intense rainfall. These bring moisture to desert regions that allows plants to thrive, providing food for locusts that triggers their breeding.

“During a desert locust outbreak we can now predict where swarms will go several days in advance, so we can control them at particular sites. And if they’re not controlled at those sites, we can predict where they’ll go next so preparations can be made there,” said Dr Renata Retkute, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and first author of the paper.

“The important thing is to respond quickly if there’s likely to be a big locust upsurge, before it causes a major crop loss.  Huge swarms can lead to really desperate situations where people could starve,” said Professor Chris Gilligan in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the paper.

He added: “Our model will allow us to hit the ground running in future, rather than starting from scratch as has historically been the case.”

The team noticed the need for a comprehensive model of desert locust behaviour during the response to a massive upsurge over 2019-2021, which extended from Kenya to India and put huge strain on wheat production in these regions. The infestations destroyed sugarcane, sorghum, maize and root crops. The researchers say the scientific response was hampered by the need to gather and integrate information from a range of disparate sources.

“The response to the last locust upsurge was very ad-hoc, and less efficient than it could have been. We’ve created a comprehensive model that can be used next time to control this devastating pest,” said Retkute. 

Although models like this have been attempted before, this is the first that can rapidly and reliably predict swarm behaviour. It takes into account the insects’ lifecycle and their selection of breeding sites, and can forecast locust swarm movements both short and long-term. 

The new model has been rigorously tested using real surveillance and weather data from the last major locust upsurge. It will inform surveillance, early warning, and management of desert locust swarms by national governments, and international organisations like the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

The researchers say countries that haven’t experienced a locust upsurge in many years are often ill-prepared to respond, lacking the necessary surveillance teams, aircraft and pesticides. As climate change alters the movement and spread of major swarms, better planning is needed - making the new model a timely development.

The project involved collaborators at the FAO and the UK Met Office. It was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reference: Retkute, R, et al: ‘A framework for modelling desert locust population dynamics and large-scale dispersal.’ PLOS Computational Biology, December 2024. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012562
 

A new tool that predicts the behaviour of desert locust populations will help national agencies to manage huge swarms before they devastate food crops in Africa and Asia. 

The response to the last locust upsurge was very ad-hoc, and less efficient than it could have been. We’ve created a comprehensive model that can be used next time to control this devastating pest.

Renata Retkute

Locust swarm fills the skies in Ethiopia

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Yes

Like a bear gorging itself on salmon before hibernating for the winter, or a much-needed nap after Christmas dinner, this black hole has overeaten to the point that it is lying dormant in its host galaxy.

An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect this black hole in the early universe, just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

The black hole is huge – 400 million times the mass of our Sun – making it one of the most massive black holes discovered by Webb at this point in the universe’s development. The black hole is so enormous that it makes up roughly 40% of the total mass of its host galaxy: in comparison, most black holes in the local universe are roughly 0.1% of their host galaxy mass.

However, despite its gigantic size, this black hole is eating, or accreting, the gas it needs to grow at a very low rate – about 100 times below its theoretical maximum limit – making it essentially dormant.

Such an over-massive black hole so early in the universe, but one that isn’t growing, challenges existing models of how black holes develop. However, the researchers say that the most likely scenario is that black holes go through short periods of ultra-fast growth, followed by long periods of dormancy. Their results are reported in the journal Nature.

When black holes are ‘napping’, they are far less luminous, making them more difficult to spot, even with highly sensitive telescopes such as Webb. Black holes cannot be directly observed, but instead they are detected by the tell-tale glow of a swirling accretion disc, which forms near the black hole’s edges. When black holes are actively growing, the gas in the accretion disc becomes extremely hot and starts to glow and radiate energy in the ultraviolet range.

“Even though this black hole is dormant, its enormous size made it possible for us to detect,” said lead author Ignas Juodžbalis from Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “Its dormant state allowed us to learn about the mass of the host galaxy as well. The early universe managed to produce some absolute monsters, even in relatively tiny galaxies.”

According to standard models, black holes form from the collapsed remnants of dead stars and accrete matter up to a predicted limit, known as the Eddington limit, where the pressure of radiation on matter overcomes the gravitational pull of the black hole. However, the sheer size of this black hole suggests that standard models may not adequately explain how these monsters form and grow.

“It’s possible that black holes are ‘born big’, which could explain why Webb has spotted huge black holes in the early universe,” said co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino, from the Kavli Institute and Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “But another possibility is they go through periods of hyperactivity, followed by long periods of dormancy.”

Working with colleagues from Italy, the Cambridge researchers conducted a range of computer simulations to model how this dormant black hole could have grown to such a massive size so early in the universe. They found that the most likely scenario is that black holes can exceed the Eddington limit for short periods, during which they grow very rapidly, followed by long periods of inactivity: the researchers say that black holes such as this one likely eat for five to ten million years, and sleep for about 100 million years.

“It sounds counterintuitive to explain a dormant black hole with periods of hyperactivity, but these short bursts allow it to grow quickly while spending most of its time napping,” said Maiolino.

Because the periods of dormancy are much longer than the periods of ultra-fast growth, it is in these periods that astronomers are most likely to detect black holes. “This was the first result I had as part of my PhD, and it took me a little while to appreciate just how remarkable it was,” said Juodžbalis. “It wasn’t until I started speaking with my colleagues on the theoretical side of astronomy that I was able to see the true significance of this black hole.”

Due to their low luminosities, dormant black holes are more challenging for astronomers to detect, but the researchers say this black hole is almost certainly the tip of a much larger iceberg, if black holes in the early universe spend most of their time in a dormant state.

“It’s likely that the vast majority of black holes out there are in this dormant state – I’m surprised we found this one, but I’m excited to think that there are so many more we could find,” said Maiolino.

The observations were obtained as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). The research was supported in part by the European Research Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Ignas Juodžbalis et al. ‘A dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe.’ Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08210-5

Scientists have spotted a massive black hole in the early universe that is ‘napping’ after stuffing itself with too much food.

Artist’s impression of a black hole during one of its short periods of rapid growth

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Yes

The annual Trial VIIIs, the UK’s final rowing event of the year, serves as a dress rehearsal for The Boat Race, with two evenly matched Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) crews rowing the full Championship Course for the first and only time before 12–13 April 2025.

This year, all 31 Cambridge Colleges were represented at the start of trials. The crews showcased an exciting mix of seasoned experience and youthful energy, featuring international rowers and returning Blues alongside many College rowers proudly wearing Cambridge Blue for the first time.

Read the full race report on the CUBC website.

The Cambridge contenders for The Boat Race 2025 have become clearer after a thrilling day of action on the Thames.

Men’s VIIIs “Scylla” en route to victory

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Yes

A leading advocate for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, in particular the right to education, Joya is the founder of Rukhshana Media, a news agency dedicated to telling the stories of Afghan women in their own voices. Her appointment recognises her transformational work and reflects Hughes Hall’s mission to advance inclusive education.

Joya said: “In a time when, as a woman, I have been deprived of my basic rights in my own country, joining the extraordinary Hughes Hall team at the University of Cambridge is a great honour for me. I view this opportunity as a chance to step into a wellspring of knowledge, and I hope to learn from this team and bring what I learn here back to my people.”

Sir Laurie Bristow, President of Hughes Hall, welcomed Joya to the College: “Zahra’s work on behalf of Afghanistan’s women and girls has never been more urgent nor her own story more pertinent. Zahra’s work is about enabling Afghan women and girls to speak for themselves. It is about the right of all girls to receive an education. It is about challenging gender-based oppression and protecting the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our world today.”

Read the full story on the Hughes Hall website.

Zahra Joya, an Afghan journalist and one of TIME magazine's Women of the Year 2022, has been appointed By-Fellow at Hughes Hall.

Zahra Joya on the cover of TIME magazine

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Yes

Photonic chips transmit and manipulate light instead of electricity, and offer significantly faster performance with lower power consumption than traditional electronic chips. 

The Cambridge Graphene Centre and Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre at the University of Southampton will partner with members from across Europe to host a pilot line, coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain, combining state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from 20 research organisations.

The PIXEurope consortium has been selected by the European Commission and Chips Joint Undertaking, a European initiative aiming to bolster the semiconductor industry by fostering collaboration between member states and the private sector. The consortium is supported by €380m in total funding.

The UK participants will be backed by up to £4.2 million in funding from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), match-funded by Horizon Europe. The UK joined the EU’s Chips Joint Undertaking in March 2024, allowing the country to collaborate more closely with European partners on semiconductor innovation.

The new pilot line will combine state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from research organisations across 11 countries. It aims to encourage the adoption of cutting-edge photonic technologies across more industries to boost their efficiency.

Photonic chips are already essential across a wide range of applications, from tackling the unprecedented energy demands of datacentres, to enabling high-speed data transmission for mobile and satellite communications. In the future, these chips will become ever more important, unlocking new applications in healthcare, AI and quantum computing. 

Researchers at the Cambridge Graphene Centre will be responsible for the integration of graphene and related materials into photonic circuits for energy efficient, high-speed communications and quantum devices. “This may lead to life-changing products and services, with huge economic benefit for the UK and the world,” said Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. 

The global market for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) production is expected to grow by more than 400% in the next 10 years. By the end of the decade, the global photonics market is expected to exceed €1,500bn, a figure comparable to the entire annual gross domestic product of Spain.

This growth is due to the demand from areas such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence, image sensing, automotive and mobility, medicine and healthcare, environmental care, renewable energy, defense and security, and a wide range of consumer applications.

The combination of microelectronic chips and photonic chips provides the necessary features and specifications for these applications. The former are responsible for information processing by manipulating electrons within circuits based on silicon and its variants, while the latter uses photons in the visible and infrared spectrum ranges in various materials.

The new pilot line aims to offer cutting-edge technological platforms, transforming and transferring innovative and disruptive integrated photonics processes and technologies to accelerate their industrial adoption. The objective is the creation of European-owned/made technology in a sector of capital importance for technological sovereignty, and the creation and maintenance of corresponding jobs in the UK and across Europe.

“My congratulations to Cornerstone and the Cambridge Graphene Centre on being selected to pioneer the new pilot line – taking a central role in driving semiconductor innovation to the next level, encouraging adoption of new technologies,” said Science Minister Lord Vallance. “The UK laid the foundations of silicon photonics in the 1990s, and by pooling our expertise with partners across Europe we can address urgent global challenges including energy consumption and efficiency.”

“The UK’s participation in the first Europe-wide photonics pilot line marks the start of the world’s first open access photonics integrated circuits ecosystem, stimulating new technology development with industry and catalyse disruptive innovation across the UK, while strengthening UK collaboration with top European institutions working in the field,” said Ferrari.

“PIXEurope is the first photonics pilot line that unifies the whole supply chain from design and fabrication, to testing and packaging, with technology platforms that will support a broad spectrum of applications,” said CORNERSTONE Coordinator Professor Calum Littlejohns. “I am delighted that CORNERSTONE will form a crucial part of this programme.”

The Chips JU will also launch new collaborative R&D calls on a range of topics in early 2025. UK companies and researchers are eligible to participate. 

The University of Cambridge is one of two UK participants named as part of the PIXEurope consortium, a collaboration between research organisations from across Europe which will develop and manufacture prototypes of their products based on photonic chips.

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Yes

Temperatures in cities are rising across the globe and urban heat stress is already a major problem causing illness, death, a surge in energy use to cool buildings down, heat-related social inequality issues and problems with urban infrastructure.

Some cities have already started implementing mitigation strategies, with tree planting prominent among them. But a University of Cambridge-led study now warns that planting the wrong species or the wrong combination of trees in suboptimal locations or arrangements can limit their benefits.

The study, published today in Communications Earth & Environment found that urban trees can lower pedestrian-level air temperature by up to 12°C. Its authors found that the introduction of trees reduced peak monthly temperatures to below 26°C in 83% of the cities studied, meeting the ‘thermal comfort threshold’. However, they also found that this cooling ability varies significantly around the world and is influenced by tree species traits, urban layout and climate conditions.

“Our study busts the myth that trees are the ultimate panacea for overheating cities across the globe,” said Dr Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at Cambridge's Dept. of Architecture.

“Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provide.”

Previous research on the cooling effects of urban trees has focused on specific climates or regions, and considered case studies in a fragmented way, leaving major gaps in our knowledge about unique tree cooling mechanisms and how these interact with diverse urban features.

To overcome this, the authors of this study analysed the findings of 182 studies – concerning 17 climates in 110 global cities or regions – published between 2010 and 2023, offering the first comprehensive global assessment of urban tree cooling.

During the day, trees cool cities in three ways: by blocking solar radiation; through evaporation of water via pores in their leaves; and by foliage aerodynamically changing airflow. At night, however, tree canopies can trap longwave radiation from the ground surface, due to aerodynamic resistance and ‘stomatal closure’ – the closing of microscopic pores on the surface of leaves partly in response to heat and drought stress.

Variation by climate type

The study found that urban trees generally cool cities more in hot and dry climates, and less in hot humid climates.

In the ‘tropical wet and dry or savanna’ climate, trees can cool cities by as much as 12 °C, as recorded in Nigeria. However, it was in this same climate that trees also warmed cities most at night, by up to 0.8°C.

Trees performed well in arid climates, cooling cities by just over 9°C and warming them at night by 0.4 °C.

In tropical rainforest climates, where humidity is higher, the daytime cooling effect dropped to approximately 2°C while the nighttime heating effect was 0.8 °C.

In temperate climates, trees can cool cities by up to 6°C and warm them by 1.5°C.

Using trees more strategically

The study points out that cities which have more open urban layouts are more likely to feature a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees of varying sizes. This, the researchers found, tends to result in greater cooling in temperate, continental and tropical climates.

The combined use of trees in these climates generally results in 0.5 °C more cooling than in cities where only deciduous or evergreen trees feature. This is because mixed trees can balance seasonal shading and sunlight, providing three-dimensional cooling at various heights.

In arid climates, however, the researchers found that evergreen species dominate and cool more effectively in the specific context of compact urban layouts such as Cairo in Egypt, or Dubai in UAE.

In general, trees cooled more effectively in open and low-rise cities in dry climates. In open urban layouts, cooling can be improved by about 0.4 °C because their larger green spaces allow for more and larger tree canopies and a greater mix of tree species.

“Our study provides context-specific greening guidelines for urban planners to more effectively harness tree cooling in the face of global warming,” Dr Ronita Bardhan said.

“Our results emphasize that urban planners not only need to give cities more green spaces, they need to plant the right mix of trees in optimal positions to maximize cooling benefits.”

 “Urban planners should plan for future warmer climates by choosing resilient species which will continue to thrive and maintain cooling benefits,” said Dr Bardhan, a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Matching trees to urban forms

The study goes further, arguing that species selection and placement needs to be compatible with urban forms. The orientation of the ‘street canyon’, local climate zones, aspect ratio, visible sky ratio and other urban features that influence the effects of trees all need to be carefully considered.

Although a higher degree of tree canopy cover in street canyons generally results in more cooling effects, excessively high cover may trap heat at the pedestrian level, especially in compact urban zones in high temperature climates. In such locations, narrow species and sparse planting strategies are recommended.

The researchers emphasise that we cannot rely entirely on trees to cool cities, and that solutions such as solar shading and reflective materials will continue to play an important role.

The researchers have developed an interactive database and map to enable users to estimate the cooling efficacy of strategies based on data from cities with similar climates and urban structures.

Reference

H Li et al., ‘Cooling efficacy of trees across cities is determined by background climate, urban morphology, and tree trait’, Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01908-4

While trees can cool some cities significantly during the day, new research shows that tree canopies can also trap heat and raise temperatures at night. The study aims to help urban planners choose the best combinations of trees and planting locations to combat urban heat stress.

Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provide

Ronita Bardhan

Trees in an Indian city street. Photo: hannahisabelnic via Flikr (Public domain)

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Yes

Professor Richards joins Cambridge from the University of Oxford, where he has been since 2019. His particular research interest is the demonstration of clinical proof of concept of novel therapeutics through the application of experimental medicine techniques, especially human challenge studies.

As Climax Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, director of the Oxford Clinical Trial Research Unit (OCTRU), and the NIHR Oxford Clinical Research Facility, he led a broad portfolio focused on new medicines for multiple conditions. His focus has been the acceleration of promising new drug treatments through better decision-making in early phase clinical trials.

Professor Richards also brings with him a wealth of experience in a number of Pharmaceutical R&D clinical development roles. In 2003 he joined GSK and held a number of roles of increasing responsibility, latterly as Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, including directorship of GSK’s phase 1 and experimental medicine unit in Cambridge (CUC).

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Richards said: “As a clinical pharmacologist, I have been fortunate to work across a broad range of therapeutic areas over the years. I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team. My goal is to work with the Department team, the Clinical School, and hospitals to maximise the impact of the important work taking place in Cambridge.”

Members of the department’s leadership team are looking forward to the continued development of the department under Professor Richards, building on its legacy of collaboration and groundbreaking translational research to drive our future success.

Professor Mark Wills, Interim Head of Department of Medicine, said: “Duncan brings to his new role a fantastic breadth of experience, which encompasses his clinical speciality in pharmacology, extensive experience of working within the pharmaceutical industry R&D at senior levels and most recently establishing academic clinical trials units and human challenge research facilities.

“I am very excited to welcome Duncan to the Department and looking forward to working with him, as he takes on the role of delivering of the Department of Medicine’s vision to increase the efficacy of translation of its world class fundamental research, and its impact upon clinical practice and patient wellbeing.”

Menna Clatworthy, Professor of Translational Immunology and Director of the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID), said: "Duncan has a wealth of leadership experience in biomedicine, in both academia and pharma. That skillset will be invaluable in ensuring the Department of Medicine continues to deliver world-leading research to transform patient outcomes."

Charlotte Summers, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute, said: “Duncan’s exemplary track record of translating fundamental scientific discoveries into therapies that benefit patients will help us further increase the impact of our research as we continue our mission to improve human health.”

The appointment underpins the recently announced five-year collaboration between GSK and the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC). The £50 million investment will accelerate research and development in kidney and respiratory diseases to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Richards will assume the role in February 2025, replacing Interim Head of Department Dr Mark Wills who was appointed after the departure of Professor Ken Smith in January 2024.  Dr Wills will continue as Director of Research and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine as well as leading his research group. 

Professor Richards trained in medicine at Oxford University and after junior doctor roles in London, he returned to Oxford as Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. His DM thesis research was on a translational model using platelet ion flux to interrogate angiotensin biology and he is author of the Oxford Handbook of Practical Drug Therapy and the 3rd edition of Drug Discovery and Development.

Professor Richards has been a core member of the UK COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel. He is a member of the Oxford Bioescalator Management Board, UK Prix Galien Prize Committee, and the therapeutic advisory committee of several national platform clinical trials.

Professor Duncan Richards has today been announced as the new Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge.

I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team

Duncan Richards

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Yes

The technique, called hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging, can increase the detected signal in an MRI scanner by more than 10,000 times. Scientists have found that the technique can distinguish between 2 different subtypes of ovarian cancer, to reveal their sensitivities to treatment.

They used it to look at patient-derived cell models that closely mimic the behaviour of human high grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common lethal form of the disease. The technique clearly shows whether a tumour is sensitive or resistant to Carboplatin, one of the standard first-line chemotherapy treatments for ovarian cancer. 

This will enable oncologists to predict how well a patient will respond to treatment, and to see how well the treatment is working within the first 48 hours. 

Different forms of ovarian cancer respond differently to drug treatments. With current tests, patients typically wait for weeks or months to find out whether their cancer is responding to treatment. The rapid feedback provided by this new technique will help oncologists to adjust and personalise treatment for each patient within days.

The study compared the hyperpolarised imaging technique with results from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, which are already widely used in clinical practice. The results shows that PET did not pick up the metabolic differences between different tumour subtypes, so could not predict the type of tumour present.

The report is published today in the journal Oncogene.

“This technique tells us how aggressive an ovarian cancer tumour is, and could allow doctors to assess multiple tumours in a patient to give a more holistic assessment of disease prognosis so the most appropriate treatment can be selected,” said Professor Kevin Brindle in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry, senior author of the report. 

Ovarian cancer patients often have multiple tumours spread throughout their abdomen. It isn’t possible to take biopsies of all of them, and they may be of different subtypes that respond differently to treatment. MRI is non-invasive, and the hyperpolarised imaging technique will allow oncologists to look at all the tumours at once.

Brindle added: “We can image a tumour pre-treatment to predict how likely it is to respond, and then we can image again immediately after treatment to confirm whether it has indeed responded. This will help doctors to select the most appropriate treatment for each patient and adjust this as necessary. 

“One of the questions cancer patients ask most often is whether their treatment is working. If doctors can speed their patients onto the best treatment, then it’s clearly of benefit.”

The next step is to trial the technique in ovarian cancer patients, which the scientists anticipate within the next few years.

Hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging uses an injectable solution containing a ‘labelled’ form of the naturally occurring molecule pyruvate. The pyruvate enters the cells of the body, and the scan shows the rate at which it is broken down - or metabolised – into a molecule called lactate. The rate of this metabolism reveals the tumour subtype and thus its sensitivity to treatment.

This study adds to the evidence for the value of the hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging technique for wider clinical use. 

Brindle, who also works at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, has been developing this imaging technique to investigate different cancers for the last two decades, including breast, prostate and glioblastoma - a common and aggressive type of brain tumour. Glioblastoma also shows different subtypes that vary in their metabolism, which can be imaged to predict their response to treatment. The first clinical study in Cambridge, which was published in 2020, was in breast cancer patients.

Each year about 7,500 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer - around 5,000 of these will have the most aggressive form of the disease, called high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). 

The cure rate for all forms of ovarian cancer is very low and currently only 43% of women in England survive five years beyond diagnosis. Symptoms can easily be missed, allowing the disease to spread before a woman is diagnosed - and this makes imaging and treatment challenging. 

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK.

Reference: Chia, M L: ‘Metabolic imaging distinguishes ovarian cancer subtypes and detects their early and variable responses to treatment.’ Oncogene, December 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41388-024-03231-w

An MRI-based imaging technique developed at the University of Cambridge predicts the response of ovarian cancer tumours to treatment, and rapidly reveals how well treatment is working, in patient-derived cell models.

We can image a tumour pre-treatment to predict how likely it is to respond, and then we can image again immediately after treatment to confirm whether it has indeed responded

Kevin Brindle

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Yes

Researchers hope that early detection, through the simple urine test, could enable earlier treatment interventions, significantly improving patient outcomes and prognosis. Around 36,600 lives are saved from lung cancer in the UK every year, according to new analysis from Cancer Research UK.

Professor Ljiljana Fruk and Dr Daniel Munoz Espin and their teams at the University of Cambridge are leading on the research, funded by Cancer Research UK.

The work, at Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and the Early Cancer Institute, will provide a cheap, affordable sensor that uses urine samples to help doctors detect lung cancer before the disease develops.

Lung cancer has a poor prognosis for many patients because often there are no noticeable symptoms until it has spread through the lungs or into other parts of the body. The new urine test will allow doctors to spot the disease before it develops.

To create the test, scientists looked at proteins excreted by senescent cells: “zombie” cells which are alive but unable to grow and divide. It’s these cells that cause tissue damage by reprogramming their immediate environment to help promote the emergence of cancer cells.

Now, researchers have developed an injectable sensor that interacts with zombie cell proteins and releases easily detectable compound into urine, signalling their presence.

“Early detection of cancer requires cost-effective tools and strategies that enable detection to happen quickly and accurately,” said Fruk. “We designed a test based on peptide-cleaving proteins, which are found at higher levels in the presence of zombie cells, and in turn appear in the early stages of cancer.

“Ultimately, we want to develop a urine test that could help doctors identify signs of the early stages of cancer – potentially months or even years before noticeable symptoms appear.”

As well as targeting lung cancer, Fruk hopes her research, along with joint efforts across other university departments, will result in the development of probes capable of detecting other cancers.

“We have almost completed a functional urine test to detect ‘zombie' cells in lung cancer, which will spot cancer earlier and avoid the need for invasive procedures, but this test does have potential for other cancers,” she said. “Developing more efficient cancer treatments requires earlier detection and better therapies, but also work with other disciplines for a more holistic view of the disease, which is an essential part of my research.”

From uncovering the causes of lung cancer to pioneering drugs to treat it, Cancer Research UK has helped power progress for people affected by lung cancer. Over the last 10 years, the charity has invested over £231 million in lung cancer research.

“Cancer Research UK has played a key role in advancing lung cancer research and improving survival,” said Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation. “This project being led by Professor Fruk is another example of our commitment to driving progress so that more people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”

Adapted from a Cancer Research UK media release. 

Cambridge scientists have developed a urine test for early detection of lung cancer. The test, the first of its kind, detects ‘zombie’ cells that could indicate the first signs of the disease.

Close-up of cancer cells

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Yes

The Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES) is hosting two projects that aim to aid Singapore’s business transition away from petrochemicals towards a net-zero emissions target by 2050.

Under the newly launched CREATE Thematic Programme in Decarbonisation supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the two projects will investigate non-fossil fuel-based pathways for Singapore’s chemical manufacturing industry and energy systems. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the NRF, Mr Heng Swee Keat toured the first of three laboratories for the programme to view the technical capabilities required for the various project teams, including CARES’ projects on the Sustainable Manufacture of Molecules and Materials in Singapore (SM3), and Hydrogen and Ammonia Combustion in Singapore (HYCOMBS).

SM3 aims to provide a path to a net-zero, high-value chemical manufacturing industry in Singapore. Its core goal is to address the dependency of producers of performance chemicals on starting materials that typically come from fossil-based carbon sources. The SM3 team hope to develop effective synthetic methods that best convert cheap and abundant fossil-free raw materials into high-value molecules, for use in sectors such as medicines and agrochemicals.

In project HYCOMBS, universities from Singapore, UK, Japan, France and Norway will work together to investigate the underlying combustion process of hydrogen and ammonia to minimise pollutants and accelerate industry innovation. 

As part of the lab demonstrations on decarbonisation, CARES showcased an additional ongoing activity with City Energy investigating hydrogen-rich town gas for residential and commercial cooking stoves.

Mr Heng Swee Keat said: "The need to tackle climate change and its impact grows ever more urgent. During my visit to Cambridge CARES (Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore) — Cambridge University's first and only research centre outside the UK — I witnessed how research and international collaboration are driving innovative solutions to combat climate change, particularly in the area of decarbonisation.

"In just a decade, CARES has established cutting-edge R&D facilities dedicated to decarbonisation projects that not only reduce emissions but also pave the way for a more sustainable future for Singapore. From hydrogen combustion and laser-based combustion diagnostics to the development of cleaner fuels for gas stoves, their work is closely aligned with the goals outlined in our Singapore Green Plan 2030, and achieving Singapore’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050.

"It was encouraging to hear from Director of CARES, Professor Markus Kraft, as he shared how being based in the CREATE facility at the National University of Singapore facilitates interactions with researchers from diverse countries and disciplines. This collaborative and interdisciplinary approach embodies the essence of research — working together to address shared global challenges."

Since 2013, CARES has been involved in research programmes with Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore as the University of Cambridge’s first overseas centre. One of its early flagship programmes, the Centre for Carbon Reduction in Chemical Technologies (C4T), has investigated areas from sustainable reaction engineering, electrochemistry, and maritime decarbonisation to digitalisation.

By building on this foundation and leveraging the local talent pool, CARES has attracted new partners from international universities and institutes for SM3 and HYCOMBS. This includes EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, which will provide skills in the domain AI for chemistry. CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Tohoku University from Japan will contribute technical equipment and key talent in hydrogen and ammonia combustion.

Adapted from a release originally published by CARES. 

Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF) paid a visit to the University of Cambridge’s overseas research centre in Singapore and viewed its technical capabilities for decarbonisation research.

Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Heng Swee Keat, viewing decarbonisation activities at Cambridge CARES

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Yes

The recent conflict in Lebanon has deepened a national education crisis in which children have already lost up to 60% of school time over the past 6 years, new research warns.

The report, by the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the University of Cambridge’s REAL Centre, is the first to assess the state of education since Israel began its ground offensive in Lebanon in October. Using surveys and interviews with parents and teachers, it provides a snapshot of the situation a few weeks before the new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The study stresses that even if that ceasefire holds, a co-ordinated, forward-thinking response is essential to prevent further learning losses in an already fragile education system.

Before the recent conflict, Lebanese schools had endured over a decade of compounded crises, including an influx of Palestinian and Syrian refugees, a major financial crisis, the 2020 Beirut explosion, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2018, the authors calculate, students have missed more than 760 teaching days due to strikes, disruption and closures.

The report shows that the effects of the latest violence have been uneven, depending on where families and teachers are based and their immediate circumstances. Refugee children and students with disabilities have been disproportionately affected and are among those who face the greatest risk of missing out further, even as the education system struggles to recover.

Dr Maha Shuayb, Director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies and a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education: “The war has deepened learning losses that were already near-catastrophic. Whatever happens next, flexible, inclusive, multi-agency strategies are urgently needed to ensure education reaches those who need it most.”

“Without thorough response planning, existing inequalities will become more entrenched, leaving entire sections of the younger generation behind.”

The report is the second in a series examining the impact of war on education in the Middle East. The previous report, on Gaza, warned that conflict there could set children’s education back by several years.

REAL Centre Director Professor Pauline Rose said: “In Lebanon and Gaza, it is not only clear that violence, displacement and trauma are causing devastating learning losses; we also need a much more co-ordinated response. Education should not be an afterthought in times of crisis; it is vital to future stability.”

More than 1.3 million civilians have been displaced in Lebanon since Israel escalated its military operations. The new study was undertaken at the end of October, and involved a survey with 1,151 parents and teachers, supplemented with focus groups and interviews.

The authors calculate that by November, over 1 million students and 45,000 teachers had been directly affected by the conflict. About 40% of public (state-run) schools had been converted into shelters. A further 30% were in war zones, severely limiting space for schooling.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) attempted to reopen  public schools on 4 November, but the study shows that for many people, violence, displacement and inadequate infrastructure impeded the resumption. Researchers found that 303 public schools were running in-person learning and 297 functioning online, but in conflict-hit regions like Baalbek-Hermel, the South, and Nabatiyyeh, barely any were physically open.

Many of the survey participants were living in shelters or overcrowded shared accommodation, where online learning – often the only option available – was difficult. Financial pressures, exacerbated by the war, have further disrupted education. 77% of parents and 66% of teachers said the conflict had reduced their incomes amid rising living costs.

While all teachers and parents wanted education to resume, the study therefore found that they were not universally prepared. Only 19% of teachers in areas heavily affected by the fighting, for example, considered restarting education a ‘high priority’. They also tended to prefer online learning, often for safety reasons, while those in less disrupted regions felt better prepared to resume education in-person.

Both parents and teachers highlighted the resource shortages hindering learning. Many lacked reliable internet, digital devices or even electricity. For example, only 62% of teachers and 49% of parents said they had an internet connection.

The report also highlights the extremely difficult experiences of Palestinian and Syrian refugee children and those with disabilities: groups that were disproportionately affected by systemic inequalities before the conflict began.

The authors estimate that as many as 5,000 children with disabilities could be out of school, with some parents reluctant to send children back due to a lack of inclusive provision. Refugee families, meanwhile, are among those who most urgently need food, shelter and financial help. Despite this, Syrian parents were statistically more likely to consider education a high priority. This may reflect concerns that they have been overlooked in MEHE’s plans.

Some families and teachers suggested the government’s November restart was proving chimerical. “The authorities claim that the school year has been launched successfully, but this isn’t reflective of reality,” one teacher said. “It feels more like a drive for revenue than a genuine commitment.”

MEHE’s attempts at a uniform strategy, the researchers stress, will not help everyone. “The focus has largely been on resuming schooling, with little attention paid to quality of learning," they write, adding that there is a need for a far more inclusive response plan, involving tailored strategies which reflect the different experiences of communities on the ground.

The report adds that this will require much closer collaboration between government agencies, NGOs, universities, and disability-focused organisations to address many of the problems raised by the analysis, such as financial instability, a lack of online learning infrastructure, and insufficient digital teaching capacity.

Even if the ceasefire holds, challenges remain. Many displaced families may not return home for weeks, while schools may still be used as shelters or require repairs. Temporary learning spaces, targeted infrastructure restoration, and trauma-informed approaches to helping children who need psychosocial learning recovery, will all be required.

Yusuf Sayed, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge said: “Everyone hopes that Lebanon will return to normality, but we have grave reservations about the quality, consistency and accessibility of education in the medium term. Addressing that requires better data collection and monitoring, a flexible plan and multi-agency support. Our working assumption should be that for more than a million children, this crisis is far from over.”

Israel-Hezbollah conflict has deepened an education crisis in which children have lost up to 60% of schooling in 6 years, study shows.

Syrian refugee children in a Lebanese school classroom

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Yes

Around a third (32%) of people who grew up in Chicago have carried a concealed firearm on the city streets at least once by the time they turn 40 years old, according to a major study of gun usage taking in a quarter of a century of data.

Urban sociologists behind the research argue that such carry rates are likely to be similar across many other major US cities. 

The research suggests that almost half of men (48%) have carried a concealed gun by the age of 40, compared to just 16% of women.*

The study, published in Science Advances, is one of the few to track gun usage in the same US population across decades, and reveals that two-thirds of those who carried a gun in the past year started doing so in adulthood, compared to only a third who began in adolescence.

The research also found that gun carrying in adolescence and adulthood may occur in response to different concerns. Those who started carrying in their teens often picked up a handgun in response to experiencing gun violence first-hand.** This was not true of those who began carrying over the age of 21.

“Among adolescents, we found a strong association between either witnessing a shooting or being shot, and beginning to carry soon after,” said Dr Charles Lanfear, study lead author from the University of Cambridge.

“The majority of people who ever carry a concealed handgun start doing so in adulthood. For those adults, we found no link between direct exposure to gun violence and gun carrying,” said Lanfear from Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.

“This pattern suggests that gun carrying among adults may be linked to perceived threats of a more general nature, such as the idea that the world is a dangerous place, and police are incapable of ensuring public safety. Whereas gun carrying in adolescence may more often be related to direct experiences of gun violence.

“One simple but crucial fact is clear from our study, that carrying a concealed firearm is now a common event in the life course for Americans,” Lanfear said.

In the US between 1995 and 2021 some 89% of firearm homicides were committed with a handgun. However, despite the US gun stock doubling over the past quarter-century, and homicides spiking in COVID-era America, little is known about when and why people start carrying handguns.

The latest study was conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. Data was taken from a representative sample of 3,403 children originally from Chicago who were tracked over a 25-year period between 1994 and 2021.

When data-gathering began in the mid-90s, children were drawn at random from 80 of Chicago’s 343 neighbourhoods and from across the racial and socioeconomic spectrum, as part of a major longitudinal study run by Harvard.

The new analysis of this huge tranche of data reveals what researchers have called ‘dual pathways’ of concealed gun carrying: those who start in adolescence and those who start in adulthood, with the cut-off being the 21st birthday – the legal age for purchasing and carrying a handgun. 

In addition to findings on why people carry, the team discovered that most people who carry a gun in their teens do not continue in later life, with only 37% still carrying in 2021. Those who start carrying handguns in adulthood are more persistent, with 85% still taking a gun out in public in 2021.

Moreover, the use of guns – whether it be shooting someone, shooting at someone, or brandishing a gun in self-defence – differs among the 2 groups.

Teenage gun-carriers that fired or brandished their weapons all did so for the first time before adulthood. “We found that no one who began carrying a gun in adolescence ended up using it for the first time after the age of twenty-one,” said Lanfear.

Those who picked up a gun in adulthood had a relatively steady rate of first usage over time, so that by middle age (40 years old) both groups of carriers had reached almost identical levels of gun usage: with around 40% of carriers having used a gun.

Researchers found a racial component to gun-carrying. Black individuals carried at rates over 2 times as great as those of Hispanic and white individuals. However, a previous study by the same team showed that Black city residents were twice as likely as White residents to witness a shooting by age 40.

In fact, the research found that those least likely to witness gun violence – White residents – are the most likely to start carrying a firearm in response to gun violence exposure.

While all self-described gun-carriers – whether they started in adolescence or adulthood –are more likely to have an arrest history compared to those who don’t carry guns, the researchers say their study reveals ‘stark’ differences in why and when and for how long people take guns onto the streets.

Added Lanfear: “These findings take on new relevance given recent social changes in America. In 2020 and 2021 the nation saw a sharp increase in adult gun carrying, coinciding with an uptick in gun purchases following the outbreak of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd. We found the same trends in adult gun-carrying among our study sample.”

Major 25-year study reveals a ‘dual pathway’ for when people start carrying.

Carrying a concealed firearm is now a common event in the life course for Americans

Charles Lanfear

A man drawing a conceal carry pistol from an inside the waistband holster

Notes:

* The researchers found female gun-carrying to be uncommon. However, they detected a rapid increase in some cohorts at the age of 35, but these increases all occurred during the first year of COVID-19 (2020). Researchers say this is consistent with other research finding large COVID-era increases in gun ownership among groups with historically lower rates of ownership.

**Exposure to gun violence before age 15 is associated with a doubling in the probability of carrying a concealed gun between ages 15 and 21. Around 44% of adolescent gun carriers started carrying after being exposed to gun violence. In contrast, exposure to gun violence at an older age is not statistically or substantively associated with gun-carrying. Direct exposure to gun violence after age 21 is far less frequent than during adolescence.

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Yes

This year’s Wolfson History Prize has been awarded to Joya Chatterji, Emeritus Professor of South Asian History and Fellow of Trinity College, for her book Shadows At Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century, first published in 2023.

The book charts the story of the subcontinent from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Chatterji’s history pushes back against standard narratives that emphasise differences between the 3 countries, and instead seeks to highlight what unites these nations and their peoples.

Interwoven with Chatterji’s personal reflections on growing up in India, this distinctive academic work uses a conversational writing style and takes a thematic rather than chronological approach. It adds to the discussions of politics and nationhood typical of other histories of the region by weaving in everyday experiences of food, cinema, and domestic life.

As a result, the cultural vibrancy of South Asia shines through the research, according to the Wolfson History Prize judges, allowing readers a more nuanced understanding of South Asian history.

A judging panel that included fellow Cambridge historians Professors Mary Beard and Richard Evans, and headed by panel chair Professor David Cannadine, described Chatterji’s book as “written with verve and energy”, and said that it “beautifully blends the personal and the historical”.

“Shadows at Noon is a highly ambitious history of 20th-century South Asia that defies easy categorisation, combining rigorous historical research with personal reminiscence and family anecdotes,” said Cannadine.  

“Chatterji writes with wit and perception, shining a light on themes that have shaped the subcontinent during this period. We extend our warmest congratulations to Joya Chatterji on her Wolfson History Prize win.”

“For over 50 years, the Wolfson History Prize has celebrated exceptional history writing that is rooted in meticulous research with engaging and accessible prose,” said Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation.

“Shadows at Noon is a remarkable example of this, and Joya Chatterji captivates readers with her compelling storytelling of modern South Asian history.”

Shadows at Noon was also longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2024 and shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize 2024.

Now in its 52nd year, the Wolfson History Prize celebrates books that combine excellence in research with readability for a general audience.

Recent winners have included other Cambridge historians: Clare Jackson, Honorary Professor of Early Modern History, for Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588-1688 (2022) and David Abulafia, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History, for The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans (2020). Helen McCarthy, Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History, was shortlisted for Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood in 2021.

Chatterji wins for Shadows at Noon, her genre-defying history of South Asia during the 20th century.

Joya Chatterji at the award ceremony for the Wolfson History Prize 2024

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Yes

The initiative, called Polymathic AI, uses technology like that powering large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. But instead of ingesting text, the project’s models learn using scientific datasets from across astrophysics, biology, acoustics, chemistry, fluid dynamics and more, essentially giving the models cross-disciplinary scientific knowledge.

“These datasets are by far the most diverse large-scale collections of high-quality data for machine learning training ever assembled for these fields,” said team member Michael McCabe from the Flatiron Institute in New York City. “Curating these datasets is a critical step in creating multidisciplinary AI models that will enable new discoveries about our universe.”

On 2 December, the Polymathic AI team released two of its open-source training dataset collections to the public — a colossal 115 terabytes, from dozens of sources — for the scientific community to use to train AI models and enable new scientific discoveries. For comparison, GPT-3 used 45 terabytes of uncompressed, unformatted text for training, which ended up being around 0.5 terabytes after filtering.

The full datasets are available to download for free on HuggingFace, a platform hosting AI models and datasets. The Polymathic AI team provides further information about the datasets in two papers accepted for presentation at the NeurIPS machine learning conference, to be held later this month in Vancouver, Canada.

“Just as LLMs such as ChatGPT learn to use common grammatical structure across languages, these new scientific foundation models might reveal deep connections across disciplines that we’ve never noticed before,” said Cambridge team lead Dr Miles Cranmer from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “We might uncover patterns that no human can see, simply because no one has ever had both this breadth of scientific knowledge and the ability to compress it into a single framework.”

AI tools such as machine learning are increasingly common in scientific research, and were recognised in two of this year’s Nobel Prizes. Still, such tools are typically purpose-built for a specific application and trained using data from that field. The Polymathic AI project instead aims to develop models that are truly polymathic, like people whose expert knowledge spans multiple areas. The project’s team reflects intellectual diversity, with physicists, astrophysicists, mathematicians, computer scientists and neuroscientists.

The first of the two new training dataset collections focuses on astrophysics. Dubbed the Multimodal Universe, the dataset contains hundreds of millions of astronomical observations and measurements, such as portraits of galaxies taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and measurements of our galaxy’s stars made by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft.

The other collection — called the Well — comprises over 15 terabytes of data from 16 diverse datasets. These datasets contain numerical simulations of biological systems, fluid dynamics, acoustic scattering, supernova explosions and other complicated processes. Cambridge researchers played a major role in developing both dataset collections, working alongside PolymathicAI and other international collaborators.

While these diverse datasets may seem disconnected at first, they all require the modelling of mathematical equations called partial differential equations. Such equations pop up in problems related to everything from quantum mechanics to embryo development and can be incredibly difficult to solve, even for supercomputers. One of the goals of the Well is to enable AI models to churn out approximate solutions to these equations quickly and accurately.

“By uniting these rich datasets, we can drive advancements in artificial intelligence not only for scientific discovery, but also for addressing similar problems in everyday life,” said Ben Boyd, PhD student in the Institute of Astronomy.

Gathering the data for those datasets posed a challenge, said team member Ruben Ohana from the Flatiron Institute. The team collaborated with scientists to gather and create data for the project. “The creators of numerical simulations are sometimes sceptical of machine learning because of all the hype, but they’re curious about it and how it can benefit their research and accelerate scientific discovery,” he said.

The Polymathic AI team is now using the datasets to train AI models. In the coming months, they will deploy these models on various tasks to see how successful these well-rounded, well-trained AIs are at tackling complex scientific problems.

“It will be exciting to see if the complexity of these datasets can push AI models to go beyond merely recognising patterns, encouraging them to reason and generalise across scientific domains,” said Dr Payel Mukhopadhyay from the Institute of Astronomy. “Such generalisation is essential if we ever want to build AI models that can truly assist in conducting meaningful science.”

“Until now, haven’t had a curated scientific-quality dataset cover such a wide variety of fields,” said Cranmer, who is also a member of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “These datasets are opening the door to true generalist scientific foundation models for the first time. What new scientific principles might we discover? We're about to find out, and that's incredibly exciting.”

The Polymathic AI project is run by researchers from the Simons Foundation and its Flatiron Institute, New York University, the University of Cambridge, Princeton University, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Members of the Polymathic AI team from the University of Cambridge include PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty across four departments: the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, the Institute of Astronomy and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology.

What can exploding stars teach us about how blood flows through an artery? Or swimming bacteria about how the ocean’s layers mix? A collaboration of researchers, including from the University of Cambridge, has reached a milestone toward training artificial intelligence models to find and use transferable knowledge between fields to drive scientific discovery.

A mosaic of simulations included in the Well collection of datasets

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Yes

Lindsay’s appointment comes at a critical moment for the sustainability movement and for CISL. 

Following another year of record temperatures, extreme weather events and sustained biodiversity loss, the evidence is clear that the world is not on track. Confidence within the sustainability movement has faltered and big questions are being asked about what is needed to deliver the change we need. Under Lindsay’s leadership as interim CEO the Institute has engaged with these important questions. Read more about Lindsay Hooper's appointment here

The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership announces it has appointed Lindsay Hooper its permanent CEO and Head of Department.

The need for CISL’s work has never been greater and I’m delighted to be working with an exceptional team

CISL CEO Lindsay Hooper

Photo of Lindsay Hooper

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Yes

In June 1913, 3 candidates in the UK took the first ever Cambridge English exam. Since then, Cambridge English exams have become available in 130 countries and are recognised by more than 25,000 organisations around the world, including governments, universities and employers, as reliable proof of English language ability.

The Cambridge English exams, which are designed for all levels of English language ability, include Cambridge English Qualifications, Linguaskill and IELTS, the English language test.

Read more on the Cambridge University Press & Assessment website.

100 million Cambridge English exams and tests have been taken around the world since 1913, according to figures from Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

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Yes

Even if global production and pollution of new plastic is drastically reduced, scientists, writing in the journal Nature Communications, say that legacy plastics, the billions of tonnes of waste already in the environment, will continue to break down into tiny particles called microplastics for decades or centuries.

These fragments contaminate oceans, land, and the air we breathe, posing risks to marine life, food production and human health.

The researchers – from the University of Cambridge, GNS Science in New Zealand and The Ocean Cleanup in The Netherlands – say the problem lies in a gap between ambition and action, called the fragmentation gap.

At a meeting this week in Busan, South Korea, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution is meeting to finalise the Global Plastics Treaty, the first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

While the treaty’s initial discussions highlight prevention of plastic pollution, the researchers say it largely overlooks the need to remove existing waste. This omission means microplastics will continue to accumulate, even if plastic pollution slows.

“The treaty is aiming to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040, but this goal is unlikely without stronger action,” said co-author Zhenna Azimrayat-Andrews, a PhD student at Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “Even with a sharp reduction in plastic entering the ocean, existing debris will split into smaller pieces and persist for centuries.”

These microplastics have already infiltrated marine ecosystems and are harming marine ecosystems, degrading commercial seafood quality, and disrupting critical ocean processes.

The researchers argue that plastic clean-up efforts must be prioritised alongside reduction targets. Strategies to remove plastics from terrestrial and marine environments, such as those targeting pollution in beaches and rivers, could help prevent microplastics from forming. In fact, a 3% annual removal of legacy plastic, combined with aggressive reduction measures, could significantly curb future contamination, they say.

Without action to address legacy plastic, the treaty risks leaving behind a long-lasting problem for marine life and future generations. Experts are calling for clean-up efforts to become an equal pillar of the treaty, alongside prevention and recycling.

As world leaders gather to negotiate the treaty this week, the spotlight is on their ability to craft a comprehensive plan that doesn't just slow pollution but also begins to reverse the damage that has already been done.

Reference:
Karin Kvale, Zhenna Azimrayat Andrews & Matthias Egger. ‘Mind the fragmentation gap.’ Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53962-3

As the UN meets this week to finalise the Global Plastics Treaty, researchers warn that the agreement could fail to address one of the biggest threats to marine environments—microplastics.

Researcher holding small pieces of micro plastic pollution washed up on a beach

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Yes

The Department of Archaeology and McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge mourn the death and celebrate the extraordinary life of Professor Colin Renfrew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, formerly tenth Disney Professor of Archaeology, the McDonald’s founding Director, and Master of Jesus College.

Colin was, and will always remain, one of the titans of modern archaeology, a distinguished public figure, and a fine friend and colleague to innumerable archaeologists around the world. This loss makes the world of archaeology a poorer place intellectually, as well as in terms of the sheer energy and optimism that he brought to everything he did.

From his first years as one of the brave new archaeologists of the 1960s, Colin stood out as an exceptional mind, and as a spirit of profound, exciting and rigorous change. He pioneered new, theoretically informed ways of thinking about the explanation of social and political change in the past, within and then far beyond his first enduring regional love for the prehistoric Aegean, while advocating scientific techniques of dating and provenance as an integral part of archaeological endeavour. From this perspective, he was one of the first to appreciate the significance of the calibration of radiocarbon dates for the understanding of European prehistory. 

He went on to ask equally fresh questions about the link between language evolution and archaeology and, as the first Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, championed some of the earliest applications of archaeogenetics, as well as a critical and investigative approach to the illicit antiquities market. His fieldwork expanded to Orkney, and latterly returned to the more southerly isles of the Cyclades, subject of his doctoral research, and to remarkable discoveries on the island of Keros. To the very end, he remained engaged with the forefront of archaeological developments, attending and clearly relishing the 36th Annual McDonald Lecture on the Wednesday before he left us.

As those who knew him will amply testify, there was far, far more to Colin than the world-leading and much honoured archaeologist. He took on the mantle of a working peer in the House of Lords, where he spoke up for matters of heritage and archaeological legislation with the customary eloquence and lapidary reasoning of a one-time President of the Cambridge Union.

He was a passionate and knowledgeable expert and collector of modern art, by which Jesus College under his care remains permanently graced. Social events under his hospitality became unforgettable and often hugely convivial gatherings of brilliant minds from the widespread fields that he drew together, and under the right circumstances often culminated in demonstrations of Colin’s skills as a dancer. Last but far from least, he was a much-loved husband to his wife Jane, and father to Helena, Alban and Magnus.

Colin passed away peacefully in his sleep during the night of Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 November 2024. All of us at Cambridge extend our heartfelt condolences and profound respects to his family and to all those who loved and knew him.

Professor Cyprian Broodbank remembers Professor Lord Colin Renfrew, founding Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and former Master of Jesus College, who passed away at the weekend aged 87.  

Professor Colin Renfrew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn

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Yes

Remotely operated camera traps, sound recorders and drones are increasingly being used in conservation science to monitor wildlife and natural habitats, and to keep watch on protected natural areas.

But Cambridge researchers studying a forest in northern India have found that the technologies are being deliberately misused by local government and male villagers to keep watch on women without their consent.

Cambridge researcher Dr Trishant Simlai spent 14 months interviewing 270 locals living around the Corbett Tiger Reserve, a national park in northern India, including many women from nearby villages.

His report, published today in the journal Environment and Planning F, reveals how forest rangers in the national park deliberately fly drones over local women to frighten them out of the forest, and stop them collecting natural resources despite it being their legal right to do so.

The women, who previously found sanctuary in the forest away from their male-dominated villages, told Simlai they feel watched and inhibited by camera traps, so talk and sing much more quietly. This increases the chance of surprise encounters with potentially dangerous wildlife like elephants and tigers. One woman he interviewed has since been killed in a tiger attack.

The study reveals a worst-case scenario of deliberate human monitoring and intimidation. But the researchers say people are being unintentionally recorded by wildlife monitoring devices without their knowledge in many other places - even national parks in the UK. 

“Nobody could have realised that camera traps put in the Indian forest to monitor mammals actually have a profoundly negative impact on the mental health of local women who use these spaces,” said Dr Trishant Simlai, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Sociology and lead author of the report.

“These findings have caused quite a stir amongst the conservation community. It’s very common for projects to use these technologies to monitor wildlife, but this highlights that we really need to be sure they’re not causing unintended harm,” said Professor Chris Sandbrook, Director of the University of Cambridge’s Masters in Conservation Leadership programme, who was also involved in the report.

He added: “Surveillance technologies that are supposed to be tracking animals can easily be used to watch people instead – invading their privacy and altering the way they behave.”

Many areas of conservation importance overlap with areas of human use. The researchers call for conservationists to think carefully about the social implications of using remote monitoring technologies – and whether less invasive methods like surveys could provide the information they need instead.

Intimidation and deliberate humiliation

The women living near India’s Corbett Tiger Reserve use the forest daily in ways that are central to their lives: from gathering firewood and herbs to sharing life’s difficulties through traditional songs.

Domestic violence and alcoholism are widespread problems in this rural region and many women spend long hours in forest spaces to escape difficult home situations.

The women told Simlai that new technologies, deployed under the guise of wildlife monitoring projects, are being used to intimidate and exert power over them - by monitoring them too. 

“A photograph of a woman going to the toilet in the forest – captured on a camera trap supposedly for wildlife monitoring - was circulated on local Facebook and WhatsApp groups as a means of deliberate harassment,” said Simlai. 

He added: “I discovered that local women form strong bonds while working together in the forest, and they sing while collecting firewood to deter attacks by elephants and tigers. When they see camera traps they feel inhibited because they don’t know who’s watching or listening to them – and as a result they behave differently - often being much quieter, which puts them in danger.”

In places like northern India, the identity of local women is closely linked to their daily activities and social roles within the forest. The researchers say that understanding the various ways local women use forests is vital for effective forest management strategies.

Reference: Simlai, T. et al: ‘The Gendered Forest: Digital Surveillance Technologies for Conservation and Gender-Environment relationships.’ November 2024. DOI:10.17863/CAM.111664
 

Camera traps and drones deployed by government authorities to monitor a forest in India are infringing on the privacy and rights of local women.

Nobody could have realised that camera traps put in the Indian forest to monitor mammals actually have a profoundly negative impact on the mental health of local women who use these spaces.

Trishant Simlai

Researcher interviewing a local woman in India

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Yes

Fry brings outstanding experience to the role of communicating to diverse audiences, including with people not previously interested in maths. She will follow in the footsteps of giants of public engagement with mathematics, including David Spiegelhalter and the late Stephen Hawking as she joins the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP).

“I’m really looking forward to joining the Cambridge community,” said Fry, “to those chance encounters and interactions that end up sparking new ideas and collaborations: it’s so exciting to be in an environment where every single person you speak to is working on something absolutely fascinating.”

Fry won the Christopher Zeeman Medal for promoting mathematics in 2018 and the Royal Society David Attenborough Award in 2024, and is the current President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

She is currently Professor of the Mathematics of Cities at UCL, where she works with physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, architects and geographers to study patterns in human behaviour – particularly in an urban setting. Her research applies to a wide range of social problems and questions, from shopping and transport to urban crime, riots and terrorism, and she has applied this research by advising and working alongside governments, police forces, supermarkets and health analysts.

“When you create a mathematical model, it doesn’t really matter how beautifully crafted your equations are, or how accurate your simulations are,” said Fry. “You have to think about how the work you’ve created is going to be seen and perceived by other people and how it’s going to be understood or misunderstood.”

The new professorship builds on Cambridge’s long track record in sharing maths. DAMTP is also the home of the largest subject-specific outreach and engagement project in the University – the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP).

Fry says she plans for her work at Cambridge to follow on from Spiegelhalter's extensive public communication work, which she sees as a vital part of the research process.

“Communication is not an optional extra: if you are creating something that is used by, or interacts with members of the public or the world in general, then I think it’s genuinely your moral duty to engage the people affected by it,” she said. “I’d love to build and grow a community around excellence in mathematical communication at Cambridge – so that we’re really researching the best possible methods to communicate with people.”

“Hannah is an outstanding mathematician and researcher, and one of the UK’s best maths communicators,” said Professor Colm-cille Caulfield, Head of DAMTP. “Mathematics affects so many aspects of our everyday lives in interesting and exciting ways, and Hannah will strengthen the excellent work already being done at Cambridge in this area. We in DAMTP and our Faculty of Mathematics colleagues in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics are so excited to have her join us.”

Professor Fry announced her appointment at an event yesterday (21 November) organised by the MMP in collaboration with the Newton Gateway to Mathematics at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. The event – Communicating mathematical and data sciences – what does success look like? – explored evidence for effectively communicating mathematical and data science research to policymakers, mainstream media and the wider public.

“Professor Fry is one of the most exciting voices in science and mathematics today,” said Professor Nigel Peake, Head of the School of the Physical Sciences. “Her deep commitment to sharing the excitement of maths with people of all ages and backgrounds, at a time when mathematical literacy has never been so important, will be an enormous benefit to Cambridge, and the UK as a whole.”

Professor Hannah Fry, mathematician, best-selling author, award-winning science presenter and host of popular podcasts and television shows, will join the University of Cambridge as the first Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics on 1 January.

Hannah Fry

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Yes

The first three students to be supported by the Arm donation will begin their studies at the new research centre in the autumn of 2025. They will be followed by another three students each year for the following four years.  

Arm – the company building the future of computing with its global headquarters in Cambridge – is the first organisation to donate to the new CASCADE Research Centre, part of the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

“We’re very grateful to them for their generous support,” said Professor Timothy Jones, Director of the Centre. “As well as funding 15 PhD students over the next five years, Arm’s involvement is helping us realise our vision of a centre where research into addressing key challenges in this field is informed and supported by our industrial partners.This is extremely valuable to us as we work to make the Centre a destination for collaboration between companies, generating pre-competitive open-source artefacts and driving development of novel computer architectures.”

Richard Grisenthwaite, executive vice president and chief architect, Arm said: “Our long-standing commitment to the University of Cambridge through this latest CASCADE funding highlights the vital collaboration between academia and industry as we embark on ground-breaking intent-based programming work to realize the future promise of AI through the next generation of processor designs."

“The Centre has the potential to enable further technology innovation within the semiconductor industry and is an important part of Arm’s mission to build the future of computing.” 

Jones added: "Computer architecture is a critical area of computing. It underpins today’s technologies and drives the next generation of computing systems. Here in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, we’re proud of our research and innovation in this area. And the recently published National Semiconductor Strategy underlined how vital such work is, showing that the UK is currently a leader in computer architecture."

"But to maintain this leading position, we need to invest in developing the research leaders of tomorrow. That's why we have established the new CASCADE Research Centre to fund PhD students working in this area, through support from industry. It is currently taking applications for its first cohort of students."

The Centre will focus on research that addresses some of the grand challenges in computer architecture, design automation and semiconductors.  

PhD students will work alongside researchers here who have expertise across the breadth of the area, encompassing the design and optimisation of general-purpose microprocessors, specialised accelerators, on-chip interconnect and memory systems, verification, compilation and networking, quantum architecture and resource estimation. This will allow them to explore the areas they are most passionate about, while addressing industry-relevant research.

Students receiving funding from Arm will be working in the general area of intent-based computing, researching systems that communicate what programs will do in the future so that the processor can make better decisions about how to execute them.

Arm was born in Cambridge in 1990 with the goal of changing the computing landscape. Its success since then in designing, architecting, and licensing high-performance, power-efficient CPUs — the 'brain' of all computers and many household and electronic devices — helped fuel the smartphone revolution and has made it a household name.

Arm has long had a research relationship with Cambridge University. Most notably, this has led to the development of new cybersecurity technology, focusing on innovative ways to design the architecture of a computer’s CPU to make software less vulnerable to security breaches.

Adapted from a news release published by the Department of Computer Science and Technology

Arm is donating £3.5 million to enable 15 PhD students over the next five years to study at CASCADE, the University's new Computer Architecture and Semiconductor Design Centre.

Futuristic circuit board and semiconductor

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Yes

‘Manifest’ was looked up almost 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website, making it one of the most-viewed words of 2024.  

The word jumped from use in the self-help community and on social media to being widely used across mainstream media and beyond, as celebrities such as singer Dua Lipa, Olympic sprinter Gabby Thomas and England striker Ollie Watkins spoke of manifesting their success in 2024. 

Mentions of it gained traction during the pandemic and have grown in the years since, especially on TikTok and other social media, where millions of posts and videos used the hashtag #manifest.

They use ‘to manifest’ in the sense of: ‘to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen’. Yet, manifesting is an unproven idea that grew out of a 100-year-old spiritual philosophy movement.

Wendalyn Nichols, Publishing Manager of the Cambridge Dictionary, said: “When we choose a Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: What word was looked up the most, or spiked? Which one really captures what was happening in that year? And what is interesting about this word from a language point of view?

“‘Manifest’ won this year because it increased notably in lookups, its use widened greatly across all types of media due to events in 2024, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time.”

However experts warn that ‘manifesting’ has no scientific validity, despite its popularity. It can lead to risky behaviour or the promotion of false and dangerous beliefs, such as that diseases can be simply wished away.

“Manifesting is what psychologists call ‘magical thinking’ or the general illusion that specific mental rituals can change the world around us," said Cambridge University social psychologist Professor Sander van der Linden, author of The Psychology of Misinformation.

“Manifesting gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic on TikTok with billions of views, including the popular 3-6-9 method which calls for writing down your wishes three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon and nine times before bed. This procedure promotes obsessive and compulsive behaviour with no discernible benefits. But can we really blame people for trying it, when prominent celebrities have been openly ‘manifesting’ their success?

‘Manifesting’ wealth, love, and power can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment. Think of the dangerous idea that you can cure serious diseases simply by wishing them away," said Van der Linden.

“There is good research on the value of positive thinking, self-affirmation, and goal-setting. Believing in yourself, bringing a positive attitude, setting realistic goals, and putting in the effort pays off because people are enacting change in the real world. However, it is crucial to understand the difference between the power of positive thinking and moving reality with your mind – the former is healthy, whereas the latter is pseudoscience.” 

‘Manyfest’, manifest destiny, and manifestos

The 600-year history of the word ‘manifest’ shows how the meanings of a word can evolve.

The oldest sense – which Geoffrey Chaucer spelled as ‘manyfest’ in the 14th century – is the adjective meaning ‘easily noticed or obvious’.

In the mid-1800s, this adjective sense was used in American politics in the context of “manifest destiny”, the belief that American settlers were clearly destined to expand across North America.

Chaucer also used the oldest sense of the verb ‘manifest’, ‘to show something clearly, through signs or actions’. Shakespeare used manifest as an adjective in The Merchant of Venice: ‘For it appears, by manifest proceeding, that...thou hast contrived against the very life of the defendant’.

The verb is still used frequently in this way: for example, people can manifest their dissatisfaction, or symptoms of an illness can manifest themselves. Lack of confidence in a company can manifest itself through a fall in share price.

The meaning of making something clear is reflected in the related noun 'manifesto': a ‘written statement of the beliefs, aims, and policies of an organisation, especially a political party’ – a word that also resonated in 2024 as scores of nations, including the United Kingdom and India, held elections where parties shared manifestos.

Other words of 2024

The Cambridge Dictionary is the world’s most popular dictionary for learners of the English language. Increases and spikes in lookups reflect global events and trends. Beyond “manifest”, other popular terms in 2024 included: 

brat: a child, especially one who behaves badly

“Brat” went viral in the summer of 2024 thanks to pop artist Charli XCX’s album of the same name about nonconformist women who reject a narrow and highly groomed female identity as portrayed on social media. (We weren’t the only dictionary publisher to notice this.) 

demure: quiet and well behaved 

Influencer Jools Lebron’s satirical use of “demure” in a TikTok post mocking stereotypical femininity drove lookups in the Cambridge Dictionary.  After brat summer, we had a demure fall. 

Goldilocks: used to describe a situation in which something is or has to be exactly right  

Financial reporters characterized India’s strong growth and moderate inflation as a Goldilocks economy in early 2024.  

ecotarian: a person who only eats food produced or prepared in a way that does not harm the environment  

This term rose in overall lookups in 2024, reflecting growing interest in environmentally conscious living.  

New words, future entries?   

All year round, Cambridge Dictionary editors track the English language as it changes. Newly emerging words that are being considered for entry are shared every Monday on the Cambridge Dictionary blog, About Words. 

Words Cambridge began tracking in 2024 include: 

quishing: the scam of phishing via QR code. 

resenteeism: to continue doing your job but resent it. This blend of “resent” and “absenteeism” is appearing in business journalism.  

gymfluencer: a social media influencer whose content is focused on fitness or bodybuilding. 

cocktail party problem (also cocktail party effect): the difficulty of focusing on one voice when there are multiple speakers in the room. This term from audiology is now being used with reference to AI. 

vampire: a vampire device or vampire appliance is one which uses energy even when not in use. This is a new, adjective sense of an existing word.  

Adapted from the Cambridge University Press & Assessment website. 

The controversial global trend of manifesting has driven Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2024.

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Yes

People from Belfast proved most able to detect someone faking their accent, while people from London, Essex and Bristol were least accurate.

The study, published today in Evolutionary Human Sciences found that the ability of participants from Scotland, the north-east of England, Ireland and Northern Ireland to tell whether short recordings of their native accent were real or fake ranged from approximately 65% – 85%. By contrast, for Essex, London and Bristol, success ranged from just over 50%, barely better than chance, to 65% –75%.

In the biggest study of its kind, drawing on 12,000 responses, the researchers found that participants across all groups were better than chance at detecting fake accents, succeeding just over 60% of the time. Unsurprisingly, participants who spoke naturally in the test accent tended to detect more accurately than non-native listener groups – some of which performed worse than chance – but success varied between regions.

“We found a pretty pronounced difference in accent cheater detection between these areas,” said corresponding author Dr Jonathan R Goodman, from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology, and Cambridge Public Health.

“We think that the ability to detect fake accents is linked to an area’s cultural homogeneity, the degree to which its people hold similar cultural values.”

The researchers argue that the accents of speakers from Belfast, Glasgow, Dublin, and north-east England have culturally evolved over the past several centuries, during which there have been multiple cases of between-group cultural tension, particularly involving the cultural group making up southeast England, above all London.

This, they suggest, probably caused individuals from areas in Ireland and the northern regions of the United Kingdom to place emphasis on their accents as signals of social identity.

The study argues that greater social cohesion in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and the north-east may have resulted in a more prominent fear of cultural dilution by outsiders, which would have encouraged the development of improved accent recognition and mimicry detection.

People from London and Essex proved least able to spot fake accents because, the study suggests, these areas have less strong ‘cultural group boundaries’ and people are more used to hearing different kinds of accents, which could make them less attuned to accent fakery.

The study points out that many speakers of the Essex accent only moved to the area over the past 25 years from London, whereas the accents of people living in Belfast, Glasgow and Dublin have ‘evolved over centuries of cultural tension and violence.’

Some might have expected Bristolians to authenticate recordings of their accent more accurately, but Goodman points out that “cultural heterogeneity has been increasing significantly in the city”. The researchers would also like to obtain more data for Bristol.

An evolved ability

Previous research has shown that when people want to demarcate themselves for cultural reasons, their accents become stronger. In human evolution, the ability to recognise and thwart ‘free riders’ is also thought to have been pivotal in the development of large-scale societies.

Dr Goodman said: “Cultural, political, or even violent conflict are likely to encourage people to strengthen their accents as they try to maintain social cohesion through cultural homogeneity. Even relatively mild tension, for example the intrusion of tourists in the summer, could have this effect.

“I'm interested in the role played by trust in society and how trust forms. One of the first judgments a person will make about another person, and when deciding whether to trust them, is how they speak. How humans learn to trust another person who may be an interloper has been incredibly important over our evolutionary history and it remains critical today.”

Overall, the study found that participants were better than chance at detecting fake accents but is it surprising that so many people failed 40–50% of the time?

The authors point out that participants were only given 2-3 second clips so the fact that some authenticated with 70–85% accuracy is very impressive. If participants had heard a longer clip or been able to interact with someone face-to-face, the researchers would expect success rates to rise but continue to vary by region.

How the tests worked

The researchers constructed a series of sentences designed to elicit phonetic variables distinguishing between 7 accents of interest: north-east England, Belfast, Dublin, Bristol, Glasgow, Essex, and Received Pronunciation (RP), commonly understood as standard British English. The researchers chose these accents to ensure a high number of contrasting phonemes between sentences.

Test sentences included: ‘Hold up those two cooked tea bags’; ‘She kicked the goose hard with her foot’; ‘He thought a bath would make him happy’; ‘Jenny told him to face up to his weight’; and ‘Kit strutted across the room’.

The team initially recruited around 50 participants who spoke in these accents and asked them to record themselves reading the sentences in their natural accent. The same participants were then asked to mimic sentences in the other six accents in which they did not naturally speak, chosen randomly. Females mimicked females, males mimicked males. The researchers selected recordings which they judged came closest to the accents in question based on the reproduction of key phonetic variables.

Finally, the same participants were asked to listen to recordings made by other participants of their own accents, of both genders. Therefore, Belfast accent speakers heard and judged recordings made by native Belfast speakers as well as recordings of fake Belfast accents made by non-native speakers.

Participants were then asked to determine whether the recordings were authentic. All participants were asked to determine whether the speaker was an accent-mimic for each of 12 recordings (six mimics and six genuine speakers, presented in random order). The researchers obtained 618 responses.

In a second phase, the researchers recruited over 900 participants from the United Kingdom and Ireland, regardless of which accent they spoke naturally. This created a control group for comparison and increased the native speaker sample sizes. In the second phase, the researchers collected 11,672 responses.

“The UK is a really interesting place to study,” Dr Goodman said. “The linguistic diversity and cultural history is so rich and you have so many cultural groups that have been roughly in the same location for a really long time. Very specific differences in language, dialect and accents have emerged over time, and that's a fascinating side of language evolution.”

Reference

JR Goodman et al., ‘Evidence that cultural groups differ in their abilities to detect fake accents’, Evolutionary Human Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2024.36

People from Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and the north-east of England are better at detecting someone imitating their accent than people from London and Essex, new research has found.

Cultural, political, or even violent conflict are likely to encourage people to strengthen their accents as they try to maintain social cohesion

Jonathan Goodman

Crowds on Newcastle Quayside for the Great North Run in 2013

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Yes