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Scientists grow ‘mini-lungs’ to aid the study of cystic fibrosis

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The research is one of a number of studies that have used stem cells – the body’s master cells – to grow ‘organoids’, 3D clusters of cells that mimic the behaviour and function of specific organs within the body. Other recent examples have been‘mini-brains’ to study Alzheimer’s disease and ‘mini-livers’ to model liver disease. Scientists use the technique to model how diseases occur and to screen for potential drugs; they are an alternative to the use of animals in research.

Cystic fibrosis is a monogenic condition – in other words, it is caused by a single genetic mutation in patients, though in some cases the mutation responsible may differ between patients. One of the main features of cystic fibrosis is the lungs become overwhelmed with thickened mucus causing difficulty breathing and increasing the incidence of respiratory infection. Although patients have a shorter than average lifespan, advances in treatment mean the outlook has improved significantly in recent years.

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute used skin cells from patients with the most common form of cystic fibrosis caused by a mutation in the CFTR gene referred to as the delta-F508 mutation. Approximately three in four cystic fibrosis patients in the UK have this particular mutation. They then reprogrammed the skin cells to an induced pluripotent state, the state at which the cells can develop into any type of cell within the body.

Using these cells – known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells – the researchers were able to recreate embryonic lung development in the lab by activating a process known as gastrulation, in which the cells form distinct layers including the endoderm and then the foregut, from which the lung ‘grows’, and then pushed these cells further to develop into distal airway tissue. The distal airway is the part of the lung responsible for gas exchange and is often implicated in disease, such as cystic fibrosis, some forms of lung cancer and emphysema.

The results of the study are published in the journal Stem Cells and Development.

“In a sense, what we’ve created are ‘mini-lungs’,” explains Dr Nick Hannan, who led the study. “While they only represent the distal part of lung tissue, they are grown from human cells and so can be more reliable than using traditional animal models, such as mice. We can use them to learn more about key aspects of serious diseases – in our case, cystic fibrosis.”

The genetic mutation delta-F508 causes the CFTR protein found in distal airway tissue to misfold and  malfunction,  meaning it is not appropriately expressed on the surface of the cell, where its purpose is to facilitate the movement of chloride in and out of the cells. This in turn reduces the movement of water to the inside of the lung; as a consequence, the mucus becomes particular thick and prone to bacterial infection, which over time leads to scarring – the ‘fibrosis’ in the disease’s name.

Using a fluorescent dye that is sensitive to the presence of chloride, the researchers were able to see whether the ‘mini-lungs’ were functioning correctly. If they were, they would allow passage of the chloride and hence changes in fluorescence; malfunctioning cells from cystic fibrosis patients would not allow such passage and the fluorescence would not change. This technique allowed the researchers to show that the ‘mini-lungs’ could be used in principle to test potential new drugs: when a small molecule currently the subject of clinical trials was added to the cystic fibrosis ‘mini lungs’, the fluorescence changed – a sign that the cells were now functioning when compared to the same cells not treated with the small molecule.

“We’re confident this process could be scaled up to enable us to screen tens of thousands of compounds and develop mini-lungs with other diseases such as lung cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,” adds Dr Hannan. “This is far more practical, should provide more reliable data and is also more ethical than using large numbers of mice for such research.”

The research was primarily funded by the European Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Evelyn Trust.

Inset image: Branching mini-lung. Credit: Nick Hannan, University of Cambridge

Reference
Hannan, NR et al. Generation of Distal Airway Epithelium from Multipotent Human Foregut Stem Cells. Stem Cells and Development; 10 March 2015.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have successfully created ‘mini-lungs’ using stem cells derived from skin cells of patients with cystic fibrosis, and have shown that these can be used to test potential new drugs for this debilitating lung disease.

We can use these 'mini-lungs' to learn more about key aspects of serious diseases – in our case, cystic fibrosis
Nick Hannan
Blue and Brown Anatomical Lung Wall Decor

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Sir Venki Ramakrishnan confirmed as President Elect of the Royal Society

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Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, President Elect of The Royal Society

Sir Venki, who is currently Deputy Director of the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology and a Fellow of Trinity College, will take up the post of President on 1 December 2015.

Sir Venki has a BSc in physics from Baroda University, India and a PhD from Ohio University in the USA.

He studied biology at the University of California, San Diego and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University.

Subsequently, he was a biophysicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah before he moved to the UK in 1999.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003, and is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina (the German Science Academy), and a Foreign Member of the Indian National Science Academy.

At the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Sir Venki studies how genetic information is translated by the ribosome to make proteins, and the action of antibiotics on this process.

He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 with Tom Steitz and Ada Yonath and was awarded a knighthood in 2012.

There have been 60 Presidents of the Royal Society since it was founded in 1660, including Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, and Ernest Rutherford.

Adapted from a Royal Society press release.

Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman (Venki) Ramakrishnan has been confirmed as President Elect of the Royal Society.

Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, President Elect of The Royal Society

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Human parasites found in medieval cesspit reveal links between Middle East and Europe

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A new analysis of a medieval cesspit in the Christian quarter of the old city of Jerusalem has revealed the presence of a number of ancient parasite eggs, providing a window into the nature and spread of infectious diseases in the Middle East during the 15th century.

Researchers found evidence of six species of intestinal parasites in the over 500-year-old latrine. These included large quantities of roundworm and whipworm, both spread by faecal contamination of food and thought to be endemic to the region dating back to human evolution out of Africa.

Two of the parasites detected, Entamoeba dysentery and fish tapeworm, were common in northern Europe in the medieval period, but either very rare or almost completely absent among the populations of the medieval Middle East.

The fish tapeworm was prevalent in northern Europe due to the popularity of fish as a food and the nature of its preparation: often eaten raw, smoked or pickled - which doesn’t kill the parasite. According to Arabic texts of the time, in inland Syrian cities such as Jerusalem fish was not commonly eaten, and when consumed was always cooked thoroughly in accordance with local culinary traditions. This cooking kills the parasite and prevents its spread.

The team also found pieces of Italian pottery in the same cesspit, reinforcing the hypothesis of strong trading or religious links between Europe and Jerusalem during the late 1400s.

Researchers say the presence of these parasites in the latrine suggests it was either a town house whose owners were Jerusalem merchants that travelled to Europe on business, contracting parasites while there, or it was perhaps a hostel that accommodated European travellers such as merchants or pilgrims. 

“While we can only suggest reasons as to why people made these journeys between northern Europe and Jerusalem’s Christian quarter, it does seem they brought with them unsuspecting hitch-hikers in their intestines,” said Dr Piers Mitchell from Cambridge University’s Division of Biological Anthropology, who conducted the study, recently published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.    
  
“The presence of the fish tapeworm - which can reach ten metres long in humans, and coils around inside the intestine - combined with the fragments of pottery made in Italy, most likely indicates that travellers from northern Europe used this latrine during a visit to Jerusalem,” Mitchell said.

The team used a combination of microscopy and biomolecular analysis (ELISA) - to uncover parasite eggs - on 12 ‘coprolites’: fossilised faeces, and some cesspit sediment. The cesspit itself, located a short distance north of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was much more than a mere hole in the ground - with a vaulted roof, stone-built walls, and two ‘entry chutes’ for defecation on opposing sides.

All 12 coprolites were found to be riddled with both roundworm and whipworm, along with the sediment. These species are thought to have become progressively more common in the region following agriculture, and may have been spread by faecal contamination of food as a consequence of the use of human faeces as a crop fertiliser (as well as poor sanitation). 

One coprolite tested positive for eggs of the fish tapeworm, which was the most unexpected discovery from the analysis. The researchers also found quantities of Taenia parasite eggs, indicating pork or beef tapeworm. Despite the dominance of Islam in the society during the Mamluk Period (1250-1516 AD), pigs would have still been consumed in the Christian quarter.

Mitchell says the health impacts of these parasites would have varied. “A light load of whipworm or roundworm would be likely to go unnoticed. A heavy load of these parasites in children, however, can lead to malnutrition, reduced intelligence and stunted growth. Dysentery may cause diarrhoea and abdominal cramps for a week or two and then settle, or it may cause death from dehydration and septicaemia.”

“This research highlights how we can use preserved parasite eggs in ancient toilets to spot past migrations and the spread of ancient diseases. Jerusalem’s importance to Christians in medieval Europe made it a key destination for both pilgrimage and trade. We can see these travellers took unexpected guests along with them.”

Inset image: Preserved Whipworm egg found in the medieval Jerusalem latrine. Credit: Hui-Yuan Yeh.

Analysis of a latrine in Jerusalem that dates back over 500 years finds human parasites common in northern Europe yet very rare in Middle East at the time, suggesting long-distance trade or pilgrimage routes and shedding light on prevalent infectious diseases of the age.

Jerusalem’s importance to Christians in medieval Europe made it a key destination for both pilgrimage and trade. We can see these travellers took unexpected guests along with them
Piers Mitchell
Right: excavation deep down into the latrine by the Ecole Biblique de Jerusalem. Left: Taenia tapeworm egg in the latrine indicating either pork or beef tapeworm.

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Colour-morphing reef fish is a 'wolf in sheep's clothing'

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A new study has shown that the dottyback, a small predatory reef fish, can change the colour of its body to imitate a variety of other reef fish species, allowing the dottyback to sneak up undetected and eat their young.

The dottyback also uses its colour-changing abilities to hide from larger predators by colour-matching to the background of its habitat - disappearing into the scenery.

The research, published today in the journal Current Biology, reveals a sophisticated new example of 'mimicry': disguising as a different species to gain evolutionary advantage.

While using mimicry to hunt or hide from other species is commonplace in nature - from cuckoos to butterflies - scientists point out that if the same physical deception is encountered too frequently, species on the receiving end become more vigilant and develop tactics to mitigate the mimics.

The dottyback, however, is able to colour-morph depending on the particular colour of the surrounding species it is currently hunting: different types of damselfish being a popular target.

Scientists say that this flexibility of physical mimicry makes it much harder for the dottyback's prey to develop detection strategies and avoid getting eaten.

"By changing colour to imitate local damselfish communities, dottybacks are able to overcome the predator avoidance behaviour in the juvenile fish they hunt," said Dr William Feeney, co-author of the study from the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology.

"The dottyback behaviour is comparable to the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' scenario from Aesop's Fables, where distinguishing the predator from the harmless 'flock' becomes increasingly difficult when they look alike - allowing the dottyback to creep up on unsuspecting juvenile damselfish," Feeney said.

Dottybacks are generally solitary and highly territorial predators of around eight centimetres in length, commonly found in Indo-Pacific coral reefs.

While dottybacks can vary their colouration from pink to grey, the researchers focused on two colour 'morphs' - yellow and brown - that both occur on the reefs surrounding Lizard Island, off the coast of north-east Australia. This is because the area has populations of both yellow and brown damselfish, and habitat consisting of live coral and dead coral 'rubble'.

The scientists built their own simulated reef outcrops comprising both live coral and rubble, and stocked them with either yellow or brown damselfish. When released into reefs with damselfish of the opposite colour, scientists found the dottybacks would change from yellow to brown or vice versa over the course of approximately two weeks.

Anatomical study of dottyback skin cells revealed that while the level of 'chromatophores' - pigment-containing cells that reflect light - remain constant, the ratio of yellow pigment cells to black pigment cells shifts to move the dottyback from yellow to brown or back again.

The team conducted lab experiments with adult and juvenile damselfish to test whether this colour change affects dottyback hunting success. They found that once the dottyback matched the colour of the damselfish, they were up to three times more successful at capturing juvenile damselfish.

The scientists also found that the dottyback use their colour-morphing powers to blend into the coral of their habitats to hide from their own predators, such as the coral trout - a predator they share with damselfish, who have also adapted to match the colour of their environment.

The scientists measured the strike rates of coral trout when exposed to images of different colours of dottyback against different habitats. The coral trout had trouble picking out the fish when the colour matched the habitat.

"While the dottybacks change colour to aggressively mimic damselfish, they may also gain a secondary benefit: a reduced risk of being eaten themselves. Damselfish have evolved to blend into their environment, so, by imitating the damselfish, they also colour-match the habitat - making it harder for coral trout to see them," said Feeney.

"This is the first time that an animal has been found to be able to morph between different guises in order to deceive different species, making the dottyback a pretty crafty little fish"

Inset image: dottyback eyeing up damselfish prey, credit Christopher E Mirbach

The dottyback changes its colour to match surrounding damselfish species, enabling it to counter the defences of its damselfish prey by disguising itself as a harmless part of their community, then swooping in to hunt their young.

This is the first time that an animal has been found to be able to morph between different guises in order to deceive different species, making the dottyback a pretty crafty little fish
William Feeney
Brown Vs Yellow Dottyback

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How we fell in love with shopping

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Opening at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge on March 24, Treasured Possessions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment features 300 stunning objects, each revealing the tastes and hopes of its owners and the skills of the hands that made them. Following different collections of items, we see how Europeans shopped and brought novelties into their lives and their homes.

The exhibition takes us on a visual adventure through the decorative arts, starting with bespoke Renaissance luxuries made in glass, bronze and maiolica. The impact of global trade soon changed European habits and expectations. Shoppers were seduced by the glamour of the exotic; they lusted after eastern objects, Arab designs, and became obsessed with all things Chinese and Japanese. New world products like tea, chocolate and sugar, powered frenetic trade. Commerce led to constant innovation and new technologies. In a single generation the idea of luxury was flipped on its head from being the preserve of the elite, to a universal desire. ‘Populuxe’ – popular luxury – was born.

By the Enlightenment, objects that were displayed in the home and worn on the body had transformed the look and feel of the world, and allowed for the creation of masterpieces in silk and silver, pearwood and porcelain.

Treasured Possessions is intended to take visitors back to the bazaars and workshops of the distant past. Prints of city markets, illustrated trade-cards and figurines of vendors are set beside the wares themselves. From gorgeous silks, silverware, jewels and porcelains, via shoes, armour and embroideries, to snuffboxes, tea-pots, fans and pocket-watches, Treasured Possessions sets strange and extraordinary items alongside objects that we still use every day.

The exhibition has been co-curated by Dr Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Dr Melissa Calaresu, Dr Mary Laven and Professor Ulinka Rublack from the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of History.

Dr Laven said: “Today, we spend half our lives shopping, and many of our acquisitions end up on the scrap-heap or boxed away in a garage or attic. Before industrial mass production, purchasing took much more skill and effort, and was often the result of complex negotiations between maker and shopper. The most significant things in life were not bought and sold off the shelf, but were hand-crafted in homes and workshops, customized for their owners. Acquisition was an art.”

The show also allows us a glimpse of the many hidden wonders that remain off-view in the vaults of our national museums due to lack of space in the public galleries. On the eve of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s 200 year anniversary in 2016, more than 80 per cent of exhibition’s objects are taken from its reserves. For the first time, visitors will be able to see some of the Fitzwilliam’s least-known treasures, from a silver pocket-watch shaped like a skull to the most fabulous pair of bright yellow embroidered high heels. 

Treasured Possessions will be complemented by two companion exhibitions ‘Close-up and personal: eighteenth-century gold boxes from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection’ (a loan show from the V&A) and ‘A Young Man's Progress’ by photographer Maisie Broadhead, a fictional modern narrative inspired by the costume-book of Matthäus Schwarz, a sixteenth-century German accountant, who recorded the clothes he wore throughout his life in what has become known as 'The First Book of Fashion'.

Treasured Possessions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment runs from March 24 until September 6, 2015. Admission is free.

An exhibition of ‘treasured possessions’ from the 15th to the 18th centuries reveals how we first fell in love with shopping, and takes us back to an age when our belongings were made by hand and passed down through the generations.

The most significant things in life were not bought and sold off the shelf, but were hand-crafted in homes and workshops...Acquisition was an art.
Mary Laven
Folding ‘Trompe l’oeil’ fan, English, c.1750

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'Extreme sleepover #15'– keeping the lights on in rural Uganda

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“If I have a flush toilet in my house I think I can be a king of all kings because I can’t go out on those squatting latrines… also it can protect my wife from going outside alone as recently my wife was almost raped by a thug when she escorted my son to the latrine at around 10:30pm in the night.”

This is Paul. His declaration of the possession he would most value is met with laughter from his fellow villagers, but it highlights a very real concern – the safety of his family.

It’s also a valuable research finding for me. Too often, projects that bring electricity to villages like Paul’s fail because of lack of uptake and maintenance by the rural communities. But if, for instance, the benefits of electrification could be understood in terms of the safety value of night-time lighting, this could improve the sense of community responsibility towards sustaining the technology after its implementers have gone home.

Another villager, Michael, explains that he places most value in owning a corrugated iron sheet instead of grass-thatched roofing because this would reduce the risk of indoor fires. Here too, the value of electricity can be highlighted – it would avoid the need to cook on an open fire.

Understanding the locals’ real needs and desires can be a key element in overcoming the lack of technology uptake. Finding out what these are is the aim of my PhD research, working with Dr Heather Cruickshank at the Centre for Sustainable Development. While the technology itself has been extensively studied, social attributes in project design have received little attention.

I have travelled here by a ‘boda boda’ motorbike and then night bus, sharing my seat on the 12-hour journey on unpaved roads to the West Nile Region of Uganda with two too many people, a goat lying beneath me, and enough chickens not to be able to ignore the smell. Only once I am on the bus do I realise that my local research assistant has accidentally booked us on the budget bus (only US$2 cheaper than the luxury coach).

To provide better infrastructure services to rural communities, it is fundamentally important to relate to the beneficiaries’ needs and aspirations, and I need to travel to the areas to learn this at first hand. Infrastructure failure after the projects are handed over to the communities is common across the basic utility provisions such as water and electrification, and I am keen to discover if there is a way of improving project longevity by ‘selling’ a service that is valued.

Seven villages and three days of focus group discussions per village seem like an achievable task in the two months scheduled. Today is the first day of fieldwork and we have arrived at the village of Moyo for the day’s focus group discussions.

The village is still very familiar to me; not much has changed since my last visit three years ago when I was working with the German Development Agency, GIZ, on the installation of the community-operated pico-hydropower scheme. These schemes are perfect for small communities with about 50 homes that require only enough electricity to power a few light bulbs and a small number of electrical items.

In Moyo, however, the scheme no longer works, and the villagers are once more plunged into darkness while a more effective solution is being explored.

We meet one of the women to mobilise the six chosen villagers. We decide to start with the men, as by late morning some of the men in the village will be drunk.

Identifying what is important to rural villagers when implementing basic infrastructure projects is far more complex than simply asking “what is important to you?” I have made a ‘value game’ and explain to the locals that they must choose, initially individually, 20 items from a list of approximately 50 items that include cow, hoe, fridge, water pot, bed and utensils. Following prioritisation, they will be asked to give reasons as to why these items are important to them.

Another example arises during the discussion. The villagers use kerosene lamps to light their homes. Simply offering a solution that replaces light from one source with another is not enough. Modern technologies can offer benefits that are indirectly linked to aspects perceived as ‘very important’ in rural communities – in this case, avoiding the use of fume-producing kerosene would resonate with the mothers’ hopes of keeping their children healthy.

The findings from my research will be fed back to project implementers. My hope is that only small adjustments in the project design will be required in order to communicate these ‘additional’ benefits to the target users, and that the lights will be turned on and kept on in rural villages like Moyo.

Stephanie Hirmer is a PhD student in the Department of Engineering. She is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Qualcomm and the Smuts Memorial Fund.

Inset image – credit: Stephanie Hirmer.

Stephanie Hirmer travelled to Moyo in northern Uganda to ask which possessions the villagers most value and why. The results will be used to help reduce the failure rate of projects that bring electricity to rural communities.

Identifying what is important to rural villagers when implementing basic infrastructure projects is far more complex than simply asking “what is important to you?”
Stephanie Hirmer

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Michael Cates elected 19th Lucasian Professor

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Professor Cates is currently Professor of Natural Philosophy and Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Edinburgh.

Soft matter is a description of a large class of materials, such as polymers, gels, and liquid crystals, which lack the crystalline order of the solid state and are easily deformed by external forces, leading to complex and nonlinear behaviour requiring new mathematical insights for their description.

The field of soft matter is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together methods from areas such as elasticity, fluid mechanics, statistical mechanics, and computational science.  In recent years it has expanded to address many problems in biology, including the properties of cellular cytoskeletons and collective behaviour of motile cells.

Professor Cates is renowned for his work over the past thirty years on an extremely broad range of problems in soft matter, from the dynamics of `living polymers’ and polymer brushes to the nature of the glass transition, at which a previously liquid-like material locks into an amorphous solid structure.

He has also been instrumental in bringing large-scale computational methods to bear on highly nonequilibrium problems in soft matter, and often works closely with experimentalists in both formulating and testing theoretical predictions.

His work has been recognised by many major awards, including the Dirac Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics, the Pierre Gille de Gennes Lecture Prize of the European Physical Journal and the Weissenberg Award of the European Society of Rheology.

More recently, Professor Cates has made important contributions to the burgeoning field of `active matter’, which explores the dynamics and self-organization of systems composed of self-propelled objects. 

These can range from engineered colloidal microparticles to swimming bacteria.

Peter Haynes, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: “The appointment of Michael Cates as Lucasian Professor continues the very distinguished tradition of that post. Professor Cates will bring a new and important scientific area to academic activities in our Department and his presence as Lucasian Professor will offer a whole range of new collaborative possibilities, both within our own Department and with several others in the University”

The Lucasian Professorship has an exceptionally long and distinguished history, established in 1663 and with previous holders including Isaac Newton (1669-1702), and, more recently, Paul Dirac (1932-1969), James Lighthill (1969-1979), Stephen Hawking (1979-2009) and Michael Green (2009-2013).

Professor Cates will take up the Lucasian Professorship on 1 July 2015.

Professor Michael Cates FRS, FRSE, a distinguished theoretical physicist who is a world leader in the study of soft matter, has been elected the 19th holder of the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, succeeding Professor Michael Green.

Professor Cates will bring a new and important scientific area to academic activities in our Department
Peter Haynes

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Recalling memories may make us forget

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The research, published today in Nature Neuroscience, is the first to isolate the adaptive forgetting mechanism in the human brain. The brain imaging study shows that the mechanism itself is implemented by the suppression of unique patterns in the cortex that underlie competing memories. Via this mechanism, remembering dynamically alters which aspects of our past remain accessible.

In a study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), researchers monitored patterns of brain activity in the participants using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans while the participants were asked to recall individual memories based on images they had been shown earlier.

The team from the University of Cambridge, the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, and the University of Birmingham, was able to track the brain activity induced by individual memories and show how this suppressed others by dividing the brain into tiny voxels (3D pixels). Based on the fine-grained activation patterns of these voxels, the researchers were able to witness the neural fate of individual memories as they were initially reactivated, and subsequently suppressed.

Over the course of four selective retrievals the participants in the study were cued to retrieve a target memory, which became more vivid with each trial. Competing memories were less well reactivated as each trial was carried out, and indeed were pushed below baseline expectations for memory, supporting the idea that an active suppression of memory was taking place.

Dr Michael Anderson from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and the Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute at the University of Cambridge said: “People are used to thinking of forgetting as something passive.  Our research reveals that people are more engaged than they realise in shaping what they remember of their lives.  The idea that the very act of remembering can cause forgetting is surprising, and could tell us more about selective memory and even self-deception.”

Dr Maria Wimber from the University of Birmingham added: “Forgetting is often viewed as a negative thing, but of course, it can be incredibly useful when trying to overcome a negative memory from our past. So there are opportunities for this to be applied in areas to really help people.”

The team note that their findings may have implications for the judicial process, for example, in eyewitness testimonies. When a witness is asked to recall specific information about an event and is quizzed time and time again, it could well be to the detriment of associated memories, giving the impression that their memory is sketchy.

Studying the neural basis of forgetting has proven challenging in the past because the ’engram’ – the unique neural fingerprint that an experience leaves in our memory – has been difficult to pinpoint in brain activity. By capitalising on the relationship between perception and memory, the study detected neural activity caused by the activation of individual memories, giving a unique window into the invisible neurocognitive processes triggered when a reminder recapitulates several competing memories.

Adapted from a press release by the Medical Research Council.

Reference
Wimber, M et al.  Retrieval induces adaptive forgetting of competing memories via cortical pattern suppression.  Nature Neuroscience; 16 March 2015

Intentionally recalling memories may lead us to forget other competing experiences that interfere with retrieval, according to a study published today. In other words, the very act of remembering may be one of the major reasons why we forget.

The idea that the very act of remembering can cause forgetting is surprising, and could tell us more about selective memory and even self-deception
Michael Anderson
Forgetting

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Yes

Poisons, plants and Palaeolithic hunters

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Spatula to poison darts, Malaysia

We’re surrounded by poisonous plants: they thrive in our parks and gardens, hedgerows and woodlands. Foxgloves (Digitalis) look charming but their seeds can kill. The flowers of monkshood (Aconitum napellus) are a stunning blue but its roots can be deadly. Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is both common and extremely toxic as Shakespeare reminds us in Macbeth with the incantations of the witches.  

Archaeologists have long believed that our ancestors used poisons extracted from such plants to make their weapons more lethal and kill their prey more swiftly. By dipping an arrow head into a poisonous paste, the hunter could ensure that an animal would receive a dose of toxic chemicals - alkaloids or cardenolides - that would either kill it immediately or slow it down.

Until very recently it has been impossible to prove that poisons extracted from plants were used by early societies. Now Dr Valentina Borgia, a specialist in Palaeolithic hunting weapons and Marie Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, believes that she is on the brink of being able to prove that our ancestors used poisons as far back as 30,000 years ago.

Borgia has approached the likely use of poisons by our distant ancestors from a number of viewpoints. Her research looks at the ubiquity of poisonous plants in many local environments and their use both historically and by modern hunter-gatherers. Working with a forensic chemist she has also developed techniques capable of detecting tiny residues of poison on archaeological objects. She is now putting those techniques to the test with samples obtained from museum collections.

“We know that the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans used plant-based poisons both for hunting animals and in war. In fact, the word ‘toxic’ come from toxon, the Greek for bow. Taxus is a genus of the yew tree with a springy timber traditionally used to make bows. It also produces seeds used to poison arrows. In Britain, yews grown for their timber were planted in churchyards so that animals wouldn’t be poisoned by eating their berries,” says Borgia.

“Few hunter-gatherer societies remain today but all the groups that have survived employ poisons. The Yanomami people of the Amazonian rainforest use curare - a mix of Strychnos genus plants - to poison their arrows. In Africa, a variety of different plants are used to make poisons. Acokanthera, Strophantus and Strychnos are the most common.

Many Northern Asian populations used monkshood (Aconitum) to kill large animals such as bear and Siberian ibex. Poisonous plants also feature in folklore. In Malaysia, darts are poisoned using Antiaris toxicaria, a poison that comes from the Upas tree.  A Malaysian legend says: “Seven up, eight down and nine no life”. The victim takes seven steps uphill, eight steps downhill and a ninth final step.

In 2014, Borgia enlisted the expertise of forensic chemist Michelle Carlin (Northumbria University) to help her devise a method for identifying residues of poison. Carlin’s day-to-day work is focused on crime and the detection of illegal substances through chemical analysis. Using a highly specialist technique called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, she is able to detect invisible traces of drugs – such as cocaine in pocket linings.

The same technique can be used to detect the presence of poisons used thousands of years ago.  Together Borgia and Carlin have created a database listing toxic plants and have developed a non-destructive method of collecting samples of residues from archaeological materials, by simply touching the item with cotton imbued with pure water. 

Samples of poisonous plants were supplied to the researchers by the Botanic Garden at the University of Cambridge and Alnwick Castle in Northumberland. Alnwick has a Poison Garden where visitors can see 150 poisonous plants. Some (such as monkshood) are so toxic that Alnwick has to obtain a licence from the Home Office in order to cultivate them. 

Another route to identification of plant residues is to look for the presence of starches which remain on the surface of the prehistoric weapons. Starch grains can be used to determine plant taxa: each species has distinctive size, shape and structure. Borgia has collaborated with a major expert in this methodology, Dr Huw Barton (University of Leicester) in order to use starching testing as one of her research tools.

Many museums with ethnographical collections have poisoned weapons in their displays and stores. Borgia has been able to collect samples from objects held by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford and the Museo Etnografico Pigorini of Roma (Italy) with the collaboration of her Italian colleague, Dr Jacopo Crezzini. The objects include a Chinese pot with Aconite poison inside (wrapped in a newspaper dated 13 July 1926), Malaysian darts poisoned with Upas, various African arrows and a glass tube containing curare.

“The wonderful craftsmanship used to create objects so strongly associated with poison is also significant. As the French philosopher Simondon says, there is no pure technical device free from symbolic meaning,” says Borgia. “These artefacts fully express this concept, as they show a high degree of care. A scary-looking Borneo harpoon, wonderfully carved, in the Cambridge museum is thought to have been made from a human bone. A card, conserved with it, warns ‘Care. Has been poisoned’.”

Carlin’s analysis of these samples of materials has shown that residues of poisons are easily detectable on the objects a century later and that the residues retained their chemical characteristics.  Now the real challenge for the researchers is to go much further back in time.

Testing of a sample of six stone-tipped pre-dynastic Egyptian arrows, dating from 4,000 years BC and conserved in the Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Berkeley (USA), is now taking place. At the time these arrows where first studied, 40 years ago, the researchers removed small portions of the black residue present on the tips, and injected into a cat. The reaction of the poor animal (which did survive) was evidence of the presence of a poison on the arrows.

“Nowadays we have the right instruments to get more information without cruelty to animals. Initial tests strongly suggest the presence of Acokanthera, a poisonous plant on our database, but we can’t be completely certain as there are a number of components in the compound,” said Borgia.

“It made good sense for people to use poisons. On their own, Palaeolithic weapons with stone arrowheads may not have been deadly enough to immobilise or kill a large animal such as a red deer. Poisons plants were plentiful and the Prehistoric population knew the environment where they lived, they knew the edible plants and their potential as medicines and poisons. To fabricate a poison is easy and economic, and the risk is minimal. In addition, the making of poisons is often  part  of the tradition and the rituality of hunting.”

When archaeologists remove items from the ground in the course of field work, they brush off the soil adhering to the finds and sometimes even wash objects. Borgia is appealing to fellow archaeologists to contact her when they find weapons and not to clean up their finds. “Now we have this technique available, and have shown that it works, we need to test it as much as possible on archaeological samples,” she says.

Borgia denies that her family name (Lucrezia Borgia is legendary as a devious poisoner) prompted her interest in poisons but she delights in the Latin quip ‘nomen omen’. It translates roughly as ‘significant name’ and certainly the name Borgia has powerful historic resonances. Luckily for Borgia’s colleagues, her objectives are honourable and entirely academic.

She says: “Investigation of the use of poisons in Prehistoric periods adds to our understanding of hunting techniques and rituals, and also how the plant world was exploited. The Renaissance physician Paracelsus wrote that dosis facit venenum (the dose makes the poison). Ethnographic studies tell us that the most common toxic plants used in poisons were also used to treat diseases. Not surprisingly, the same substances are the basis for many medications still in use today.”

Inset images: Aconitum napellus, credit Wikimedia Commons; starches of Aconite; pot of Aconitum wrapped in the 1926 newspaper, copyright of Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge; Egyptian arrow with poison, copyright of Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Berkeley (USA); poisoned arrows for crossbow, China, copyright of Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge; pot of curare, Peru, copyright of Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

Dozens of common plants are toxic. Archaeologists have long suspected that our Palaeolithic ancestors used plant poisons to make their hunting weapons more lethal.  Now Dr Valentina Borgia has teamed up with a forensic chemist to develop a technique for detecting residues of deadly substances on archaeological objects.

Spatula to poison darts, Malaysia

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Yes

The real corporate tax scandal

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In the midst of last month’s investigation by the UK Commons’ Public Accounts Committee into PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the committee chair Margaret Hodge concluded there was “promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale”. While the company was not accused of breaking any laws, and while PwC maintain that they operated within the laws of individual jurisdictions, there was a general acceptance that the complexities of the tax system leave it open to confusion to say the least.

What is certain is that Western governments have come out fighting on the subject. In the recently declared war on corporate tax evasion in Europe and North America, US technology companies have taken a particular beating. First President Obama called them “deserters” for changing the country in which they are officially domiciled in order to cut their tax bill. Then the European Commission decided to investigate Apple for its tax arrangements in Ireland, suggesting that these may constitute “illegal state aid”.

In the UK, as in other rich countries, politicians have come to realise that being seen to be tough on corporate tax avoidance is a vote winner. At last year’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Chancellor George Osborne sharply criticised multinational technology companies for going to “extraordinary lengths” to avoid paying tax. Adopting an almost Churchillian tone, he went as far as to say: “If you [corporations] abuse our tax system, you abuse the trust of the British people.”

New legislation – dubbed the “Google Tax”– was promised to ensure that revenue earned in Britain would be subject to UK corporation tax rather than transferred abroad to be taxed at lower rates.

Double standards?

These developments are not before time and surely to be welcomed. And yet there is another corporate tax scandal that is significantly more pernicious than tax evasion by US technology companies in Britain – tax evasion through the use of tax havens by multinational companies, including British ones, in the poorest countries in the world.

The scale of the problem is massive. According to a report made available by the OECD, developing countries “are losing to tax havens almost three times what they get from developed countries in aid”. A recent study by ActionAid suggested that almost half of corporate investment by large companies is routed to or through a tax haven (disconcertingly, the UK was found to be “responsible for one in five tax havens” identified in the report). Moreover, 98 of the FTSE100 were shown to use tax havens, 78 of which operate in developing countries.

The net result is that the places with the lowest per capita income in the world continue to be deprived of resources they so badly need – with tens of billions of dollars worth of tax revenue siphoned elsewhere every year.

And yet the voices of social movement activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in poor countries do not appear to resonate with UK politicians, while the UK media appears less outraged by tax evasion in poor countries than in rich ones. A cynic might suggest that this is because the citizens of poor countries do not have a stake in British elections or influence the fate of media empires.

Addressing an injustice

It is important to acknowledge that tax evasion in poor countries is not straightforward to address, complicated in many instances by local corruption and poorly functioning institutions. But there is so much more that policy makers in the UK and other Western countries could and should be doing.

UK politicians are justifiably proud of becoming the first – and to date only – G8 country to meet the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on aid for international development. This was a decision that, interestingly, was not especially popular in political terms. These same politicians who had the courage to make this bold commitment on international aid now need to go further and bring UK multinationals to account by ensuring that they act as global citizens and pay their way in the world.

Such a move would set a powerful example for other governments to follow. It would also be an important first step towards rectifying one of the most outrageous injustices of global capitalism.

Originally published on the Cambridge Judge Business School website.

Western governments have finally begun to pay close attention to tax avoidance by multinational corporations in rich countries. But where, Cambridge Judge Business School’s Professor Paul Tracey asks, does that leave poor countries, where the effect is arguably much more devastating?

Places with the lowest per capita income in the world continue to be deprived of resources they so badly need
Paul Tracey

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Yes

Health-conscious concrete

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Skin is renewable and self-repairing – our first line of defence against the wear and tear of everyday life. If damaged, a myriad of repair processes spring into action to protect and heal the body. Clotting factors seal the break, a scab forms to protect the wound from infection, and healing agents begin to generate new tissue.

Taking inspiration from this remarkable living healthcare package, researchers are asking whether damage sensing and repair can be engineered into a quite different material: concrete.

Their aim is to produce a ‘material for life’, one with an in-built first-aid system that responds to all manner of physical and chemical damage by self-repairing, over and over again.

Self-healing materials were voted one of the top-ten emerging technologies in 2013 by the World Economic Forum, and are being actively explored in the aerospace industry, where they provide benefits in safety and longevity. But perhaps one area where self-healing might have the most widespread effect is in the concrete-based construction industry.

Concrete is everywhere you look: in buildings, bridges, motorways, and reservoir dams. It’s also in the places you can’t see: foundations, tunnels, underground nuclear waste facilities, and oil and gas wells. After water, concrete is the second most consumed product on earth; tonne for tonne, it is used annually twice as much as steel, aluminium, plastic and wood combined. 

But, like most things, concrete has a finite lifespan. “Traditionally, civil engineering has built-in redundancy of design to make sure the structure is safe despite a variety of adverse events. But, over the long term, repair and eventual replacement is inevitable,” said Professor Abir Al-Tabbaa, from the Department of Engineering and the lead of the Cambridge component of the research project.

The UK spends around £40 billion per year on the repair and maintenance of existing, mainly concrete, structures. However, repairing and replacing concrete structures cause disruptions and contribute to the already high level of carbon dioxide emissions that result from cement manufacturing. What if the life of all new and repaired concrete structures – and in fact any cement-based material, including grout and mortar – could be extended from an average of several decades to double this, or more, through self-healing?

In 2013, researchers in Cambridge joined forces with colleagues at the Universities of Cardiff (who lead the project) and Bath to create a new generation of ‘smart’ concrete and other cement-based construction materials.

“Previous attempts in this field have focused on individual technologies that provide only a partial solution to the multi-scale, spatial and temporal nature of damage,” explained Al-Tabbaa. By contrast, this study, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, provides an exciting opportunity to look at the benefits of combining several ‘healthcare packages’ in the same piece of concrete.

“Like the many processes that occur in skin, a combination of technologies has the potential to protect concrete from damage on multiple scales – and, moreover, to do this in a way that allows ‘restocking’ of the healing agents over time,” she added.

Mechanical damage can cause cracks, allowing water to seep in; freezing and thawing can then force the cracks wider. Loss of calcium in the concrete into the water can leave decalcified areas brittle.  And, if fractures are deep enough to allow water to reach the reinforcing steel bars, then corrosion and disintegration spell the end for the structure.

The team in Cambridge is addressing damage at the nano/microscale by developing innovative microcapsules containing a cargo of mineral-based healing agent. It’s like having a first-aid kit in a bubble: the idea is that physical and chemical triggers will cause the capsules to break open, releasing their healing and sealing agents to repair the lesion.

“While various cargo and shell materials have been developed for other applications, from food flavouring and pharmaceuticals to cosmetics and cleaning products, they are not generally applicable to cement-based matrices and are far too expensive for use in concrete, which is why we have needed to develop our own,” explained Al-Tabbaa.

Another challenge is to make sure the capsules will be strong enough to withstand being mixed in a cement mixer, yet fragile enough to be broken open by even the smallest of fractures. Innovative capsule production techniques are being investigated that can be scaled up to deliver the huge volumes of capsules required for use in construction.

In parallel, the team in Bath is investigating healing at the mid-range micro/mesoscale with spore-forming bacteria that act as tiny mineral-producing factories, feeding on nutrients added to the cement and facilitating calcite precipitation to plug the cracks in the concrete. Different techniques for housing and protecting the bacteria and nutrients within the cement matrix are being investigated, including the capsules that are being developed at Cambridge.

The University of Cardiff researchers are engineering ‘shape memory’ plastic tendons into the cement matrix to close large cracks at the larger meso/macroscale through triggering of the shrinkage of the tendons by heat.

The project team are then collectively addressing repeated damage through the creation of vascular networks of hollow tubes, like the circulatory system of a living organism, so that self-healing components can continually be replenished.

As the Cambridge researchers move closer to the best formulations for the microcapsules, they have begun collaborating with companies who can scale up the production to the levels required to seed tonnes of cement. Meanwhile, the three research groups are also beginning to test combinations of each of their techniques, to find the best recipe for maximum self-healing capability.

By the summer of 2015, with the help of industrial partners, field trials will test and refine the most promising combined systems in a range of real environments and real damage scenarios. This will include testing them in non-structural elements in the Department of Engineering’s new James Dyson Building.

“This is when it will become really exciting,” said Al-Tabbaa. “To be truly self-healing, the concrete needs to be responsive to the inherently multi-dimensional nature of damage, over long time scales. We want concrete to be a material for life that can heal itself again and again when wounded.”

Inset image: concrete microcapsules, credit Chrysoula Litina.

Roads that self-repair, bridges filled with first-aid bubbles, buildings with arteries… not some futuristic fantasy but a very real possibility with ‘smart’ concrete.

We want concrete to be a material for life that can heal itself again and again when wounded.
Abir Al-Tabbaa
Healing material released when concrete microcapsules burst open

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Yes

Official crews for the BNY Mellon Boat Race and the Newton Women's Boat Race announced

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The 161st Boat Race will see a younger Oxford crew take on a Cambridge crew who weighed in an average of 5.25kg per man heavier.

As well as weight, the Light Blue crew also has height and Boat Race experience on its side, with an average advantage of just over 5cm per man and an additional returning Blue.

Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club will take a marginal weight advantage into The 2015 Newton Women’s Boat Race of 0.9kg per athlete.

Oxford University Women’s Boat Club hold a height advantage of a little over 3cm per athlete, boosted by Olympic Champion Caryn Davies at nearly 6 foot 3 inches.

Both Oxford crews feature a range of international athletes, with four nations in total represented between the two crews.

In the Men’s Blue Boat, the O’Connor brothers from New Zealand and Tom Swartz, Michael Di Santo and William Hakim from America back up the British athletes William Geffin, Henry Goodier, James Cook and Constantine Louloudis. 

The Women’s Boat mainly consists of American and British athletes, with an addition of Swiss born Nadine Graedel Iberg in 5 seat. 

Caryn Davies, who will be the most decorated Olympian to compete in either of The Boat Races having won a silver and two golds at the Athens, Beijing and London Olympic Games, will sit in the stroke seat.

In comparison to the 2014 Cambridge Women’s crew, this year’s Blue Boat boasts a variety of different nationalities, with Canadian Ashton Brown, Americans Daphne Martschenko and Rosemary Ostfeld and Fanny Belais of France. Once again,

Ian Middleton has secured his coxing seat in the Cambridge Men’s Blue Boat, joined by fellow Brit William Warr in the 5 seat.

Henry Hoffstot returns as stroke, supported by fellow Americans and returning Blues Luke Juckett, Matthew Jackson and first-time Blue Ben Ruble.

Stiff competition has meant that a number of returning Blues have been unable to regain their places for The 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Races.

However, across the 4 clubs there are still 16 returning Blues.  OUBC have selected 4 Blues from last year: Tom Swartz, Michael Di Santo, Sam O’Connor and Constantine Louloudis. Opposite them will be Luke Juckett, Matthew Jackson, Joshua Hooper, Henry Hoffstott and Ian Middleton returning to the Cambridge Blue Boat.

From The 2014 Newton Womens Boat Race, the Oxford University Womens Boat Club have selected Maxie Scheske, Lauren Kedar and Nadine Graedel Iberg and this year’s President Anastasia Chitty.

Returning for Cambridge will be Melissa Wilson, Claire Watkins and President Caroline Reid.

The 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Races will take place on 11th April 2015. The Newton Women’s Boat Race will take place at 4.50pm, followed by the BNY Mellon Boat Race at 5.50pm

Official Crews for The 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Race are listed below with their respective weights:

CAMBRIDGE
Position Name Weight (kg)
Bow: Jasper Holst – 86.8kg
2: Luke Juckett – 85.2kg
3: Ben Ruble – 84.8kg
4: Alexander Leichter – 99.0kg
5: William Warr – 94.2kg
6: Matthew Jackson – 94.0kg
7: Joshua Hooper – 92.6kg
Stroke: Henry Hoffstot –  91.2kg
Cox: Ian Middleton – 53.6kg

Total Weight Ex. Cox 727.8kg
Average Weight Ex. Cox  90.98kg
Total Weight Inc. Cox 781.4kg
Average Weight Inc. Cox  86.82kg

OXFORD
Position Name Weight (kg)
Bow: William Geffen – 82.2kg
2: Thomas Swartz – 76.6kg
3: Henry Goodier – 88.2kg
4: James O’Connor – 83.4kg
5: James Cook – 83.8kg
6: Michael DiSanto – 90.8kg
7: Sam O’Connor – 88.6kg
Stroke: Constantine Louloudis – 92.2kg
Cox: William Hakim – 54.6kg

Total Weight Ex. Cox   685.8kg
Average Weight Ex. Cox  85.73kg
Total Weight Inc. Cox  740.4kg
Average Weight Inc. Cox  82.27kg
The Official Crews for The 2015 Newton Women’s Boat Race are listed below with their respective weights:

CAMBRIDGE
Position Name Weight (kg)
Bow: Hannah Evans – 69.2kg
2: Ashton Brown – 80.8kg
3: Caroline Reid – 66.0kg
4: Claire Watkins – 71.2kg
5: Melissa Wilson – 77.8kg
6: Holly Hill – 78.8kg
7: Daphne Martschenko – 76.4kg
Stroke: Fanny Belais – 60.8kg
Cox: Rosemary Ostfeld – 49.8kg

Total Weight Ex. Cox  581.0kg
Average Weight Ex. Cox  72.63kg
Total Weight Inc. Cox  630.8kg
Average Weight Inc. Cox  70.09kg

OXFORD
Position Name Weight (kg)
Bow: Maxie Scheske – 66.6kg
2: Anastasia Chitty – 69.6kg
3: Shelley Pearson – 70.0kg
4: Lauren Kedar – 75.4kg
5: Nadine Graedel Iberg – 72.4kg
6: Emily Reynolds – 67.4kg
7: Maddy Badcott – 74.0kg
Stroke: Caryn Davies – 78.4kg
Cox: Jennifer Ehr – 50.4kg

Total Weight Ex. Cox  573.8kg
Average Weight Ex. Cox  71.72kg
Total Weight Inc. Cox  624.2kg
Average Weight Inc. Cox  69.36kg

The official crews for The 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Race and The Newton Women’s Boat Race were announced today. The unveiling of the crews that will be racing in the Blue Boats on 11th April took place in a joint event for the third year running, as we approach the first combined BNY Mellon Boat Races this year.

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Yes

Cambridge awarded £18 million in funding to support UK infrastructure research

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The University of Cambridge will receive £18 million in funding to ensure that the UK’s infrastructure is resilient and responsive to environmental and economic impacts, as announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget. The Cambridge funding will be used to support  research in the application of advanced sensor technologies to the monitoring  of the UK’s existing and future infrastructure, in order to protect and maintain it.

The funding is part of the wider UK Collaboration for Research in Infrastructure & Cities (UKCRIC), which is a £138 million capital investment that will be centred around the Olympic Park in Stratford and will include 13 university partners from across the UK. A formal business case will be developed over the next few months.

The proposed research stems from a need for UK national and local infrastructure (such as transport, water, waste, energy and ICT systems) to be fit for purpose for supporting societal development in a changing world.

UKCRIC will integrate knowledge, tools and methods from a wide range of disciplines. Its initial case proposes four strands:

(A) Investment in capital equipment and facilities (national ‘Laboratories’) that underpin transformative research for all partners and stakeholders

(B) A national ‘Observatory’ and living laboratories that will establish a network of linked infrastructure ‘observatories’ to test current and proposed urban infrastructure systems, and to enable rapid trialling of solutions

(C) A multi-level modelling and simulation environment that allows ‘what if’ experiments to be carried out in a high performance computing environment

(D) Creation of a Coordination Node (CN) to integrate activities and industry collaboration across UKCRIC

Once a business case for UKCRIC has been agreed, the Collaboration will hear further details on funding allocation and capital investments.

The Cambridge funding will be used to build a National Research Facility for Infrastructure Sensing on the West Cambridge site, which will build upon the expertise of the University’s Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC).  The new building will be an interdisciplinary centre for sensors and instrumentation for infrastructure monitoring and assessment, spanning scales from an individual asset, such as a tunnel, building or bridge, to a complex system such as a railway or a city district. More advanced sensors and appropriate data analysis will ensure better product quality, enhanced construction safety, and smarter asset management.

“Building a UK infrastructure research community like UKCRIC is important to help us design, build and maintain infrastructure which is resilient, adaptable and sustainable,” said Professor Robert Mair, Head of Civil Engineering and of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the University of Cambridge. “The UK needs to do more to invest in its infrastructure and infrastructure services, which are so important to its citizens. This is an issue which cannot be ignored, so we welcome this new investment as a positive way to engage academia and industry in protecting and growing the UK’s infrastructure base.”

EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)’s Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, said: “EPSRC welcomes any additional investment in science and engineering, as these are the drivers of innovation and growth. We are particularly pleased to see the need to continue support for research in areas such as infrastructure and energy recognised, as they are so critical to ensuring the economic growth and prosperity of the UK. These announcements will build on our previous investments and provide the expertise and skills we need for the future.”

Cambridge is one of 13 universities receiving funding from UKCRIC. The consortium is being coordinated by University College London.

Funding announced by the Chancellor in last week’s budget is part of a wider £138 million programme to support the UK’s infrastructure and cities.

This is an issue which cannot be ignored, so we welcome this new investment as a positive way to engage academia and industry in protecting and growing the UK’s infrastructure base
Robert Mair
St Pancras Int'l

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Yes

Study finds GB’s most extroverted, agreeable and emotionally stable regions

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Researchers from the University of Cambridge used the data to analyse a sample of just under 400,000 people from England, Wales or Scotland (Northern Ireland was excluded as sample sizes were too small), around two-thirds of whom were female. The results of their study are published today in the journal PLOS ONE.

The study is based on data that was gathered as part of the Big Personality Test, an online survey published by the BBC in 2009 as part of a collaboration between the BBC and the scientific community, BBC Lab UK.

“Understanding how personality traits differ by region is more than just ‘a bit of fun’,” explains Dr Jason Rentfrow from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Fitzwilliam College. “Geographical differences are associated with a range of economic, social and health outcomes – and hence how important resources are allocated. Although participants in an online test are self-selecting, the demographic characteristics are representative of the British population, so we can develop an accurate snapshot of the psychology of the nation.”

The test looked at five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness.

Extraversion

Extroverts tend to be more assertive, energetic, enthusiastic and sociable, and previous research has linked extraversion with physical health and wellbeing, leadership and occupational performance. Our research found high levels of extraversion concentrated in London as well as Manchester and pockets of the South and South East of England, Yorkshire and Scotland. In contrast, the East Midlands, Wales, Humberside, the North of England and East Scotland showed significantly low levels, suggesting that their residents tend to be quiet, reserved and introverted.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness reflects traits such as cooperation, friendliness and trust. The study found that ‘agreeable’ regions tended to have higher proportions of females, married couples and low-income residents as well as lower rates of violent crime.

The most agreeable regions were to be found throughout Scotland, as well as in the North, South West and East of England, suggesting that disproportionate numbers of residents of these areas were friendly, trusting, and kind. This contrasted with London and various districts throughout the East of England, which had lower levels of agreeableness, suggesting that comparatively large proportions of residents of these areas were uncooperative, quarrelsome, and irritable.

Images: Maps of personality characteristics across the UK. The redder the area, the level of the characteristic in the region.


Conscientiousness

People who are conscientiousness tend to have a stronger sense of duty, responsibility and self-discipline, and research has shown that this trait is linked with career and educational success, longevity and conservatism. According to the study, conscientiousness reflects the degree to which residents of an area are socially conservative, nonviolent, and physically healthy.

The survey found the most conscientious regions were in Southern England, pockets of the Midlands, and the Scottish Highlands, suggesting that large proportions of residents of these areas were self-disciplined, cautious, and compliant. London, Wales, and parts of the North of England showed significantly lower levels, suggesting that comparatively large proportions of residents of these areas were disorderly, rebellious, and indifferent.

Conscientiousness individuals were more likely to be married, older and on a higher income, with lower rates of deaths from cancer and heart disease.

Emotional Stability

People who are emotionally stable tend be calm, relaxed, and happy, and several studies have shown that such traits can have a positive impact on relationship satisfaction, psychological wellbeing, career success and longevity. In regions where there are large proportions of emotionally stable individuals, there appear to be large proportions of physically healthy and middle-class residents.

The research found significantly low levels of emotional stability throughout most of Wales and in a number of districts throughout the Midlands. People were more likely to be emotionally stable in the South West and much of Southern England, as well as across most of Scotland, suggesting that residents of these areas tend to be calm, relaxed, and happy. Overall, the survey found that regions with large proportions of people scoring low in emotional stability had more residents who were working class and physically unhealthy.

Openness

At an individual level, openness represents creativity, curiosity, imagination, and intellect, and is associated with pursuing a career that involves creativity, living an unconventional lifestyle, earning a college degree and supporting liberal attitudes.

Metropolitan areas tended to show greater Openness appeared mainly in metropolitan areas, with London, Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow, but also in parts of Wales, indicating that a disproportion number of residents of these areas were creative, unconventional, and curious. Significantly low levels of Openness emerged throughout most of the East Midlands and East of England, suggesting that large proportions of residents of these areas were conventional, down-to-earth, and traditional.

According to the study, openness was positively related to residents with university education, income, prevalence of high-status professionals, foreign-born residents, same-sex couples, and rates of violent crime. Overall, the results suggested that regions with large numbers of highly open people were cosmopolitan, economically prosperous, and liberal.

To help the general public find out how they fit within these results, the BBC has produced an iWonder guide called Take the test: Where in Britain would you be happiest?

The BBC’s interactive guide asks people to answer 10 questions about how they see themselves and then matches the answers to the region in Britain that most suits that person – i.e. the district where they would be happiest – according to the published research. The guide also estimates how well-matched participants are to the area they currently live in, the nearest place to where they live that they would be happier, and their worst place to live.

Reference
Rentfrow, PJ et al. Regional Personality Differences in Great Britain. PLOS ONE.

A survey of almost 400,000 British residents has highlighted significant differences in personalities between regions. Amongst its finding, it shows Scots to be amongst the friendliest and most co-operative residents, Londoners the most open and Welsh people the least emotionally stable.

Understanding how personality traits differ by region is more than just ‘a bit of fun’. Geographical differences are associated with a range of economic, social and health outcomes – and hence how important resources are allocated
Jason Rentfrow
Scotland ~ Day 2

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Yes
License type: 

Cambridge's Chemistry of Health programme awarded £17 million in funding

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The University has been awarded more than £17 million in funding to support research into the molecular origins of human disease, particularly neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and to accelerate the development new diagnostic and therapeutic methods of treating them.

The funding has been awarded from the fourth round of the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF). Seven university research projects from across the UK will receive over £100 million of investment in 2016-17, to drive innovation and economic growth.

The projects will promote the development of world-leading research in a range of subject areas, from semiconductors to neuroscience, and have collectively attracted £350 million of private investment, in addition to the £100 million of UKRPIF funding.

The Cambridge funding will be used to support the construction of a new £22 million Chemistry of Health building, expected to be completed by March 2017, which will provide world-class facilities for chemistry-based fundamental research in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The new building will promote the translation of fundamental research into clinical and commercial applications by providing the infrastructure required for new academic-industrial partnerships, which will have both immediate and long-term benefits for human health and the UK economy.

“As a University and a Department we have a huge responsibility to make sure that our research gets translated into real benefits for society,” said Professor Daan Frenkel, Head of the University’s Department of Chemistry. “This is particularly true in the area of health: the dramatic increase in age and lifestyle related diseases calls not just for ground-breaking chemical discoveries, but for private-public partnerships that will translate those discoveries into treatments. The Chemistry of Health building will be the embodiment of this philosophy. It will be a game changer.”

The building will house the Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases, the Chemistry of Health Incubator, and the Molecular Production and Characterisation Centre.

The new building will enable the Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases - directed by Professor Christopher Dobson, Professor Michele Vendruscolo and Dr Tuomas Knowles - to effect a step change in basic and translational research on molecular approaches to combat modern pandemics such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and type II diabetes.

The Chemistry of Health Incubator will be at the core of this vision, where research scientists from industrial partners and start-up companies will occupy laboratory and desk space alongside researchers from Cambridge and collaborating institutions.

The Molecular Production and Characterisation Centre will provide support and access to state-of-the-art instrumentation for in-house and UK-wide academic and industrial users.

“There have been really major breakthroughs within the Chemistry Department here in Cambridge in the context of human health, and particularly in understanding the fundamental origins of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, which are becoming frighteningly common in the modern world,” said Dobson. “These breakthroughs have come from the collaborative activities of a number of research groups working together, and with other partners, to understand the underlying nature of these conditions. The Chemistry of Health building will enable us to make a giant step forward in translating this work into future treatments to combat these rapidly proliferating and truly devastating conditions.”

For projects to be eligible for a UKRPIF award universities are required to secure at least double the amount of government investment from businesses or charities: these seven successful projects have between them secured more than three times the amount of public funding in investment from non-government sources.

To date, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which manages the UKRPIF programme, has allocated over £500 million to 34 projects running between 2014-17, attracting £1.3 billion of investment from business and charities. A further £400 million of funding was announced for UKRPIF in last week’s budget for the period to 2021.

“The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund has enabled universities to develop world-leading facilities and opportunities to deliver exceptional research, as well as attracting in more than £1.3 billion of private investment,” said Professor Madeleine Atkins, Chief Executive of HEFCE. “I am delighted that we are able to support these seven projects, and the budget announcement of additional funding for UKRPIF is excellent news. UK universities tackle major national and global challenges, and make a significant contribution to economic growth. The funding offers a further opportunity to enhance the nation’s research infrastructure and develop partnership work.”

New funding will support fundamental research into the molecular processes underlying human disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and enable new ways to combat them.

As a University and a Department we have a huge responsibility to make sure that our research gets translated into real benefits for society
Daan Frenkel
Brain showing hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (cropped)

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Education investment needs to be sustained to halt widening inequality, say Cambridge experts

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Education

Professor Vignoles argued that early investment in a child’s development is crucial, and this investment needs to continue as they grow up to produce genuine long-term benefits for the poorest children.

"We all know that family background has a massive influence on how well a child does in their education. Only around a fifth of the poorest children get five good GCSEs whilst three quarters of the richest do. Supporting parents on low incomes so they can offer a good early home learning environment is still essential," said Vignoles.

"However we need to continue to invest in educational support throughout the teen years for poorer children so that the early investment is not wasted. To give an example, because there wasn't sustained investment in the ethnic minority children on the Head Start programme, it had less long term impact as the children went on to poor quality schools(1).

"It would be naive to think that education can "solve" the social mobility issue. But certainly it is key. At the moment, children from poorer backgrounds are much less likely to go on to earn good wages, largely because they do not do so well in education. Although any investment is better than no investment, if we are to make real progress we need systematic and sustained support for poorer children throughout their schooling career. This is the best way to improve their life chances."

Vignoles was speaking on a panel of experts at the Rustat Conference on Inequality held at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Professor Madeleine Arnot, internationally known for her research on gender and education, was also on the panel. She supported Vignoles' argument adding: “Such financial support needs to go hand in hand with encouraging teachers to combine forces and collectively identify ways of closing the social class gap in education, in much the same way as they did when closing gender gaps in education. The professional community needs directly to address the educational and social difficulties that working class children are known to experience in the classroom, ensuring that they feel that they are respected and that they are able to fulfil their full potential”. Consulting such pupils, even at primary age, can provide valuable insights into where problems lie and what can be done to improve their learning.

Arnot continues “Young people, irrespective of background, need to share access to the same forms of knowledge and the same quality of education. Promoting ‘freedom of choice’, whether of schools, subjects, or career paths, as a means to create social mobility is problematic since ‘choice’ is not equally distributed either because of material disadvantages or because the ‘long shadow’ of unequal work prospects can cause disadvantaged young people to self-limit their options.”

The Rustat Conferences are an initiative of Jesus College, Cambridge. They offer an opportunity for decision-makers from the frontlines of politics, business, finance, the media and education to discuss vital issues with leading academic experts.

References:
(1) Blakemore, Sarah‐Jayne, and Suparna Choudhury. "Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition."Journal of child psychology and psychiatry 47, no. 3‐4 (2006): 296-312.

Sustained investment in education and opportunities for poorer children is essential to reduce inequality in the UK, Cambridge education expert Anna Vignoles has said at a Rustat Conference held at Jesus College.

Young people, irrespective of background, need to share access to the same forms of knowledge and the same quality of education.
Madeleine Arnot
Education

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Childhood brain tumour expert to lead Cambridge Cancer Centre

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Professor Richard Gilbertson

Professor Gilbertson is currently Scientific Director, Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the Lillian R. Cannon endowed Chair at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. At St Jude, he has led international efforts that have dramatically advanced understanding of the biology of several common childhood brain tumours.

His research has included innovative clinical trials that have translated this understanding into new therapies. He trained as a paediatric oncologist at Newcastle University before completing his PhD. He joined St Jude in 2000 where he has served as Director of the hospital’s Molecular Clinical Trials Core, Director of the Division of Brain Tumour Research and co-leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumour Program.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “We are really delighted to appoint a clinician scientist of Richard’s calibre. He joins us at an exciting time for both the Cambridge Cancer Centre and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the centrepiece of the largest biotech cluster outside the United States.

“Richard will replace Professor Bruce Ponder, whose exemplary leadership has placed the Cambridge Cancer Centre in an extremely strong position. Richard will build on this, playing a key role in strengthening relationships between academia and industry which we believe will revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients worldwide.”

“It is both exciting and a privilege to return home to England and join Cambridge University to serve as Director of the Cancer Center,” said Professor Gilbertson. “Cambridge is an amazing research environment with world class laboratory and clinical cancer researchers.  I very much look forward to working with them as together we generate the next generation of impactful cancer therapies.”

The Cambridge Cancer Centre, a partnership between University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK, was established in 2005 as a dynamic collaboration of researchers, clinicians, and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries based in the Cambridge area. The membership of the Centre includes over 150 scientific principal investigators and senior investigators as well as over 90 NHS consultants who are engaged in cancer related clinical or translational research across a number of institutes and departments.

The Centre combines world-class science and technology with excellent patient care to pioneer new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. By working together across different disciplines, it aims to break down the barriers between the laboratory and the clinic, enabling patients to benefit from the latest innovations in cancer science.

Keith McNeil, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the key partners in the Cambridge Cancer Centre, adds: “It is great news that Professor Gilbertson is joining the Cambridge Cancer Centre as its new director. Cancer is one of our major areas of focus here at the Trust and we have some of the best patient outcomes in the world. The reason for this is because of the close collaboration between the University, Cancer Research UK and other partners. Many of our staff work across these well-known organisations, which means the high-quality cancer care that we provide to patients is underpinned by leading research.

“With new therapies coming forward all the time cancer is now a treatable condition rather than a fatal disease. We know that there are different types of cancer, which can exist in a single tumour, and our focus now is on identifying these using DNA sequencing, and targeting treatment with drugs for each cancer type. Here in Cambridge we are one of the leading centres worldwide and with AstraZeneca moving here soon, we will be able to make even greater strides in medical advancement to benefit patients locally and globally.”

Professor Gilbertson will also take up the post of Senior Group Leader in the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute.

Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s director for research , said: “Professor Gilbertson’s appointment is a real coup for the UK and a great benefit to Cancer Research UK’s  strategy to drive more research in to brain cancer. The partnership between Cambridge University, Cancer Research UK and the NHS has made this recruitment possible and his world-class reputation in childhood brain tumour research makes him the ideal choice for driving much-needed progress for patients. As a charity, we want to drive a reverse ‘brain drain’ and bring the very best minds to work on the big problems in cancer research here in the UK – Professor Gilbertson’s appointment is another sign we are achieving this.”

One of the world’s leading childhood brain tumour experts, Professor Richard Gilbertson, has been appointed as Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology in Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre. He will take up his appointment in August.

We are really delighted to appoint a clinician scientist of Richard’s calibre. He joins us at an exciting time for both the Cambridge Cancer Centre and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the centrepiece of the largest biotech cluster outside the United States.
Patrick Maxwell
Professor Richard Gilbertson

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Yes

New insights found in black hole collisions

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An international team of astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, have found solutions to decades-old equations describing what happens as two spinning black holes in a binary system orbit each other and spiral in toward a collision.

The results, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, should significantly impact not only the study of black holes, but also the search for elusive gravitational waves – a type of radiation predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity – in the cosmos.

Unlike planets, whose average distance from the sun does not change over time, general relativity predicts that two black holes orbiting around each other will move closer together as the system emits gravitational waves.

“An accelerating charge, like an electron, produces electromagnetic radiation, including visible light waves,” said Dr Michael Kesden of the University of Texas at Dallas, the paper’s lead author. “Similarly, any time you have an accelerating mass, you can produce gravitational waves.”

The energy lost to gravitational waves causes the black holes to spiral closer and closer together until they merge, which is the most energetic event in the universe, after the big bang. That energy, rather than going out as visible light, which is easy to see, goes out as gravitational waves, which are much more difficult to detect.

While Einstein’s theories predict the existence of gravitational waves, they have not been directly detected. But the ability to ‘see’ gravitational waves would open up a new window to view and study the universe.

Optical telescopes can capture photos of visible objects, such as stars and planets, and radio and infrared telescopes can reveal additional information about invisible energetic events. Gravitational waves would provide a qualitatively new medium through which to examine astrophysical phenomena.

“Using gravitational waves as an observational tool, you could learn about the characteristics of the black holes that were emitting those waves billions of years ago, information such as their masses and mass ratios, and the way they formed” said co-author and PhD student Davide Gerosa, of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “That’s important data for more fully understanding the evolution and nature of the universe.”

Later this year, upgrades to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US and VIRGO in Europe will be completed, and the first direct measurements of gravitational waves may be just around the corner. Around the same time, the LISA Pathfinder mission will be launched as a test mission for establishing a gravitational wave detector of unprecedented sensitivity in space. 

“The equations that we solved will help predict the characteristics of the gravitational waves that LIGO would expect to see from binary black hole mergers,” said co-author Dr Ulrich Sperhake, who, along with Gerosa, is also a member of Cambridge’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. “We’re looking forward to comparing our solutions to the data that LIGO collects.”

The equations the researchers solved deal specifically with the spin angular momentum of binary black holes and a phenomenon called precession.

“Like a spinning top, black hole binaries change their direction of rotation over time, a phenomenon known as procession,” said Sperhake. “The behaviour of these black hole spins is a key part of understanding their evolution.”

Just as Kepler studied the motion of the earth around the sun and found that orbits can be ellipses, parabola or hyperbolae, the researchers found that black hole binaries can be divided into three distinct phases according to their rotation properties.


The researchers also derived equations that will allow statistical tracking of such spin phases, from black hole formation to merger, far more efficiently and quickly than was possible before.

“With these solutions, we can create computer simulations that follow black hole evolution over billions of years,” said Kesden. “A simulation that previously would have taken years can now be done in seconds. But it’s not just faster. There are things that we can learn from these simulations that we just couldn’t learn any other way.”

“With these tools, new insights into the dynamics of black holes will be unveiled,” said Gerosa. “Gravitational wave signals can now be better interpreted to unveil mysteries of the massive universe.”

Researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Mississippi also contributed to the Physical Review Letters paper. The researchers were supported in part by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, UT Dallas and the University of Cambridge.

Inset image: Illustration of two rotating black holes in orbit. Both, the black hole spins (red arrows) and the orbital angular momentum (blue arrow) precess about the total angular momentum (grey arrow) in a manner that characterizes the black-hole binary system. Gravitational waves carry away energy and momentum from the system and the orbital plane (light blue) tilts and turns accordingly. Credit: Graphic by Midori Kitagawa

Adapted from University of Texas at Dallas press release.

New research provides revelations about the most energetic event in the universe — the merging of two spinning, orbiting black holes into a much larger black hole.

The behaviour of these black hole spins is a key part of understanding their evolution
Ulrich Sperhake
Black Holes Go 'Mano a Mano' (NASA, Chandra, 10/06/09)

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Yes

Earliest humans had diverse range of body types, just as we do today

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Cast of the 'Nariokotome boy' (Homo ergaster) skeleton

One of the dominant theories of our evolution is that our genus, Homo, evolved from small-bodied early humans to become the taller, heavier and longer legged Homo erectus that was able to migrate beyond Africa and colonise Eurasia. While we know that small-bodied Homo erectus – averaging less than five foot and under eight stone – were living in Georgia in southern Europe by 1.77 million years ago, the timing and geographic origin of the larger body size that we associate with modern humans has, until now, remained unresolved.

But a joint study by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Tübingen (Germany), published today in the Journal of Human Evolution, has now shown that the main increase in body size occurred tens of thousands of years after Homo erectus left Africa, and primarily in the Koobi Fora region of Kenya. According to Manuel Will, a co-author of the study from the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at Tübingen, “the evolution of larger bodies and longer legs can thus no longer be assumed to be the main driving factor behind the earliest excursions of our genus to Eurasia”.

Researchers say the results from a new research method, using tiny fragments of fossil to estimate our earliest ancestors’ height and body mass, also point to the huge diversity in body size we see in humans today emerging much earlier than previously thought.

“What we’re seeing is perhaps the beginning of a unique characteristic of our own species – the origins of diversity,” said Dr Jay Stock, co-author of the study from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. “It’s possible to interpret our findings as showing that there were either multiple species of early human, such as Homo habilis, Homo ergaster and Homo rudolfensis, or one highly diverse species. This fits well with recent cranial evidence for tremendous diversity among early members of the genus Homo.” 

“If someone asked you ‘are modern humans 6 foot tall and 70kg?’ you’d say ‘well some are, but many people aren’t,’ and what we’re starting to show is that this diversification happened really early in human evolution,” said Stock.

The study is the first in 20 years to compare the body size of the humans who shared the earth with mammoths and sabre-toothed cats between 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago. It is also the first time that many fragmentary fossils – some as small as toes and tiny ankle bones no more than 5cm long – have been used to make body size estimates.

Comparing measurements of fossils from sites in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Georgia, the researchers found that there was significant regional variation in the size of early humans during the Pleistocene. Some groups, such as those who lived in South African caves, averaged 4.8 feet tall; some of those found in Kenya’s Koobi Fora region would have stood at almost 6 foot, comparable to the average of today´s male population in Britain.

“Basically every textbook on human evolution gives the perspective that one lineage of humans evolved larger bodies before spreading beyond Africa. But the evidence for this story about our origins and the dispersal out of Africa just no longer really fits,” said Stock. “The first clues came from the site of Dmanisi in Georgia where fossils of really small-bodied people date to 1.77 million years ago. This has been known for several years, but we now know that consistently larger body size evolved in Eastern Africa after 1.7 million years ago, in the Koobi Fora region of Kenya.”

“We tend to simplify our interpretations because the fossil record is patchy and we have to explain it in some way. But revealing the diversity that exists is just as important as those broad, sweeping explanations.”

Previous studies have been based on small samples of only 10-15 fossils because techniques for calculating the height and body mass of individuals required specific pieces of bone such as the hip joint or most of a leg bone. Stock and Will have used a sample size three times larger, estimating body size for over 40 specimens contained in collections all over Africa and Georgia, making it the largest comparative study conducted so far.

Instead of waiting for new fossils to be discovered and hoping that they contained these specific bones, Stock and Will decided to try a different approach and make use of previously over-looked fossils.

In what Stock describes as a “very challenging project,” they spent a year developing new equations that allowed them to calculate the height and body mass of individuals using much smaller bones, some as small as toes. By comparing these bones to measurements taken from over 800 modern hunter-gatherer skeletons from around the world and applying various regression equations, the researchers were able to estimate body size for many new fossils that have never been studied in this way before.

“In human evolution we see body size as one of the most important characteristics, and from examining these ‘scrappier’ fossils we can get a much better sense of when and where human body size diversity arose. Before 1.7 million years ago our ancestors were seldom over 5 foot tall or particularly heavy in body mass.

“When this significant size shift to much heavier, taller individuals happened, it occurred primarily in one particular place – in a region called Koobi Fora in northern Kenya around 1.7 million years ago. That means we can now start thinking about what regional conditions drove the emergence of this diversity, rather than seeing body size as a fixed and fundamental characteristic of a species,” said Stock. 

Inset images – the landscape of the West Turkana region of Kenya where the 'Nariokotome boy' skeleton was discovered, credit Manuel Will; table of estimated heights and weights of early Homo during the Pleistocene.

New research harnessing fragmentary fossils suggests our genus has come in different shapes and sizes since its origins over two million years ago, and adds weight to the idea that humans began to colonise Eurasia while still small and lightweight.

What we’re seeing is perhaps the beginning of a unique characteristic of our own species – the origins of diversity.
Jay Stock
Cast of the 'Nariokotome boy' (Homo ergaster) skeleton

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Yes

Thinking inside the box

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It’s a common occurrence: when faced with a problem which is similar to one which has been faced before, most people will default to what worked in the past. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But while this approach often works, it can also limit thinking and prevent alternate, and possibly better, solutions from being considered. In psychology, this phenomenon of being ‘stuck in a rut’ or failing to ‘think outside the box’ is known as fixation, or the ‘Einstellung’ effect.

Fixation occurs in all sorts of settings, such as with the interpretations that scientists make of their data, the decisions that managers make in organisations, and in the diagnoses that physicians make. It’s is also an issue in design and engineering, where knowledge of earlier solutions can inadvertently narrow the range of answers that designers explore when responding to new problems.

Since the phenomenon of design fixation was first demonstrated in experiments over 30 years ago, researchers have worked to understand how it is influenced by the types of example solutions that designers are aware of, the design methods that they use and the interactions that they have with other team members.

“Whether designing a new toy, a new bridge, or a new piece of software, fixation can stop the creative process cold: severely limiting the way in which we see a problem and the variety of solutions we explore,” said Dr Nathan Crilly of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “However, there is still a lack of in-depth research on fixation in the real-world settings that experimental research is meant to simulate. In particular, we have little knowledge of how fixation occurs in professional design projects that have conflicting objectives, long timescales and experienced team members.”

To address this gap in knowledge, Crilly recently conducted a qualitative study with designers working in innovation consultancies about their awareness of fixation and the strategies they use to overcome it. The study found that although various formal methods are used to promote creative thinking, reflecting on prior episodes of fixation is the most effective way of guarding against such episodes in the future. The analysis may help to build a framework for new strategies to combat design fixation – developing tools and training that help designers to avoid becoming fixated in future. The results are published in the journal Design Studies.

What causes fixation varies from person to person, and from project to project, but common factors include a commitment to initial ideas, project constraints that prevent exploration, and organisational cultures that give people ownership of their ideas, which gives them the incentive to defend them.

Common factors that prevent fixation include diverse teams, making and testing models and facilitation of the creative process by people who are familiar with fixation risks. However, experience can be a both a blessing and a curse when it comes to preventing fixation. As designers gain more experience, they learn how certain approaches succeed or fail, with the experience of failure particularly prominent in their minds. This accumulated knowledge can cause designers to become increasingly conservative, with experienced designers sticking to a restricted set of solutions that are known to work.

While experience of failure can lead to fixation, other forms of experience can help to prevent it. For example, by working on a variety of different projects, designers are exposed to the many ways in which any given problem can be solved. This experience of variety acts to remind designers that the current problem they are addressing must have multiple possible solutions too, even when they are seemingly stuck on one way of looking at it.

Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, as designers accumulate design experience, they also accumulate experience of fixation, either in themselves or in those they interact with. These episodes of blindness might only be recognised in retrospect, but by reflecting on them, designers can learn to recognise their biases and learn to resist them. Over time, designers become better at identifying the situations in which fixation is a risk and better at implementing countermeasures. For example, one of the participants described their own thought process as they work: “You always think your idea’s good, there’s psychology in that … And then you push other ideas to the side, mentally. … [But] the more projects you do then the more you … self-analyse.”

Despite their awareness of the risks of fixation and the steps they take to guard against it, designers also recognise that fixation is a difficult problem to control. In the creative process of developing new products, systems or services, designers must show commitment and persistence in the face of ambiguity and repeated setbacks. This makes it difficult to maintain the levels of openness and flexibility that are required to challenge previously accepted ideas or even ideas that are only just emerging.

This tension between persistence and openness is characteristic of many creative activities, whether in the sciences, the arts or in business. According to Crilly, to tackle this conflict it is important to gain a better understanding of the various creative behaviours that people exhibit and the barriers that block that behaviour.

“By understanding the nature of fixation, we’ll be able to develop the tools and techniques that effectively address it in the contexts where it occurs, and understand how these tools should be presented to the people who will use them,” said Crilly.

The research has been funded by the UK Physical Sciences & Research Council (EPSRC).

New research into the phenomenon of design fixation – allowing prior experience to blind us to new possibilities – may help in the development of new tools and strategies that help to stimulate the creative process without inadvertently limiting it.

Fixation can stop the creative process cold: severely limiting the way in which we see a problem and the variety of solutions we explore
Nathan Crilly
Brain Art

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