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How the Westminster parliamentary system was exported around the world

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Empires, even the greatest of them, wax and wane. As recently as the early 1920s, the British Empire covered an area that is almost inconceivable today. The inhabitants of its dominions, colonies and territories accounted for a fifth of the world’s population and its huge geographical spread was summed up by the chilling description ‘the empire on which the sun never sets’.

However, just as the British Empire reached its peak, it was also crumbling as its composite parts pushed against their subordinate status. From the 1940s onwards, a growing number of countries which had been under British rule for as many as 200 years, embarked on the journey that led to their independence as members of the New Commonwealth – an affiliation to the British monarchy that for some nation states proved short-lived and for others more enduring.

As Smuts Visiting Fellow in Commonwealth Studies for 2013-2014, the political historian Dr Harshan Kumarasingham is exploring the extraordinary role that Sir Ivor Jennings played at a pivotal period for newly-independent states across the world as they emerged from British rule.  For many, it was an era of huge upheaval as, ill-prepared to deal with the task of state-building, they struggled to govern according to a foreign system often imposed with scant regard for regional and ethnic tensions.

Jennings was a key figure in the process that saw the decolonisation of dozens of countries that made up the British Empire in the mid-20th century. Born in Bristol in 1903, he was educated at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University, and towards the end of his career returned to the University to hold a number of prestigious posts.

In his late 30s Jennings became the first vice chancellor of the newly-formed University of Ceylon in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and from 1942, right up until his death in 1965, acted as a specialist constitutional advisor to governments of developed and developing nations all over the world.

Jennings’s career as a constitutional advisor had unique scope and breadth. It is possible that his relatively modest background and grammar school education, which would have been a barrier to entering the legal establishment in Britain, was a factor in his decision to look overseas to forge his career. Having made his name in Colombo, he worked with indigenous leaders to draw up the constitutions of countries as diverse in culture and geography as Canada and Ethiopia, Japan and Nepal, New Zealand and Malta. His legacy continues in some shape or form in the many parts of the world where elements of the Westminster-style constitutions he introduced live on.

“The model Jennings favoured was the Westminster parliamentary system with its historic connection to the Crown and convention. The leaders with whom he collaborated to establish their own versions of Westminster represented the powerful elite of their countries and the systems they devised often didn’t take account of local and ethnic differences – such as regional languages and variations in ethnicity and education – which meant that certain groups were excluded from processes of self-government,” said Dr Kumarasingham.

“On the basis of his grasp of constitutional law, Jennings was hired by many countries all over the world to provide advice on the making of their constitutions – he wasn’t in the employ of the British government although his affiliations and loyalties certainly favoured the British and their system. Essentially he operated in the way that a lawyer’s brief would work – he was efficient and focused and did the job he was paid to do. He didn’t see it as his role to deviate from the wishes of his clients.”

Dr Kumarasingham, who took up the Smuts Fellowship in October, is a New Zealander whose work to date has focused on the Westminster system and how it was exported across the world. He will be carrying out research in archives across the University of Cambridge and at the Public Records Office in London to develop a fuller and clearer picture of a process that affected millions of people in countries that had been colonised by the British.  “Cambridge has remarkable resources for these papers including those of leading British Cabinet ministers,” he said.

“In the UK today, Jennings is remembered for his contribution to British Constitutional Law and Cabinet Government as these were the areas he wrote prolifically on while he in Britain. In the wider world he is known for his work in constitution-making abroad and I hope that my research at Cambridge will bring these two aspects of his career together.  I will be editing a book of his selected writings on constitution making, which be published by the Royal Historical Society and CUP.”

When Jennings returned to Britain in 1955, he became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He later served a term as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge, at a time when the position rotated among the heads of the Colleges.

Jennings and his influence on overseas constitutions is just one strand of Dr Kumarasingham’s research, which looks more broadly at British decolonisation and state-building.   Dr Kumarasingham, who is hosted by Professor Sir Christopher Bayly, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial History Emeritus at the Centre for South Asian Studies, will also be looking at constitutional crises in the post-war Commonwealth and the influence of monarchy on democracy in South Asia.

Inset image: Sir Ivor Jennings (centre front row) as Master of Trinity Hall in 1958, Trinity Hall Archives

As an expert in constitutional law, Sir Ivor Jennings played a pivotal role in the establishment of states emerging from British rule in the mid-20th century. He later became Master of Trinity Hall. As Smuts Visiting Fellow, Dr Harshan Kumarasingham is researching how Jennings and other British figures shaped the lives of millions of people around the world. 

The model Jennings favoured was the Westminster parliamentary system with its historic connection to the Crown and convention
Dr Kumarasingham
Indian Parliament building (designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens) in 1944

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'Is EU criminal law a threat to British justice?'

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Professor Spencer is Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies, and Honorary President of the European Criminal Law Association. He has written extensively on criminal justice matters and has been involved in a number of law reform projects.

For more information about Professor Spencer, please refer to his profile at http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/acade...

Law in Focus is a collection of short videos featuring academics from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law, addressing legal issues in current affairs and the news. These issues are examples of the many which challenge researchers and students studying undergraduate and postgraduate law at the Faculty.

In eurosceptic circles it is widely stated that European criminal justice threatens to undermine the basic values of the common law, and this is put forward as a reason why the UK should 'withdraw from the Europe'. This argument was recently put forward by Nigel Farage, of the UK Independence Party, in an article he wrote for The Independent. In this presentation Professor John Spencer subjects the argument to analysis.

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Crop-infecting virus forces aphids to spread disease

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University of Cambridge researchers have shown that viruses use aphids as pawns, discouraging the insects from permanently settling on already-infected crops and using this forced migration to spread infection to healthy vegetation.

Aphids are sap-sucking insects that attack many different types of plants and are major transmitters of crop-infecting viruses. By altering plant biochemistry, crop-infecting viruses cause vegetation to smell and taste unpleasant to visiting aphids. This repels the insects, causing them to move swiftly away to healthier plants, unwittingly transporting and spreading the virus.

This BBSRC-funded research could have significant impact on African agriculture. Working with various agencies, Dr John Carr and colleagues aim to help resource-poor farmers by deploying plants to act as aphid-decoys, drawing the insects away from crucial crops and halting the spread of infection through these farmers’ livelihoods.

About this research, Dr Carr said: “The work started almost accidentally when about five years ago a student and I noticed that aphids became sick or died when confined on a virus-infected plant.  It’s an illustration of how research driven by curiosity can lead to findings that could have a positive impact in the real world - in this case in combating crop-damaging insects and the viruses they transmit.”

The Cambridge team collaborated with researchers at Imperial College, London, using Arabidopsis plants as hosts and monitoring the effect that the crop-infecting cucumber mosaic virus had. It was observed that the virus launched a concerted attack on the plant’s immune system whilst concurrently altering its biochemistry; in this way, the weakened Arabidopsis plant was unable to fight off either its attacker or visiting aphids. The aphids, instantly repelled by the smell and taste of the plant, left for healthier plants, but not before landing on the plant and contracting the virus. In this way, the mosaic virus ensured that the spread of the infection would be self-sustaining and highly efficient.

This research focuses on an example of what evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has called the ‘extended phenotype’. For Dawkins, the word ‘phenotype’ (the traits of an organism) should not be limited solely to biological processes, but should also be used to describe all effects that a gene has on the organism or environment in which it exists, or other organisms nearby. In this case, it was discovered that a virus influences the infected host, the Arabidopsis plant, and forces the host to change in a way that is beneficial to the parasite.

This revolutionary research has been done as part of a £16-million initiative to use bioscience in the improvement of food security in developing countries. Bioscience is playing an increasingly crucial part in meeting the challenges of feeding an ever-expanding population, projected to increase to 9 billion people by 2050. By developing ways to mitigate pest impact and reduce the spread of parasites, scientists are working to ensure successful harvests, now and in the future.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Viruses alter plant biochemistry in order to manipulate visiting aphids into spreading infection

The work started almost accidentally when about five years ago a student and I noticed that aphids became sick or died when confined on a virus-infected plant
Dr John Carr
Aphids

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Clare College elects next Master

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Clare College has elected Lord Grabiner QC to succeed Professor Tony Badger as its next Master. 

Lord Grabiner will take up his role as Master in October 2014 with the start of next academic year.

Lord Grabiner, who became a life peer in 1999, was educated at the Central Foundation Boys’ School, Hackney, then at the London School of Economics (LSE) and also completed his LLM there in 1967. 

He has had a distinguished career as a barrister since first being called to the Bar in 1969 where he has practised continuously as a member of One Essex Court and is Head of Chambers.  He has represented, amongst others, HM Treasury, Apple, and Liverpool FC.

Lord Grabiner became a QC in 1981.  He is a Deputy High Court judge in the Chancery division and Commercial Court, and is also currently the Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn.  He was Chairman of the LSE’s Court of Governors from 1998 to 2007, having been a governor at the school since the early 1990s.  He also lectured in Law at LSE and Queen Mary College, University of London, in the late sixties and early seventies.

Commenting on his election, Lord Grabiner said: ‘It is an honour to have been elected as the next Master of the lively academic community that is Clare College.  I aim to continue the excellent work carried out under Professor Tony Badger’s leadership in meeting the numerous challenges facing the College in the future, especially in ensuring that the college remains accessible to students of all social backgrounds.’

Clare College is the second oldest College of the University of Cambridge.  It was founded as University Hall in 1326 by Richard de Badew, then given an endowment and renamed by Lady Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I, in 1338. 

It is now a community of nearly 1000 students, academics and staff.  Alumni include naturalist Sir David Attenborough, novelist Peter Ackroyd CBE, writer Allison Pearson, musicians Dr John Rutter CBE, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Richard Stilgoe, and Nobel Prize winners Sir James Watson and Sir Tim Hunt.

Lord Grabiner QC is to become the 45th Master of Clare College from the start of next academic year.

 

It is an honour to have been elected as the next Master of the lively academic community that is Clare College.
Lord Grabiner

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1,000 years of history to be digitised following unique appeal

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The ‘Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection’ of Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah dates from the 9th–19th century and is an invaluable 1,000-year record of the religious, social, economic and cultural life of the Mediterranean world.

Treasures include the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (dating from 1119), an eyewitness account of Crusader atrocities, and autograph writings by leading Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides.

A genizah is a sacred storeroom, a room set aside inside a synagogue for the interment of old religious writings, which, because they contain names of God or use the sacred Hebrew alphabet, cannot be discarded. For more than 1,000 years, the Jewish community of Fustat (now a suburb of Cairo), deposited all manner of writings – not just sacred texts – into the dusty storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Its contents were described by historian Simon Schama as ‘the single most complete archive of a society anywhere in the whole medieval world’.

The fragments purchased by Oxford and Cambridge were brought back from Cairo by intrepid twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in 1896 and deposited at Westminster College where they remained until August 1.

The appeal, launched earlier this year at The British Academy, marked the first time the two universities have joined forces to fundraise. A lead gift of £500,000 from the Polonsky Foundation was followed by a donation of £350,000, arranged through a Director of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilisation.

A further generous grant of £100,000 was pledged by the Bonita Charitable Trust – both libraries are grateful to the many other individuals and charitable trusts who made donations to the appeal from around the world.

With the manuscripts secured, the collection, previously owned by the United Reform Church’s Westminster College, will undergo careful conservation at Cambridge University Library during the next two years before being digitised and made freely available online.

The manuscripts will then be divided between the University Library at Cambridge and the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford. A public exhibition looking at the collection – and the extraordinary twin sisters who played such a vital role in their discovery – will be held in 2016 at Cambridge University Library.

Both libraries are already holders of substantial Genizah collections in their own right. Cambridge is home to the largest collection in the world with some 200,000 fragments out of the estimated 350,000 to be found in public collections worldwide. Meanwhile, the Bodleian holds 25,000 world-class Genizah folios, the size and quality of which rank it among the most important global collections.

Cambridge University Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “Over the centuries the Bodleian and Cambridge University Library have been celebrated rivals, particularly when it came to the acquisition of great collections. Now that our two great libraries will share the ownership of the Collection, this can only bring benefits to both institutions and provide an exemplar for other purchases and collaborations in the future.”

Bodley’s Interim Librarian Richard Ovenden said: “The Lewis-Gibson Collection has been a catalyst for bringing our two organisations into closer cooperation than ever before. As we face ever harder challenges brought about by complex factors: financial, technological, organizational, the university libraries at Oxford and Cambridge can testify already to the power of collaboration to enable us to face those challenges.”

A campaign to save ancient documents chronicling 1,000 years of history has succeeded after £1.2m was raised by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in their first-ever joint appeal.

This can only bring benefits to both institutions and provide an exemplar for other purchases and collaborations in the future
Anne Jarvis
Palimpsest of the Jerusalem Talmud (copy from c.10th century) over the top of a 6th-century Christian work in Aramaic

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Researchers discover new test for chronic blood cancers

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A simple blood test will soon be able to catch the vast majority of a group of chronic blood cancers, a new study reveals. Although around 60 per cent of cases can be identified with the current blood test, scientists did not know what caused the other cases and therefore could not test for it. Cambridge researchers have now identified a new cancer gene which accounts for the other 40 per cent of these chronic blood cancers. The research was published today, 10 December, in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Professor Tony Green, from the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and Department of Haematology, who led the research said: “Diagnosing these chronic blood cancers is currently difficult and requires multiple tests, some of which are invasive and painful.  Now, most patients with a suspected blood cancer will be able to be given a diagnosis after a simple blood test.”

This group of chronic blood cancers – which affect an estimated 30,000 people annually in the UK –  cause the over-production of red blood cells and platelets. These changes result in an increased incidence of blood clots which can be devastating when strokes or heart attacks occur. Although many patients can live for years with few or no symptoms, in some patients the disorders can become more aggressive with time and may even develop into acute leukaemia.

In 2005 scientists identified the JAK2 gene, mutationt in which are associated with around 60 per cent of blood cell disorders. Based on these findings a blood test was developed which transformed the way these blood disorders are diagnosed. Unfortunately, because the gene was only found in a little over half of people with chronic blood cancers, individuals who tested negative for the JAK2 gene would then have to undergo a battery of protracted, invasive testing to determine if they indeed had one of these disorders.

In the new study, led by the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and supported by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research together with the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund, scientists identified a new gene, CALR, which is altered in the other 40 per cent of blood disorders. For the research, the scientists sequenced the DNA of patients with chronic blood disorders. By analysing the DNA sequence, they were able to identify CALR as a new cancer gene which, when mutated, results in chronic blood cancers. Additionally, they found that patients with the CALR mutation – unlike those with the JAK2 mutation – had higher platelet counts and lower haemoglobin levels.

Peter Campbell from the Sanger Institute, who co-led the research, said: “There is now a sense of completeness with these disorders – the vast majority of our patients can now have a definitive genetic diagnosis made. In the next year or two, we will see these genetic technologies increasingly used in the diagnosis of all cancers, especially blood cancers.”

Dr Jyoti Nangalia co-first author of the study from the University of Cambridge said: “Not only will the identification of CALR lead to a new, less invasive test, we also hope that it can lead to new treatments – just as the discovery of JAK2 did. The CALR gene is involved in a cell function – aiding with the folding of proteins made by the cell - which has not implicated in these disorders before, so our research raises as many questions as it answers.”

A new test for blood cancers will catch many more cases than the present test that identifies only 60 per cent.

Not only will the identification of CALR lead to a new, less invasive test, we also hope that it can lead to new treatments
Dr Jyoti Nangalia
Micrograph of a plasmacytoma, a hematological malignancy

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New Director for Cambridge In America

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CAm is the alumni, development and communications centre for the American constituents of the University of Cambridge and its thirty-one member Colleges

Yun Won joins CAm from Rutgers University, where she was Vice President for Development of the Rutgers University Foundation and Interim Vice President for Development - Biomedical and Health Services. 

She joined Rutgers in 2006 to help launch Rutgers’ $1 billion fundraising campaign.

Previously, Yun Won was Director of Development for Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) 2003-2006. She joined SIPA from The Asia Society, where she had been Director of Major Gifts.  She received her B.A. in History cum laude from Yale, and her M.A. in History from UCLA.

Commenting on her appointment she said "I am delighted to join the Cambridge in America organization and the distinguished University of Cambridge community.  I look forward to working with the CAm Board and staff, American alumni and friends and Cambridge colleagues across the University and Colleges."

Bill Janeway, Chairman of CAm, said: "Yun Won Cho brings relevant experience and professional expertise to CAm, strongly enhancing Collegiate Cambridge's development capabilities."

Yun Won will formally assume office on 1 February 2014. Until then, Peter Little will continue his work as Interim Executive Director.

Cambridge in America (CAm), with Collegiate Cambridge, has recruited Ms. Yun Won Cho as its Executive Director to succeed John Hanselman who has retired.

I look forward to working with the CAm Board and staff, American alumni and friends and Cambridge colleagues across the University and Colleges.
Yun Won Cho

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Girton 2013/14 Humanities Writing Competition open for entries.

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Now in its third year, the competition challenges students in Year 12 (or equivalent) to write a creative piece inspired by one of six objects from the Lawrence Room, Girton College’s small antiquities museum.

The Lawrence Room contains Anglo-Saxon finds from the College grounds, Egyptian material including the rare portrait mummy 'Hermione', and Mediterranean material from the Classical and pre-Classical worlds.

The objects in this year’s competition include a gaming piece from ancient Egypt, a Roman lion head, and a horse and rider from Tang China.

Provided that they are written, entries can take any creative form. Essays, dramatic monologues, and short stories would all be welcomed by the College.

''In this competition, as at university, we're encouraging students to be both critical and creative," commented  Helen van Noorden, Director of Studies in Classics at Girton College and one of the competition organisers.

“The unusual format is aimed at sixth-formers who enjoy making connections and are keen to embark on independent writing and research.

“We are genuinely open to any subject and any angle,' Helen added.

The winning entrant will receive £300 and the opportunity to visit Girton, including the Lawrence Room collection.

For more information, visit:

http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/undergraduates/for-schools/humanities-writing-competition

Competition Rules

• The word limit is 1800 words (though creative writing in particular may be shorter). Include a word count, and a list of references if applicable.

• There is a limit of 3 entries per school.

• Submissions must relate to one or more of the Lawrence Room objects.

• Submissions should be typed in English in a standard font, lines 1.5 spaced, and every page should be marked with the entrant's name.

• Submissions are to be posted to: Schools Liaison Assistant, Girton College, Cambridge, CB3 0JG with a completed cover sheet. Teachers must sign the cover sheet to certify that the submission is the entrant's own work and does not replicate anything submitted for examination.

Entries are invited for the 2013/14 Girton Humanities Writing Competition.

'In this competition, as at university, we're encouraging students to be both critical and creative.
Helen van Noorden, Director of Studies in Classics at Girton College
One of the objects inspiring this year's competition

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Clare College and Santander renew Partnership

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The College welcomed Mr Simon Bray (pictured), Deputy Director, Santander Universities UK to sign the renewal of a partnership which funds a senior postdoctoral scholarship in Portuguese and will support students in Modern and Medieval languages into the future, with funding of £30,000 per year.

The Partnership started in 2008 and helped to build a revival in the study of Portuguese at the University of Cambridge. 

Attending the event were various Professors in modern languages in the University of Cambridge, representatives from Clare College and of Santander Universities UK and numerous postgraduate students.

Paul Warren commented on the impact that Santander’s funding of Scholarships in the graduate colleges has had on Cambridge and how Clare and Santander look forward to working together for the next three years to promote scholarships in Spanish and Portuguese at Cambridge.

For Santander, Simon Bray said: ‘We have had great feedback on what has been achieved with the funding provided by Santander since we first signed the agreement with Clare College. With this renewal we want to go that extra mile promoting the links of the College with Spanish and Portuguese institutions.

“Latin-America is an area where Higher Education is predicted to grow considerably in the next few years and we are delighted to help Cambridge to strengthen its relations with this region.”

Clare College is the second oldest College of the University of Cambridge.  It was founded as University Hall in 1326 by Richard de Badew, then given an endowment and renamed by Lady Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I, in 1338. 

It is now a community of nearly 1000 students, academics and staff.  Alumni include naturalist Sir David Attenborough, novelist Peter Ackroyd CBE, writer Allison Pearson, musicians Dr John Rutter CBE, Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Richard Stilgoe, and Nobel Prize winners Sir James Watson and Sir Tim Hunt.

Clare College yesterday marked the renewal of a partnership with Santander, through its Santander Universities Global Division, at a special ceremony held in the College hosted by the College’s Bursar, Mr Paul Warren.

Latin-America is an area where Higher Education is predicted to grow considerably in the next few years and we are delighted to help Cambridge to strengthen its relations with this region.
Simon Bray, Santander Universities

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How large is the alphabet of DNA?

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Queen bee larvae

The mechanisms which cause certain genes to be switched on or off, and are thought to play a role in cancer development and stem cell differentiation, can now be accurately detected and studied thanks to a new DNA sequencing method.

The technology developed by Cambridge Epigenetix is helping researchers understand modifications to DNA, by detecting ‘extra’ DNA bases, which until now could not be definitively identified.

There are four standard DNA bases (Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine and Thymine), and the way they are ordered determines the makeup of the genome. In addition to G, C, A and T, there are also small chemical modifications, or epigenetic marks, which affect how the DNA sequence is interpreted and control how certain genes are switched on or off. The study of these marks and how they affect gene activity is known as epigenetics.

The most-studied mark is 5-methylcytosine (5mC), which is formed when molecules of methyl attach to the cytosine base of DNA, a process known as methylation. In 2009, a ‘sixth’ base, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) was discovered in human DNA, and subsequently two further modified DNA bases, 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5-carboxycytosine (5caC) were also identified.

Professor Shankar Balasubramanian of the Department of Chemistry founded Cambridge Epigenetix in 2012 to develop innovative epigenetic research tools that can identify, decode and help elucidate the function of the ‘extra’ DNA bases.

Standard DNA sequencing methods work by reading the features of the four standard bases, but cannot detect whether a cytosine base has been methylated. In order to address this shortcoming, a method called bisulfite sequencing was developed to detect methylation by adding a bisulfite reagent that converts the non-methylated cytosine bases to uracil, one of the subunits of RNA. By sequencing bisulfite-treated DNA, researchers can identify which cytosine bases were originally methylated and which were not.

However, because 5hmC and 5mC are both resistant to bisulfite treatment, it is impossible to distinguish between these two epigenetic marks using traditional bisulfite sequencing.

The reason this is a key distinction to make is that 5mC and 5hmC are thought to have completely different physiological functions. Research on the link between gene expression and methylation indicates that there are certain sites where methylation causes the gene to be switched off and silenced, whereas hydroxymethylation causes the gene to be switched on.

“Functionally, they have profoundly different meanings, yet we haven’t been able to tell the difference between them using typical sequencing methods,” said Professor Balasubramanian.

Following the discovery of the fifth and sixth bases, Professor Tony Green from the Department of Haematology encouraged Professor Balasubramanian to think about a new method of sequencing to detect these modifications. Balasubramanian and his PhD student Michael Booth co-invented such a method, known as oxidative bisulfite sequencing.

Oxidative bisulfite sequencing allows researchers to quantitatively measure 5mC and 5hmC at single-base resolution, enabling more accurate DNA sequencing.

The technique works by chemically oxidising 5hmC to 5fC, which like cytosine is susceptible to bisulfite treatment. Once the oxidative bisulfite reaction is complete, 5hmC and cytosine will appear in the sequence as thymine, so that the only cytosine bases remaining in the sequence are truly 5mC.

“In one reaction, you can get an accurate representation of methylation without having to factor in the ‘contamination’ from hydroxymethyl C,” said Professor Balasubramanian. “What our research group and Cambridge Epigenetix are doing is bringing this capability to go beyond the standard four letters of the genetic alphabet in a way that benefits from all the general innovation brought from ‘next generation’ sequencing technology, such as the Solexa/Illumina approach.”

Research studies indicate that dynamic regulation of DNA function by these epigenetic marks is essential for normal foetal development and plays an important role in cancer, neurological disorders and other diseases. In addition, it is thought that DNA modification plays a central role in stem cell reprogramming.

“Reprogramming the way DNA functions is fundamental to all living systems,” said Professor Balasubramanian. “It’s remarkable that for so long, we weren’t aware of these other modifications in human DNA. If we’ve found four more bases since 2009, then who are we to argue that nothing else is there?”

Cambridge Epigenetix conducted an alpha trial of its first product, TrueMethyl, late last year, and a beta trial in 13 laboratories around the world earlier in 2013. TrueMethyl is available worldwide, and the company has a range of other epigenetic research tools currently in development.

The company is funded by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm, and Syncona Partners.

New sequencing technology is transforming epigenetics research, and could greatly improve understanding of cancer, embryo formation, stem cells and brain function.

It’s remarkable that for so long, we weren’t aware of these other modifications in human DNA. If we’ve found four more bases since 2009, then who are we to argue that nothing else is there?
Shankar Balasubramanian
Queen bee larvae in royal jelly. Worker bees and the queen have exactly the same DNA sequence, but queen larvae are fed royal jelly which epigenetically modifies their DNA so they grow to be larger and fertile.

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What is it really like to work in scientific research today?

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Sitting in his room high up in one of the University of Cambridge’s zoology buildings, Dr Ed Turner holds a small bottle up to the light. Inside, preserved in alcohol, are insects collected in the rainforest of Sumatra nine months ago as one strand of a project to map the biodiversity of the region.

“In this one bottle are around 150 beetles from 15 different families,” says Dr Turner. “They are just a tiny fraction of the insects gathered over 12 months from more than 50 traps placed at our field sites in Sumatra.  Once we’ve recorded and analysed the data these specimens represent, we will have a better understanding of how tropical ecosystems work and how variable tropical agriculture can be. That information will help agronomists in Indonesia to manage their plantations more sustainably with biodiversity in mind.”

Dr Turner, an ecologist whose specialism lies in the forest environments of the South East Asia, is one of five tutors who will be contributing to a pioneering science outreach course offered by the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, in January and February 2014.

Called ‘Cambridge science: behind the scenes’, the programme will introduce participants to five contrasting areas of the scientific research happening across the University of Cambridge. Each session will be given by a different expert and will explore the challenges faced by today’s researchers – from the study of genetic mapping to research into the development of the next generation of nanoscale structures.

Course leader for the ‘Cambridge Science: behind the scenes’ programme is Dr Erica Bithell, whose research in crystallography contributes to understanding how the properties of functional materials are related to their atomic scale structures. These are materials which have particular and often useful technological properties, such as magnetism or piezoelectricity. During her session, she will explore the development of a metal-organic framework material from a laboratory bench to published results and onwards.

She said: “These materials combine metals and small organic components so as to build quite open structures – a bit like a nano-climbing frame! They have a wide range of potential properties, from magnetism to gas storage and catalysis. In this session we will trace the story of one member of this fascinating and beautiful family of structures, seeing how different groups of scientists have worked together in Cambridge and further afield to understand how this material works.

“We are aiming to get behind the headlines, and to discover the challenges, the practicalities and the excitement of carrying out research and acting upon your results. You’ll be able to ask questions and take part in lively discussions both with your fellow students and with the Cambridge scientist leading each session. ”

The remaining three tutors will give snapshots of their highly diverse fields. Dr Maya Goussani is a researcher into genetic mapping of common cancers, who will talk about the major discoveries that have arisen from the Human Genome Project, and current and future application of genomics. Dr Rachel Oliver is a materials scientist whose work focuses on the development and use of nanoscale structures; she will describe how scientists at Cambridge University are working to make LED light bulbs even more efficient, cheaper and more attractive. Professor Chris Abell will share his experiences of setting up a spin-out enterprise, and is well known both for his research as a biological chemist and as founder, with Sir Tom Blundell and Harren Jhoti, of Astex Therapeutics, a leading company in oncology drug discovery.

Dr Bithell said: “Everyone joining this course will have the opportunity to learn how each of these projects was started, how it aims to answer novel questions, what the exciting new discoveries are, and in what directions each project is going to be developed in the future. The course is a rare chance for anyone interested in science and the people who are pushing the frontiers forward to get an insight into what Cambridge University’s scientists actually get up to on a day-by- day basis.”

The course reflects a growing determination on the part of scientists to engage in a lively and direct dialogue with the world beyond the laboratory.

Dr Turner said: “As someone working within the field of conservation in South East Asia, I believe that communicating my work to the general public is vital to sharing the message that we need to work with these economies to find ways of interweaving biodiversity conservation into the increasingly vast acreages of land devoted to crop production. The world has over 7 billion people to feed and the most diverse ecosystems are also among the most threatened. In the case of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture Project, of which I am a member, this involves working with the big companies that produce palm oil to help them manage their habitats more sustainably.

“Sometimes television documentaries create a misleading picture of zoologists crashing through the rainforest and stumbling across rare species. On the other hand, scientists working in labs are portrayed as people in white coats with pebble glasses who don’t care about the real world. We want to show what’s really  involved in research – the meticulous planning that goes into projects and the level of detail recorded and analysed – and that scientists need a whole range of skills including being a good team player and maintaining their enthusiasm.” 

For more information about Cambridge Science: behind the scenes, including dates and fees, go to http://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/component/courses/?view=course&cid=10342


 

A new programme offered by the Institute of Continuing Education will give participants a rare insight into the challenges involved in pushing back the frontiers of science.  Given by five specialists in different fields, ‘Cambridge science: behind the scenes’ starts in January 2014.

We are aiming to get behind the headlines, and to discover the challenges, the practicalities and the excitement of carrying out research and acting upon your results.
Erica Bithell
Ed Turner carrying out field work in the forests of Sumatra

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Quantum waves at the heart of organic solar cells

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By using an ultrafast camera, scientists say they have observed the very first instants following the absorption of light into artificial yet organic nanostructures and found that charges not only formed rapidly but also separated very quickly over long distances - phenomena that occur due to the wavelike nature of electrons which are governed by fundamental laws of quantum mechanics.

This result surprised scientists as such phenomena were believed to be limited to "perfect" - and expensive - inorganic structures; rather than the soft, flexible organic material believed by many to be the key to cheap, 'roll-to-roll' solar cells that could be printed at room temperatures - a very different world from the traditional but costly processing of current silicon technologies.

The study, published today in the journal Science, sheds new light on the mystery mechanism that allows positive and negative charges to be separated efficiently - a critical question that continues to puzzle scientists - and takes researchers a step closer to effectively mimicking the highly efficient ability to harvest sunlight and convert into energy, namely photosynthesis, which the natural world evolved over the course of millennia.

"This is a very surprising result. Such quantum phenomena are usually confined to perfect crystals of inorganic semiconductors, and one does not expect to see such effects in organic molecules - which are very disordered and tend to resemble a plate of cooked spaghetti rather than a crystal," said Dr Simon Gélinas, from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research with colleagues from Cambridge as well as the University of California in Santa Barbara.

During the first few femtoseconds (one millionth of one billionth of a second) each charge spreads itself over multiple molecules rather than being localised to a single one. This phenomenon, known as spatial coherence, allows a charge to travel very quickly over several nanometres and escape from its oppositely charged partner - an initial step which seems to be the key to generating long-lived charges, say the researchers. This can then be used to generate electricity or for chemical reactions.

By carefully engineering the way molecules pack together, the team found that it was possible to tune the spatial coherence and to amplify - or reduce - this long-range separation. "Perhaps most importantly the results suggest that because the process is so fast it is also energy efficient, which could result in more energy out of the solar cell," said Dr Akshay Rao, a co-author on the study from the Cavendish Laboratory.

Dr Alex Chin, who led the theoretical part of the project, added that, if you look beyond the implications of the study for organic solar cells, this is a clear demonstration of "how fundamental quantum-mechanical processes, such as coherence, play a crucial role in disordered organic and biological systems and can be harnessed in new quantum technologies".

The work at Cambridge forms part of a broader initiative to harness high tech knowledge in the physics sciences to tackle global challenges such as climate change and renewable energy. This initiative is backed by both the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Cambridge Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability. The work at the University of California in Santa Barbara was supported by the Center for Energy Efficient Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award #DC0001009.

Researchers have been able to tune ‘coherence’ in organic nanostructures due to the surprise discovery of wavelike electrons in organic materials, revealing the key to generating “long-lived charges” in organic solar cells - material that could revolutionise solar energy.

One does not expect to see such effects in organic molecules - which [...] tend to resemble a plate of cooked spaghetti
Simon Gélinas
This is the experimental setup used to generate femtosecond laser pulses which serve as an ultrafast "flash " for the camera so that very rapid phenomenon can be filmed

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Super-fast and super-green: Cambridge unveils pioneering high-performance computer

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One of the world’s greenest supercomputers has been unveiled by the High Performance Computing Service at the University of Cambridge.

Named “Wilkes”, after the Cambridge pioneer Maurice Wilkes, who built one of the first ever programmable computers in 1949, the new system has been rated second in the “Green 500” – a ranking of the most efficient supercomputers worldwide. It is, however, the most efficient air-cooled supercomputer in the world today (the first-placed machine used an oil-cooled system instead), making it the greenest machine of its kind.

Designed and built by the in-house engineering team within the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service, Wilkes’ energy efficiency is 3,361 Mega-flops per watt. “Flops” (floating point operations per second) are a standard measure of computing performance.

Dr Paul Calleja, Director of the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service, said: “Energy-efficiency is the biggest single challenge in supercomputing today and our new system makes an important step forward in this regard.”

The Dell system uses innovative NVIDIA GPU computational hardware, and apart from its green credentials is also the fastest GPU supercomputer in the UK – with a sustained performance of 250 “Teraflops”. It reached position 166 in the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. This is equivalent to approximately 4,000 desktop machines all running as a single system.

One of the primary uses of Wilkes is as a test bed for the development of a computing platform for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). This is a huge, international effort to build the world’s largest telescope. By detecting radio waves with unprecedented sensitivity and fidelity, the facility has the potential to answer some essential questions about the Universe, such as what the nature of dark energy is, and perhaps the most fundamental question of all – are we alone?

Cambridge is leading the design of the computational platform within the SKA, which is by far the world’s most ambitious IT project. “Wilkes” will play an integral role in this design process.

The architecture of the GPU system has also been designed to be the most scalable possible using the very latest high-performance Infiniband network from Mellanox. This provides a massive 100 gigabytes per-second bandwidth, and a message rate of over 137 million messages a second.

This scalability will be used to drive the discovery process across a broad range of research activities within the University. For example, the system will be used to design and test jet engines, design new drugs to fight cancer, and examine the fundamental nature of the nucleus of the atom.

One particular research group, headed up by Dr Graham Pullan, has already developed GPU-optimised computational fluid dynamics software called “Turbostream” to model the air flow within jet engines which, when combined with the new GPU system, offers ground breaking capability in turbine research.

The GPU system is housed in a custom-developed “green data centre”, which uses evaporative air-coolers and water heat-exchangers to further boost its environmental credentials. “Together, the cooling and processing systems behind Wilkes dramatically reduce the power consumption in the data centre, making the total facility one of the most energy-efficiency data centres in the world,” Calleja said. “Also, the new SKA development lab places the University at the forefront of large-scale, big-data platform development.”

Maurice Wilkes was the man behind EDSAC, the first programmable computer to come into general use. Built in 1946, it put Cambridge at the forefront of the digital revolution. More than six decades later, this latest supercomputer, bearing Wilkes’ name, is destined to write the next chapter in that ongoing story.

The computer was designed in partnership with Dell, NVIDIA and Mellanox, and was part-funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rolls-Royce, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Further information about the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service can be found at: http://www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/

A super energy-efficient high-performance computer, with a performance equivalent to 4,000 desktop machines running at once, will enable researchers to handle the Big Data challenges of the future - not least the design of a system to support the world's largest telescope.

The total facility is one of the most energy-efficiency data centres in the world
Paul Calleja
Dishes close-up. One of the supercomputer’s first roles will be as a test bed for the development of a computing platform for the Square Kilometre Array - an international effort to build the world’s largest telescope.

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Cambridge University Library bids to purchase early Gospel manuscript

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Cambridge University Library, renowned throughout the world for its faith collections, announced yesterday that it is raising funds to acquire a remarkable manuscript known as Codex Zacynthius.

Codex Zacynthius was deposited at Cambridge University Library in 1984 by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has owned it for almost 200 years. At first glance the Codex is a text compiled in the 13th century from passages taken from the New Testament, but its true origins are much earlier. 

The Bible Society wishes to sell Codex Zacynthius as part of an exceptional exercise to release funds to establish a new visitor centre in Wales. Conscious of the interest in the manuscript, the Bible Society has given the UL first refusal to purchase. The acquisition of Codex Zacynthius by the UL would allow scholars and public audiences to discover more about the history of one of the world’s most important manuscripts, by using science to unlock its ancient secrets.

The huge appeal of this unique item lies in its hidden backstory. Codex Zacynthius is a palimpsest: a manuscript from which the text has been scraped or washed off in order for it to be used again. The recycling of manuscripts was common practice at a time when writing surfaces were precious, few books were produced, and a tiny percentage of the population was literate.

The 176 leaves of Codex Zacynthius are made of vellum – treated animal hide. The surface of the vellum was first used in the 6th or 7th century when it was inscribed in Greek with the text of Luke 1:1–11:33 – a layer of writing now known to scholars as the ‘undertext’. In the 13th century this was partially scraped away and written over with the text of an Evangeliarium, a book composed of passages from the Four Gospels – this is the ‘overtext’.

“The presence of the undertext, first discovered in the 19th century and critical to establishing the transmission of St Luke’s Gospel, places Codex Zacynthius among the top flight of Biblical manuscripts. Furthermore, it is the oldest extant New Testament manuscript with a commentary alongside the text, making it a witness to both the development and interpretation of St Luke’s Gospel,” said Lord Williams of Oystermouth, Master of Magdalene College and former Archbishop of Canterbury.

Unusually, the Greek undertext, written in uncials (capital letters) contains very few copying errors, suggesting that it was the product of an expert scribe. The text would have looked remarkably beautiful in its day and the Codex would have been an extremely precious item.

Lord Williams added: “The discovery and identification of the undertext represents a fascinating detective story. By saving the manuscript, we hope that multispectral imaging techniques – such as those used on the Archimedes Palimpsest to reveal mathematical theorems written in the 10th century under Christian texts written in the 13th– will enable scholars to recover fully the hidden text.”

The Codex, measuring 35 cm by 28 cm, is now in a 16th-century Greek-style goatskin binding that shows how the manuscript has been treasured over the centuries – tiny hand-stitched repairs secure tears in the goatskin and the cover bears traces of a cross and other decorations long since lost.

The place of production of Codex Zacynthius is unknown. It was presented to the Bible Society in 1821 by General Colin Macaulay, as a gift from Prince Comuto of Zakynthos. Macaulay, a supporter of the Society, was also a leading figure in the campaign for the abolition of slavery.

Prince Comuto’s house on Zakynthos was described by an early 19th-century British traveller as ‘a retreat to all foreigners of distinction, who have free access to the literary treasures of an excellent library, and enjoy the best society which this part of the world produces’.

“Codex Zacynthius would greatly enhance the UL’s magnificent faith collections which include important texts from Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism as well as from Christianity. In 2011 we launched a programme to make these collections freely accessible to students, researchers and the public through the Cambridge Digital Library,” said Anne Jarvis, University Librarian.

“Purchasing Codex Zacynthius would give us the opportunity to digitise the manuscript and share it on a global scale as well as creating an exciting virtual exhibition to tell the fascinating story of a unique document that can still shed new light on the text of the Christian Bible after more than 1300 years.”

The UL has until the end of February 2014 to raise funds for the purchase, which is being handled by the Bible Society’s agents, Christie’s. For those who would like to make a donation to the appeal, please go to http://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/giving/direct.php?table=nonschoolprojects&id=302

Inset images from top: Codex Zacynthius with 16th-century goatskin binding; opening of the book, showing the colourful 13th-century Evangeliarium; page of Codex Zacynthius with the undertext clearly visible in the margin (Credit: Cambridge University Library)

For more information about this story contact Alex Buxton, Office of Communications, University of Cambridge, amb206@admin.cam.ac.uk 01223 761673

Cambridge University Library plans to raise £1.1m to purchase an outstanding Biblical manuscript. Dating from the 6th or 7th century, Codex Zacynthius is a palimpsest that offers scholars a key to understanding the way in which the text of St Luke’s Gospel was transmitted as Christianity spread.

The presence of the undertext, first discovered in the 19th century and critical to establishing the transmission of St Luke’s Gospel, places Codex Zacynthius among the top flight of Biblical manuscripts.
Lord Williams of Oystermouth
Codex Zacynthius: at the end of a chapter of the Evangeliarium, the undertext is clearly legible.

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The Subject Matters: North

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After five  successful years in Cambridge, this year the Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, Admissions Tutors and current undergraduates from the University of Cambridge travelled to the Xscape Centre, Castleford, to deliver the practical and informative advice session to 170 Year 11 state school pupils from Yorkshire and the North.

The Subject Matters was developed because A Level subject choice can have a big impact on whether a student is a competitive applicant to highly-selective universities. The sessions are designed to help Year 11 state school students access the information they need to make informed A Level choices.

The programme focuses on the importance of suitable A Level (or equivalent) subject choices in support of an application to selective universities, and seeks to aid students in this important decision making process.

The Xscape Centre was chosen because its location and good transport links make it accessible to those from a wide geographical area including Yorkshire, Humberside, the North East, Greater Manchester and Nottinghamshire.

“It was good to have the opportunity to attend the session nearer to where I live,” said one participant, while another commented “I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if it was held elsewhere.”

Over half of the students taking part felt more positive about the University of Cambridge at the end of the session, while three-quarters said that they now had a clearer idea of the subjects they wished to study at A Level.

“The teachers were very easy to talk to and the students gave an interesting insight into student life,” said one of the Year 11 participants. “As an aspiring Cambridge student, it felt like the chance to go to this university was a lot bigger and cleared up some issues I had previously struggled with regarding A Level choices.”

Further information on The Subject Matters is available here: http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/events/subjectmatters.html

Students and teachers in Yorkshire and the North of England have welcomed the first session of “The Subject Matters” to be held outside Cambridge.

It was good to have the opportunity to attend the session nearer to where I live.

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Voicing the Garden

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Voicing the Garden, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund through its All Our Stories grant stream, and by the Cambridge University Botanic Garden Association (CUBGA), seeks to collect, celebrate and share the stories of the people behind the plants – the people who have made, grown up in or simply enjoyed the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.  The resulting archive of over sixty interviews is a rich mix of inside tracks, personal meanings, conflicting viewpoints, loves, loathes, life changing experiences, characters and recollections.

These unofficial and, before now, untold histories gathered up by a team of fully-trained volunteers are the opposite of an authoritative guide book to the Garden, says, Juliet Day, Development Officer at the Garden, who has led the project. "Voicing has given us a place to remember the black market in duck eggs, the daughters of a former director jumping their ponies over the winter garden hedges, EM Forster coming to tea and not being remotely interested in the plants, setting fire to the lake – yes really - the ‘slow bicycle race’ at staff parties, the 1950s Glee Club, the schoolgirls who weeded the Garden during the war and then grew up to bring their own grandchildren, the parents who have grieved here."

At the heart of Voicing have been engagement collaborations designed to connect the generations.  Excerpts from the interviews have inspired local groups to make accompanying short films, co-ordinated by the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium.  Young adults from Squeaky Gate, a creative arts charity, have composed, performed and filmed a lyrical and invigorating music video, putting a totally different perspective on the balm and beauty the Garden has to offer.  Working with Cambridge-based Spellbound Animation, Kings Hedges Primary School took as their inspiration memories of the man who could tame robins to create a beautiful, hand-drawn animation breathing new life into the legend (viewable here).

Trish Sheil, Film Education Manager for the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium said "The Consortium very much supports the development of cine-cultural and cine - literacy skills and Voicing the Garden offered a wonderful opportunity for young people in Cambridgeshire, from primary age to undergraduates, to use their creative skills in live action and animation film. Led by professional filmmakers and animators, these young people have to brought to the big screen the rich memories of the people associated with the Garden, and created a refreshing and memorable visual legacy for everyone to share on the website."

The Voicing films premiered Thursday 12 December at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse at 5pm, showing alongside work from the archives.  Director of the Botanic Garden, Professor Beverley Glover, also took the opportunity to present Nikki Driscoll, student at the Anglia Ruskin School of Art, with a special prize for her animation, A Man and A Dog, which illustrates the day the poodle pushed alpine supervisor, Harold Langford, too far.

After the Arts Picturehouse premiere, all the film shorts were made available to view on the project website.  Virtual visitors will be able to listen to the Voicing interviews, view the shorts and visit the word workshop developed by local writers to support the many who are inspired by the Garden to write.  It will also host a treasure trove of archive material to rummage through – clippings from the Cambridge News, aerial photographs of the Garden in development, diaries, reports and publications. 

When phase two of the project website goes live in January, Voicing the Garden will also be inviting visitors to upload their own memories of coming to the Garden, who with and what they did, to the on-line Memory Book.  Visitors will be asked to pinpoint favourite parts of the Garden, and short stories, poems and artwork will be published in the on-line Anthology.  Voicing the Garden will continue to build and share the collective history of what the Botanic Garden means to the people who work, rest and play here.

Visit www.voicingthegarden.com for more information

The Botanic Garden’s year-long oral history project celebrates the launch of the project website with a special screening of archive and new films at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse

Led by professional filmmakers and animators, these young people have to brought to the big screen the rich memories of the people associated with the Garden, and created a refreshing and memorable visual legacy for everyone to share on the website
Trish Sheil
Terrace Gardens

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Successful autumn for Realise project

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Young people from Hackney, Enfield, Norfolk, Northampton, Suffolk, Ealing, Haringey, Essex, Ilford, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Sutton, Merton, Wandsworth, Croydon, Cambridgeshire, North Yorkshire, Brent and Bromley came to Cambridge to find out more about higher education and to be inspired by lectures, talks and workshops.  Realise events take place throughout the year but a special programme is created to make the most of the half-term holiday.

Highlights this October included:

*       Writing a collective poem in response to an Impressionist painting at Creative Writing Challenge at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
*       Hearing all about Higher Education at the University Taster Day, including the application process, finances, Care Leaver support, and post-university careers.
*       Learning about the breadth of careers in museums at the Work Experience Taster Day at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
*       Designing and promoting an app for Dragon's Den at Entrepreneur for the Day.
*       Discovering ancient punishments from Horrible Histories star David Ward, and hearing children's author Caroline Lawrence's top 12 top tips for creative writing at the Children's Classics Festival.
*       Stargazing at the Institute of Astronomy.

Also in October, foster carers and professionals were welcomed to Jesus College for an Insight Day. "We wanted this to be an opportunity to discuss best practice in supporting care leavers into university, and for encouraging one another in our work with young people in care," explains Claire Gardner, who co-ordinates the Realise programme on behalf of the University.

Each Realise event is hosted by a Cambridge College so that the young people can experience a taste of undergraduate life.

"I really enjoyed looking at the rooms you'd live in as a student here," said Esther, who saw behind the scenes at Christ's College as part of the Creative Writing Challenge. "You don't have to share, which is good, as you might not connect with a room-mate."

The chance to speak to current undergraduates is also an important part of the Realise programme. Ed, JCR Access Officer at Churchill, helped out with the University Taster Day hosted at his College. He led a tour of Churchill and answered questions about how he chose his course and what he does with his time while at university.

"I hope I've shown that Churchill is a friendly and accessible college," Ed said. "I'd love them to be thinking about Cambridge as a possibility by the end of the Taster Day, but also understanding that Cambridge is only one of many higher education choices that are available."

Themed to reflect different interests, each Realise Day offers a sample lecture by a university academic.

The Taster Day included a lecture by PhD student Stephen Harrison on representations of kingship in the Achaemenid Empire, including the opportunity to reflect critically on Gerard Butler's performance as King Leonidas in 300, and a discussion of the maths of probability, Sudoku, and double-yolked eggs by Professor David Spiegelhalter, Winston Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk.

"This isn't a very typical maths lecture," the Professor admitted, after showing a short clip of his hands-on attempt to evaluate the risk of being knocked out at an early stage of Total Wipeout.

"That lecture was the highlight!" said Amina, who is aiming to become a barrister. "I've got plans to go to uni - and this morning's talks have made me want to come even more."

"The support available to care leavers is amazing. Cambridge is my first choice, and it feels like it is possible - everyone can do it if they work hard and work smart," Amina added.

Good information, advice and guidance is important for all young people when considering their futures, and can be especially valuable for young people in care. To help make the picture a little clearer, workshops on student finance, careers, and support for Care Leavers in higher education are delivered by university staff.

"Today has shown the different opportunities open to kids in care," said Josh, who came from Wandsworth to take part in Entrepreneur for the Day. "The workshops were excellent. They showed the opportunities you could experience in the future."

"I found out a lot about how universities function," said Ryanne, who also attended Entrepreneur for the Day. "I have a better knowledge of what you need to go to university and the financial support available to me."

Realise also works closely with the university's faculties, schools, and museums in order to demonstrate the academic resources available to undergraduates.  The young Entrepreneurs enjoyed a tour of the Judge Cambridge Business School, while for the Creative Writing Challenge, Lucy, Sessional Gallery Educator and Arts Award Co-ordinator for the Fitzwilliam Museum, led a workshop in the Impressionist Gallery.

"Realise is a great example of the way we work in partnership with the Cambridge Admissions Office," Lucy said. "The work that we do with Realise allows young people to engage with our collection in a fun and engaging way."

"It was fantastic to see so many young people engaging with the variety of activities offered, and feeling comfortable in a university environment," Claire said.

"Our aim is to inspire young people in care to realise their potential academically and also more broadly. To speak to students who are now intent on applying to university as the result of visiting the University of Cambridge is fantastic."

Realise in Numbers: October half-term

  • 1 dragon pitched to
  • 2 poems written
  • 5 'buddies' welcomed
  • 7 events for young people held
  • 15 social workers, education professionals and foster carers encouraged
  • 21 Local Authorities represented.
  • 53 accompanying adults advised
  • 84 participants inspired and informed

Realise, the University of Cambridge's events programme exclusively for Children in Care, returned for another successful half-term this October.

The workshops were excellent. They showed the opportunities you could experience in the future.
Realise participant Josh, from Wandsworth.

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Study confirms a gene linked to Asperger Syndrome and empathy

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A study published this month in the journal Molecular Autism confirms previous research that people with Asperger Syndrome (AS) are more likely to carry specific variations in a particular gene. More strikingly, the study supports existing findings that the same gene is also linked to how much empathy typically shown by individuals in the general population.

The research was carried out by a team of researchers led by Professor Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University. Asperger Syndrome is an autism spectrum condition. The researchers looked for sequence variations (called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs) in the gene known as GABRB3 in a total of 530 adults - 118 people diagnosed with AS and 412 people without a diagnosis.

The team found that certain SNPs in GABRB3 were significantly more common in people with AS. They also discovered that additional genetic variations in the same gene were linked to scores on an empathy measure called the Empathy Quotient (EQ) in the general population.

AS is diagnosed when a person struggles with social relationships and communication, and shows unusually narrow interests and resistance to change, but has good intelligence and language skills. Most genetic studies of autistic spectrum conditions treat autism as if they are all very similar, whereas in reality there is considerable variation (e.g., in language level and intellectual ability).

Rather than studying people on the autistic condition spectrum, this new study looked only people with AS, as a well-defined subgroup of individuals within this range. The researchers examined the gene GABRB3 which regulates the functioning of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and which contains a number of SNPs that vary across the population.

The volunteers were tested for 45 SNPs within this key gene. The team had previously found that SNPs in this gene were more common in adults with AS and also showed a relationship with empathy levels and tactile sensitivity (how sensitive people are to being touched) in the general population.

Testing a new sample of volunteers who had not taken part in previous studies, the researchers found that three of the SNPs were again more common in adults with AS, and two different SNPs in the same gene were again related to empathy levels in the general population, confirming that the gene is involved in autism spectrum conditions.

Professor Baron-Cohen said: “We are excited that this study confirms that variation in GABRB3 is linked not just to AS but to individual differences in empathy in the population. Many candidate genes do not replicate across studies and across different samples, but this genetic finding seems to be a solid result. Research now needs to focus on where this gene is expressed in the brain in autism, and how it interacts with other genetic and non-genetic factors that cause AS.”

The team was co-led by Dr Bhismadev Chakrabarti from the Department of Psychology at Reading University. He commented: “Genes play an important role in autism and Asperger Syndrome. This new study adds to evidence that GABRB3 is a key gene underlying these conditions. This gene is involved in the functioning of a neurotransmitter that regulates excitation and inhibition of nerve cell activity so the research gives us vital additional information about how the brain may develop differently in people with Asperger Syndrome.”

Varun Warrier, who carried out the study as part of his graduate research at Cambridge University, added: “The most important aspect of this research is that it points to common genetic variants in GABRB3 being involved in both AS and in empathy as a dimensional trait. Although GABRB3 is not the only gene to be involved in this condition and in empathy levels, we are confident that we have identified one of the key players. We are following this up by testing how much protein GABRB3 produces in the brain in autism, since a genetic finding of this kind becomes more explanatory when we can also measure its function.”

For more information about this story contact Alexandra Buxton, Office of Communications, University of Cambridge, amb206@admin.cam.ac.uk 01223 761673

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Scientists have confirmed that variations in a particular gene play a key role in the autism spectrum condition known as Asperger Syndrome. They have also found that variations in the same gene are also linked to differences in empathy levels in the general population. 

This study confirms that variation in GABRB3 is linked not just to Asperger Syndrome but to individual differences in empathy in the population.
Simon Baron-Cohen

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4 degree temperature rise will end vegetation ‘carbon sink’

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Bailey's Harbor Boreal Forest & Wetlands

Latest climate and biosphere modelling suggests that the length of time carbon remains in vegetation during the global carbon cycle - known as ‘residence time’ - is the key “uncertainty” in predicting how Earth’s plant life on land - and consequently almost all life - will respond to higher CO2 levels and global warming, say researchers.

Carbon will spend increasingly less time in vegetation as the negative impacts of climate change take their toll through factors such as increased drought levels - with carbon rapidly released back into the atmosphere where it will continue to add to global warming.

Researchers say that extensive modelling shows a 4 degree temperature rise will be the threshold beyond which CO2 will start to increase more rapidly, as natural carbon ‘sinks’ of global vegetation become “saturated” and unable to sequester any more CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere. 

They call for a “change in research priorities” away from the broad-stroke production of plants and towards carbon ‘residence time’ - which is little understood - and the interaction of different kinds of vegetation in ecosystems such as carbon sinks.   

Carbon sinks are natural systems that drain and store CO2 from the atmosphere, with vegetation providing many of the key sinks that help chemically balance the world - such as the Amazon rainforest and the vast, circumpolar Boreal forest.

As the world continues to warm, consequent events such as Boreal forest fires and mid-latitude droughts will release increasing amounts of carbon into the atmosphere - pushing temperatures ever higher. 

Initially, higher atmospheric CO2 will encourage plant growth as more CO2 stimulates photosynthesis, say researchers. But the impact of a warmer world through drought will start to negate this natural balance until it reaches a saturation point.  

The modelling shows that global warming of 4 degree will result in Earth’s vegetation becoming “dominated” by negative impacts - such as ‘moisture stress’, when plant cells have too little water - on a global scale.

Carbon-filled vegetation ‘sinks’ will likely become saturated at this point, they say, flat-lining further absorption of atmospheric CO2. Without such major natural CO2 drains, atmospheric carbon will start to increase more rapidly - driving further climate change.   

The researchers say that, in light of the new evidence, scientific focus must shift away from productivity outputs - the generation of biological material - and towards the “mechanistic levels” of vegetation function, such as how plant populations interact and how different types of photosyntheses will react to temperature escalation.   

Particular attention needs to be paid to the varying rates of carbon ‘residence time’ across the spectrum of flora in major carbon sinks - and how this impacts the “carbon turnover”, they say.

The Cambridge research, led by Dr Andrew Friend from the University’s Department of Geography, is part of the ‘Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project’ (ISI-MIP) - a unique community-driven effort to bring research on climate change impacts to a new level, with the first wave of research published today in a special issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.                  

“Global vegetation contains large carbon reserves that are vulnerable to climate change, and so will determine future atmospheric CO2,” said Friend, lead author of this paper. “The impacts of climate on vegetation will affect biodiversity and ecosystem status around the world.”

“This work pulls together all the latest understanding of climate change and its impacts on global vegetation - it really captures our understanding at the global level.”

The ISI-MIP team used seven global vegetation models, including Hybrid - the model that Friend has been honing for fifteen years - and the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) modelling. These were run exhaustively using supercomputers - including Cambridge’s own Darwin computer, which can easily accomplish overnight what would take a PC months - to create simulations of future scenarios:

“We use data to work out the mathematics of how the plant grows - how it photosynthesises, takes-up carbon and nitrogen, competes with other plants, and is affected by soil nutrients and water - and we do this for different vegetation types,” explained Friend.

“The whole of the land surface is understood in 2,500 km2 portions. We then input real climate data up to the present and look at what might happen every 30 minutes right up until 2099.”

While there are differences in the outcomes of some of the models, most concur that the amount of time carbon lingers in vegetation is the key issue, and that global warming of 4 degrees or more - currently predicted by the end of this century - marks the point at which carbon in vegetation reaches capacity.

“In heatwaves, ecosystems can emit more CO2 than they absorb from the atmosphere,” said Friend. “We saw this in the 2003 European heatwave when temperatures rose 6°C above average - and the amount of CO2 produced was sufficient to reverse the effect of four years of net ecosystem carbon sequestration.”

For Friend, this research should feed into policy: “To make policy you need to understand the impact of decisions.

“The idea here is to understand at what point the increase in global temperature starts to have serious effects across all the sectors, so that policy makers can weigh up impacts of allowing emissions to go above a certain level, and what mitigation strategies are necessary.” 

The ISI-MIP team is coordinated by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, and involves two-dozen research groups from eight countries.

New research suggests that a temperature increase of 4 degrees is likely to “saturate” areas of dense vegetation with carbon, preventing plants from helping to balance CO2 escalation - and consequently accelerating climate change.

Global vegetation contains large carbon reserves that are vulnerable to climate change, and so will determine future atmospheric CO2
Andrew Friend

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Landmark moment for Rowing at Cambridge

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The new addition comprises women’s changing facilities as well as additional office space and training space for both CUWBC and CUBC. 

The current CUWBC and CUBC squads were joined at the opening by Heads of House, academics, donors to the project and alumni as well as representatives from the town boat clubs.

Robin Waterer, Senior Treasurer of CUBC, spoke about the development of the plans for this historic build and paid tribute to the hard work of Jerry Bailey (Goldie 78 and 80), the Architect and his commitment to not only this latest build, but the new Ely Boathouse project, which will see all three University Clubs have a permanent training base on the River Great Ouse.

Sarah Winckless, who the previous evening, been announced as the winner of the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration, at the prestigious Sportswomen of the Year Awards, spoke on behalf of CUWBC. Sarah, who was President of CUWBC in 1997 and went on to win Bronze in the double sculls at the 2004 Olympic Games, spoke of how important it was for the women to have this facility and how it will prove transformational in their preparation for their Boat races.

Guest of honour was the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (pictured below). In his speech to the assembled guests he said: “We all know how important sport and extracurricular activities are for students to help give them a balance to their academic life and to provide much needed confidence and life skills for after university.

“The Goldie extension is a long overdue investment that focuses on giving the female students at Cambridge the same opportunity as the men and provides the women's boat club with a home for the first time in over 70 years.

“It will allow the men and women's teams to combine excellence in their studies with excellence in their sport and transform the way both train and work together. All those who have supported this project have shown real vision in helping to transform the way women's sport at Cambridge is viewed and I cannot thank them enough for their support."

In addition to officially opening the new extension, the historic Coaches’ Office was also officially named after Robin Williams MBE, the Cambridge Coach who won 7 out of the 11 Boat Races he coached and who, last year, coached Heather Stanning and Helen Glover to Gold in the coxless pair at London 2012.

Annamarie Phelps (Blondie 87), Chairman of CUWBC and in addition, Chairman of British Rowing, as well as one of the first women to medal for Great Britain (Gold, Word Championships, 1992) couldn’t attend due to unforeseen circumstances but sent this message:

“Sport plays an important role in the well-being of our students. Many who have passed through the University remember with fondness their time spent on the river and our excellence in rowing gloriously reflects our worldwide reputation in academia. 

“The opening of the Goldie extension, which enables CUWBC to land train alongside the men, is an important milestone in the progress of women’s rowing in Cambridge as we build-up towards the historic race on the Thames in 2015.”

The Vice Chancellor unveiled two Honours Boards, one commemorating the donors to the first Goldie Extension in 2003 and the 2nd to the donors to this latest project.

Presentations of Cambridge Blue Oar Plaques were made to donors, including St John’s College, the University and Dr Patricia Marsh who were present for the official opening. Other donors include Pembroke College Boat Club, Ilyas Khan (The Stanhill Foundation), Homerton College, St Edmund’s and King’s College as well as anonymous donors.

Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club now have a permanent home for the first time, to help them prepare for the first Women’s Boat Race on the Tideway in 2015, following the opening of an extension to Goldie Boathouse.

Cambridge University Women's Boat Club B, Womens Head of The River 2012

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