The international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), studied the hunt of Alpine ibex – a type of wild goat with long, curved horns – in the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden by examining the horn size of more than 8,000 ibex harvested between 1978 and 2013, to determine whether average horn growth or body weight had changed over the last 40 years.

Their results, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, reveal that unsurprisingly, ibex with longer-than-average horns are more likely to be shot than animals of the same age with shorter horns. However, due to tight controls placed on the hunt by the Swiss authorities, hunters tend to shoot as few animals as possible, to avoid violating the rules and incurring large fines.

Hunting for specific traits can place selective pressure on certain species, resulting in a negative evolutionary response. In their study, the researchers investigated whether the targeting of ibex with large horns would lead to a lower average horn size across the entire population.

They found that while even tightly-managed hunts cannot prevent hunters from targeting longer-horned animals, no long-term changes were found in the horn length of male ibex in Graubünden, which is most likely related to the fact that the numbers of ibex removed from the population by hunters is too small to have an evolutionary effect.

“Our most important finding is that ibex hunting over the last 40 years has not had a negative effect on the constitution of the animals,” said WSL’s Kurt Bollmann, the study’s senior author.

“The good news for hunting and nature conservation is that horn growth in Graubünden’s ibex has not reduced over the decades and their average body weight has also remained stable,” said Professor Ulf Büntgen from Cambridge’s Department of Geography, the study’s first author. 

“We are happy that the knowledge gained in practice about our ibex herds has now been scientifically proven and that ibex hunting in Graubünden can be described as sustainable,” said co-author Hannes Jenny from the Graubünden Hunting and Fishing Authority.

While hunters often select animals based on their age and gender or the quality of the meat and their worthiness as a trophy, the hunting authorities would like to keep the size of individual herds at a level where the surrounding forests can provide them with enough food during the winter. Regardless of these conflicting interests, the most important point from a wildlife biology perspective is that hunting does not negatively affect the wild ibex population in the long term.

The Alpine ibex is a species that was formerly extinct and is now regarded as a major success story for Swiss conservation. Alpine ibex have a long lifespan (17 years on average) and relatively low reproductive performance, so the Swiss hunt is closely monitored to maintain the animal population. In Graubünden, where around 40% of Switzerland’s ibex live, each hunter may only bring down one female and one male in a particular age group every 10 years. If a hunter violates this requirement, for example by shooting an older animal with longer horns, they have to pay a fine and the animal is confiscated by the authorities.

“Our results also emphasise the importance of continuous monitoring of hunting practices, especially in regions where hunters can choose animals based on certain traits,” said Büntgen.

The researchers are currently developing a more comprehensive dataset, which will compare the evolutionary pressures on ibex in regions where hunting is allowed against regions where it is prohibited.

Reference:
Ulf Büntgen et al. ‘Horn growth variation and hunting selection of the Alpine ibex.’ Journal of Animal Ecology (2018). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12839

Adapted from a WSL press release.

Swapping your car for more physically active forms of travel may reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke and premature death, our latest research shows. Walking, cycling and even using public transport are all more physically active than using the car, so switching to one of these modes of transport can help you be more active and healthy.

Most physical activity studies focus on sport and recreational activity – intense activities often lasting many minutes. We are interested in understanding the impact of everyday activity on health. People lead busy lives. The challenge is to find ways for people to be active and stay active throughout life. For many, everyday activity, like walking or cycling for travel, may be more acceptable, attractive and practical than going to the gym.

For our analysis, we used a large cohort of over 350,000 adults, aged 37 to 73, from the UK Biobank study. At the start of the study people told us about their travel habits, as well as other important health behaviours, such as smoking. We compared people who only used the car for travel with those who undertook some walking, either alone or in combination with the car or public transport. People who cycled were also included in the active group, although few people in our study cycled.

We carried out separate analyses for those who regularly commuted and those who did not.

Clear pattern

This was an observational study, so we can’t say definitively that car use causes harm. However, we took many steps to rule out other factors, such as what people eat or underlying illness that might explain the findings. For example, people with poor health might have to use the car because their poor health limits their ability to get around. Their poor health might explain their higher risk of disease. We used statistical methods to adjust for this, and, in some cases, we removed these people from the analysis. While we have tried to eliminate these other factors, we can never be sure we have done this entirely.

Among people who commuted, more active patterns of commuting compared with exclusive car use were associated with an 11% lower relative risk of developing heart disease or stroke and a 30% lower relative risk of death from heart disease or stroke. The association was even stronger when we looked across all forms of travel, both commuting and everyday travel.

Nearly half our sample did not commute. These people were retired, not in employment or they worked from home. Few studies have looked at these people. Among these people, more active patterns of travel compared with exclusive car use were associated with an 8% lower relative risk of death.

Although not all of our findings reached statistical significance, there was an overall pattern. More active patterns of travel, compared with exclusive car use, were associated with reduced risk of heart disease, stroke and death.

Areas still to explore

It would have been interesting to dig deeper and understand the relative importance of different patterns of travel. How beneficial is public transport compared with car use? Is there an additional benefit of cycling over walking? But, unfortunately, we couldn’t do that with the data we had.

Different data might also have allowed us to better understand why. Other people have suggested that snacking in cars might be a contributory factor, although we think the most likely explanation is differences in physical activity.

Our research builds on what is already widely known about the health benefits of physical activity. Some people may choose to use cars less when they understand the impacts on health. But many people may not have a choice. Others may just do what is convenient, comfortable and normal.

The large differences in travel patterns between cities in developed countries seem most likely to be explained by differences in infrastructure. There have been large increases in public transport use and consequently walking in London, after investment in these travel modes. The Netherlands made a conscious choice to invest in cycling infrastructure in the 1960s and now has high rates of cycling.

While decisions about transport infrastructure may be made for a variety of non-health reasons, our study provides further evidence that health needs to be integrated into decisions that are made about transport.

Oliver Mytton, Clinical Lecturer in Public Health, University of Cambridge and Jenna Panter, Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Gormley’s site-specific installation ambitiously pushes and tests the boundaries of the new spaces within Kettle’s Yard, which reopened to the public in February following a two-year, multi-million pound redevelopment. SUBJECT includes both new work and works not previously exhibited in the UK.

Taking as its basis the ‘coordinate’ as a means of measurement of space and of the body as space, ‘SUBJECT’ is conceived as a site-specific installation that will occupy the whole site, including both galleries, the Learning Studio and the Research Space.

Andrew Nairne, Director of Kettle’s Yard, said: “We are thrilled that Antony Gormley, one of the most renowned artists of our time, has the first solo exhibition in the new galleries and spaces at Kettle’s Yard.

“SUBJECT’, designed specifically for Kettle’s Yard and Jamie Fobert’s architecture, offers a series of physical and metaphysical encounters, exploring our relationship to both space and our sense of self.”

The exhibition continues Gormley’s fundamental investigations into the relationships between the human body and space. Conceived as an intervention which breaches the walls of the exhibition galleries, the installation will highlight some of Gormley’s key concerns over the past 40 years. The works consider how sculpture can activate both the space that it occupies and the body of the viewer.

Antony Gormley said: “Both in the demands that it makes of the viewer and in the way that this exhibition uses the spaces of the gallery, the show begs the question as to where the subject of art can be found – I am proposing that it is rooted most powerfully in the imaginative engagement and ultimately the memory of the viewer. The wager of this show is that ‘subject’ has transferred from object to experience.”

Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and internationally with exhibitions at institutions such as the Long Museum, Shanghai (2017); National Portrait Gallery, London (2016); Forte di Belvedere, Florence (2015); The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (2011); Hayward Gallery, London (2007) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (1989).

Permanent public art works by the artist include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place (Crosby Beach, England), Inside Australia (Lake Ballard, Western Australia), Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands) and Chord (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA).

Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013.

In 1997 he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a knight in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014.  He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been a Royal Academician since 2003.

SUBJECT runs from May 22-August 27. Entry is free. Visit www.kettlesyard.co.uk for further details.

The researchers, whose work appears in the journal Science, say their findings could be a “game changer” by allowing the energy from sunlight absorbed in these materials to be captured and used more efficiently. 

Lightweight semiconducting plastics are now widely used in mass market electronic displays such as those found in phones, tablets and flat-screen televisions.  However, using these materials to convert sunlight into electricity to make solar cells is far more complex. 

The photo-excited states – when photons of light are absorbed by the semiconducting material – need to move so that they can be “harvested” before they lose their energy.  These excitations typically only travel about 10 nanometres in plastic (or polymeric) semiconductors, so researchers need to build tiny structures patterned at the nanoscale to maximise the “harvest”.

Dr Xu-Hui Jin and colleagues at the University of Bristol developed a new way to make highly ordered crystalline semiconducting structures using polymers.

Dr Michael Price of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory measured the distance that the photo-exited states travelled, which reached distances of 200 nanometres – 20 times further than was previously possible.

200 nanometres is especially significant because it is greater than the thickness of material needed to completely absorb ambient light, making these polymers more suitable as “light harvesters” for solar cells and photodetectors.

“The gain in efficiency would actually be for two reasons: first, because the energetic particles travel further, they are easier to “harvest”, and second, we could now incorporate layers around 100 nanometres thick, which is the minimum thickness needed to absorb all the energy from light – the so-called optical absorption depth,” said co-author Dr George Whittell from the University of Bristol. “Previously, in layers this thick, the particles were unable to travel far enough to reach the surfaces.”

“The distance that energy can be moved in these materials comes as a big surprise and points to the role of unexpected quantum coherent transport processes,” said co-author Professor Sir Richard Friend from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, and a Fellow of St John's College. 

The research team now plans to prepare structures thicker than those in the current study and greater than the optical absorption depth, with a view to building prototype solar cells based on this technology.

They are also preparing other structures capable of using light to perform chemical reactions, such as the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Reference:
Xu-Hui Jin et al.‘Long-range exciton transport in conjugated polymer nanofibers prepared by seeded growth.’ Science (2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aar8104 

Adapted from a University of Bristol press release. 

Fear mongering and myth-making about human-like and social robots is stopping us from engaging with the technology behind them and having an input into how they - and we - evolve, says Hatice Gunes, Associate Professor at University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory.

Dr Gunes will be speaking about her research at the Cambridge Series at the Hay Festival on 1st June and says we need to move beyond sensationalist portrayals of human-like robots and understand how they work.

Her Hay talk will centre on human robot interaction [HRI] and how it can be used for our benefit, for instance, for helping children with autism learn how to read expressions and to stimulate the senses of elderly people in care.

Dr Gunes will outline how HRI works. She says it has to be believable in order to be effective. That means robots’ appearance is very important. This is what has driven the development of humanoid robots with arms and aspects of a human face which can behave in a human-like way, for instance, moving their arms, legs and eyes. However, more important than appearance is their behaviour and emotional expressivity. Dr Gunes refers to the way we relate to Disney’s animated characters. “People believe in them because they can portray emotion,” she says.

To achieve expressivity requires an understanding of how human emotions are portrayed and triggered. Scientists have been working on artificial emotional intelligence which enables new technolgoy such as embodied agents and robots to both express and detect emotions, understanding non-verbal cues. Dr Gunes cites the work of Charles Darwin on the visual nature of emotions and how they can be mapped to various changes in facial expressions.

Her research investigates how humanoids can be programmed not only to extract and respond to facial clues to emotions, but also to understand the context in which those emotions are expressed. That means they will be able to offer a response that is sensitive to specific contexts.

Will robots ever be able to have emotions themselves though? Dr Gunes says there is no reason why not and questions what emotions are. The process of working with robots on artificial emotional intelligence unpicks the nature of our emotions, showing them to be a layering of different goals, experiences and stimuli.

Another area which scientists are looking at in their quest to improve humanoids’ believability is personality. Dr Gunes has done a lot of work on personality in telepresence robotics, robots controlled remotely by a human - a kind of 3D avatar. These can be used in many ways, for instance, by medical staff to offer remote home care. The medical person can be based anywhere and operate the robot through a virtual headset. Dr Gunes is interested in how people react to the teleoperator (the human controlling the robot remotely) who is present in robot form. Once again, both the robot’s physical appearance and behaviour are important and research shows that their personality needs to be task dependent.

Dr Gunes says there remain some big challenges for scientists working on HRI, including how to process and combine all the different data they are gathering, how to modify their appearance and behaviour dynamically, and how to keep their power going 24/7. The major challenges, however, are to do with breaking down some of the myths and fears people have about humanoids.

Part of this is because they don’t understand the benefits humanoid robots can bring and why, for instance, they need to take on a human form and understand emotions. She says humanoids can be positive in terms of increasing trust and engagement among certain groups, such as the elderly; that humans tends to anthropomorphise technology in any event; and that robots can be programmed to be limited to positive emotions that promote altruism.

“People tend to love or hate robots, but they don’t really know a lot about them,” says Dr Gunes. “They mainly know of them from sci-fi movies or Netflix. They need to be demystified and opened up so people understand them and are able to question the science, code robots and see for themselves how they work. In the future people will be able to adapt and personalise their robots like they do their phones. They will be as common as smartphones and will operate with humans, predicting their needs. There will be a form of co-evolution.”

She adds: “Understanding robots will empower people so they can help to shape them to do good. The public is usually on the receiving end of new technology. Demystifying robots gives people back the power to push for change and create the robots they want.”​

The University of Cambridge and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) put pen to paper on a memorandum of understanding that will see the two institutions forge ever-closer links in education and research across a broad range of disciplines in the Sciences, Humanities and Medicine.

Senior leaders from Cambridge and LMU – which boast nearly 150 Nobel Laureates between them – came together over two days in Cambridge for meetings led by both the President of LMU, Professor Bernd Huber, and Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope.

At the conclusion of the visit, officials from Cambridge and LMU signed the memorandum of understanding, which indicates the desire to develop a joint programme of strategic importance to both institutions. A full programme will be formulated by the end of the year, with a formal launch expected to take place in early 2019.

It is intended that the partnership will include joint research activities, the exchange of academic staff, postdoctoral and PhD candidates, as well as masters and undergraduate students, joint teaching initiatives, and training for the next generation of scholars. The partnership will be cross-disciplinary, covering broad areas in the Humanities and Cultural Studies, Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, as well as Medicine, and will develop over the course of an initial five-year funding period. 

Professor Chris Young, Head Elect of the School of Arts and Humanities, and Cambridge’s academic lead for the strategic partnership, said: “The LMU is Germany's leading university in Germany's leading city.

“Its outstanding scholarship and rich network of associated institutes and industrial partnerships make it the perfect bridge to Bavaria, Germany and Europe. There are already myriad collaborations between colleagues at both universities, and this exciting new partnership will intensify and augment these for years to come.”

Professor Thomas Ackermann, Dean of the Faculty of Law and LMU’s Director for the strategic partnership, said: “The University of Cambridge is one of the world’s leading institutions in education, learning, and research. The strategic partnership between our universities will pave the way towards a new level of cooperation. Together with my colleague, Chris Young, we will explore an interesting array of activities to ensure the program will be a great success for both universities.”

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, said: “No single institution can provide, on its own, the answers to the great challenges of these turbulent times. Collaboration and openness to the world are essential to achieving our academic and civic missions. Our partnership with LMU, one of Europe’s finest universities, creates exciting opportunities to work together to address tough issues and provide our students with a richer education.”

“The strategic partnership with the University of Cambridge, one of the leading universities in Europe and the world, will bring an exciting stimulus to research and learning at LMU,” said LMU President Professor Bernd Huber. “Our new partnership ensures that collaboration and exchange which are vital for academic innovation can continue to be pursued regardless of Brexit.” 

The team, from the University of Cambridge and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to observe WASP-127b, a giant gaseous planet with partly clear skies and strong signatures of metals in its atmosphere. The results have been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

WASP-127b has a radius 1.4 times larger than Jupiter but has only 20% of its mass. Such a planet has no analogue in our solar system and is rare even within the thousands of exoplanets discovered to date. It takes just over four days to orbit its parent star and its surface temperature is around 1400 K (1127° C).

The observations of WASP-127b reveal the presence of a large concentration of alkali metals in its atmosphere, allowing simultaneous detections of sodium, potassium and lithium for the first time in an exoplanet. The sodium and potassium absorptions are very broad, which is characteristic of relatively clear atmospheres. According to modelling work done by the researchers, the skies of WASP-127b are approximately 50% clear.

“The particular characteristics of this planet allowed us to perform a detailed study of its rich atmospheric composition,” said Dr Guo Chen, a postdoctoral researcher at IAC and the study’s first author. “The presence of lithium is important to understand the evolutionary history of the planetary system and could shed light on the mechanisms of planet formation.”

The planet’s host star, WASP-127, is also lithium rich, which could point to an AGB star – a bright red giant thousands of times brighter than the sun – or a supernova having enriched the cloud of material from which this system originated.

The researchers also found possible signs of water. “While this detection is not statistically significant, as water features are weak in the visible range, our data indicate that additional observations in the near-infrared should be able to detect it,” said co-author Enric Pallé, also from IAC.

The results demonstrate the potential of ground-based telescopes for the study of planetary atmospheres. “The detection of a trace element such as lithium in a planetary atmosphere is a major breakthrough and motivates new follow-up observations and detailed theoretical modelling to corroborate the findings,” said co-author Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy.

We are just starting to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets with ground-based telescopes, but the authors believe that this will also be a reference exoplanet for future studies with space telescopes such as the James Webb Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Telescope. These future studies will reveal the detailed nature of WASP-127b as a benchmark for this new class of very low-density exoplanets.

The WASP-127b observations were conducted using the OSIRIS instrument of the GTC, from the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in Garafía (La Palma). The Observatories of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) are part of the Spanish Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) network.

Reference:
G. Chen et al. ‘The GTC exoplanet transit spectroscopy survey. IX. Detection of Haze, Na, K, and Li in the super-Neptune WASP-127b.’ Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press). DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201833033

The agreement between Cambridge and Shandong Universities was signed earlier this week, and will establish the Shandong University School of Innovation Intermediary and the Innovation Institute in Qingdao. Qingdao is the largest city in Shandong province and supports a rapidly-growing high-tech sector: Shandong University opened a campus there in 2017. The new school will be supported by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm, Shandong University and Qingdao Municipal Government.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Professor Fan Liming, President of Shandong University and Professor Eilís Ferran, Cambridge’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional and International Relations.

As part of the agreement, Cambridge will bring its expertise in commercialisation to aid technology transfer processes and encourage entrepreneurship in Shandong Province. The two universities will explore ways to improve interactions, build a world-class institution and cultivate talent. They will also support faculty and students to put their results into practice.

“We will help to establish an enterprise team in Qingdao and share our experience and knowledge to help businesses innovate and thrive, improve the university campus and support the city’s development,” said Dr Tony Raven, chief executive of Cambridge Enterprise.

In her speech, President Fan Liming said that innovation and technology transfer are of great importance to the university’s development and its responsibility to give back to society. The signing of the agreement is an important beginning for the two universities to promote the construction of the School.

With the support of Qingdao government, both sides will work closely to promote the development of the School in accordance with the framework and plans that both have agreed upon. It will help to contribute to the social and economic development both at local and national levels, and will also enhance the people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK. Professor Ferran expressed her appreciation to President Fan Liming for her strong support to the cooperation between the two universities.

“Cambridge attaches great importance to the cooperation with Shandong University,” she said. “This agreement will deepen the relationship between our two universities and our two countries through the collaboration of universities, industry and governments.”

Tony Raven, the CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, and Sun Fengshou, Director of the Department of International Affairs of Shandong University, signed the agreement. 

Graphene, among other materials, can capture particles of light called photons, combine them, and produce a more powerful optical beam. This is due to a physical phenomenon called optical harmonic generation, which is characteristic of nonlinear materials. Nonlinear optical effects can be exploited in a variety of applications, including laser technology, material processing and telecommunications.

Although all materials should demonstrate this behaviour, the efficiency of this process is typically small and cannot be controlled externally. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge, Politecnico di Milano and IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia have demonstrated that graphene not only shows a good optical response but also how to control the strength of this effect using an electric field. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. All three institutions are partners in the Graphene Flagship, a pan-European project dedicated to bringing graphene and related materials for commercial applications. 

Graphene – a form of carbon just a single atom thick – has a unique combination of properties that make it useful for applications from flexible electronics and fast data communication, to enhanced structural materials and water treatments. It is highly electrically and thermally conductive, as well as strong and flexible.

Researchers envision the creation of new graphene optical switches, which could also harness new optical frequencies to transmit data along optical cables, increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted. Currently, most commercial devices using nonlinear optics are only used in spectroscopy. Graphene could pave the way towards the fabrication of new devices for ultra-broad bandwidth applications.

“Our work shows that the third harmonic generation efficiency in graphene can be increased by over 10 times by tuning an applied electric field,” said lead author Giancarlo Soavi, of the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

“The authors found again something unique about graphene: tuneability of third harmonic generation over a broad wavelength range," said Professor Frank Koppens from the ICFO (The Institute of Photonic Sciences)in Barcelona and leader of one of the Graphene Flagship work packages. "As more and more applications are all-optical, this work paves the way to a multitude of technologies.”

Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Science and Technology Officer of the Graphene Flagship, and Chair of its Management Panel, said: “Graphene never ceases to surprise us when it comes to optics and photonics. The Graphene Flagship has put significant investment to study and exploit the optical properties of graphene. This collaborative work could lead to optical devices working on a range of frequencies broader than ever before, thus enabling a larger volume of information to be processed or transmitted.”

Reference:
Giancarlo Soavi et al. 'Broadband, electrically tuneable, third harmonic generation in graphene.' Nature Nanotechnology (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0145-8

Adapted from a Cambridge Graphene Centre press release. 

Recent research has suggested that the first people to enter the Americas split into two ancestral branches, the northern and southern, and that the “southern branch” gave rise to all populations in Central and South America.  

Now, a study shows for the first time that, deep in their genetic history, the majority – if not all – of the Indigenous peoples of the southern continent retain at least some DNA from the “northern branch”: the direct ancestors of many Native communities living today in the Canadian east. 

The latest findings, published today in the journal Science, reveal that, while these two populations may have remained separate for millennia – long enough for distinct genetic ancestries to emerge – they came back together before or during the expansion of people into South America.

The new analyses of 91 ancient genomes from sites in California and Canada also provide further evidence that the first peoples separated into two populations between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. This would have been during or after migrating across the now-submerged land bridge from Siberia along the coast.  

Ancient genomes from sites in Southwest Ontario show that, after the split, Indigenous ancestors representing the northern branch migrated eastwards to the great lakes region. This population may have followed the retreating glacial edges as the Ice Age began to thaw, say researchers.

The study also adds to evidence that the prehistoric people associated with Clovis culture – named for 13,000-year-old stone tools found near Clovis, New Mexico, and once believed to be ancestral to all Native Americans – originated from ancient peoples representing the southern branch.

This southern population likely continued down the Pacific coast, inhabiting islands along the way. Ancient DNA from the Californian Channel Islands shows that initial populations were closely related to the Clovis people.

Yet contemporary Central and South American genomes reveal a “reconvergence” of these two branches deep in time. The scientific team, led by the universities of Cambridge, UK, and Illinois Urbana-Champaign, US, say there must have been one or a number of “admixture” events between the two populations around 13,000 years ago.

They say that the blending of lineages occurred either in North America prior to expansion south, or as people migrated ever deeper into the southern continent, most likely following the western coast down.

“It was previously thought that South Americans, and indeed most Native Americans, derived from one ancestry related to the Clovis people,” said Dr Toomas Kivisild, co-senior author of the study from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology. 

“We now find that all native populations in North, Central and South America also draw genetic ancestry from a northern branch most closely related to Indigenous peoples of eastern Canada. This cannot be explained by activity in the last few thousand years. It is something altogether more ancient,” he said.

Dr Ripan S. Malhi, co-senior author from Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said: “Working in partnership with Indigenous communities, we can now learn more about the intricacies of ancestral histories in the Americas through advances in paleogenomic technologies. We are starting to see that previous models of ancient populations were unrealistically simple.”

Present day Central and South American populations analysed in the study were found to have a genetic contribution from the northern branch ranging between 42% to as high as 71% of the genome.

Surprisingly, the highest proportion of northern branch genetics in South America was found way down in southern Chile, in the same area as the Monte Verde archeological site – one of the oldest known human settlements in the Americas (over 14,500 years old).

“It’s certainly an intriguing finding, although currently circumstantial – we don’t have ancient DNA to corroborate how early this northern ancestral branch arrived,” said Dr Christiana Scheib, first author of the study, who conducted the work while at the University of Cambridge.

“It could be evidence for a vanguard population from the northern branch deep in the southern continent that became isolated for a long time – preserving a genetic continuity.

“Prior to 13,000 years ago, expansion into the tip of South America would have been difficult due to massive ice sheets blocking the way. However, the area in Chile where the Monte Verde site is located was not covered in ice at this time,” she said.

“In populations living today across both continents we see much higher genetic proportions of the southern, Clovis-related branch. Perhaps they had some technology or cultural practice that allowed for faster expansion. This may have pushed the northern branch to the edges of the landmass, as well as leading to admixture encounters.”

While consultation efforts varied in this study from community-based partnerships to more limited engagement, the researchers argue that more must be done to include Indigenous communities in ancient DNA studies in the Americas.

The researchers say that genomic analysis of ancient people can have adverse consequences for linked Indigenous communities. Engagement work can help avoid unintended harm to the community and ensure that Indigenous peoples have a voice in research.

“The lab-based science should only be a part of the research. We need to work with Indigenous communities in a more holistic way,” added Schieb, who has recently joined the University of Tartu’s Institute of Genomics, where Kivisild also holds an affiliation.

“From the analysis of a single tooth, paleogenomics research can now offer information on ancient diet and disease as well as migration. By developing partnerships that incorporate ideas from Native communities, we can potentially generate results that are of direct interest and use to the Indigenous peoples involved,” she said. 

Fossil fuel stocks have long been a safe financial bet. With price rises projected until 2040* and governments prevaricating or rowing back on the Paris Agreement, investor confidence is set to remain high.

However, new research suggests that the momentum behind technological change in the global power and transportation sectors will lead to a dramatic decline in demand for fossil fuels in the near future.

The study indicates that this will now happen regardless of apparent market certainty or the adoption of climate policies – or lack thereof – by major nations.

Detailed simulations produced by an international team of economists and policy experts show this fall in demand has the potential to leave vast reserves of fossil fuels as “stranded assets”: abruptly shifting from high to low value sometime before 2035.

Such a sharp slump in fossil fuel price could cause a huge “carbon bubble” built on long-term investments to burst. According to the study, the equivalent of between one and four trillion US dollars could be wiped off the global economy in fossil fuel assets alone. A loss of US$0.25 trillion triggered the crash of 2008 by comparison. 

Publishing their findings today in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers from Cambridge University (UK), Radboud University (NL), the Open University (UK), Macau University, and Cambridge Econometrics, argue that there will be clear economic winners and losers as a consequence.

Japan, China and many EU nations currently rely on high-cost fossil fuel imports to meet energy needs. They could see national expenditure fall and – with the right investment in low-carbon technologies – a boost to Gross Domestic Product as well as increased employment in sustainable industries.

However, major carbon exporters with relatively high production costs, such as Canada, the United States and Russia, would see domestic fossil fuel industries collapse. Researchers warn that losses will only be exacerbated if incumbent governments continue to neglect renewable energy in favour of carbon-intensive economies. 

The study repeatedly ran simulations to gauge the outcomes of numerous combinations of global economic and environmental change. It is the first time that the evolution of low-carbon technologies has been mapped from historical data and incorporated into ‘integrated assessment modeling’.

“Until now, observers mostly paid attention to the likely effectiveness of climate policies, but not to the ongoing and effectively irreversible technological transition,” said Dr Jean-François Mercure, study lead author from Cambridge University’s Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG) and Radboud University.

Prof Jorge Viñuales, study co-author from Cambridge University and founder of C-EENRG, said: “Our analysis suggests that, contrary to investor expectations, the stranding of fossil fuels assets may happen even without new climate policies. This suggests a carbon bubble is forming and it is likely to burst.”

“Individual nations cannot avoid the situation by ignoring the Paris Agreement or burying their heads in coal and tar sands,” he said. “For too long, global climate policy has been seen as a prisoner’s dilemma game, where some nations can do nothing and get a ‘free ride’ on the efforts of others. Our results show this is no longer the case.”

However, one of the most alarming economic possibilities suggested by the study comes with a sudden push for climate policies – a ‘two-degree target’ scenario – combined with declines in fossil fuel demand but continued levels of production. This could see an initial US$4 trillion of fossil fuel assets vanish off the balance sheets.

“If we are to defuse this time-bomb in the global economy, we need to move promptly but cautiously,” said Hector Pollitt, study co-author from Cambridge Econometrics and C-EENRG. “The carbon bubble must be deflated before it becomes too big, but progress must also be carefully managed."

One of the factors that may contribute to the tumult created by fossil fuel asset stranding is what’s known as a “sell-out” by OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations in the Middle East.

“If OPEC nations maintain production levels as prices drop, they will crowd out the market,” said Pollitt. “OPEC nations will be the only ones able to produce fossil fuels at the low costs required, and exporters such as the US and Canada will be unable to compete.”

Viñuales observes that China is poised to gain most from fossil fuel stranding. “China is already a world leader in renewable energy technologies, and needs to deploy them domestically to tackle dangerous levels of pollution. Additionally, stranding would take a higher toll on some of its main geopolitical competitors. China has a strong incentive to push for climate policies.”

The study authors suggest that economic damage from adherence to fossil fuels may lead to political upheaval of the kind we are perhaps already seeing. “Mass unemployment from carbon-based industries could feed public disenchantment and populist politics,” Viñuales said.  

The authors argue that initial actions should include the diversifying of energy supplies as well as investment portfolios. “Divestment from fossil fuels is both a prudential and necessary thing to do,” said Mercure. “Investment and pension funds need to evaluate how much of their money is in fossil fuel assets and reassess the risk they are taking.”

“A useful step would be to expand financial disclosure requirements, making companies and financial managers reveal assets at risk from fossil fuel decline, so that it becomes reflected in asset prices,” Mercure added.

*International Energy Agency. World Energy Outlook (OECD/IEA, 2016).

The projects are the first wave of major initiatives for the £103m Rosalind Franklin Institute, that launched today at the Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire.

New drugs are discovered through a slow and painstaking process of trial and error, often taking ten years and billions of pounds to develop. The Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI) is investing £6m to create:

• The World’s most advanced real-time video camera, the key to a new technique that uses light and sound to eradicate some of the most lethal forms of cancer.
• A new project pioneering fully-automated hands-free molecular discovery to produce new drugs up to ten times faster and transform the UK’s pharmaceutical industry.
• A ground-breaking new UK facility that will revolutionise the way samples are produced and harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate new drugs for clinical testing within a few weeks.

The RFI will harness disruptive new technologies such as AI and robotics to dramatically improve our understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs, and new treatments for millions of patients Worldwide. It will pioneer new ways of working with industry, as part of the UK’s AI and Data Grand Challenge, bridging the gap between university research and pharmaceutical companies or small businesses. This will build on the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy and put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future.

​Professor Ian Walmsey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation at the University of Oxford and Chair of the RFI’s Interim Board said: “The RFI will pioneer disruptive technologies and new ways of working to revolutionise our understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs, and new treatments for millions of patients Worldwide. It will bring university researchers together with industry experts in one facility and embrace high-risk, adventurous research, that will transform the way we develop new medicines.”

The institute is an independent organisation funded by the UK government through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and operated by ten UK universities, including the University of Cambridge. Professor Kathryn Lilley from Cambridge's Department of Biochemistry is the RFI's programme lead in Biological Mass Spectrometry.

"The Rosalind Franklin Institute will offer a globally unique suite of technologies which will enable new understanding of biology, leading to new diagnostics, new drugs and new treatments," says Professor Lilley. "For Cambridge, our partnership in the institute gives us access to, and a leading role in, developing the step changing technologies that will revolutionise the way we do biology."

The namesake of the institute, the pioneering X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, was one of the key figures in the discovery of the structure of DNA, and used a technique with roots in physics and technology to transform life science. The Institute will follow in this spirit, developing unique new techniques and tools and applying them for the first time to biological problems.

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s Executive Chair, said: “As EPSRC is the main delivery partner for the Rosalind Franklin Institute, I am extremely pleased to see the Institute officially launched today. Research here at the Harwell hub, and at the universities that form the spokes of the Institute, will help the UK maintain a leading position in the application of engineering and physical sciences to problems in the life sciences.”

It operates on a ‘hub and spokes’ model, with a central hub at the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, delivered by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The hub, opening in 2020, will house a unique portfolio of scientific tools and researchers from both industry and academia. Equipment and researchers will also be located in spokes distributed throughout the partner network of universities.

The hub at Harwell is a four storey, £40m build, which is being project managed and delivered by STFC. With the façade of the building reflecting the iconic work of Rosalind Franklin, the hub will house the majority of the technologies produced for the Institute, and will have world leading capabilities in imaging and drug discovery, creating a globally unique centre of excellence in life science. It will be home to 150 researchers from industry and academia, working closely with neighbouring facilities at Harwell including the Diamond Light Source and STFC’s Central Laser Facility.

EPSRC and STFC are part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.

Adapted from a press release from the Rosalind Franklin Institute.

The collegiate University of Cambridge recognises the importance of the debate around diversity in admissions. However, we believe that it is critical that this debate should be fair and transparent and supported by evidence.

In recent days, several assertions have been made in relation to diversity in Cambridge – all of which demand clarity – and we want to address them in turn.

Diversity

In the most recent complete admissions cycle, 22% of the overall number of UK students admitted to Cambridge described themselves as from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, the highest proportion on record. This is in addition to 64% of our students being admitted from state schools, the highest proportion in 30 years, when comparable records began. Our intake from low participation neighbourhoods is higher than the most recent benchmark for the University published by the government.

To suggest that no progress is being made in relation to diversity is therefore not only wrong, but potentially damaging and could deter future high-achieving applicants from applying in the first place. Moreover, our students, whoever they are, have worked hard to secure their place in Cambridge and we should celebrate their achievements. We strongly believe our students want to feel they have secured their place on merit rather than being singled out for special treatment.

We also believe that diversity should be understood in the widest possible sense, including ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, geography, age and disability.  

Entry requirements and retention

It has been suggested that the University should lower its entry requirements to accommodate a more diverse intake. We are proud to be amongst the very best and highest achieving institutions in the world. We want our students to succeed and we will not waver in our commitment to academic excellence. The fact that our student retention rate of over 99% is among the best in the world is testament to the quality of our unique collegiate education and of the pastoral care provided to all students.  Whilst our entry standards are very high and will continue to be so, with most Cambridge students scoring two or more A*s at A level, the nature of our educational provision and support helps ensure that almost all students who come to Cambridge graduate from Cambridge, regardless of background.

Our responsibility

Despite significant progress, we are far from complacent. We know that more needs to be done to reach out to those who are not applying to us. As an institution, we have over 100,000 interactions with students and teachers across more than 2,000 events annually through outreach programmes. We also partner with other organisations through initiatives such as NEACO, a consortium of five universities and eight Further Education colleges across East Anglia, working to increase progression to Higher Education and degree level apprenticeships.

We are committed to a series of initiatives aimed at increasing diversity among our students, including, among many others, Target Oxbridge, a programme funded by Oxford and Cambridge, and which will engage 160 prospective black students in 2018-2019. Further, the University of Cambridge is intending to launch an academic support programme starting in August 2019 to provide additional assistance for students who may have suffered educational disruption or disadvantage. We are also preparing for the subsequent launch of a transition year programme to create additional opportunities for those who could benefit from and contribute to life in Cambridge but who would not otherwise be able to meet our high entry standards.

These programmes indicate the seriousness with which we approach and consider this issue.

Framing the discussion and working together

Rather than framing the conversation around diversity in a manner that undermines the progress made in access and the value of a Cambridge education, we believe a more honest and comprehensive understanding of the issues is needed.

To illustrate this, in 2017, the University of Cambridge admitted 58 black students. We recognise that this is very low as a proportion of our overall undergraduate entry. But the truly shocking statistic is that this represents a third (33%) of all black students admitted to higher education in the UK that year who attained A*A*A at A-level. The University of Cambridge cannot single-handedly fix this endemic problem of academic attainment which afflicts all levels of education and society as a whole, reflecting deeper-seated inequalities across the country.

As an institution whose mission it is to serve society through the pursuit of academic excellence, we are committed to playing our part in facilitating social mobility. To do so, however, we need a constructive and collaborative effort involving Government, schools, local authorities, communities and families as well as universities and others to develop a holistic solution to these long-standing problems. We would gladly facilitate such an endeavour and call on policy makers to take up this invitation and work with us to reach these aspirations.  

Prof. Graham Virgo, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education

Jon Beard, Director, Cambridge Admissions Office

Dr. Sam Lucy, Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges

The study, published today in the journal Nature, characterised the genetic underpinnings of the human plasma ‘proteome’, identifying nearly 2,000 genetic associations with almost 1,500 proteins. Previously, there was only a small fraction of this knowledge, mainly because researchers could measure only a few blood proteins simultaneously in a robust manner.

The researchers used a new technology (“SOMAscan”) developed by a company, SomaLogic, to measure 3,600 proteins in the blood of 3,300 people. They then analysed the DNA of these individuals to see which regions of their genomes were associated with protein levels, yielding a four-fold increase on previous knowledge.

“Compared to genes, proteins have been relatively understudied in human blood, even though they are the ‘effectors’ of human biology, are disrupted in many diseases, and are the targets of most medicines,” says Dr Adam Butterworth from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, a senior author of the study. “Novel technologies are now allowing us to start addressing this gap in our knowledge.”

One of the uses for this genetic map is to identify particular biological pathways that cause disease, exemplified in the paper by pinpointing specific pathways that lead to Crohn’s disease and eczema.

“Thanks to the genomics revolution over the past decade, we’ve been good at finding statistical associations between the genome and disease, but the difficulty has been then identifying the disease-causing genes and pathways,” says Dr James Peters, one of the study’s principal authors. “Now, by combining our database with what we know about associations between genetic variants and disease, we are able to say a lot more about the biology of disease.”

In some cases, the researchers identified multiple genetic variants influencing levels of a protein. By combining these variants into a ‘score’ for that protein, they were able to identify new associations between proteins and disease. For example, MMP12, a protein previously associated with lung disease was found to be also related to heart disease – however, whereas higher levels of MMP12 are associated with lower risk of lung disease, the opposite is true in heart disease and stroke; this could be important as drugs developed to target this protein for treating lung disease patients could inadvertently increase the risk of heart disease. 

MSD scientists were instrumental in highlighting how the proteomic genetic data could be used for drug discovery. For example, in addition to highlighting potential side-effects, findings of the study can further aid drug development through novel insights on protein targets of new and existing drugs. By linking drugs, proteins, genetic variation and diseases, the team has suggested existing drugs that could potentially also be used to treat a different disease, and increased confidence that certain drugs currently in development might be successful in clinical trials.

The researchers are making all of their results openly available for the global community to use.

“Our database is really just a starting point,” says first author Benjamin Sun, also from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care. “We’ve given some examples in this study of how it might be used, but now it’s over to the research community to begin using it and finding new applications.”

Caroline Fox MD, Vice President and Head of Genetics and Pharmacogenomics at MSD, adds: “We are so pleased to participate in this collaboration, as it is a great example of how a public private partnership can be leveraged for research use in the broader scientific community.”

The research was funded by MSD*, National Institute for Health Research, NHS Blood and Transplant, British Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and SomaLogic.

Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Although our DNA provides our individual blueprint, it is the variations in the structure, function and amount of the proteins encoded by our genes which determine our susceptibility to disease and our response to medicines. This study provides exciting new insight into how proteins in the blood are controlled by our genetic make-up and opens up opportunities for developing new treatments for heart and circulatory disease.”

* MSD (trademark of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ USA)

Reference
Sun, BB et al. Genomic atlas of the human plasma proteome. Nature; 7 June 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0175-2

Instead, the researchers suggest that the scale and cost of estimating the effect of a vaccine on transmission could be dramatically reduced by using smaller, less expensive experiments in controlled settings – using as few as 200 animals.

Bovine TB is an infectious disease that affects livestock and wildlife in many parts of the world. In the UK, it is largely spread between infected cattle; badgers are also involved, transmitting to and receiving infection from cattle. Culls to keep badger populations small and reduce the likelihood of infecting cattle have proven controversial both with the public and among scientists.

The UK has a policy of ‘test and slaughter’ using the tuberculin test and slaughter of infected animals. A vaccine (BCG) exists, but can cause some vaccinated cattle to test positive falsely. As such, the vaccine is currently illegal in Europe. Researchers are trying to develop a so-called ‘DIVA test’ (‘Differentiates Infected from Vaccinated Animals’) that minimises the number of false positives, but none are yet licensed for use in the UK.

The European Union has said it would consider relaxing its laws against bovine TB vaccination if the UK government were able to prove that a vaccine is effective on farms. Any field trials would need to follow requirements set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

In research published today, a team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge has shown using mathematical modelling that satisfying two key EFSA requirements would have profound implications for the likely benefits and necessary scale of any field trials.

The first of these requirements is that vaccination must be used only as a supplement, rather than replacement, to the existing test-and-slaughter policy. But use of vaccination as a supplement means that a successful vaccine which reduces the overall burden and transmission of disease may nonetheless provide only limited benefit for farmers – false positives could still result in animals being slaughtered and restrictions being placed on a farm.

The second of the EFSA requirements is that field trials must demonstrate the impact of vaccination on transmission rather than just protecting individual animals.

The team’s models suggest that a three year trial with 100 herds should provide sufficient to demonstrate that vaccination protects individual cattle. Such a trial would be viable within the UK. However, demonstrating the impact on vaccination on transmission would be almost impossible because the spread of bovine TB in the UK is slow and unpredictable.

If BCG were to be licensed for use in cattle in the UK, vaccination would be at the discretion of individual farmers. Farmers would have to bear the costs of vaccination and testing, as well as the period of time under restrictions if animals test positive. This means that they would be less interested in the benefit to individual cattle and more interested in the benefits at the herd level. Herd immunity is such that, even if the vaccine is not 100% effective in every individual animal, the vaccine has an overall protective effect on the herd.

Trying to demonstrate an economic benefit for farmers would prove challenging. Using their models, the researchers show that herd-level effectiveness would be exceptionally difficult to estimate from partially-vaccinated herds, requiring a sample size in excess of 2,000 herds. The number of herds required could be reduced by a ‘three arm design’ that includes fully-vaccinated, partially-vaccinated and unvaccinated control herds; however, such a design would still require around 500 fully-vaccinated herds and controls – presenting potential logistical and financial barriers – yet would still have a high risk of failure.

Instead, the researchers propose a natural transmission experiment involving housing a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated cattle with a number of infected cattle. Such an experiment, they argue, could provide robust evaluation of both the efficacy and mode of action of vaccination using as few as 200 animals. This would help screen any prospective vaccines before larger, more expensive and otherwise riskier trials in the field.

“We already know that the BCG vaccine has the potential to protect cattle from bovine TB infection,” says Dr Andrew Conlan from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, the study’s first author. “Our results highlight the enormous scale of trials that would be necessary to evaluate BCG alongside continuing testing in the field.

“Such trials would be hugely expensive, and it isn’t even clear whether enough farms could be recruited. This scale could be dramatically reduced by using smaller scale natural transmission studies.”

Based on current knowledge of the likely efficacy of BCG, the researchers say their models do not predict a substantial benefit of vaccination at the herd level when used as a supplement to ongoing test-and-slaughter. Ruling out the use of vaccination as a replacement, rather than a supplement, to test-and-slaughter will inevitably limit the effectiveness and perceived benefits for farmers.

“If we could consider replacing test-and-slaughter with vaccination, then the economics becomes much more attractive, particularly those in lower income countries,” says Professor James Wood, Head of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine. “Then, we would no longer need to carry out expensive testing, but could instead rely on passive surveillance through the slaughterhouses.”

The study was funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Alborada Trust

Reference
Conlan, AJK, et al. The intractable challenge of evaluating cattle vaccination as a control for bovine Tuberculosis. eLife; 5 June 2018; DOI: 10.7554/eLife.27694.001

Professor Mary Beard was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) while Master of St John's College, Professor Christopher Dobson, was awarded a Knights Bachelor and Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College Dr Richard Henderson was recognised with a Companion of Honour.

Three other Newnham College alumnae joined Professor Beard in becoming Dames in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018, announced today - actor Emma Thompson, civil servant and diversity champion Sue Owen, and local government CEO Stella Manzie.

They join a range of women honoured for women at the forefront of their professions or who have championed women’s rights to coincide with the 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage.

Dame Mary has been recognised for her services to the study of Classical Civilisation.

She said: “I am absolutely 100% delighted – especially to realise that Classical Civilisation is still taken seriously enough to be recognised in this way.

"That said, I expect a good few jokes about pantomime dames!” 

Beard’s work on classical civilisation has been matched by her engaging TV work and an inspiration teaching that together have brought the classics to hundreds of thousands of people world-wide – and to hundreds of students at Cambridge University.

Her latest work, Women and Power, investigates the roots of the silencing of women in the Classical period, taking it forward into the present day.

But she will be remembered by generations of undergraduates, not as the famous figure on the television screens, or even the fearless debater of Twitter, but as their supervisor.

Newnham classics student Charlie Pemberton said: “It was Mary who encouraged me to apply to Cambridge and indeed Newnham in the first place: we had emailed a bit when I was in sixth form, before she met me at a Newnham Classics Open Day,” says .

“As a supervisor, she is incredibly fair: she gives praise when it is due, but isn’t afraid to tell you when you’ve been a numpty (to put it lightly...!). Her warning never to take a source at face value - to do some digging to discover what it’s really getting at - proved invaluable in my exams.

"She didn’t just teach us the material, but how to handle or think with the material - and she makes the material so accessible and memorable. There is something so special about Newnham Classics, and I think Mary has come to symbolise that.”

Beard is herself an alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge, where she first studied Classics in 1973. She returned as a Fellow in 1984, at the time the only female lecturer in the Classics Faculty. She became Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge in 2004. 

Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, says: “This is well-deserved recognition of the outstanding contribution that Mary has made to the study of Classics and the promotion of public understanding of classical civilisation, a further accolade in Newnham’s highly-distinguished tradition in Classics.”  

The Master of St John’s was honoured with a knighthood in recognition of his ground-breaking research into Alzheimer’s disease

Professor Christopher Dobson has been was awarded a Knights Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2018 to commemorate his illustrious scientific career.

Sir Christopher was recognised for his contributions to Science and Higher Education.

Sir Christopher is one of the world’s leading scientists working at the interface of the physical and biological sciences. Among other high-profile scientific achievements, in 2013 he co-founded the £50 million Cambridge Centre for Misfolding Diseases (CMD).

Scientists at the Centre focus on analysing the origins of neurodegenerative conditions - such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases - which occur because of ‘misfolded’ protein molecules. The experimental work by Sir Christopher and his inter-disciplinary research team has led to remarkable breakthroughs in the field.

Sir Christopher said he was astonished to have been made a knight and dedicated the honour to his students and scientific colleagues.

He said: “I am truly humbled to receive this remarkable honour. It would not have been possible without the brilliance and dedication of my students and scientific colleagues over many years, whose commitment to improving the lives of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions is deeply impressive.”

“It also recognises the commitment of the University of Cambridge, and the UK Higher Education sector in general, to educating to the highest possible standards the most able and deserving students on whose shoulders the future of the world depends.”

Sir Christopher was educated at the University of Oxford and became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University before he returned to Oxford as Professor of Chemistry.

In 2001 he moved from Oxford to the University of Cambridge when he was appointed as the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology and elected a Fellow of St John’s College. He became Master of St John’s College in 2007.

Sir Christopher said: “I cannot express strongly enough how much I have valued the inspiration, encouragement, support and friendship that I have received at St John’s from students, staff, Fellows and alumni, and how important the intellectual and cultural environment that exists in this truly remarkable College has been for my scientific activities.”

Professor Tuomas Knowles, a co-founder of CMD and a Fellow of St John’s, said: “Sir Christopher's landmark discoveries over the past 30 years have truly transformed our understanding of misfolding diseases.

“His work has had enormous influence throughout the physical, biological and medical sciences, establishing new connections, and generating wide-reaching implications for molecular medicine. It is wonderful that such an eminent scientist and influential and inspiring leader has been recognised with this honour.”

Sir Christopher also paid tribute to his friends and family for their “unstinting support”.

He added: “On a personal note, I want to thank my friends, family and colleagues, and especially my wife, Mary, and children, Richard and William, for their fantastic encouragement throughout my life and career.”

Nobel prize winner and pioneer of electron microscopy Dr Richard Henderson was awarded the Companion of Honour. 

Dr Henderson, an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 for his work developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.

He achieved a quantum leap in imaging techniques when his work allowing atomic structure determinations of many proteins that were previously impossible to obtain, provided important insights into biological functions and mechanisms that will enhance the study of diseases such as neurodegenerative and infections diseases and cancer.

Dr Henderson said: “It is a great honour to join such a distinguished group of people from all walks of life. My scientific mentors Max Perutz and César Milstein were earlier Companions of Honour, so it is a great delight to me to be able to continue in this tradition.”

Professor Mary Fowler, Master of Darwin College, said: "I am delighted that Darwin College Fellow Richard Henderson has been appointed a Companion of Honour - this and his Nobel Prize are richly deserved indeed. Richard's skill and his immense dedication benefit us all, bringing hope for much needed treatments for a wide range of diseases."

Many more alumni were honoured, with a CBE for television presenter and author Bamber Gascoigne (Magdalene) and knighthoods for historian and broadcaster Professor Simon Schama (Christ's) and Government barrister James Eadie (Magdalene). 

Honorary Magdalene Fellow Sir Christopher Greenwood was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) while Professor Jane Marshall (Murray Edwards) was given an Order of the British Empire for services to Education in Health Sciences.

Thomas Adès (King's), received a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. Professor Nicholas Marston, Vice-Provost and Director of Studies in Music at King's College, said: "It is excellent to see artistic creativity in the UK being recognised in this fashion.

"King’s College can boast a remarkable line of composers across many generations; among contemporary figures, Tom Adès stands together with Judith Weir and George Benjamin as one of our many distinguished alumni whose musical and creative talents not only bring lustre to the College but – more importantly –  enrich the lives of many people in this country and around the world.

"We congratulate him very warmly."

Delivered by The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and Unilever, the Awards have already reached over 3,500 inspiring young sustainability entrepreneurs and their organisations over five years, providing tailored support and funding to 29 winners to help them achieve scale for impact. Previous entries have ranged from a digital platform reintegrating women doctors into the Pakistani workforce, to a waste management solution converting human waste into fuel.

The world’s problems will only be solved with the ideas and talents of a new generation of leaders who are challenging business as usual. The Awards are an opportunity to support, inspire, reward and collaborate with these leaders; innovators who are the future of sustainability.

The process and prizes

This year’s Award categories align to eight of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• Zero Hunger

• Good Health and Well-being

• Quality Education

• Gender Equality

• Clean Water and Sanitation

• Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Responsible Consumption and Production

• Climate Action

Read more about the Award categories.

 They also gain the opportunity to pitch to a final judging panel to win the overall prize, ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize,’ which includes €50,000 cash.

 Previous winners have gone on to:

• Win Forbes’ 30 Under 30 recognition and Acumen fellowships

• Receive visits from Unilever CEO Paul Polman and be mentioned in speeches by Barack Obama

• Feature on Sky News, CNN, Fast Company, and more

• Establish partnerships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, Unilever, USAID, and more

• Rapidly scale their business and impact

Read more about previous winners.

LIFE LAB will be led by Wellcome Genome Campus Public Engagement, and delivered by a consortium including the Wellcome Sanger Institute,  the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Babraham Institute, the University of Cambridge and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. A main aim of LIFE LAB is to reach and engage communities who may not otherwise have access to science or research, through a range of hands on activities designed to be inspirational while highlighting the career opportunities across our region.

This is the first time that Cambridge has hosted European Researchers Night, which will simultaneously involve 55 other projects in 27 countries across the European Union, from Aberdeen to Athens and Helsinki to Heidelberg.

Project lead Dr Ken Skeldon, Head of Wellcome Genome Campus Public Engagement, said: “European Researchers’ Night is a fantastic opportunity to excite people about science and research. We’ll be hosting events in Cambridge, Peterborough and Ely and look forward to welcoming people who perhaps might not have been to a science festival before.  We also want to engage people in a way that is relevant to their everyday lives, and place a spotlight on the huge range of career opportunities here in Cambridge and our surrounding region.”

Klaus Haupt, Head of Unit, Research Executive Agency, said: “This is a shared celebration of researchers, demonstrating their contribution to our society and enabling open discussion between them and  the public on the last Friday of September across Europe. Part of a continental initiative promoting the values of breaking down barriers and boundaries in science, the European Researchers' Night aims to inspire and to increase awareness of research and innovation activities. We are delighted that Cambridge is now part of this.”

2018 is also the European Year of Cultural Heritage, and the LIFE LAB initiative will celebrate this by showcasing science in culture across our region - past, present and future. Other events around the UK will be organised by the Natural History Museum in London, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Bristol.

More information about European Researchers Night can be found here.

The team, led by Professor Jussi Taipale, now at the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge, found that CRISPR-Cas9 triggers a mechanism designed to protect cells from DNA damage, making gene editing more difficult. Cells which lack this mechanism are easier to edit than normal cells. This can lead to a situation where genome-edited cell populations have increased numbers of cells in which an important mechanism protecting cells against DNA damage is missing.

Discovered in bacteria, the CRISPR-Cas9 system is part of the armoury that bacteria use to protect themselves from the harmful effects of viruses. Today it is being co-opted by scientists worldwide as a way of removing and replacing gene defects.

One part of the CRISPR-Cas9 system acts like a GPS locator that can be programmed to go to an exact place in the genome. The other part – the ‘molecular scissors’ – cuts both strands of the faulty DNA so that it can be replaced with DNA that does not have the defect.

However, in a study published today in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers found unexpected consequences from using CRISPR-Cas9.

“We managed to edit cancer cells easily, but when we tried to edit normal, healthy cells, very little happened,” explains Dr Emma Haapaniemi from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, the study’s first author.

“When we looked at this further, we found that cutting the genome with CRISPR-Cas9 induced the activation of a protein known as p53, which acts like a cell’s alarm system, signalling that DNA is damaged, and opens the cellular ‘first aid kit’ that repairs damage to the DNA. The triggering of this system makes editing much more difficult.”

In fact, this process went further, leading to the strong selection of cells that lacked the p53 pathway. Absence of p53 in cells makes them more likely to become tumorous as damage can no longer be corrected. Around a half of all tumour cells are missing this pathway.

“CRISPR-Cas9 is a very promising biological tool, both for research purposes and for potential life-saving medical treatments, and so has understandably led to great excitement within the scientific community,” says Professor Taipale, who led the work while at the Karolinska Institutet.

“We don’t want to sound alarmist, and are not saying that CRISPR-Cas9 is bad or dangerous. This is clearly going to be a major tool for use in medicine, so it’s important to pay attention to potential safety concerns. Like with any medical treatment, there are always side effects or potential harm and this should be balanced against the benefits of the treatment.”

The team found that by decreasing activity of p53 in a cell, they could more efficiently edit healthy cells. While this might also decrease the risk of selecting for p53-deficient cells, it could leave cells temporarily vulnerable to mutations that cause cancer.

Professor Taipale says that once they better understand how the DNA response is triggered by the cut, it may be possible to prevent this mechanism kicking in, reducing the selective advantage of cells deficient in p53. 

“Although we don’t yet understand the mechanisms behind the activation of p53, we believe that researchers need to be aware of the potential risks when developing new treatments,” he adds. “This is why we decided to publish our findings as soon as we discovered that cells edited with CRISPR-Cas9 can go on to become cancerous.”

The research was supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Cancerfonden, Barncancerfonden and the Academy of Finland.

A second team in Novartis Research Institute in Boston, MA, has independently obtained similar results. They are also published today in the same journal.

Reference
Haapaniemi, E et al. CRISPR/Cas9-genome editing induces a p53-mediated DNA damage response. Nature Medicine; 11 June 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0049-z