We are increasingly using more smart devices like smartphones, smart speakers, and wearable health and wellness sensors in our homes, offices, and public buildings. However, the batteries they use can deplete quickly and contain toxic and rare environmentally damaging chemicals, so researchers are looking for better ways to power the devices.

One way to power them is by converting indoor light from ordinary bulbs into energy, in a similar way to how solar panels harvest energy from sunlight, known as solar photovoltaics. However, due to the different properties of the light sources, the materials used for solar panels are not suitable for harvesting indoor light.

Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and Soochow University in China have discovered that new green materials currently being developed for next-generation solar panels could be useful for indoor light harvesting. They report their findings in Advanced Energy Materials.

“By efficiently absorbing the light coming from lamps commonly found in homes and buildings, the materials can turn light into electricity with an efficiency already in the range of commercial technologies,” said co-author Dr Robert Hoye from Imperial College London. “We have also already identified several possible improvements, which would allow these materials to surpass the performance of current indoor photovoltaic technologies in the near future.”

The team investigated perovskite-inspired materials, which were created to circumvent problems with materials called perovskites, which were developed for next-generation solar cells. Although perovskites are cheaper to make than traditional silicon-based solar panels and deliver similar efficiency, perovskites contain toxic lead substances. This drove the development of perovskite-inspired materials, which are instead based on safer elements like bismuth and antimony.

Despite being more environmentally friendly, these perovskite-inspired materials are not as efficient at absorbing sunlight. However, the team found that the materials are much more effective at absorbing indoor light, with efficiencies that are promising for commercial applications. Crucially, the researchers demonstrated that the power provided by these materials under indoor illumination is already sufficient to operate electronic circuits.

"The Internet of Things is critical for many areas, such as improved healthcare, energy conservation, transportation or control of smart buildings," said co-authro Professor Judith Driscoll from Cambridge's Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. "New generations of wireless connected IoT devices function with low-power electronics ideally suited to operate with energy-scavenging devices."

"Access to sustainable and efficient indoor photovoltaic energy harvesters offers unique opportunities to operate these IoT devices by collecting ambient energy from daily environments extending their operating lifetime and reducing maintenance costs," said co-author Dr Luigi Occhipinti from Cambridge's Department of Engineering.   

“Our discovery opens up a whole new direction in the search for green, easy-to-make materials to sustainably power our smart devices,” said co-author Professor Vincenzo Pecunia from Soochow University.

In addition to their eco-friendly nature, these materials could potentially be processed onto unconventional substrates such as plastics and fabric, which are incompatible with conventional technologies. Therefore, lead-free perovskite-inspired materials could soon enable battery-free devices for wearables, healthcare monitoring, smart homes, and smart cities.

This research was funded by EPSRC and National Natural Science Foundation of China. 

Reference:
Yueheng Peng et al. ‘Lead‐Free Perovskite‐Inspired Absorbers for Indoor Photovoltaics.’ Advanced Energy Material (2020). DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202002761

Originally published on the Imperial College London website.

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

The University of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the University’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

New research analysing racial disparities among murder victims across most of Britain over the last two decades shows that people of Asian ethnicity are on average twice as likely as White British people to be killed.

For Black people, however, the risk of homicide has been over five and a half times (5.6) higher than for White British people – on average – during the current century, and this disparity has been on the rise since 2015.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology were surprised to find that official UK data did not include relative risk statistics by ethnicity, as is common in countries such as the US and Australia.

They argue that the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) should publish “relevant denominators with raw numerators” to help with public understanding of crime risk and police resourcing. The work is published as a research note in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing.

“Through a series of straightforward calculations, we found substantial racial inequality in the risks of being murdered in England and Wales,” said co-author Professor Lawrence Sherman of the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.

“The pandemic has given the public a crash course in statistics. It provides an opportunity to present all kinds of data in ways that have more meaning for the population as well as those on the front line of prevention,” Sherman said. 

Billy Gazard, a crime statistician for the ONS, said: “We have outlined our plans for improving crime statistics for England and Wales in our July 2020 progress update. Within this update we committed to better addressing inequalities in victimisation and highlighting those groups in society that are at most risk of experiencing crime. We plan to carry out further analysis over the coming year, which will include looking at homicide victimisation rates by ethnicity.”

Cambridge criminologists went back over the last 20 years of annual figures using an approach now familiar to many through coronavirus statistics: rates of cases per 100,000 people. This provided a risk ratio for homicide rates by ethnicity in England and Wales.

The researchers say that, to the best of their knowledge, theirs is the first comparison of ethnic group trends in UK homicide victimisation rates per 100,000 to be published in recent decades, if ever.

They found that homicide risk for White and Asian people has stayed relatively consistent since the turn of the millennium – around one in 100,000 for White people and a little over two in 100,000 for Asian people, consisting primarily of persons of South Asian descent. For Black people, however, risks have fluctuated dramatically over the last 20 years.

The homicide victimisation rate for Black people was highest in the early noughties: almost 10 in 100,000 in 2001. It dropped by 69% between 2001 and 2012 to a low of 3 in 100,000 around 2013. Rates then began to climb again, rising seven times faster than for White people to reach over 5 in 100,000 last year.

When accounting for age, the disparity is starker still: for those aged 16 to 24, the 21st century average puts young Black people over ten and a half times (10.6) more likely than White people to be victims of homicide in England and Wales. 

In fact, researchers point out that – per 100,000 people – the most recent data from 2018-19 puts the murder risk of young Black people 24 times higher than that of young White people.  

The criminologists found no correlation between changes in homicide risk for different ethnicities. As an example, they point to the last three years of data: the homicide rate for White people aged between 16-24 dropped by 57%, while for young Black people it increased by 31%.

“Policing requires reliable evidence, and changing levels of risk are a vital part of preventative policing,” said Sherman. “Our initial findings reveal risk inequalities at a national level, but they may be far greater or lower in local areas. We would encourage police forces to produce their own calculations of murder rates per 100,000.”

Sherman has long advocated for a more “meaningful” approach to crime data. He has led on the development of the Cambridge Crime Harm Index: a classification system weighted by the impact of an offence on victims, rather than just counting crime numbers. 

“Simple statistics show us that the risks of becoming a murder victim are far from equal,” added Sherman. “We need more data analysis of this nature to inform police resource allocation, and promote a more fact-informed dialogue with communities across the country.”  

The newly-reported study, by academics at the University of Cambridge, is one of the first to measure the complete value that interventions targeting poor and marginalised children also have for many of their peers, principally through ‘spill-over’ effects which improve the wider education system.

The team tested their model by analysing a programme by CAMFED (the Campaign for Female Education) in Tanzania, which supports the education of disadvantaged girls. They took into account its impact not just on those girls, but on other children at schools where their programme operates. Strikingly, for every $100 spent per girl, per year, the programme resulted in learning gains equivalent to an additional two years of education for all girls and boys at those schools.

The study was carried out by members of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

Professor Ricardo Sabates, the co-lead researcher, said: “Helping the most marginalised children inevitably costs more, and most cost-effectiveness measures only consider that expense against the impact on those specific pupils. But programmes like CAMFED’s also have spill-over benefits and critically are keeping girls in school who would otherwise have dropped out. We can, and should, factor in those considerations when assessing cost-effectiveness.”

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the REAL Centre, added: “While it may cost more to reach the most marginalised pupils, the impact of those efforts is far more impressive than we tend to imagine. This research explains why system reforms should focus on those who need the most support. Education systems that function for the most marginalised children function for everyone.”

CAMFED is a non-governmental organisation which improves the education of marginalised girls in Africa and was recently awarded the 2020 Yidan Prize for Education Development. In Tanzania, its bursaries enable thousands of girls to attend secondary school, in tandem with interventions aimed at improving participation and learning among all children in partner schools.

Because most cost-effectiveness analyses only measure the impact of a programme on its direct beneficiaries (in this case marginalised girls), interventions such as CAMFED’s often seem to have limited reach while at the same time appearing more expensive than those targeting a broader demographic. The Cambridge study examined how best to measure the wider impact of CAMFED’s work in Tanzania, and then used this to refine the cost-effectiveness analysis.

The researchers analysed data from CAMFED’s programme over two years. To calculate per-head costs, they distinguished between the different components of the intervention and their assorted beneficiaries. For example, the cost of bursaries was divided by the number of marginalised girls who received them, but the cost of delivering extra-curricular courses in CAMFED-supported schools was divided by the number of all participating students. This provided a basis for identifying average annual unit costs for individual categories of beneficiaries.

Impact was calculated by comparing the English test scores of children from 81 randomly-selected CAMFED-supported schools with children from 60 control schools that received no support. Scores were collected at the start and end of the two years, and the team used data about the children’s socio-economic background to make direct comparisons between pupils from similar settings.

They also compared the dropout rates at both groups of schools, and used this to weight the final cost-effectiveness analysis. This reflected the fact that CAMFED’s programme not only improves learning, but also supports girls who might otherwise have dropped out of school, or never attended at all.

The cost of the programme, when only the most marginalised girls targeted by the bursaries were considered, was apparently steep: at $130.41 per year for each girl receiving financial support. However, the researchers also found that the per-head cost for other boys and girls at the same schools was just $15.40, demonstrating far greater value for money overall. The additional cost of the bursaries was also found to be vital for enabling the most disadvantaged girls to stay in school.

Pupils attending CAMFED-supported schools made significant academic improvements compared with their peers. The improvement in English test scores among girls receiving financial support was about 35% better than comparable girls in the control group. But other girls also performed similarly, while the boys did about 25% better. Girls who received financial support were 25% less likely to drop out of school than those in the control group.

The researchers then calculated the learning gains of pupils on the CAMFED programme per unit cost. When this measure was converted into equivalent years of learning, they found that for every $100 spent on each of the marginalised girls targeted, English learning outcomes improved by the equivalent of an extra 1.45 years of schooling for all pupils. When the increased proportion of marginalised girls remaining in school was factored in, the improvement in both access and learning for all girls and boys across the CAMFED schools was actually equivalent to an additional two years of schooling per $100.

While it is difficult to compare these results with other programmes, the study suggests that the cost-effectiveness of CAMFED’s work in Tanzania is at least commensurate with similar interventions in sub-Saharan Africa that do not target marginalised groups. But the findings may also be conservative. For example, CAMFED’s programme may also have further benefits outside the school system, for example among the siblings and communities of the young women it supports.

“Even though we probably underestimated its impact, this intervention is still extremely cost-effective,” Sabates added. “It shows real improvements in learning are best enabled when we invest in the children at greatest risk of being left behind.”

The research is published in the Journal of Development Effectiveness.

Clare is presently Vice-President and Chief Program Officer at Salzburg Global Seminar, an international non-profit, which challenges current and future leaders to shape a ‘creative, just and sustainable world’.

CISL Founder Director Dame Polly Courtice will step down after more than 30 years leading the organisation. Under her leadership, CISL has become an internationally recognised centre of excellence in sustainability leadership, working primarily with business, government and the finance sector to provide education, industry convening, research and thought leadership for thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies each year. More than 100 staff operate out of offices in Cambridge, Cape Town and Brussels, and the Institute’s work with companies and international delivery partners has expanded its impact and reach globally to build a network of over 16,000 individuals.

Clare Shine said: “As the new Director, I’m eager to work with CISL’s outstanding team to build on its distinguished 30-year legacy of collaboration with influential companies, policymakers, and networks across the world. CISL will play a pivotal role in this decade of action to inspire transformative leadership and innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Dame Polly said: “Clare will make an outstanding Director of CISL.  She combines strategic knowledge and expertise in sustainable development with success in policy change, business growth, and organisational innovation.  In her previous role she has built high-level coalitions involving governments, business, research universities and philanthropies. I am delighted that she will bring these strengths to bear on the Institute, and take its success to new heights.”

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge said: “I look forward to working with Clare Shine as she picks up the baton from Dame Polly, helping CISL to harness the University’s resources and contribute towards a sustainable future for everyone.”

In 2008 Polly was made a Lieutenant of the Victorian Order (LVO). In 2015 she was awarded the Stanford Bright Award for her efforts in guiding thousands of business leaders to more sustainable business practices, and in 2016 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Sustainability Leadership.

The Prince of Wales is the Royal Patron of the Institute and has supported many of its flagship initiatives, including the Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme and the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group.   In 2018, CISL launched The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme, which is funded by a group of leading companies to foster new transdisciplinary thinking on sustainability.

Originally published on the CISL website.

Quarantine was the only word to rank in the top five for both search spikes (28,545) and overall views (more than 183,000 by early November), with the largest spike in searches seen the week of 18-24 March, when many countries around the world went into lockdown as a result of COVID-19.

The Cambridge Dictionary editors have also tracked how people are using quarantine, and have discovered a new meaning emerging: a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease. Research shows the word is being used synonymously with lockdown, particularly in the United States, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid catching the disease.

This new sense of quarantine has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, and marks a shift from the existing meanings that relate to containing a person or animal suspected of being contagious: a specific period of time in which a person or animal that has a disease, or may have one, must stay or be kept away from others in order to prevent the spread of the disease.

Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary Publishing Manager, said:

"The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events. Neither coronavirus nor COVID-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year. We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is.

"Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by quarantine but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: lockdown, and pandemic itself."

Cambridge Dictionary is the top dictionary website for learners of English in the world. As well as definitions, the Cambridge Dictionary shows how words are used in real-world contexts. Its ‘About Words’ blog, written by language usage experts, helps learners gain confidence in using vocabulary related to specific topics.

The most highly viewed blog post this year was Quarantine, carriers and face masks: the language of the coronavirus, which had almost 80,000 views in the first six weeks after it was posted on February 26, and now ranks as the ninth most viewed 'About Words' post in the nearly ten years that the blog has been live. The post covers a range of related terms, such as infectious, contagious, carriers, super-spreaders, and symptoms, as well as phrases such as contract a virus, a spike in cases, contain the spread, and develop a vaccine.

The Cambridge Dictionary editors regularly monitor a wide range of sources for the new words and meanings that are added monthly to the online dictionary. On the ‘New Words’ blog, potential new additions are posted weekly for readers to cast their vote on whether they feel these words should be added.

In a recent poll, 33% of respondents said quaranteam - combining quarantine and team, meaning a group of people who go into quarantine together - should be added to the dictionary. Other suggestions include the portmanteau words quaranteen, coronial and lockstalgia.

Disgust is a natural response to unpleasant sights, such as rotting food, bodily waste and creepy crawlies, and has evolved to help us survive, encouraging us to avoid things that might spread disease. But for some people, disgust can become pathological, affecting their mental health and quality of life.

In a study published today in Current Biology, researchers at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit show that domperidone, a commonly-prescribed anti-nausea medicine, can help significantly reduce how much volunteers look away from disgusting images.

Domperidone works by stabilising the rhythm of the electrical signals in our stomach muscles. Normally, these signals help the stomach expand and contract, helping move food through the digestive tract. These rhythms become abnormal when we are nauseous or when we are hungry or full, for example. When they are strongly disrupted – for example, when we feel strong revulsion towards something – they can cause us to throw up the contents of our stomach.

In the study, twenty-five volunteers aged 18-35 were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group to receive domperidone, the second a placebo.

Before taking their pills, the volunteers were shown a series of unpleasant images along with neutral images, such as a scarf or buttons, while the researchers tracked their eye movements. Thirty minutes after taking their tablets, the volunteers were again shown the images while their eye movements were tracked.

Next, the researchers offered an incentive to the volunteers: for every four to eight seconds that they could look at a disgusting image, they would receive 25p – and hear a ‘kerching!’ sound. The volunteers then viewed the images again for a final round, but this time with no incentive.

The volunteers were also asked to rate how disgusting they found the images at the start and end of the trial.

The researchers found that initially, taking domperidone made little difference to the time the volunteers spent looking at a particular image. As could be expected among both groups, the dwell time increased dramatically when they were paid to look at the images.

In the final condition – when the volunteers were no longer being incentivised – the team found that volunteers who had received domperidone spent significantly longer than the placebo group looking at the disgusting images. By the end, people looked at the neutral image roughly 5.5 seconds more than the disgusting image, but under the influence of domperidone, the difference was only about 2.5 seconds.

Domperidone made no difference to how disgusting the volunteers rated the images to be.

“We’ve known for some time that when you see something disgusting, your stomach muscles’ electrical signals become dysregulated, which in some cases causes people to feel sick or their stomach to turn. You’re then likely to avoid that thing,” said Dr Camilla Nord from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge.

“What we’ve shown here is that when we steady the stomach’s electrical signals, people become less avoidant of a disgusting image after engaging with it. Changes in the stomach’s rhythm led to reduced disgust avoidance in our study – and so the stomach’s rhythm must be one cause of disgust avoidance in general.”

“In another recent study, we showed that we do not become immune to looking at disgusting images – a fact supported by the placebo condition in this new study,” said Dr Edwin Dalmaijer, also from the MRC Unit. “This is one reason why treating pathological disgust by exposure is often unsuccessful. Our research suggests domperidone may help.”

“We’ve shown that by calming the rhythms of our stomach muscles using anti-nausea drugs, we can help reduce our instinct to look away from a disgusting image,” added Professor Tim Dalgleish, also from the MRC Unit, “but just using the drug itself isn’t enough: overcoming disgust avoidance requires us to be motivated or incentivised. This could provide us with clues on how we can help people overcome pathological disgust clinically, which occurs in a number of mental health conditions and can be disabling.”

Explaining why the stomach should play a role in our disgust response, Dr Nord added: “When the brain constructs its representation of the environment, it integrates signals from the outside world, such as ‘is it daylight?’ with signals from the inside world, such as ‘am I hungry?’. So your internal environment, and your perception of it, plays a large role in how you experience the world.

“Many studies have shown that the state of our body influences emotion, perception, and action. For example, the timing and your awareness of your heartbeats influences learning, anxiety, and other emotion perception. Our study shows that the state of your stomach also influences your behaviour.”

The research was supported by the Medical Research Council, AXA Research Fund and the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Nord, CL & Dalmaijer, E, et al. A causal role for gastric rhythm in human disgust avoidance. Current Biology; 24 Nov 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.087

Professor Stephen J Toope, University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor:

A year ago our University community was shocked, horrified and profoundly saddened by the senseless attack at an event hosted by the Learning Together Programme.

Twelve months on from that day of tragedy, we remember Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt. Our thoughts are with their families, their friends and their colleagues on this saddest of anniversaries.

Our thoughts are also with the colleagues who lived through the horror of that attack and the trauma of its aftermath, and who we are fortunate to have with us.

Statement from the co-Founders and Directors of Learning Together

Dr Ruth Armstrong and Dr Amy Ludlow, co-Directors of Learning Together:

Twelve months have passed since the tragedy at the Learning Together alumni event at Fishmongers Hall. Our thoughts are with everyone who was there with us that day, and all who have been impacted.

We grieve especially for the loss of our inspirational colleague, Jack, and our brilliant alumna, Saskia. Their families and friends are uppermost in our hearts and minds.

We stand with our whole community, determined to play our part in building towards a better world for us all.

Astronomers have detected fast-moving carbon monoxide gas flowing away from a young, low-mass star: a unique stage of planetary system evolution which may provide insight into how our own solar system evolved and suggests that the way systems develop may be more complicated than previously thought.

Although it remains unclear how the gas is being ejected so fast, the team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, believe it may be produced from icy comets being vaporised in the star’s asteroid belt. The results have been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and will be presented at the Five Years After HL Tau virtual conference.

The detection was made with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile, as part of a survey of young ‘class III’ stars, reported in an earlier paper. Some of these class III stars are surrounded by debris discs, which are believed to be formed by the ongoing collisions of comets, asteroids and other solid objects, known as planetesimals, in the outer reaches of recently formed planetary systems. The leftover dust and debris from these collisions absorbs light from their central stars and re-radiate that energy as a faint glow that can be studied with ALMA.

In the inner regions of planetary systems, the processes of planet formation are expected to result in the loss of all the hottest dust, and class IIII stars are those that are left with - at most - dim, cold dust. These faint belts of cold dust are similar to the known debris discs seen around other stars, similar to the Kuiper belt in our own solar system, which is known to host much larger asteroids and comets.

In the survey, the star in question, ‘NO Lup’, which is about 70% the mass of our sun, was found to have a faint, low-mass dusty disc, but it was the only class III star where carbon monoxide gas was detected, a first for this type of young star with ALMA. While it is known that many young stars still host the gas-rich planet-forming discs they are born with, NO Lup is more evolved, and might have been expected to have lost this primordial gas after its planets had formed.

While the detection of carbon monoxide gas is rare, what made the observation unique was the scale and speed of the gas, which prompted a follow-up study to explore its motion and origins.

“Just detecting carbon monoxide gas was exciting, since no other young stars of this type had been previously imaged by ALMA,” said first author Joshua Lovell, a PhD student from the Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “But when we looked closer, we found something even more unusual: given how far away the gas was from the star, it was moving much faster than expected. This had us puzzled for quite some time.”

Grant Kennedy, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, who led the modelling work on the study, came up with a solution to the puzzle. “We found a simple way to explain it: by modelling a gas ring, but giving the gas an extra kick outward,” he said. “Other models have been used to explain young discs with similar mechanisms, but this disc is more like a debris disc where we haven’t witnessed winds before. Our model showed the gas is entirely consistent with a scenario in which it’s being launched out of the system at around 22 kilometres per second, which is much higher than any stable orbital speed.”

Further analysis also showed that the gas may be produced during collisions between asteroids, or during periods of sublimation – the transition from a solid to a gaseous phase – on the surface of the star’s comets, expected to be rich in carbon monoxide ice.

There has been recent evidence of this same process in our own solar system from NASA’s New Horizons mission, when it observed the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule in 2019 and found sublimation evolution on the surface of the comet, which happened around 4.5 billion years ago. The same event that vaporised comets in our own solar system billions of years ago may have therefore been captured for the first time over 400 light years away, in a process that may be common around planet-forming stars, and have implications for how all comets, asteroids, and planets evolve.

“This fascinating star is shedding light on what kind of physical processes are shaping planetary systems shortly after they are born, just after they have emerged from being enshrouded by their protoplanetary disk,” said co-author Professor Mark Wyatt, also from the Institute of Astronomy. “While we have seen gas produced by planetesimals in older systems, the shear rate at which gas is being produced in this system and its outflowing nature are quite remarkable, and point to a phase of planetary system evolution that we are witnessing here for the first time.”

While the puzzle isn’t fully solved, and further detailed modelling will be required to understand how the gas is being ejected so quickly, what is sure is that this system is set to be the target of more intense follow-up measurements.

“We’re hoping that ALMA will be back online next year, and we’ll be making the case to observe this system again in greater detail,” said Lovell. “Given how much we have learned about this early stage of planetary system evolution with only a short 30-minute observation, there is still so much more that this system can tell us.”

References:
1: J.B. Lovell et al. ‘Rapid CO gas dispersal from NO Lup’s class III circumstellar disc.’ Paper presented at Five Years After HL Tau. 7-11 December 2020.

2: J.B. Lovell et al. ‘ALMA Survey of Class III stars: Early planetesimal formation and Rapid disc dispersal’, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3335  

The ‘12 Days of Winter Wildlife 2020’ aims to encourage everyone to get involved in spotting wildlife over winter, and helping to look after it.

With fascinating facts, films and activities to do at home, the event - which runs from 1st to 12th December 2020 - is suitable for all ages. Experts will cover a range of topics including how to support garden birds and spot winter visitors, and how to find hibernating insects like butterflies and ladybirds. 

“There’s so much we can do to help animals survive the coldest months of the year, and we hope this event will show people how they can enjoy playing their part,” said Professor Rebecca Kilner, Director of the Museum.

With activities such as how to make a winter insect hotel, and a test to find out whether your memory is as good as a squirrel, this celebration of winter wildlife will even share tips on creating animal-inspired gifts.

“There’s a lot more winter wildlife in the UK than you might expect – and we hope this event will not only be educational but a lot of fun,” said Dr Roz Wade, Senior Learning & Engagement Coordinator at the Museum of Zoology.

She added: “Lots of interesting birds can be spotted in the UK at this time of year - and for some, winter in the UK is an escape from much colder conditions further north. And despite some of our native animals going into hibernation, many others stay active through winter – from moths to water birds to foxes and squirrels. Not to mention what’s living in the compost heap.”

‘12 Days of Winter Wildlife’ launches at 4:30pm on 1st December 2020 with a YouTube Live event. Bird expert Rob Jaques from the British Trust for Ornithology will be on hand to answer questions from the public, and there will be a virtual tour of Cambridge University Botanic Garden wildlife. 

To add to the fun, the launch includes a festive sing-along with a wildlife twist. Written by PhD student Kate Howlett and recorded by Museum volunteers, staff & friends, ‘The 12 Days of Critters’ will be making its debut at the event.

Films, animal facts, activities and more will be posted daily at 9am on the Museum’s blog. 

The University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge is temporarily closed to visitors due to the current lockdown measures. Updates on its opening status will be posted on the Museum’s website and Twitter and Facebook pages.

The Museum holds one of the largest and most important natural history collections in the UK, with an extraordinarily rich history dating back to 1814. In 2018 it reopened after a five-year, £4.1million redevelopment – including nearly £2 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund – to reveal thousands of incredible specimens from across the animal kingdom, including whales, elephants, a giraffe, giant ground sloth, insects, corals as well as items collected by Charles Darwin. 

Magnets often harbour hidden beauty. Take a simple fridge magnet: somewhat counterintuitively, it is ‘sticky’ on one side but not the other. The secret lies in the way the magnetisation is arranged in a well-defined pattern within the material. More intricate magnetisation textures are at the heart of many modern technologies, such as hard drives.

Now, an international team of scientists from the University of Cambridge, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), ETH Zurich, the Donetsk Institute for Physics and Engineering in Ukraine and the Institute for Numerical Mathematics RAS in Moscow have discovered unexpected magnetic structures inside a tiny pillar made of the magnetic material GdCo₂.

The researchers observed sub-micrometre loop-shaped configurations, which they identified as magnetic vortex rings. Far beyond their aesthetic appeal, these textures might point the way to further complex three-dimensional structures arising in the bulk of magnets and could one day form the basis for new technological applications. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Physics.

Determining the magnetisation arrangement within a magnet is highly challenging, in particular for structures at the micro- and nanoscale, for which studies have been typically limited to looking at a shallow layer just below the surface. That changed in 2017 when researchers at PSI and ETH Zurich introduced a new X‑ray method for the nanotomography of bulk magnets, which they demonstrated in experiments at the Swiss Light Source. That advance opened up a window into the inner life of magnets, providing a tool for determining three-dimensional magnetic configurations at the nanoscale within micrometre-sized samples.

Using these capabilities, the researchers ventured into new territory. The stunning loop shapes they observed appear in the same GdCo₂ micropillar samples in which they had before detected complex magnetic configurations consisting of vortices — the sort of structures seen when water spirals down from a sink — and their topological counterparts, antivortices.

That was a first, but the presence of these textures has not been surprising in itself. Unexpectedly, however, the scientists also found loops that consist of pairs of vortices and antivortices. That observation proved to be puzzling. With the implementation of novel sophisticated data-analysis techniques they eventually established that these structures are so-called vortex rings — in essence, doughnut-shaped vortices.

Vortex rings are familiar to everyone who has seen smoke rings being blown, or who has watched dolphins producing loop-shaped air bubbles, for their own amusement as much as to that of their audience. The newly discovered magnetic vortex rings are captivating in their own right. Not only does their observation verify predictions made some two decades ago, settling the question whether such structures can exist. They also offered surprises. In particular, magnetic vortex rings have been predicted to be a transient phenomenon, but in the experiments now reported, these structures turned out to be remarkably stable.

“One of the main puzzles was why these structures are so unexpectedly stable – like smoke rings, they are only supposed to exist as moving objects,” said Dr Claire Donnelly from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, and the paper’s first author. “Through a combination of analytical calculations and considerations of the data, we determined the root of their stability to be the magnetostatic interaction.”

The stability of magnetic vortex rings could have important practical implications. For one, they could potentially move through magnetic materials, as smoke rings move stably though air, or air-bubble rings through water.

Learning how to control the rings within the volume of the magnet can open interesting prospects for energy-efficient 3D data storage and processing. There is interest in the physics of these new structures, too, as magnetic vortex rings can take forms not possible for their smoke and air counterparts. The team has already observed some unique configurations, and going forward, their further exploration promises to bring to light yet more magnetic beauty.

Reference:
Claire Donnelly et al. ‘Experimental observation of vortex rings in a bulk magnet.’ Nature Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01057-3

Adapted from a PSI press release.

Dr Hamied’s leadership gift endows both a fund to attract and support the world’s brightest academic talent in chemistry, including exceptional early career researchers in disciplines such as synthetic organic chemistry, and outstanding doctoral students from the UK and around the world through the new Hamied Scholars Programme.

For much of his life, Dr Hamied has been a leader in industry and philanthropy, focusing his attention on education and healthcare. He is currently the non-executive chairman of Cipla, a global pharmaceutical company started by his late father, Dr K A Hamied, in Mumbai. Yusuf Hamied’s major achievements include the pioneering supply of HIV/AIDS medicines to developing countries at a low cost, saving countless lives. To help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cipla is again providing medicines to healthcare organisations at affordable prices, making treatment more accessible.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope said: “Yusuf Hamied has demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to changing and improving lives since his time at Cambridge. I am profoundly grateful for his remarkable gift to the Department of Chemistry, which will benefit generations of students and researchers.”

Among Dr Hamied’s many honours are an honorary fellowship of Christ’s College in 2004; the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest Indian civilian awards in 2005; an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2012; and an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Cambridge in 2014. In 2019, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.

Dr Hamied has retained close links with Cambridge over the past 66 years, as a supporter of his College — Christ’s — and the Department of Chemistry. In 2018, he endowed one of the world’s oldest academic Chairs in Chemistry, now known as the Yusuf Hamied 1702 Chair. His academic mentor and supervisor, Nobel Laureate Lord Alexander Todd, held the Chair during Dr Hamied’s time at Cambridge as an undergraduate and PhD student.

“Cambridge gave me the foundation of an education in chemistry, taught me how to live and showed me how to contribute to society," said Dr Hamied. "As a scholarship student myself, I am delighted to be able to support future generations of students. I will always be indebted to this great institution and everything it stands for.”

Head of Department, Dr James Keeler, said: "We are extremely thankful to Dr Hamied for his visionary support for Chemistry at Cambridge which will allow us to respond flexibly to future opportunities. His gift will ensure we continue to attract outstanding scientists who will make the discoveries that help tackle some of the most pressing challenges in global society.”

As HIV copies itself and replicates, it can develop errors, or ‘mutations’, in its genetic code (its RNA). While a drug may initially be able to suppress or even kill the virus, certain mutations can allow the virus to develop resistance to its effects. If a mutated strain begins to spread within a population, it can mean once-effective drugs are no longer able to treat people.

HIV treatment usually consists of a cocktail of drugs that includes a type of drug known as a non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). However, in recent years, HIV has begun to develop resistance to NNRTIs. Between 10% and 15% of patients in much of sub-Saharan Africa are infected by a strain of HIV resistant to these drugs. If a patient is infected with an NNRTI-resistant strain, they are at a two- to three-fold increased risk of the drug regimen failing.

In 2019, the World Health Organization began to recommend dolutegravir as the preferred first-line treatment for HIV in most populations. Dolutegravir was dubbed a ‘wonder drug’ because it was safe, potent and cost-effective and scientists had seen no drug resistance against it in clinical trials. However, there is little data on the success of dolutegravir against circulating strains of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

In a study published today in Nature Communications, an international team of researchers from South Africa, the UK and the USA examined the genetic code of HIV to determine if drug resistance mutations in 874 volunteers living with HIV affected their treatment success. The individuals were enrolled in a clinical trial for people initiating HIV treatment to compare two drug regimens: efavirenz, an NNRTI and prior first-line therapy in the region, and dolutegravir.

The goal of this study was to determine whether drug resistance to efavirenz prior to starting treatment affected treatment success (suppression of the virus in the blood) over the first two years of therapy with both of these two regimens.

As expected, the presence of drug resistance substantially reduced the chances of treatment success in people taking efavirenz, successfully suppressing the virus over 96-weeks in 65% of participants compared to 85% of non-resistant individuals. However, unexpectedly, the same pattern was true for individuals taking dolutegravir-based treatments: 66% of those with efavirenz resistance mutations remained suppressed over 96-weeeks compared to 84% of those without the mutations. These relationships held true after accounting for other factors, such as treatment adherence.

“We fully expected efavirenz to be less effective among patients HIV strains resistant to NNRTIs,” said Dr Mark Siedner, faculty member at the Africa Health Research Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. “What took us completely by surprise was that dolutegravir – a different class of drug which is generally effective in the face of drug resistance – would also be less effective in people with these resistant strains.

“We are working now to tease out if this was due to the virus or the participants – for instance, if people with resistance are less likely to take their pills regularly. Either way, if this pattern holds true, it could have far reaching impacts on our predictions of long-term treatment control for millions of people taking dolutegravir in the region.”

Professor Ravi Gupta from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge said: “This a huge concern. Dolutegravir was very much seen as a ‘wonder drug’, but our study suggests it might not be as effective in a significant number of patients who are resistant to another important class of antiretroviral drugs.”

The researchers say it is not clear why efavirenz-resistant mutations should affect susceptibility of dolutegravir, though one hypothesis is that integrase inhibitors such as dolutegravir push the virus to replicate and mutate faster, in turn developing resistance to the new drug in an evolutionary arms race. Alternatively, it could be due to poor adherence to treatment regimens, even though the analysis accounted for adherence by two independent methods. Further research is needed to find out why.

Professor Gupta added: “What this shows is that we urgently need to prioritise point of care tests to identify people with drug resistance HIV, particularly against efavirenz, and to more closely and accurately monitor treatment adherence. The development of such tests is at an advanced stage, but there a lack of investment from funders and philanthropic donors. We urgently need agencies and individuals to step forward and help support these programmes.

“In addition, we need to provide widespread access to viral load monitoring so that we can find those who are struggling, get them on more appropriate regimens, and limit the emergence of resistance when patients are failing therapy.”

The study was carried out by researchers at: the Africa Health Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Witwatersrand, KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, and the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), in South Africa; the University of Cambridge, University of Liverpool, and Imperial College London in the UK; and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA.

The research was supported by USAID, Unitaid, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), with investigational drug donated by ViiV Healthcare and Gilead Sciences, and by Wellcome and the National Institutes of Health.

Reference
Siedner, MJ et al. Reduced efficacy of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors in patients with drug resistance mutations in reverse transcriptase. Nat Comms; 1 Dec 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19801-x

Those two basic principles are important to bear in mind as we navigate our way towards an updated Freedom of Speech Statement, designed to enshrine core values while recognising the need to maintain civility in debate, whether amongst staff, students and visitors or within these groups. Flourishing universities encourage robust debate, challenge accepted norms, scrutinise research findings and work together to discover solutions to global problems. But the growth of social media and the rapid polarisation of our political sphere have demonstrated more than ever that debate in the absence of civility can be not only unproductive but hugely damaging. 

For many decades, freedom of expression was an accepted norm at Cambridge, requiring no formal codification. I wish that were still the case. But the growth in recent years of legislation placing additional responsibilities on universities led us, in 2016, to reconfirm our commitment to freedom of speech in a single statement, while recognising new legal duties under the Prevent legislation that could have impinged on that freedom.

It is this statement which is now being updated in light of a changing legal landscape. Concerns have been raised that the original statement did not sufficiently bolster freedom of speech. Some members of our academic community had questioned whether the balance between freedom of speech and legal duties was correctly and clearly enough expressed.

A revised Statement attempting to clarify some of these issues was proposed earlier this year by our Committee on Prevent and Freedom of Speech, a group that includes academics and students. The new wording followed extensive debate within the Committee, and with members of the Council. An amended text was approved by the Council in March 2020 and was reported to the Regent House, the 7000-strong community of academics and members of the University which has the ultimate say on all significant decisions.

As is their right, a number of members of the Regent House have proposed changes to the text put forward by the Council. Given the complexity of the issues, this was not a surprise. The proposed amendments are now subject to vigorous debate within the University, which has spilled over into the public domain. But many public reports have completely misrepresented the context, and misunderstood the process of what is actually going on. As I write, the amendments are open to a vote of the full Regent House and the Council will of course abide by its result, which will be announced on 9^th December. 

As chair of the University Council, I cannot take sides in the debate but I can take satisfaction from the fact that this open, democratic process is occurring. The very existence of this discussion demonstrates to me that free speech is alive and well at Cambridge.

Professor Stephen J Toope
Vice-Chancellor

Global GDP will drop three percent below pre-pandemic estimates by the end of 2021, with many Western nations seeing “deeper and longer-lasting” effects compared to China and other Asian economies, a study suggests.  

Moreover, nations that adopted less stringent lockdowns – Sweden, for example – will not be shielded from the economic losses of COVID-19 either, owing to spillovers from other countries.

Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the macroeconomic study captures the economic volatility caused by the last forty years of “rare events”. It uses this historical data to forecast the longer term effects of the pandemic on individual economies.  

The research suggests that economic growth will be stymied in at least 80% of the world’s advanced nations and many emerging market economies due to “excess global uncertainty”.   

Two Cambridge economists conducted the study with an international team of researchers. They argue that the pandemic will lead to a “significant fall in world output” – the consequences of which could last much of the dawning decade.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a global shock like no other, involving simultaneous disruptions to both supply and demand in an interconnected world economy,” said co-author Dr Kamiar Mohaddes, a Cambridge Judge Business School economist.

“Infections reduce labour supply and productivity, while lockdowns, business closures, and social distancing also cause supply disruptions. On the demand side, redundancy and the loss of income from death, quarantines, and unemployment plus worsened economic prospects reduce household consumption and firms’ investment.”

The study from Mohaddes, a Fellow of King’s College at Cambridge, and colleagues, including M. Hashem Pesaran, Fellow of Trinity College, uses the IMF’s GDP growth forecast revisions between January and April 2020 to identify the COVID-19 economic shock.

The research team created a model of 33 countries covering 90% of the global economy, using data from 1979 onwards – in particular the rare economic shocks – to predict the range of GDP loss likely to be suffered by each nation and region as a result of the pandemic. The study accounts for the “nonlinear” effects of global economic volatility.

“The techniques developed in this study are intended to capture the effects of rare events such as COVID-19, and account for interconnections and spillovers between countries and markets,” said Mohaddes, who worked with colleagues from the International Monetary Fund, Johns Hopkins University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  

The study suggests that the US and the UK are likely to experience deeper and longer-lasting effects, while China has more than a 50% chance of its economy improving far quicker than its major western counterparts. The odds for the Euro area are “skewed negatively”, but it’s likely to experience a speedier and sturdier recovery than the US by the end of 2021.

“Pulled by China, most of the emerging economies in Asia have a higher chance of performing better than the global average,” said Mohaddes. He argues that China and others in the region may fare better globally thanks to their manufacturing bases.

Economies with strong service industries have proved resilient in the past as manufacturing was more exposed to market fluctuations, but COVID-19 and the digital age have turned this on its head: services suffer as people stay at home en masse while goods are still traded through online platforms.

“Non-Asian emerging markets stand out for their vulnerability, and will suffer from a significant output collapse in 2020, with a less than 30% chance of not experiencing an output loss by the end of 2021. Turkey, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia will almost certainly see at least eight quarters of severely depressed economic activity,” Mohaddes said.  

The study pays close attention to Mohaddes’ home nation of Sweden, where the government took a markedly different approach, with little in the way of the mandatory social distancing and lockdowns adopted by most countries.

“The Swedish economy will also see a large fall in GDP, very similar to other European economies,” he said. “Our estimates for Sweden illustrate that no country is immune to the economic fallout of the pandemic, because of interconnections and the global nature of the shock.”

The study predicts lower interest rates in core advanced economies – about 100 basis points or 1 percentage point below pre-COVID rates. “The crisis raises precautionary savings and dampens investment demand,” said Mohaddes.

However, he warns that the same cannot be said with certainty about emerging market economies in regions such as Latin America, where borrowing rates can increase rapidly, with implications for “debt servicing”.    

The study’s calculations involve both the “temporal and cross-sectional dimensions” of data that take into account real and financial drivers of economic activity, as well as common factors such as oil prices and global volatility. Country-specific models include output growth, the real exchange rate, as well as real equity prices and long-term interest rates when available.

Added Mohaddes: “Given its unprecedented nature, any analysis of COVID-19 has to go beyond identifying the economic shock and account for its non-linear effects and cross-country spillovers, as well as the uncertainty surrounding forecasts. This is what we address with our econometric model.”

The measurements of stellar positions, movement, brightness and colours are in the third early data release from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, and are now publicly available. Initial findings include the first optical measurement of the acceleration of the Solar system.

Launched in 2013, Gaia operates in an orbit around the so-called Lagrange 2 (L2) point, located 1.5 million kilometres behind the Earth in the direction away from the Sun. At L2 the gravitational forces between the Earth and Sun are balanced, so the spacecraft stays in stable position, allowing long-term essentially unobstructed views of the sky.

The primary objective of Gaia is to measure stellar distances using the parallax method. In this case astronomers use the observatory to continuously scan the sky, measuring the apparent change in the positions of stars over time, resulting from the Earth’s movement around the Sun.

Knowing that tiny shift in the positions of stars allows their distances to be calculated. On Earth this is made more difficult by the blurring of the Earth’s atmosphere, but in space the measurements are only limited by the optics of the telescope.

Two previous releases included the positions of 1.6 billion stars. Today’s release brings the total to just under 2 billion stars, whose positions are significantly more accurate than in the earlier data. Gaia also tracks the changing brightness and the positions of the stars over time across the line of sight (their so-called proper motion), and by splitting their light into spectra, measures how fast they are moving towards or away from the Sun and assesses their chemical composition.

The new data include exceptionally accurate measurements of the 300,000 stars within the closest 326 light years to the Sun. The researchers use these data to predict how the star background will change in the next 1.6 million years. They also confirm that the Solar system is accelerating in its orbit around the Galaxy.

This acceleration is gentle, and is what would be expected from a system in a circular orbit. Over a year the Sun accelerates towards the centre of the Galaxy by 7 mm per second, compared with its speed along its orbit of about 230 kilometres a second.

Gaia data additionally deconstruct the two largest companion galaxies to the Milky Way, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, allowing researchers to see their different stellar populations. A dramatic visualisation shows these subsets, and the bridge of stars between the two systems.

Dr Floor van Leeuwen of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, and UK Gaia DPAC Project Manager, comments: “Gaia is measuring the distances of hundreds of millions of objects that are many thousands of light years away, at an accuracy equivalent to measuring the thickness of hair at a distance of more than 2000 kilometres. These data are one of the backbones of astrophysics, allowing us to forensically analyse our stellar neighbourhood, and tackle crucial questions about the origin and future of our Galaxy.”

Gaia will continue gathering data until at least 2022, with a possible mission extension until 2025. The final data releases are expected to yield stellar positions 1.9 times as accurate as those released so far, and proper motions more than 7 times more accurate, in a catalogue of more than two billion objects.

“The mysteries of the Milky Way and our Solar System have captured the imagination of generations of scientists and astronomers across the world – all eager to learn more about the origins of the Universe,” said Science Minister Amanda Solloway. “Through this remarkable government-backed mission, UK scientists have taken us a giant leap closer to advancing our knowledge of how our Solar System began by painting the most detailed picture yet that could help to redefine astronomy as we know it.”

Adapted from a Royal Astronomical Society press release.

The two new research and policy reports, compiled by academics at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with partners in Ethiopia, draw attention to the combined educational and practical challenges facing the country’s schools as pupils return. The authors suggest that these converging problems, while more severe than those affecting schools in wealthy countries such as the UK, are typical of those confronting millions of parents and teachers across sub-Saharan Africa as the pandemic continues to exact a far less-visible toll on their lives and communities.

The findings are based on telephone interviews with more than 900 teachers and caregivers which were carried out in August. Schools in Ethiopia are currently reopening on a staggered basis for the first time since March, with priority given to schools in rural areas. Since the study was completed, many of the issues it documents will have been compounded by the crisis in Tigray.

Overall, the researchers found that, despite significant efforts by the Ethiopian government to support remote learning, many pupils are likely to have had little or no education during the closure period. Disadvantaged groups – such as poorer children, those in remote areas, and girls – are likely to need specific attention having missed out the most.

But while it is therefore vital that schools reopen, the reports also highlight the huge challenges of making schools COVID-safe at a time when access to a vaccine is still, in all likelihood, months away for many teachers and pupils. They point to cases where schools lack soap and running water, for example, and to concerns about the practicalities of social-distancing in overcrowded classrooms.

The surveys were undertaken by members of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, in partnership with colleagues at Addis Ababa University and the Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute, as part of the RISE Ethiopia and Early Learning Partnership projects.

School closures are widely understood to have deepened a long-term ‘learning crisis’ in low- and middle-income countries in which many of the least-advantaged children already struggle to attain basic levels of literacy and numeracy. Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the REAL Centre, said: “These reports describe the situation in Ethiopia, but highlight interlocking problems that apply much more widely.”

“In many parts of the world, COVID-19 has not just made it harder to keep children learning: it also makes it harder to keep them in school. There are multiple constraints affecting low- and middle-income countries which mean that the very poorest and most marginalised children are even greater risk of dropping out of the system altogether than they already were.”

Professor Tassew Woldehanna, President at Addis Ababa University, said: “With schools reopening it is essential that policy-makers have access to the sort of clear, robust evidence presented here. It is critical to targeting those pupils who need the most support, and limiting the effects of lost learning for millions of children.”

The team interviewed 443 primary school teachers and principals and 480 parents and caregivers. They also co-ordinated with surveys by the Oxford-based Young Lives programme, who spoke to a further 64 principals.

Their results show that while many teachers have been quick to adapt to remote teaching and learning, students’ access to education has clearly been uneven. In some rural regions, for example, none of the teachers interviewed had internet access and only around half of households had electricity. The researchers estimate that around two-thirds of the teachers they surveyed had reached fewer than half of their students during the closures.

The uneven provision that this implies is likely to have affected disadvantaged groups, such as poorer children, those in rural areas, and girls (whose education is often considered lower-priority than that of boys), most severely. Many teachers fear that, because these groups’ parents often have low literacy, low regard for education, and recruit their children to support the generation of family income; such children are especially at risk of dropping out of school, or of never returning.

The research also draws attention to COVID-19’s impact on pre-primary education in Ethiopia: a sector which has been neglected by many governments during the pandemic. Only 53% of parents or caregivers with young children had been able to engage in learning activities with pre-primary children during school closures. Just 10% reported any contact with pre-primary teachers.

At the same time, however, the reports highlight significant infrastructure and resource challenges within schools themselves. 38% of parents said that their children’s schools were only ‘somewhat equipped’ with handwashing facilities; 22% said that they were ‘not equipped at all’. About 15% said that they did not have facemasks for their children to wear at school, and 46% could not provide their children with hand sanitiser. A majority of teachers and principals, especially those in rural areas, expressed similar concerns about both hygiene, and a lack of adequate classroom space to maintain social distancing.

The researchers stress that despite the efforts made by the government so far, ongoing interventions will therefore be needed to help all children benefit as schools reopen. Their main recommendations are:

• A targeted, national campaign by government, school management committees and local authorities to keep children in school.
• Extra support (and, if viable, time in school) for students who need to recover lost learning.
• The construction of new classrooms or sheltered areas where possible, as well as the targeted supply of extra hygiene resources such as sanitisers, facemasks and handwashing facilities to those most in need.
• Additional investment in resources and strategies to support remote learning, particularly in the context of further possible outbreaks in schools before the effective delivery of a vaccine.

Both reports are available from the REAL Centre website.

Artificial Intelligence is already a part of our everyday lives in forms like Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, facial identification, and Google maps. Thinking machines have huge potential to greatly enhance life for billions of people, but the technology also has huge potential downsides.

It can embed sexism, as when an algorithm for ranking job applicants automatically downgraded women; or be used for intrusive surveillance using facial recognition algorithms that decide who is a ‘potential criminal’.

The new degree in AI Ethics aims to teach professionals in all areas of life — from engineers and policymakers to health administrators and HR managers — how to use AI for good, not ill.

The programme is led by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), an interdisciplinary research centre based at the University of Cambridge. Over the past four years, it has established itself at the forefront of AI ethics research worldwide, working in partnership with the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and UC Berkeley. 

CFI is partnering with the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Continuing Education, which provides flexible and accessible higher education courses for adults, to deliver the 2-year part-time Master’s degree.

Executive Director of CFI, Dr Stephen Cave, said: “Everyone is familiar with the idea of AI rising up against us. It’s been a staple of many celebrated films like Terminator in the 1980s, 2001: A Space Odyssey in the 1960s, and Westworld in the 1970s, and more recently in the popular TV adaptation.

“But there are lots of risks posed by AI that are much more immediate than a robot revolt. There have been several examples which have featured prominently in the news, showing how it can be used in ways that exacerbate bias and injustice.

“It's crucial that future leaders are trained to manage these risks so we can make the most of this amazing technology. This pioneering new course aims to do just that.”

While society’s understanding of AI ethics has grown fast, bridges from research to real-life applications are scarce, and access to rigorous qualifications in responsible AI are sorely lacking.

Dr Cave says the new degree will address those concerns. “People are using AI in different ways across every industry, and they are asking themselves, ‘How can we do this in a way that broadly benefits society?’

“We have brought together cutting-edge knowledge on the responsible and beneficial use of AI, and want to impart that to the developers, policymakers, businesspeople and others who are making decisions right now about how to use these technologies.”

AI has already demonstrated a range of benefits for humanity. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen artificial intelligence rushed into experimental use at scale, bringing the importance of ethical AI competence into even greater relief. For example, AI has been deployed to fight the pandemic in the development of vaccines, early diagnosis and contact tracing.

But its use has also caused concern, when governments used artificial intelligence to track citizens and prevent them from leaving their homes.

The ‘Master of studies in AI Ethics and Society’ promises to develop leaders who can confidently tackle the most pressing AI challenges facing their workplaces. These include issues of privacy, surveillance, justice, fairness, algorithmic bias, misinformation, microtargeting, Big Data, responsible innovation and data governance.

The curriculum spans a wide range of academic areas including philosophy, machine learning, policy, race theory, design, computer science, engineering, and law. Run by a specialist research centre, the course will include the latest subject research taught by world-leading experts.  

Dedicated to meeting the practical needs of professionals, the course will address concrete questions such as:

·     How can I tell if an AI product is trustworthy? 

·     How can I anticipate and mitigate possible negative impacts of a technology?

·     How can I design a process of responsible innovation for my business?

·     How do I safeguard against algorithmic bias?

·     How do I keep data private, secure, and properly managed?

·     How can I involve diverse stakeholders in AI decision-making?

The hybrid programme will consist of online classes, and intensive week-long residentials at a University of Cambridge college. It’s been designed in such a flexible format to maximise the opportunities for working professionals to join the course.

Dr James Gazzard said: "The Institute of Continuing Education is delighted to be a partner in this distinctive Master's course. Our role is to provide adult students with access to cutting edge knowledge and skills. 

“As we all consider a post COVID-19 future, we know that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will see the acceleration of the opportunities and threats presented by AI and this course is well placed to support adults to re-skill and up-skill in this important emerging field."

In addition to its 800-year history of innovation and leadership in technology and the humanities, the University of Cambridge is set within the renowned ‘Silicon Fen’, a hub of AI innovation home to tech giants and start-ups from Microsoft, and Amazon, to ARM, and Apple. 

In gathering professionals from across the country and internationally, the course will build diverse networks of professionals, researchers and government leaders dedicated to responsible AI. This will help position the UK as a global leader in beneficial AI, now and into the future.

Applications for the new degree close on 31st March 2021, with the first cohort commencing in October 2021. For further information about the course, please visit: http://lcfi.ac.uk/master-ai-ethics/ 

The funding will support companies and universities with radical ideas for how we tackle climate change through earth observation or address satellite communications challenges, from providing greater connectivity to remote places to increasing the efficiency of our homes.

Dr Ian Parry from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy has been awarded funding for high-resolution thermal infrared space telescopes for monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings.

Thermal infrared (TIR) earth observation telescopes in low earth orbit can monitor the energy output of buildings. Parry and his collaborators will build and develop a prototype for the continuous alignment required for a space telescope, as well as developing end-user climate change cases for TIR telescope.

“This technology can give us a global health check to let us know if the world is on target to meet its carbon emissions targets. It also makes it clear who needs to act and what they have to do if the targets aren’t being met,” said Parry. “It’s a bit like trying to get someone to give up smoking. The person knows it's bad for them and they have good intentions and make promises, but they still fall short of what they need to do until they get a worrying wake-up call from a medical examination.”

Governments sign up to agreements but it’s the behaviour of organisations and individuals that will deliver – or not – the required actions. This technology will allow governments across the world, including our own, to deliver what was promised.

The technology will identify anything bigger than about five metres across that is using large amounts of energy, such as buildings, houses, aircraft, ships or lorries.

“Normally I point my telescope at the stars but by pointing it at the Earth I can help address a really important issue,” said Parry.

“We want the UK to be a world leader in space technology which is why we are supporting our most ambitious innovators who are developing technologies to help solve some of our greatest challenges,” said Science Minister Amanda Solloway. “From slashing carbon emissions to protecting the UK’s critical services from harmful cyber-attacks, today’s funding will unshackle our most entrepreneurial space scientists so that they can transfer their revolutionary ideas into world class products and services, while helping to boost the UK economy.”

The funding comes from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP), which is the first UK fund dedicated to supporting the space sector’s development of innovations, allowing us to compete internationally on the world stage with other countries, like France and Germany, which have dedicated national funding for space.

Businesses, universities and research organisations were awarded co-funding for projects that will help the space sector create new high-skill jobs, while developing new skills and technologies on UK soil. Grants from the £15 million funding pot range from between £170,000 and £1.4 million per project.

“Space technologies have become deeply embedded in, and critical to, almost every aspect of our daily lives,” said Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency. “With rapid technological innovation, space offers a broad and growing range of opportunities to support economic activity and protect the environment. From the satellites connecting our calls to the ones that tell us when to expect rain when we step outside, space technologies are fundamental to our day-to-day lives.Our space sector is constantly advancing and welcoming new ideas, and through this funding we are championing the best of this British innovation.”

In addition, £5 million of the programme funding has been set aside for international projects, which will focus on increasing exports and securing new inward investment, supporting UK science and the prosperity agenda by funding working relationships between world-leading researchers and institutions and developing space capabilities important to the UK's security interests.

The UK space sector has grown by over 60% since 2010. The industry already supports £300 billion of UK economic activity through the use of satellite services and is expected to grow further as this new Government support unlocks commercial opportunities.

The UK also remains a member of the European Space Agency. ESA membership allows the UK to cooperate in world-leading science on a global scale, enabling UK scientists and researchers access to a range of international research and development programmes.
 

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

The University of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the University’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

The results are an important step towards better management and treatment of this devastating condition. 

The research from the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute is part of the global Human Cell Atlas initiative to map every cell type in the human body. The findings reveal intricate cellular mechanisms of how the gut develops. 

Crohn’s Disease is a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease affecting around one in every 650 people in the UK. Incidence has increased dramatically in recent decades, especially in children - who can suffer very aggressive symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea and fatigue. This lifelong condition can have major life implications; the cause is not understood, treatments often don’t work, and there is no cure. 

“Crohn’s Disease can be particularly aggressive and more treatment-resistant in children, so there’s a real need to understand the condition when it affects them and perhaps come up with childhood-specific treatments,” said Dr Matthias Zilbauer in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and honorary consultant in paediatric gastroenterology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who led the study.

The researchers used a cutting-edge technology called single-cell RNA sequencing to look at gene expression in individual cells of the developing human gut, six to ten weeks after conception. They focused on the inner lining of the gut, called the intestinal epithelium, and found that the cells there divide constantly at this early stage, guided by messages from other cell types. This allows the gut to grow and form the structures needed for good gut function later in life. 

Tissues from the guts of children with Crohn’s Disease, aged between four and twelve, were also analysed. The study revealed that some of the cellular pathways active in the epithelium of the foetal gut appear to be reactivated in Crohn’s Disease. These pathways were not active in healthy children of a similar age. The results are published today in the journal Developmental Cell. 

“Our results indicate there might be a reprogramming of specific gut cell functions in Crohn’s Disease. We don’t know whether this is the cause of the disease or a consequence of it, but either way it is an exciting step in helping us to better understand the condition,” said Zilbauer.

The findings shed light on fundamental molecular mechanisms of human gut development. The team also found that lab-grown ‘mini-guts’ undergo similar individual cellular changes to those inside a developing foetus. This implies that lab-grown models are a powerful and accurate tool for future research into very early gut development and associated diseases.

“This study is part of the international Human Cell Atlas effort to create a ‘Google map’ of the entire human body. With single-cell RNA sequencing we can look at any tissue and identify the individual cell types it’s made up of, the function of those cells, and even identify new cell types,” said Dr Sarah Teichmann at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas Organising Committee, whose expertise enabled analysis of the huge amount of data generated by this technique. 

She added: “A complex tissue like the gut contains different cell types, and these ‘talk’ to each other - the function of one cell affects the function of another. That’s particularly important in the early stages of gut development, and something we can interrogate using computational analyses of single cell RNA sequencing data.” 

While the study focused specifically on the dynamics of intestinal epithelial cells, it generated information on around 90,000 primary human intestinal cells of all types. The researchers have made this data openly available at www.gutcellatlas.org, creating a valuable resource for further research and drug discovery targeted at childhood Crohn’s Disease.

“From my own experience we’re diagnosing Crohn’s Disease in younger and younger children, some even under the age of five – it’s very much an emerging disease. It’s a really nasty, lifelong condition, and when children are diagnosed, the whole family is affected,” said Zilbauer.

He added: “We are determined to advance our knowledge in this area, and hopefully improve the lives of these children in the future.”

This research was supported by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome, and the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Sparks. Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge is a specialist centre for the investigation and treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in children, serving the east of England.

Reference
Elmentaite, R. & Ross, A. et al: ‘Single-cell sequencing of developing human gut reveals transcriptional links to childhood Crohn’s disease.’ Developmental Cell, December 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.11.010

High demand for millions of COVID-19 tests per day combined with a disrupted global supply chain has left many countries facing diagnostic shortages. In a recent Nature commentary, John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “the collapse of global cooperation [has] shoved Africa out of the diagnostics market....African countries have funds to pay for reagents but cannot buy them.”

Scientists across the world are therefore developing new tests that are faster, cheaper, adapted to needs of local health systems and easy to manufacture in order to overcome this challenge.

To enable scientists to access the research tools they need for their work, researchers from the Open Bioeconomy Lab at the University of Cambridge, the Lab de Tecnología Libre at iBio/PUC Chile and the FreeGenes Project at Stanford University teamed up with synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks to design an open source toolkit that enables researchers to produce 16 of the most useful enzymes for a number of diagnostic techniques used to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19.

“Designing the collections was a great collaborative effort between researchers with diverse expertise and different local needs for fighting the pandemic,” said Dr Chiara Gandini from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. “We designed it with other biologists in mind, making it as easy as possible for them to reconfigure the toolkit for their requirements.”

The ‘Molecular Diagnostic Toolkit’ comprises ready-to-use DNA to produce enzymes including DNA polymerases and reverse transcriptases – the enzymes used in gold standard RT-qPCR tests. These enzymes are also useful for tests like LAMP, which is faster and simpler than RT-qPCR and is rapidly being adopted by more labs. Control DNA is also included in the toolkit to validate that tests will specifically detect SARS-CoV-2 but not closely related viruses.

The Molecular Diagnostic Toolkit uses standard laboratory techniques to produce and purify the enzymes, but many researchers in the Global South work under challenging resource constraints and may need to adapt their work to the local availability of materials. They can therefore make use of the ‘E. coli Protein Expression Toolkit’: a collection of over 100 DNA parts that can be assembled in thousands of combinations to tailor the whole production process. For example, modules are included to bind enzymes to cellulose to develop paper-based tests or to activate enzyme production in cells using light from LEDs instead of expensive chemicals.

The toolkit has been pre-ordered by over 34 labs from 16 countries, including Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Cameroon, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam.

“Having access to this palette of molecular tools is crucial for our region to fight any reagent supply shortages in the short-term, and to leverage technological autonomy in diagnostics and viral monitoring in the long term,” said Tamara Matute from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and iBio, who participated in the design of the collection. Matute’s colleague Isaac Núñez added that mechanisms like the open online community, Reclone Network, are also needed to enhance the usefulness of the collection through peer support including fostering “a collaborative community, crowd-sourced protocols and openly-shared resources.”

While the initial focus of the toolkit is to support research and development, the same DNA could be used to manufacture diagnostic kits with the correct processes and regulatory approvals in place. As it is open source, any company or institution is able to produce and commercialise enzymes from the toolkit. For example, LAMP enzymes will be manufactured at the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute in a collaboration with the University of Cambridge supported by the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Fund.

Dr Brook Esseye of the EBTi LAMP Initiative said, “this initiative will enhance local capacity for bio-manufacturing and strengthen partnerships among researchers in various countries so we can join hands to fight this global pandemic.”

Looking beyond COVID-19, local bio-manufacturing capacity could underpin other advances in biotechnology research, education and innovation.

“A resilient local supply chain for diagnostics is vital to future health security and pandemic preparedness,” said Dr Jenny Molloy, Shuttleworth Fellow at Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. “The same enzymes used to detect COVID-19 can also detect malaria, typhoid and many other diseases. They can be applied in lots of other ways to make positive social and economic impact, including research to breed better crops, measuring the effect of conservation initiatives on biodiversity and tracking antibiotic resistance. This flexibility is why it is so important that key tools for biotechnology are accessible, used and useful for all researchers around the world.”

The toolkit has been made freely available under the Open Material Transfer Agreement (OpenMTA), which gives explicit permission for recipients to distribute to other labs and to use the toolkit for commercial purposes, and can be ordered online via Stanford University’s Free Genes project.

Researchers and users of the toolkit are invited to share protocols, resources and advice via the Reclone Forum.