The finding comes from a study which began when the UK first went into lockdown in March 2020, forcing universities to move some teaching online. Ten months on, it suggests that academics and students would favour more ‘blended’ learning – a balance between virtual and face-to-face education – even when the pandemic is over.

Many are concerned, however, that some universities will be tempted to take courses fully online – a move they worry would kill off the traditional student experience of living and learning away from home. During the study, participants were asked to describe the most dystopian near-future for university teaching that they could imagine. In terms that sometimes read like a lost script from the science fiction series Black Mirror, they responded with visions of students ‘attending’ Cambridge through VR headsets, while courses are cut up and sold off in highly-marketable, bite-sized components.

Despite this, the research found that many staff and students regard the rapid adoption of new, online learning methods during the pandemic as an opportunity: to make universities more accessible, affordable, and to strengthen their relationships within wider society.

The study was carried out by Simone Eringfeld, a graduate student at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She said: “The project deliberately asked people to speculate about what might happen to university education, basing their answers on trends that we are already seeing in the sector today. At a time when universities are having to change very quickly, an exercise like this can give us a clearer picture of the kind of university we want to emerge from that transformation, as well as what we don’t want.”

Eringfeld began the study when a planned research project in refugee camps in Uganda was cancelled due to COVID-related travel restrictions. Confined to Cambridge, she decided to research the ‘post-coronial’ future of universities instead. This emerging field of academic enquiry is examining how the changes prompted by COVID-19 might offer an opportunity to re-evaluate what universities are for, to whom they belong and how they can become more inclusive.

She devised an action-research project built around a podcast, Cambridge Quaranchats, in which she interviewed academics, students and other staff, about life and work in Cambridge during the pandemic. She then carried out detailed, private interviews with another 10 staff and students. These participants were asked to listen to clips from the podcast and to imagine how online teaching might transform post-coronial higher education – for better, or worse.

Their biggest fear was that institutions might decide to move all teaching online. Some envisaged that universities might then seek to increase revenues by breaking up these online courses and selling individual lectures or classes to mass audiences in ‘bite-sized’ form. At its most bleak, the research suggests, online learning threatens to turn universities into ‘placeless’ institutions, where students no longer enjoy social activities, or encounter a healthy mix of people, cultures and ideas.

Asked to describe his not-too-distant dystopian vision, one student said: “Imagine virtual reality has gotten better and better. We can now host the entire experience online, so you wake up in the morning, put your headset on and go to lectures. You sort of simulate life. I think that’s the worst-case scenario… the University of Cambridge would be like a network or file. It wouldn’t even be a place anymore.”

Perhaps surprisingly after months of remote learning, however, all of the interviewees saw opportunities in moving at least some university education online. Many felt this would give academics and students greater flexibility in their working lives, reduce stress, and provide them with more time to explore other interests.

The study also suggests that this could conceivably help to make university more affordable. Institutions could, for instance, repackage courses so that students are not necessarily obliged to live on campus for as much of the year, thus reducing living costs.

A number of staff and students also viewed the wider availability of online learning as an opportunity to remodel university education in other, fundamental ways. Many, for example, favour making some streamed lectures widely available for free. And because online learning removes some infrastructural limitations of physical campuses, such as departmental divisions, participants also saw the potential to design new interdisciplinary courses; or to blend academic courses with vocational training by joining forces with further education colleges and other training bodies.

For some students, this represents an opportunity to ensure that higher education produces not just academically-accomplished graduates, but rounded citizens. “It’s not that I hope that we produce fewer Nobel Prize-winners,” one undergraduate told Eringfeld, “but I would hope that we would be more concerned with producing people… I would hope that the process of education makes people more human.”

Whether or not such ideas are realised, Eringfeld concludes that post-coronial universities will need to devise ways to combine virtual and face-to-face teaching safely and flexibly.

“Neither a fully online university, nor a complete return to face-to-face higher education, will be desirable in the post-COVID era,” she said. “People genuinely fear the possibility that we will lose the more embodied, communal aspects of being at university. At the same time, they realise that online teaching makes it more accessible. The challenge for post-coronial universities will be to encourage new forms of ‘belonging’ so that even with more blended learning, higher education remains a connected and meaningful experience.”

The research is published in Studies in Higher Education.

The University of Cambridge research concludes that disabled teachers remain ‘on the margins’ of a drive for greater inclusivity in schools. It draws on in-depth interviews with several teachers to suggest ways this could improve. In particular, the study identifies the need to encourage more disabled people into teaching, highlighting the skills, knowledge and empathy they can bring to classrooms.

The authors suggest that disabled teachers continue to experience discrimination not because of the innate prejudice of colleagues, but because of the general pressure on schools created by various performance targets, which makes it difficult for them to accommodate staff with different needs. This may explain the fairly overt discrimination that some interviewees recounted: including a case where one teacher was told to ‘grit her teeth and get on with it’ when she requested time off work, and another in which a staff member was disciplined after devising workarounds for systems that she couldn’t use.

The study itself is small, offering a snapshot of disabled teachers’ working lives using pre-existing evidence and detailed interviews with 10 professionals. This, however, reflects the under-representation of disabled people in teaching: the last time the Government recorded their numbers (in 2016), of the data returned, just 0.5% of teachers self-reported as disabled in stark contrast to the estimated 16% of working age disabled adults in the general population.

It is, however, also one of the only studies of its kind. The authors state that disabled teachers are ‘typically marginalised within research, as well as mainstream education’, and express the hope that their work will make the case for further evidence-gathering to inform policy and practice.

The study was carried out by Professor Nidhi Singal and Dr Hannah Ware, from the Cambridge Network for Disability and Education Research (CaNDER), in the University’s Faculty of Education.

Dr Ware said: “There has been a significant focus on making mainstream schools more inclusive for disabled children and others. However, disabled teachers, who are entrusted with enacting that ethos, seem to have been side-lined in those efforts. These findings raise a serious question: How can we possibly promote inclusivity in schools if it only extends to children?”

Professor Singal added: “Much of the evidence we gathered suggests that stresses in the system are amplified for disabled teachers and that part of the solution is to recruit more disabled people into the profession. For schools, that would constitute a double-win: not only are disabled teachers excellent role models; they also often bring additional qualities and strengths into classrooms.”

The participating teachers, whose details were anonymised for the study, had a wide range of disabilities. Interestingly, not all of them had felt sufficiently confident to disclose these to their schools.

The interviews revealed significant commonalities of experience. Perhaps surprisingly, the teachers were overwhelmingly positive about their relationships with pupils. Many had developed coping mechanisms to handle their disability in the classroom: for example, one dyslexic teacher explained how she actively used her disability as a basis for ad-hoc spelling challenges in class.

The findings also suggest that disabled teachers can be highly empathetic and skilled at differentiating their teaching and learning methods to suit all students. By definition, they also help to make schools more inclusive and promote positive attitudes towards disabled people.

Most of those interviewed described a more problematic relationship with their fellow staff. Several said that they often felt lonely or undervalued at work, and were concerned that while colleagues were mindful of the challenges faced by disabled children, they displayed poor disability awareness with regard to adults. One participant described ‘a hostile environment’ every time she had to ask for adjustments to accommodate her disability; another, who has primary lymphodema in three limbs, said that whenever she took time off work, “you could feel their resentment when you came back”.

Nine of the 10 participants said they had experienced discriminatory practices at work. One teacher, who has myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia, had been told she had to come into school after a flare-up left her in severe pain. “The deputy head said: ‘grit your teeth and get on with it’,” she told the researchers.

Another teacher recounted being unable to use the approved colours for the school’s marking system (green and red) because she has scotopic sensitivity. When she devised an alternative solution, which involved giving pupils feedback using a computer, she was formally disciplined for not following official procedures.

In line with some of the teachers’ own comments, the authors argue that many of these problems emanate from systemic pressures.  There is also some emerging, anecdotal evidence that the additional strain on schools caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred after the research was completed, may have worsened the extent to which colleagues feel unable to accommodate disabled teachers’ needs. “These colleagues are typically well-meaning people who, outside school, would make every effort to accommodate a disabled person,” Singal said. “Part of the problem is that in school their only option is to get on with the job.”

The research identifies several ‘levers for change’ that would improve disabled teachers’ experiences. Many participants highlighted the value of mentors, support networks, and of having senior leaders capable of empathising with the different demands that disabilities impose. “I don’t know if I am the first disabled PE teacher, but I feel like I am pretty much doing this by myself,” one participant told the authors. “It would be great to meet other disabled teachers.”

The researchers therefore argue that there would be multiple benefits for disabled teachers and schools if more disabled people could be supported to enter the profession. Among other recommendations, they also highlight the need for more awareness training, particularly for school leaders.

Given the present study’s limited scale, the authors also call for more research and data-gathering about disabled teachers and their experiences in English schools. “This is not just an education issue: it’s part of a wider disenfranchisement of disabled people in the workplace,” Ware added. “But we stand more chance of resolving it in education by strengthening our understanding of disabled teachers’ experiences.”

The findings are reported in the journal, Disability & Society.

Talks, film nights and book clubs will explore the experiences of the LGBT+ community, discuss significant moments in queer history and honour those who have worked to promote equality and diversity.

Duncan Astle, Chair of the LGBT+ staff network at the University, said: “LGBT+ History Month is our opportunity to celebrate and reflect on our ongoing march towards equality and social justice. We highlight trailblazers and role models, and educate others and ourselves about queer history. 

“The stories of marginalised groups have the potential to change our view of the present, and provide a fresh perspective on our future. Flying the Rainbow Flag so publicly during LGBT+ History Month is our way of honouring those trailblazers, and declaring that we want to play our part in continuing that march towards equality.”

The life of one such pioneer, 18th Century sculptor Anne Damer, will be discussed by Dr Caroline Gonda, Fellow and Director of Studies in English at St Catharine's College, at an event which will explore our cultural understanding of LGBTQ+ history during that period. 

Dr Gonda said: “In the 1790s, Damer's reputation for ‘Sapphism’ was so notorious that anyone close to her risked being queered by association - as one of her contemporaries noted, ‘'Tis a joke in London now to say that such a one visits Mrs Damer’.

“We're used to thinking of queer history as revealing a private truth behind a straight public facade, but Damer's story complicates that idea.”

David Wikramaratna, Chair of Cambridge Assessment’s LGBT+ staff network, which is running a joint event with CA's BAME network to focus on the intersection of BAME and LGBTQAI+ histories, said: “Every year during LGBT+ History Month I find myself learning new things about people or events that I didn’t know before – I personally think it’s really important to remember that queer people have always been present throughout history, dispelling the myth that being LGBTQAI+ is a new phenomenon, it’s just that for various reasons it might not have been spoken about or documented as it would be today.” 

The Rainbow Flag – the international symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community – will again fly over the Old Schools, at the heart of the University of Cambridge, on February 1. In recent years, an overwhelming majority of colleges, as well as University departments and institutions, including the University Library, have shown their support for LGBT+ History Month – and for their LGBT+ members, their friends and families – by flying the Rainbow Flag as well as hosting a wide range of events.

Professor Andrew Webber, the University’s LGBT+ Equality Champion, said LGBT+ History Month is also an opportunity to commemorate the adversities LGBT+ people have faced, and celebrate acts of courage. 

“While some of the more painful aspects of those histories are now hopefully behind us in the UK, experience shows us that there is no room for complacency in addressing the needs of the present. History Month can also give the opportunity to recognise that present realities for many LGBT+ people around the world are still marked by the kind of fear and injury that we might like to think belong to the past.”

Miriam Lynn, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University, said that, for some, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant taking the opportunity to connect with others was vital.

She said: “For some LGBT+ people, we recognise that the pandemic may be having a significant negative impact. Being at home may not be the safest place, as we may not be living with family or housemates who are affirming. It's so important that LGBT+ staff and students keep in virtual contact with regular support networks. I recognise how important community is to providing necessary affirmation and am very grateful to everyone who is providing a virtual space, helping us connect with each other during this very important month.”       

This year’s LGBT+ History Month events include:

Clare Hall LGBTQ+ community chat

7pm, 1 February

To kick off LGBTQ+ History Month, the Equalities Committee would like to invite Clare Hall students to a video chat. This will be a bonding session for LGBTQ+ students to meet one another. A video meeting link will be circulated in Clare Hall groups via email, Discord, Whatsapp, Signal, and Facebook.

The Clare Hall Equalities team has also organised the flying of the Progress Pride Flag: “While retaining the common six-stripe rainbow design as a base, the ‘Progress’ variation adds a chevron along the hoist that features black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes to bring those communities (marginalised people of colour, trans individuals, and those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost) to the forefront”. 

The flag will be flown at Clare Hall every day in February, except 6 February (UK Flag Day).  

LGBT+ Staff Network History Month Film Night

From 6.30pm, 3 February

We’ll be watching an hour and 10 minutes of some of the best British short films from the Iris Prize, the LGBT+ film festival, available via All 4: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/best-british-short-1-odyssey/on-dema..., and chatting afterwards via Zoom. 
For more information contact: equality@admin.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge Assessment LGBT+ Network and the CA BAME Network

1pm-2pm, 15 February

This year Cambridge Assessment’s LGBTQAI+ network is running a joint event with our BAME network to focus on the intersection of BAME and LGBTQAI+ histories – please join us to watch and discuss a variety of video clips focussing on the various points in modern history where the fight for civil rights has overlapped. For an event invite or further information please contact Wikramaratna.d@cambridgeenglish.org

'Byron and the Lion King' - a presentation by Cheryl Morgan for LGBT+ History Month

5pm-6pm, 15 February

Join Christ's College's LGBT+ Society, in partnership with Christ's Seeley Society, to welcome Cheryl Morgan from OutStories Bristol as she looks at a play, ancient texts, and archaeology to see how sexuality and gender have changed over time. The presentation will happen over Zoom and will be approximately 50 minutes long. Students and members of all colleges are welcome! 
More information here: https://fb.me/e/1qjYi0IZa

Queer(y)ing the Past - Department of Archaeology

5.30pm-7.30pm, 18 Feb

The Department of Archaeology is hosting its annual Queer(y)ing the Past LGBT+ History Month event; a series of short talks, co-organised by the University of Cambridge Archaeological Field Club, which will explore the topics of sexuality and gender in the past. More information here: http://bit.ly/CamArchLGBT21

The Really Popular Book Club: Girl Meets Boy, with Miriam Lynn 

6pm-7pm, 23 Feb  

The Really Popular Book Club is the new reading group hosted by Cambridge University Library. Everyone is invited to join us and our special guests to discuss a really popular book, one that we all know and perhaps - or perhaps not - love.

To mark LGBT+ History Month, all are invited to join us as we discuss Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith. Girl Meets Boy is part of the Canongate myth series, in which contemporary authors have been invited to rewrite myths – Ali Smith creatively rewrites the love story of Iphis and Ianthe from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and uses it tell us a story about humanity, social justice and love.
More information here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/whats/really-popular-book-club-girl-meets-boy-...

Anne Damer’s Place in Queer History

7pm, 24 Feb

Anne Damer’s Place in Queer History, a talk by Dr Caroline Gonda. Tickets are available here: https://strawberryhillhouse.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/32472?catID=...

University LGBT+ History Month Lecture: Sexual health, activism and the arrival of HIV/AIDS - the story behind It’s a Sin

6pm, 25 Feb

Channel 4’s powerful new drama It’s a Sin depicts the lives of a group of young gay men during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. As part of LGBT+ History Month, we explore gay men’s sexual health in the decades running up to the emergence of the disease and find out how HIV/AIDS sparked a dramatic new wave of activism. Our guest speakers are Dr Richard McKay (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and author of Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic) and PhD student George Severs (Faculty of History). 
More information here: https://lgbthm2021.eventbrite.co.uk

Out Loud: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Research in Newnham's MCR

6pm, 25 Feb

A virtual event celebrating LGBTQ+ focused research in Newnham College’s postgraduate community. We hope this will be a great opportunity to share work within a relaxed and supportive environment, and to raise the profile of LGBTQ+ focused research within college. More information here: mcr.lgbt@newn.cam.ac.uk

Night Songs, St Catharine’s College

9.30pm, 25 February

The Night Songs service for LGBT+ History Month will feature music and poetry chosen by LGBT+ members of the St Catharine’s community, including the music of Hildegard of Bingen.
The link to join via YouTube will be available here: https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/chapelservices

For the full line-up of events across Cambridgeshire during LGBT+ History Month, visit: http://encompassnetwork.org.uk/category/history-month-2021/ 

The preliminary data, which have yet to be to peer-reviewed and relate to only a small number of patients, also suggest that a significant proportion of over-eighty olds may not be sufficiently protected against infection until they have received their second dose of the vaccine.

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates and spreads, errors in its genetic code can lead to changes in the virus. Towards the end of 2020, the Cambridge-led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium identified a variant of the virus (now known as B1.1.7) which includes important changes that change the structure of the Spike protein, including the ΔH69/ΔV70 and Δ144/145 amino acid deletions and N501Y, A570D and P681H mutations. Researchers at Cambridge/COG-UK now report seeing a number of virus sequences that also include the E484K mutation, first seen in the South African variant.

The emergence of the B1.1.7 strain has led to strict lockdown measures in the UK because of concerns over its transmissibility. There is particular concern that these changes might enable the virus to ‘escape’ the newly-developed vaccines, which typically target the Spike protein.

The UK has begun rolling out two vaccines – the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The efficacy of the vaccines can be boosted by a second dose; however, in order to reach as large a number of people as possible in a short amount of time, the government has concentrated on delivering a first dose to as many individuals as possible by giving the second dose at 12 weeks, rather than three.

Researchers at the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), University of Cambridge, working in collaboration with the NIHR Covid-19 BioResource, used blood samples from 26 individuals who had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine three weeks previously, to extract serum, which contains antibodies raised in response to the vaccine. The age range of the volunteers was 29 to 89 years.

Working under secure conditions, the team created a synthetic version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as a pseudovirus. When they tested the individuals’ sera against this pseudovirus, they found that all but seven of the individuals had levels of antibodies sufficiently high to neutralise the virus – that is, to protect against infection.

When the team added all eight Spike protein mutations found in B1.1.7 to the pseudovirus, they found that the efficacy of the vaccine was affected by the B1.1.7 mutations, which required higher concentrations of antibody in the sera to neutralise the virus. Although there was a wide range of variation between individuals, on average B1.1.7 required around a two-fold increase in the concentration of serum antibody.

However, when the E484K mutation was added, substantially higher levels of antibody were required – on average this mutation required an almost ten-fold increase in the concentration of serum antibody for neutralisation when compared to the strain circulating prior to B.1.1.7.

Professor Ravi Gupta from CITIID, who led the study, said: “Our findings suggest that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is likely to offer similar protection against B1.1.7 as it does against the previous strain of SARS-CoV-2. Although we found a reduction in the ability of antibodies to neutralise the virus, given the number of antibodies produced following vaccination, this should still only have a relatively modest effect and people should still be protected.

“Of particular concern, though, is the emergence of the E484K mutation, which so far has only been seen in a relatively small number of individuals. Our work suggests the vaccine is likely to be less effective when dealing with this mutation.

“B1.1.7 will continue to acquire mutations seen in the other variants of concern, so we need to plan for the next generation of vaccines to have modifications to account for new variants. We also need to scale up vaccines as fast and as broadly as possible to get transmission down globally.”

The seven individuals who were unable to neutralise the virus after the first dose were all aged over 80 years old. This accounts for almost half of the 15 individuals in this age group. However, at a follow-up visit after these individuals had received their second dose (given at three weeks), they were all able to neutralise the virus.

Dr Dami Collier, the main co-investigator on the studies, added: “Our data suggest that a significant proportion of people aged over eighty may not have developed protective neutralising antibodies against infection three weeks after their first dose of the vaccine. But it’s reassuring to see that after two doses, serum from every individual was able to neutralise the virus.”

The researchers have released their data ahead of peer review because of the urgent need to share information relating to the pandemic, and particularly the new UK variant.

The research was supported by Wellcome, the Medical Research Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 escape from mRNA vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies

Age-related heterogeneity in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 following BNT162b2 vaccination

The QEPrize is the world’s most prestigious engineering prize, celebrating the engineers responsible for ground-breaking innovations in engineering that have been of global benefit to humanity.

The prize aims to raise the public profile of engineering and inspire young people to take up the engineering challenges of the future.

Professor Gladden, who is currently Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), said:

“I am honoured to be asked to Chair the QEPrize judging panel of internationally distinguished engineers.

“It is tremendously stimulating to work with some of the leading engineers of our generation to select winning innovations from among so many excellent nominations.

“The QEPrize is the world’s highest accolade for engineers, recognising the profound effect the profession has across the globe and serving to inspire a new generation of engineers. I look forward very much to our work on the judging panel to find the next winning nomination.”

In addition to her role as EPSRC Executive Chair, Professor Gladden is Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

She is a Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Professor Gladden is internationally recognised for her work on advancing magnetic resonance imaging techniques, originally developed for use in the medical environment.

She has used them in engineering research to gain a greater understanding of the physical and chemical phenomena that determine the performance of chemical processes and their resulting products.

Lord Browne of Madingley, Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation, said: “I am delighted that Dame Lynn has accepted our invitation to lead the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering judging panel as we embark on an exciting new phase for the Prize.

“She is one of the world’s preeminent engineers, and has served on the panel with distinction since the inception of the Prize. We look forward to working with Lynn as Chair of the judging panel.”

The findings are from a year-long University of Cambridge study with Design and Technology (D&T) year 9 pupils (ages 13 to 14) at two inner London schools. Pupils at one school spent the year following curriculum-prescribed lessons, while the other group’s D&T lessons used a set of engineering design thinking tools which aim to foster students’ ability to think creatively and to engender empathy, while solving real-world problems.

Both sets of pupils were assessed for creativity at both the start and end of the school year using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: a well-established psychometric test.

The results showed a statistically significant increase in creativity among pupils at the intervention school, where the thinking tools were used. At the start of the year, the creativity scores of pupils in the control school, which followed the standard curriculum, were 11% higher than those at the intervention school. By the end, however, the situation had completely changed: creativity scores among the intervention group were 78% higher than the control group.

The researchers also examined specific categories within the Torrance Test that are indicative of emotional or cognitive empathy: such as ‘emotional expressiveness’ and ‘open-mindedness’. Pupils from the intervention school again scored much higher in these categories, indicating that a marked improvement in empathy was driving the overall creativity scores.

The study’s authors suggest that encouraging empathy not only improves creativity, but can deepen pupils’ general engagement with learning. Notably, they found evidence that boys and girls in the intervention school responded to the D&T course in ways that defied traditional gender stereotypes. Boys showed a marked improvement in emotional expression, scoring 64% higher in that category at the end of the year than at the start, while girls improved more in terms of cognitive empathy, showing 62% more perspective-taking.

The research is part of a long-term collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge called ‘Designing Our Tomorrow’ (DOT), led by Bill Nicholl and Ian Hosking. It challenges pupils to solve real-world problems by thinking about the perspectives and feelings of others.

The particular challenge used in the study asked pupils at the intervention school to design an asthma-treatment ‘pack’ for children aged six and under. Pupils were given various creative and empathetic ‘tools’ in order to do so: for example, they were shown data about the number of childhood asthma fatalities in the UK, and a video which depicts a young child having an attack. They also explored the problem and tested their design ideas by role-playing various stakeholders, for example, patients, family-members, and medical staff.

Nicholl, Senior Lecturer in Design and Technology Education, who trains teachers studying on the University’s D&T PGCE course, said: “Teaching for empathy has been problematic despite being part of the D&T National Curriculum for over two decades. This evidence suggests that it is a missing link in the creative process, and vital if we want education to encourage the designers and engineers of tomorrow.”

Dr Helen Demetriou, an affiliated lecturer in psychology and education at the Faculty of Education with a particular interest in empathy, and the other researcher involved in the study, said: “We clearly awakened something in these pupils by encouraging them to think about the thoughts and feelings of others. The research shows not only that it is possible to teach empathy, but that by doing so we support the development of children’s creativity, and their wider learning.”

The gender differences charted in the study indicate that the intervention enabled students to overcome some of the barriers to learning that assumed gender roles often create. For example, boys often feel discouraged from expressing emotion at school, yet this was one of the main areas where they made significant creative gains according to the tests.

In addition to the Torrance Tests, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with pupils at both the intervention school and a third (girls-only) school who also undertook the asthma challenge. This feedback again suggested that pupils had empathised deeply with the challenges faced by young asthma-sufferers, and that this had influenced their creative decisions in the classroom.

Many, for example, used phrases such as ‘stepping into their shoes’ or ‘seeing things from another point of view’ when discussing patients and their families. One boy told the researchers: “I think by the end of the project I could feel for the people with asthma… if I was a child taking inhalers, I would be scared too.”

Another responded: “Let’s say you had a sister or brother in that position. I would like to do something like this so we can help them.”

Overall, the authors suggest that these findings point to a need to nurture ‘emotionally intelligent learners’ not only in D&T classes, but across subjects, particularly in the context of emerging, wider scientific evidence that our capacity for empathy declines as we get older.

“This is something that we must think about as curricula in general become increasingly exam-based,” Demetriou said. “Good grades matter, but for society to thrive, creative, communicative and empathic individuals matter too.”

Nicholl added: “When I taught Design and Technology, I didn’t see children as potential engineers who would one day contribute to the economy; they were people who needed to be ready to go into the world at 18. Teaching children to empathise is about building a society where we appreciate each other’s perspectives. Surely that is something we want education to do.”

The study is published in the journal, Improving Schools. 

CAMBRIDGE OFFERS

Sir, Apropos your report “Cambridge to withdraw places if oversubscribed” (Feb 3), the university is not planning to withdraw places from students who meet the terms of their offers. As your article notes, last summer we admitted a record number of students after A-level grades were revised upwards. Fortunately we were able to accommodate this higher intake but only through voluntary entry deferral by some students or by others accepting a place at a college that was not their original choice. This year we altered our terms and conditions to show offer holders that, should their offering college be oversubscribed, we might have to consider these options again. If a student preferred to take up a place at another university, they could, but this would only be necessary if they were not happy with the option of transferring to another college or deferring entry.

Professor Graham Virgo
Senior pro-vice-chancellor (education), University of Cambridge

A new study published today in the journal Science of the Total Environment provides the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study has revealed large-scale changes in the type of vegetation in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, and adjacent regions in Myanmar and Laos, over the last century. Climatic changes including increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide - which affect the growth of plants and trees - have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland. This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.

The number of coronaviruses in an area is closely linked to the number of different bat species present. The study found that an additional 40 bat species have moved into the southern Chinese province of Yunnan in the past century, harbouring around 100 more types of bat-borne coronavirus. This ‘global hotspot’ is the region where genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2 may have arisen. 

“Climate change over the last century has made the habitat in the southern Chinese Yunnan province suitable for more bat species,” said Dr Robert Beyer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and first author of the study, who has recently taken up a European research fellowship at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.

He added: “Understanding how the global distribution of bat species has shifted as a result of climate change may be an important step in reconstructing the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.”

To get their results, the researchers created a map of the world’s vegetation as it was a century ago, using records of temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover. Then they used information on the vegetation requirements of the world’s bat species to work out the global distribution of each species in the early 1900s. Comparing this to current distributions allowed them to see how bat ‘species richness’, the number of different species, has changed across the globe over the last century due to climate change.

“As climate change altered habitats, species left some areas and moved into others - taking their viruses with them. This not only altered the regions where viruses are present, but most likely allowed for new interactions between animals and viruses, causing more harmful viruses to be transmitted or evolve,” said Beyer.

The world’s bat population carries around 3,000 different types of coronavirus, with each bat species harbouring an average of 2.7 coronaviruses - most without showing symptoms. An increase in the number of bat species in a particular region, driven by climate change, may increase the likelihood that a coronavirus harmful to humans is present, transmitted, or evolves there.

Most coronaviruses carried by bats cannot jump into humans. But several coronaviruses known to infect humans are very likely to have originated in bats, including three that can cause human fatalities: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) CoV-1 and CoV-2. 

The region identified by the study as a hotspot for a climate-driven increase in bat species richness is also home to pangolins, which are suggested to have acted as intermediate hosts to SARS-CoV-2. The virus is likely to have jumped from bats to these animals, which were then sold at a wildlife market in Wuhan - where the initial human outbreak occurred. 

The researchers echo calls from previous studies that urge policy-makers to acknowledge the role of climate change in outbreaks of viral diseases, and to address climate change as part of COVID-19 economic recovery programmes. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous social and economic damage. Governments must seize the opportunity to reduce health risks from infectious diseases by taking decisive action to mitigate climate change,” said Professor Andrea Manica in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who was involved in the study. 

“The fact that climate change can accelerate the transmission of wildlife pathogens to humans should be an urgent wake-up call to reduce global emissions,” added Professor Camilo Mora at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, who initiated the project.

The researchers emphasised the need to limit the expansion of urban areas, farmland, and hunting grounds into natural habitat to reduce contact between humans and disease-carrying animals.

The study showed that over the last century, climate change has also driven increases in the number of bat species in regions around Central Africa, and scattered patches in Central and South America.

This research was supported by the European Research Council.

Reference
Beyer, R.M. et al: ‘Shifts in global bat diversity suggest a possible role of climate change in the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.’ Science of the Total Environment, Feb 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145413

--------------------------

Hear from other University of Cambridge researchers who are investigating how to reduce the risk of animal viruses jumping to humans.

Writing in Nature, a team led by Cambridge researchers report how they were able to observe SARS-CoV-2 mutating in the case of an immunocompromised patient treated with convalescent plasma. In particular, they saw the emergence of a key mutation also seen in the new variant that led to the UK being forced once again into strict lockdown, though there is no suggestion that the variant originated from this patient.

Using a synthetic version of the virus Spike protein created in the lab, the team showed that specific changes to its genetic code – the mutation seen in the B1.1.7 variant – made the virus twice as infectious on cells as the more common strain.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a betacoronavirus. Its RNA – its genetic code – is comprised of a series of nucleotides (chemical structures represented by the letters A, C, G and U). As the virus replicates itself, this code can be mis-transcribed, leading to errors, known as mutations. Coronaviruses have a relatively modest mutation rate at around 23 nucleotide substitutions per year.

Of particular concern are mutations that might change the structure of the ‘spike protein’, which sits on the surface of the virus, giving it its characteristic crown-like shape. The virus uses this protein to attach to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of the host’s cells, allowing it entry into the cells where it hijacks their machinery to allow it to replicate and spread throughout the body. Most of the current vaccines in use or being trialled target the spike protein and there is concern that mutations may affect the efficacy of these vaccines.

UK researchers within the Cambridge-led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium have identified a particular variant of the virus that includes important changes that appear to make it more infectious: the ΔH69/ΔV70 amino acid deletion in part of the spike protein is one of the key changes in this variant.

Although the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletion has been detected multiple times, until now, scientists had not seen them emerge within an individual. However, in a study published today in Nature, Cambridge researchers document how these mutations appeared in a COVID-19 patient admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The individual concerned was a man in his seventies who had previously been diagnosed with marginal B cell lymphoma and had recently received chemotherapy, meaning that that his immune system was seriously compromised. After admission, the patient was provided with a number of treatments, including the antiviral drug remdesivir and convalescent plasma – that is, plasma containing antibodies taken from the blood of a patient who had successfully cleared the virus from their system. Despite his condition initially stabilising, he later began to deteriorate. He was admitted to the intensive care unit and received further treatment, but later died.

During the patient’s stay, 23 viral samples were available for analysis, the majority from his nose and throat. These were sequenced as part of COG-UK. It was in these sequences that the researchers observed the virus’s genome mutating.

Between days 66 and 82, following the first two administrations of convalescent sera, the team observed a dramatic shift in the virus population, with a variant bearing ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions, alongside a mutation in the spike protein known as D796H, becoming dominant. Although this variant initially appeared to die away, it re-emerged again when the third course of remdesivir and convalescent plasma therapy were administered.

Professor Ravi Gupta from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, who led the research, said: “What we were seeing was essentially a competition between different variants of the virus, and we think it was driven by the convalescent plasma therapy.

“The virus that eventually won out – which had the D796H mutation and ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions – initially gained the upper hand during convalescent plasma therapy before being overtaken by other strains, but re-emerged when the therapy was resumed. One of the mutations is in the new UK variant, though there is no suggestion that our patient was where they first arose.”

Under strictly-controlled conditions, the researchers created and tested a synthetic version of the virus with the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions and D796H mutations both individually and together. The combined mutations made the virus less sensitive to neutralisation by convalescent plasma, though it appears that the D796H mutation alone was responsible for the reduction in susceptibility to the antibodies in the plasma. The D796H mutation alone led to a loss of infection in absence of plasma, typical of mutations that viruses acquire in order to escape from immune pressure.

The researchers found that the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletion by itself made the virus twice as infectious as the previously dominant variant. The researchers believe the role of the deletion was to compensate for the loss of infectiousness due to the D796H mutation.  This paradigm is classic for viruses, whereby escape mutations are followed by or accompanied by compensatory mutations.

“Given that both vaccines and therapeutics are aimed at the spike protein, which we saw mutate in our patient, our study raises the worrying possibility that the virus could mutate to outwit our vaccines,” added Professor Gupta.

“This effect is unlikely to occur in patients with functioning immune systems, where viral diversity is likely to be lower due to better immune control. But it highlights the care we need to take when treating immunocompromised patients, where prolonged viral replication can occur, giving greater opportunity for the virus to mutate.”

The research was largely supported by Wellcome, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute of Health Research, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reference
Kemp, SA et al. SARS-CoV-2 evolution during treatment of chronic infection. Nature; 5 Feb; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03291-y

An important class of challenging computational problems, with applications in graph theory, neural networks, artificial intelligence and error-correcting codes can be solved by multiplying light signals, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Russia.

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, they propose a new type of computation that could revolutionise analogue computing by dramatically reducing the number of light signals needed while simplifying the search for the best mathematical solutions, allowing for ultra-fast optical computers.

Optical or photonic computing uses photons produced by lasers or diodes for computation, as opposed to classical computers which use electrons. Since photons are essentially without mass and can travel faster than electrons, an optical computer would be superfast, energy-efficient and able to process information simultaneously through multiple temporal or spatial optical channels.

The computing element in an optical computer – an alternative to the ones and zeroes of a digital computer – is represented by the continuous phase of the light signal, and the computation is normally achieved by adding two light waves coming from two different sources and then projecting the result onto ‘0’ or ‘1’ states.

However, real life presents highly nonlinear problems, where multiple unknowns simultaneously change the values of other unknowns while interacting multiplicatively. In this case, the traditional approach to optical computing that combines light waves in a linear manner fails.

Now, Professor Natalia Berloff from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and PhD student Nikita Stroev from Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology have found that optical systems can combine light by multiplying the wave functions describing the light waves instead of adding them and may represent a different type of connections between the light waves.

They illustrated this phenomenon with quasi-particles called polaritons – which are half-light and half-matter – while extending the idea to a larger class of optical systems such as light pulses in a fibre. Tiny pulses or blobs of coherent, superfast-moving polaritons can be created in space and overlap with one another in a nonlinear way, due to the matter component of polaritons.

“We found the key ingredient is how you couple the pulses with each other,” said Stroev. “If you get the coupling and light intensity right, the light multiplies, affecting the phases of the individual pulses, giving away the answer to the problem. This makes it possible to use light to solve nonlinear problems.”

The multiplication of the wave functions to determine the phase of the light signal in each element of these optical systems comes from the nonlinearity that occurs naturally or is externally introduced into the system.

“What came as a surprise is that there is no need to project the continuous light phases onto ‘0’ and ‘1’ states necessary for solving problems in binary variables,” said Stroev. “Instead, the system tends to bring about these states at the end of its search for the minimum energy configuration. This is the property that comes from multiplying the light signals. On the contrary, previous optical machines require resonant excitation that fixes the phases to binary values externally.”

The authors have also suggested and implemented a way to guide the system trajectories towards the solution by temporarily changing the coupling strengths of the signals.

“We should start identifying different classes of problems that can be solved directly by a dedicated physical processor,” said Berloff, who also holds a position at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. “Higher-order binary optimisation problems are one such class, and optical systems can be made very efficient in solving them.”

There are still many challenges to be met before optical computing can demonstrate its superiority in solving hard problems in comparison with modern electronic computers: noise reduction, error correction, improved scalability, guiding the system to the true best solution are among them.

“Changing our framework to directly address different types of problems may bring optical computing machines closer to solving real-world problems that cannot be solved by classical computers,” said Berloff.

Reference:
Nikita Stroev and Natalia G. Berloff. ‘Discrete Polynomial Optimization with Coherent Networks of Condensates and Complex Coupling Switching.’ Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.050504

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, were able to control the conductivity and magnetism of iron thiophosphate (FePS₃), a two-dimensional material which undergoes a transition from an insulator to a metal when compressed. This class of magnetic materials offers new routes to understanding the physics of new magnetic states and superconductivity.

Using new high-pressure techniques, the researchers have shown what happens to magnetic graphene during the transition from insulator to conductor and into its unconventional metallic state, realised only under ultra-high pressure conditions. When the material becomes metallic, it remains magnetic, which is contrary to previous results and provides clues as to how the electrical conduction in the metallic phase works. The newly discovered high-pressure magnetic phase likely forms a precursor to superconductivity so understanding its mechanisms is vital.

Their results, published in the journal Physical Review X, also suggest a way that new materials could be engineered to have combined conduction and magnetic properties, which could be useful in the development of new technologies such as spintronics, which could transform the way in which computers process information.

Properties of matter can alter dramatically with changing dimensionality. For example, graphene, carbon nanotubes, graphite and diamond are all made of carbon atoms, but have very different properties due to their different structure and dimensionality.

“But imagine if you were also able to change all of these properties by adding magnetism,” said first author Dr Matthew Coak, who is jointly based at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and the University of Warwick. “A material which could be mechanically flexible and form a new kind of circuit to store information and perform computation. This is why these materials are so interesting, and because they drastically change their properties when put under pressure so we can control their behaviour.”

In a previous study by Sebastian Haines of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Department of Earth Sciences, researchers established that the material becomes a metal at high pressure, and outlined how the crystal structure and arrangement of atoms in the layers of this 2D material change through the transition.

“The missing piece has remained however, the magnetism,” said Coak. “With no experimental techniques able to probe the signatures of magnetism in this material at pressures this high, our international team had to develop and test our own new techniques to make it possible.”

The researchers used new techniques to measure the magnetic structure up to record-breaking high pressures, using specially designed diamond anvils and neutrons to act as the probe of magnetism. They were then able to follow the evolution of the magnetism into the metallic state.

“To our surprise, we found that the magnetism survives and is in some ways strengthened,” co-author Dr Siddharth Saxena, group leader at the Cavendish Laboratory. “This is unexpected, as the newly-freely-roaming electrons in a newly conducting material can no longer be locked to their parent iron atoms, generating magnetic moments there - unless the conduction is coming from an unexpected source.”

In their previous paper, the researchers showed these electrons were ‘frozen’ in a sense. But when they made them flow or move, they started interacting more and more. The magnetism survives, but gets modified into new forms, giving rise to new quantum properties in a new type of magnetic metal.

How a material behaves, whether conductor or insulator, is mostly based on how the electrons, or charge, move around. However, the ‘spin’ of the electrons has been shown to be the source of magnetism. Spin makes electrons behave a bit like tiny bar magnets and point a certain way. Magnetism from the arrangement of electron spins is used in most memory devices: harnessing and controlling it is important for developing new technologies such as spintronics, which could transform the way in which computers process information.

“The combination of the two, the charge and the spin, is key to how this material behaves,” said co-author Dr David Jarvis from the Institut Laue-Langevin, France, who carried out this work as the basis of his PhD studies at the Cavendish Laboratory. “Finding this sort of quantum multi-functionality is another leap forward in the study of these materials.”

“We don’t know exactly what’s happening at the quantum level, but at the same time, we can manipulate it,” said Saxena. “It’s like those famous ‘unknown unknowns’: we’ve opened up a new door to properties of quantum information, but we don’t yet know what those properties might be.”

There are more potential chemical compounds to synthesise than could ever be fully explored and characterised. But by carefully selecting and tuning materials with special properties, it is possible to show the way towards the creation of compounds and systems, but without having to apply huge amounts of pressure.

Additionally, gaining fundamental understanding of phenomena such as low-dimensional magnetism and superconductivity allows researchers to make the next leaps in materials science and engineering, with particular potential in energy efficiency, generation and storage.

As for the case of magnetic graphene, the researchers next plan to continue the search for superconductivity within this unique material. “Now that we have some idea what happens to this material at high pressure, we can make some predictions about what might happen if we try to tune its properties through adding free electrons by compressing it further,” said Coak.

“The thing we’re chasing is superconductivity,” said Saxena. “If we can find a type of superconductivity that’s related to magnetism in a two-dimensional material, it could give us a shot at solving a problem that’s gone back decades.”

Reference:
Matthew J. Coak et al. ‘Emergent Magnetic Phases in Pressure-Tuned van der Waals Antiferromagnet FePS3.’ Physical Review X (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011024

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used their method to culture and grow a ‘mini-airway’, the first time that a tube-shaped organoid has been developed without the need for any external support.

Using a mould made of a specialised polymer, the researchers were able to guide the size and shape of the mini-airway, grown from adult mouse stem cells, and then remove it from the mould when it reached the point where it could support itself.

Whereas the organoids currently used in medical research are at the microscopic scale, the method developed by the Cambridge team could make it possible to grow life-sized versions of organs. Their results are reported in the journal Advanced Science.

Organoids are tiny, three-dimensional cell assemblies that mimic the cell arrangement of fully-grown organs. They can be a useful way to study human biology and how it can go wrong in various diseases, and possibly how to develop personalised or regenerative treatments. However, assembling them into larger organ structures remains a challenge.

Other research teams have experimented with 3D printing techniques to develop larger mini-organs, but these often require an external support structure.

“Mini-organs are very small and highly fragile,” said Dr Yan Yan Shery Huang from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who co-led the research. “In order to scale them up, which would increase their usefulness in medical research, we need to find the right conditions to help the cells self-organise.”

Huang and her colleagues have proposed a new organoid engineering approach called Multi-Organoid Patterning and Fusion (MOrPF) to grow a miniature version of a mouse airway using stem cells. Using this technique, the scientists achieved faster assembly of organoids into airway tubes with uninterrupted passageways. The mini-airways grown using the MOrPF technique showed potential for scaling up to match living organ structures in size and shape, and retained their shape even in the absence of an external support.

The MOrPF technique involves several steps. First, a polymer mould – like a miniature version of a cake or jelly mould – is used to shape a cluster of many small organoids. The cluster is released from the mould after one day, and then grown for a further two weeks. The cluster becomes one single tubular structure, covered by an outer layer of airway cells. The moulding process is just long enough for the outer layer of the cells to form an envelope around the entire cluster. During the two weeks of further growth, the inner walls gradually disappear, leading to a hollow tubular structure.

“Gradual maturation of the cells is really important,” said Dr Joo-Hyeon Lee from Cambridge’s Wellcome – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, who co-led the research. “The cells need to be well-organised before we can release them so that the structures don’t collapse.”

The organoid cluster can be thought of like soap bubbles, initially packed together to form to the shape of the mould. In order to fuse into a single gigantic bubble from the cluster of compressed bubbles, the inner walls need to be broken down. In the MOrPF process, the fused organoid clusters are released from the mould to grow in floating, scaffold-free conditions, so that the cells forming the inner walls of the fused cluster can be taken out of the cluster. The mould can be made into different sizes or shapes, so that the researchers can pre-determine the shape of the finished mini-organ.

“The interesting thing is, if you think about the soap bubbles, the resulting big bubble is always spherical, but the special mechanical properties of the cell membrane of organoids make the resulting fused shape preserve the shape of the mould,” said co-author Professor Eugene Terentjev from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

The team say their method closely approximated the natural process of organ tube formation in some animal species. They are hopeful that their technique will help create biomimetic organs to facilitate medical research.

The researchers first plan to use their method to build a three-dimensional ‘organ on a chip’, which enables real-time continuous monitoring of cells, and could be used to develop new treatments for disease while reducing the number of animals used in research. Eventually, the technique could also be used with stem cells taken from a patient, in order to develop personalised treatments in future.

The research was supported in part by the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society.

Reference:
Ye Liu et al. ‘Bio-assembling Macro-Scale, Lumenized Airway Tubes of Defined Shape via Multi-Organoid Patterning and Fusion.’ Advanced Science (2021). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202003332

A study published in Nature Communications presents new evidence about what a key protein called alpha-synuclein actually does in neurons in the brain.

Dr Giuliana Fusco from the University of Cambridge, and lead author of the paper, said: “This study could unlock more information about this debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that can leave people unable to walk and talk. If we want to cure Parkinson’s, first we need to understand the function of alpha-synuclein, a protein present in everyone’s brains. This research is a vital step towards that goal.”

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes nerve cells in the brain to weaken or die. The disease has a variety of symptoms including tremors – particularly in the hands – gait and balance problems, slowness and extreme stiffness in the arms and legs. Parkinson's develops when cells in the brain stop working properly and can’t produce enough dopamine, a chemical that controls movement in the body by acting as a messenger between cells. 

The disease mostly affects people over 60 and gets worse over a number of years but early-onset Parkinson’s can affect people even younger.

More than 10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease including actor Michael J. Fox who was diagnosed aged 29, singer Neil Diamond, comedian Billy Connolly and musician Ozzy Osbourne. Parkinson’s can affect women, but men are more likely to have the disease.

It is not yet known why people get Parkinson's, but researchers think it's a combination of age, genetic and environmental factors that cause the dopamine-producing nerve cells to die affecting the body’s ability to move.

The new study looked at what was going on inside healthy conditions to help pinpoint what is going wrong in the cells of people with Parkinson’s. All cells in the body have a plasma membrane that protects cells and usually transports nutrients in and clears toxic substances out.

“One of the top questions in Parkinson’s research is: what is the function of alpha-synuclein, the protein that under pathological conditions forms clumps that affect motor and cognitive abilities," said Fusco, who is also a research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge. “Usually you discover a protein for its function and then you explore what is going wrong when disease strikes, in the case of alpha-synuclein the protein was identified for its pathological association but we didn’t know what it did in the neuron.

“Our research suggests that the alpha-synuclein protein sticks like glue to the inner face of the plasma membrane of nerve cells but not to the outer– a crucial new piece of information.”

The research was predominantly carried out at the Cambridge for Misfolding Diseases at the University of Cambridge. The scientists used synthetic models to mimic brain cell membranes during the study.

“When this protein is functioning normally it plays an important part in the mechanisms by which neurons exchange signals in the brain," said co-author Professor Alfonso De Simone, from Imperial College London. "But it has a dark side because it malfunctions and begins to stick together in clumps which eventually spread and kill healthy brain cells. Our research showed that this protein clings onto the inner face of the plasma membrane of brain cells so we are slowly building a picture of this very complex disorder by studying the key function of alpha-synuclein.”

There are treatments and drugs available to Parkinson’s patients and the disease isn’t fatal, but nothing is available to reverse the effects of the disease. Introducing lifestyle changes including getting more rest and exercise can also alleviate symptoms.

De Simone said: “We have thousands of proteins in our bodies and until the function of this mystery protein is confirmed with more research, drug therapies cannot begin to be developed to tackle the origins of Parkinson’s Disease in case medication accidentally affect a crucial purpose of the alpha-synuclein protein.”

Reference:
Wing K. Man et al. 'The docking of synaptic vesicles on the presynaptic membrane induced by α-synuclein is modulated by lipid composition.' Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21027-4

Adapted from a St John's College press release.

The University of Cambridge report, which was commissioned by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, argues that there is an urgent need to do more to support marginalised, adolescent women in low and middle-income countries; many of whom leave education early and then face an ongoing struggle to build secure livelihoods.

Amid extensive evidence which highlights the difficulties these women face, it estimates that almost a third of adolescent women in many such countries are not in education, training, or work.

‘Adolescents’ (technically people aged 10 to 19) comprise about one sixth of the world’s population. Women in this age group are some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The report argues that unless more is done to support them, it is unlikely that the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals – which include ending poverty, ensuring inclusive education, and empowering women and girls – will be met.

In particular, the document highlights the need for more concerted efforts to be made to prevent gender discrimination in labour markets, strengthen social safety nets for women, and provide both formal education and continued training for the huge numbers of adolescent women who, it says, ‘have missed out on acquiring relevant skills to enhance their livelihood opportunities.’

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: “Marginalised adolescent girls are those who experience extreme poverty, live in rural areas, have disabilities, are affected by conflict, or belong to disadvantaged groups. We need to prioritise these young women both in education and as they transition into work. Millions are being left behind by a range of interlocking problems, and strong, sustained political leadership is needed to turn that around.”

The Government has identified girls’ education as a key focus of the UK’s presidency of the G7 group of industrial countries this year, and gender equality will be mainstreamed across the different ministerial tracks. The new report raises gender inequality – both in education and employment – as major areas of concern for the international community.

The report further stresses that adolescence is a make-or-break time for many girls in low- and lower-middle-income countries and should therefore be a focal point of international efforts. During this period, many young women leave education early, either to work, or because they are expected to marry and start a family. Often, they do so without having acquired basic literacy or numeracy. In addition, very few have the transferable skills or training that they need to succeed in the world of work.

The document draws on more than 150 sources to evidence both the scale of the problem and the nature of the barriers that marginalised adolescent girls face. For many, a quality education remains a far-off dream. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, fewer than one in 10 girls from poor households in rural areas complete lower secondary education.

Many also struggle to find secure employment. Data from 30 low- and middle-income countries suggests that 31% of young women are not in education, employment or training, compared with 16% of boys. Those who do find jobs frequently work for low wages, in unsafe settings and without any sort of social safety net.

One of the main reasons for this, the report says, is a lack of access to appropriate skills development and training. For example, one in three unemployed adolescent girls in the Asia-Pacific region, and one in five in sub-Saharan Africa, report that the entry requirements for their preferred career path exceed their education and training.

Compounding these problems, gender discrimination in both labour markets and wider society is an accepted norm in many countries. Among many other examples, this manifests itself in inheritance laws which transfer land and property to sons but not daughters; the tendency to force girls who struggle to find work into early marriage and childbearing; and widespread gender-related violence. One study in Nigeria, cited in the report, found that two-thirds of young female apprentices had experienced physical violence – and 39% said that their employer was the most recent perpetrator.

While the research also identifies many successful individual programmes around the world that address some of these issues, it stresses the need for policy-makers internationally to prioritise adolescent girls in larger-scale, systemic reforms.

It makes numerous recommendations about how that can be done, including:

• Implementing measures and laws that challenge gender discrimination in education, labour markets and wider society.
• Curriculum reforms to develop women’s transferrable skills in school, supported by skills development programmes outside the education system.
• Catch-up programmes for those who have missed out on a basic education.
• Strengthening social safety nets, which have been shown to benefit women in particular.
• Providing sexual and reproductive health services and information for all adolescent girls.
• Providing counselling and rehabilitation services that offer practical support to adolescent girls who have been forced into unsafe work settings.

The report highlights the particular role that female political leaders and parliamentarians can play in driving forward a more integrated agenda for marginalised young women, and in challenging patriarchal norms that hold back gender equality.

It also warns that many of the trends documented are currently at risk of becoming worse as a result of COVID-19. “The best way that Governments can signal their commitment to this problem is by putting women and girls at the forefront of COVID-19 recovery efforts and ambitions to build back better,” Rose said. “It is vital that this includes a strong focus on adolescent girls.”

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, carried out a series of different fit tests, and found that when a high-performance mask – such as an N95, KN95 or FFP2 mask – is not properly fitted, it performs no better than a cloth mask. Minor differences in facial features, such as the amount of fat under the skin, make significant differences in how well a mask fits.

The results, published in the journal PLoS ONE, also suggest that the fit-check routine used in many healthcare settings has high failure rates, as minor leaks may be difficult or impossible to detect by the wearer. While the sample size was small, the researchers hope their findings will help develop new fit tests that are quick and reliable, in the case of future public health emergencies. The current study only evaluated the impact of fit on the wearer of the mask – the team will evaluate how fit impacts the protection of others in future research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made well-fitting face masks a vital piece of protective equipment for healthcare workers and civilians. While the importance of wearing face masks in slowing the spread of the virus has been demonstrated, there remains a lack of understanding about the role that good fit plays in ensuring their effectiveness.

“We know that unless there is a good seal between the mask and the wearer’s face, many aerosols and droplets will leak through the top and sides of the mask, as many people who wear glasses will be well aware of,” said Eugenia O’Kelly from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, the paper’s first author. “We wanted to quantitatively evaluate the level of fit offered by various types of masks, and most importantly, assess the accuracy of implementing fit-checks by comparing fit-check results to quantitative fit testing results.”

For the study, seven participants first evaluated N95 and KN95 masks by performing a fit check, according to NHS guidelines. Participants then underwent quantitative fit testing – which uses a particle counter to measure the concentration of particles inside and outside the mask – while wearing N95 and KN95 masks, surgical masks, and fabric masks. The results assessed the protection to the mask wearer, which is important in clinical settings.

N95 masks – which are a similar standard to the FFP3 masks available in the UK and the rest of Europe – offered higher degrees of protection than the other categories of masks tested; however, most N95 masks failed to fit the participants adequately.

In their study, the researchers found that when fitted properly, N95 masks filtered more than 95% of airborne particles, offering superior protection. However, in some cases, poorly-fitted N95 masks were only comparable with surgical or cloth masks.

“It’s not enough to assume that any single N95 model will fit the majority of a population,” said O’Kelly. “The most widely-fitting mask we looked at, the 8511 N95, fit only three out of the seven participants in our study.”

One observation the researchers made during their study was the width of the flange of the mask - the area of the material which comes in contact with the skin – may be a critical feature to fit. Masks which fit the greatest number of participants tended to have wider, more flexible flanges around the border.

In addition, small facial differences were observed to have a significant impact on quantitative fit. “Fitting the face perfectly is a difficult technical challenge and, as our research showed, small differences such as a centimetre wider nose or slightly fuller cheeks can make or break the fit of a mask,” said O’Kelly.

Self-performed fit-checks are attractive because they save on time and resources, and are often the only method of fit testing available. However, this study, and studies of fit-check systems in other countries, indicate that such fit-check systems are not reliable.

The researchers hope that their results will be of use for those who are working on new technologies and programmes to assess fit, so that healthcare and other frontline workers are adequately protected in the case of any future pandemics. Additionally, they hope these results will bring attention to the importance of fit in clinical-grade masks, especially if such masks are to be widely used by the public.  This study did not evaluate the impact of fit on protecting others, which is a future area of research.

Reference:
Eugenia O’Kelly et al. ‘Comparing the fit of N95, KN95, surgical, and cloth face masks and assessing the accuracy of fit checking.’ PLoS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245688

In the last 25 years, scientists have discovered over 4000 planets outside our solar system. From relatively small rock and water worlds to blisteringly hot gas giants, these planets display a remarkable variety.

This variety is not unexpected. The computer models which scientists use to study the formation of planets predict this variety as well. What the models struggle to explain is the observed mass distribution of exoplanets.

The majority fall in the intermediate-mass category – planets with masses of several Earth masses to around that of Neptune. Even in our own solar system, the formation of Uranus and Neptune remains a mystery.

Now, scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich, associated with the Swiss NCCR PlanetS, have proposed an alternative explanation. Their results are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“When planets form from the so-called protoplanetary disk of gas and dust, gravitational instabilities could be the driving mechanism,” said co-author Professor Lucio Mayer from the University of Zurich.

In this process, dust and gas in the disk clump together due to gravity and form dense spiral structures. These then grow into planetary building blocks and eventually planets.

The scale on which this process occurs is very large – spanning the scale of the protoplanetary disk. “But over shorter distances – the scale of single planets – another force dominates: That of magnetic fields developing alongside the planets,” said Mayer.

These magnetic fields stir up the gas and dust of the disk and influence the formation of the planets.

“To get a complete picture of the planetary formation process, it is important to not only simulate the large-scale spiral structure in the disk: the small-scale magnetic fields around the growing planetary building blocks also have to be included,” said lead author Dr Hongping Deng from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

However, the differences in scale and nature of gravity and magnetism make the two forces challenging to integrate into the same planetary formation model. So far, computer simulations that capture the effects of one of the forces well usually do poorly with the other.

To succeed, the team developed a new modelling technique. First, they needed a deep theoretical understanding of both gravity and magnetism. Then, they had to find a way to translate the understanding into a code that could efficiently compute these contrasting forces in unison. Finally, due to the immense number of necessary calculations, a powerful computer was required – like the Piz Daint at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). “Apart from the theoretical insights and the technical tools that we developed, we were therefore also dependent on the advancement of computing power,” said Mayer.

“With our model, we were able to show for the first time that the magnetic fields make it difficult for the growing planets to continue accumulating mass beyond a certain point,” said Deng. “As a result, giant planets become rarer and intermediate-mass planets much more frequent – similar to what we observe in reality.”

“These results are only a first step, but they clearly show the importance of accounting for more physical processes in planet formation simulations,” said co-author Ravit Helled from the University of Zurich. “Our study helps to understand potential pathways to the formation of intermediate-mass planets that are very common in our galaxy. It also helps us understand the protoplanetary disks in general.”

Reference:
Hongping Deng, Lucio Mayer and Ravit Helled. ‘Formation of intermediate-mass planets via magnetically controlled disk fragmentation.’ Nature Astronomy (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01297-6

Adapted from a University of Zurich press release.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, were able to inject a ‘needle’ of highly fragile quantum information in a ‘haystack’ of 100,000 nuclei. Using lasers to control an electron, the researchers could then use that electron to control the behaviour of the haystack, making it easier to find the needle. They were able to detect the ‘needle’ with a precision of 1.9 parts per million: high enough to detect a single quantum bit in this large ensemble.

The technique makes it possible to send highly fragile quantum information optically to a nuclear system for storage, and to verify its imprint with minimal disturbance, an important step in the development of a quantum internet based on quantum light sources. The results are reported in the journal Nature Physics.

The first quantum computers – which will harness the strange behaviour of subatomic particles to far outperform even the most powerful supercomputers – are on the horizon. However, leveraging their full potential will require a way to network them: a quantum internet. Channels of light that transmit quantum information are promising candidates for a quantum internet, and currently there is no better quantum light source than the semiconductor quantum dot: tiny crystals that are essentially artificial atoms.

However, one thing stands in the way of quantum dots and a quantum internet: the ability to store quantum information temporarily at staging posts along the network.

“The solution to this problem is to store the fragile quantum information by hiding it in the cloud of 100,000 atomic nuclei that each quantum dot contains, like a needle in a haystack,” said Professor Mete Atatüre from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research. “But if we try to communicate with these nuclei like we communicate with bits, they tend to ‘flip’ randomly, creating a noisy system.”

The cloud of quantum bits contained in a quantum dot don’t normally act in a collective state, making it a challenge to get information in or out of them. However, Atatüre and his colleagues showed in 2019 that when cooled to ultra-low temperatures also using light, these nuclei can be made to do ‘quantum dances’ in unison, significantly reducing the amount of noise in the system.

Now, they have shown another fundamental step towards storing and retrieving quantum information in the nuclei. By controlling the collective state of the 100,000 nuclei, they were able to detect the existence of the quantum information as a ‘flipped quantum bit’ at an ultra-high precision of 1.9 parts per million: enough to see a single bit flip in the cloud of nuclei.

“Technically this is extremely demanding,” said Atatüre, who is also a Fellow of St John’s College. “We don’t have a way of ‘talking’ to the cloud and the cloud doesn’t have a way of talking to us. But what we can talk to is an electron: we can communicate with it sort of like a dog that herds sheep.”

Using the light from a laser, the researchers are able to communicate with an electron, which then communicates with the spins, or inherent angular momentum, of the nuclei.

By talking to the electron, the chaotic ensemble of spins starts to cool down and rally around the shepherding electron; out of this more ordered state, the electron can create spin waves in the nuclei.

“If we imagine our cloud of spins as a herd of 100,000 sheep moving randomly, one sheep suddenly changing direction is hard to see,” said Atatüre. “But if the entire herd is moving as a well-defined wave, then a single sheep changing direction becomes highly noticeable.”

In other words, injecting a spin wave made of a single nuclear spin flip into the ensemble makes it easier to detect a single nuclear spin flip among 100,000 nuclear spins.

Using this technique, the researchers are able to send information to the quantum bit and ‘listen in’ on what the spins are saying with minimal disturbance, down to the fundamental limit set by quantum mechanics.

“Having harnessed this control and sensing capability over this large ensemble of nuclei, our next step will be to demonstrate the storage and retrieval of an arbitrary quantum bit from the nuclear spin register,” said co-first author Daniel Jackson, a PhD student at the Cavendish Laboratory.

“This step will complete a quantum memory connected to light – a major building block on the road to realising the quantum internet,” said co-first author Dorian Gangloff, a Research Fellow at St John’s College.

Besides its potential usage for a future quantum internet, the technique could also be useful in the development of solid-state quantum computing.

The research was supported in part by the European Research Council (ERC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Royal Society.

Reference:
D. M. Jackson et al. ‘Quantum sensing of a coherent single spin excitation in a nuclear ensemble.’ Nature Physics (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01161-4

A team at Cambridge’s School of Medicine carried out a systematic review looking at the existing evidence on different approaches to tackling loneliness and social isolation. While all the individual studies were carried out pre-pandemic, the team considered which approaches might be feasible when people are still required to socially distance. Their results are published today in PLOS ONE.

At the start of the pandemic in the UK, over 1.5 million people were told they must self-isolate or shield themselves for a period of at least 12 weeks. Strict social distancing guidance advised the public to stop all non-essential travel and stay at home. While these measures were initially eased, social distancing measures remain in place, cases and contacts are required to self-isolate, and further lockdown measures have been re-introduced. 

One possible consequence of both the shielding of vulnerable people, and the social distancing restrictions for all, is for physical separation to lead to social isolation and loneliness. There is strong evidence that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety. This means there is an urgent need to identify effective interventions to combat this problem.

A team led by Dr Christopher Williams, at the time University of Cambridge medical student, identified 58 relevant studies of interventions to reduce social isolation, social support and loneliness that could potentially be adapted for people living in pandemic-related isolation. Most of the studies (51 out of 58) related to older people – a group that often face the strictest limitations imposed on their social contacts during the pandemic.

“Lockdown and social distancing measures have meant that many people have little or no contact with others, which can lead to loneliness and isolation,” said Dr Williams, now a doctor in his first year of practice.

“We carried out our review to try and identify approaches that might help people cope with these challenging times. Although the individual studies themselves took place before the pandemic, we’ve identified several that would still be feasible even with social distancing measures in place.”

Among some of the approaches identified in the studies are:

• Robot dogs and robot seals (but not real budgies): Two studies indicated that robotic dogs could prove as effective as real dogs in reducing loneliness. They might also be more feasible for some groups living in pandemic conditions than real dogs. Similarly, weekly sessions with Paro, an interactive robotic seal that responds to contact and other stimuli by moving or imitating the noises of a baby harp seal, significantly improved loneliness scores. The robotic animals gave better results than an ‘avian companionship’ scheme involving interacting with a live budgie, which did not report significant results.
• Mindfulness and Tai Chi: Mindfulness-based therapies and Tai Chi Qigong meditation led to significant improvements in loneliness or social support outcomes.
• Laughter therapy: Laughter exercises, deep breathing exercises, playing games, singing songs loudly and laughter meditation also helped reduce loneliness. Together with mindfulness and Tai Chi Qigong meditation, these represent potentially low-cost interventions that can be conducted in online groups on a large scale.
• Talking about art: Visual art discussions – where participants were asked to describe a painting, to use their imagination to describe why, how and when it was made, and to describe associations that appear when looking at the painting such as feelings, memories and thoughts – demonstrated significant improvements in loneliness or social support outcomes.
• Reminiscence therapy: Structured weekly sessions concentrated on a different topic each week, including sharing memories, increasing participant awareness/expression of their feelings, identifying past positive relationships, recalling family history and life stories, and identifying positive strengths and goals.
• Lessons on friendship and social integration: Educational programme interventions varied, with some focusing on theories of loneliness and social integration while others sought to educate on health and well-being more generally. Lessons on friendship and social integration typically decreased loneliness, with three out of four studies showing improvement.
• Wii gaming: Playing games such as Wii Sports and Cooking Mama on the Wii console were found to be effective at reducing loneliness. However, the studies involved group play, which would only be feasible in support bubbles during lockdown – it is not clear whether the same benefits would be seen from online play.
• Indoor gardening: One study of an indoor gardening programme in a nursing home, where participants were given their own plants and taught how to look after them, reported decreased loneliness scores among participants of the programme and increased participants’ social networks.
• Get to know your neighbours: Group meetings between participants in the same neighbourhood, discussing the residential area, the role of retiree, social and medical services, and opportunities for leisure activities, reduced social isolation, though they did not significantly alter loneliness levels.
• Video conferencing: Two studies looking at video calls found that weekly catch-ups with family members could help reduce feelings of loneliness.

The majority of the studies improved loneliness. The little evidence found by the team on tackling social isolation suggests that enabling or encouraging people to interact with their existing social circles was more effective than trying to enable them to make new friends.

“Many of these activities, such as mindfulness, meditation and talking therapies, could be delivered at a large scale in online groups, potentially at low cost,” said Dr Adam Townson from School of Clinical Medicine at Cambridge.

“A significant problem, however, is that those who are most likely to be lonely or isolated – and most in need of support – may not own, or know how to use, electronic devices and might not have access to a high-speed internet connection. Any approach to help people suffering from loneliness or social isolation must take digital exclusion into consideration.”

Several studies involved initiatives to combat loneliness and social isolation in nursing and care homes, which may have been hit particularly hard by lockdown measures. Effective interventions in these settings included weekly visits from an interactive robotic dog or seal, Wii gaming, gardening, videoconferencing, and cognitive/psychological interventions.

The UK Government has announced a £5 million Loneliness COVID-19 Grant Fund to support charities currently offering services such as telephone befriending and community volunteering schemes. In addition, the NHS.uk website provides both support for people feeling lonely and onward referral for psychological therapies if appropriate. The researchers hope that their findings could help inform these national efforts.

The research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research.

Reference
Williams, C, et al. Interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness during COVID-19 physical distancing measures: A rapid systematic review. PLOS ONE; 17 Feb 2021; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247139

The UK’s first national lockdown from March 2020 and its immediate aftermath saw a massive shift in consumer habits that was initially mandated but then lingered as shops and restaurants opened but risks from the virus remained.  

A new study from the universities of Cambridge and Newcastle used data from the ONS to compare retail, hospitality and online sales in the UK between March and August 2020 with average figures for the same months for the years 2010-2019.

Researchers took an approach normally used to estimate cumulative excess deaths to try and measure the impact of the COVID-19 shock on sales of UK retailers and restaurants.

They say their economic models suggest that shops predominantly selling food, such as supermarkets, saw a 5-10% bump in sales in lockdown, adding up to an additional £4 billion in earnings over “business as usual” expectations.

This is “consistent with large-scale stockpiling”, they say, as people prepared for an indefinite future of home-cooked meals.

With many shops shut and people stuck indoors, online sales experienced a major boost, peaking at around a third higher than business-as-usual estimates during the first lockdown – an increase that amounts to an additional £4 billion.

Non-food high street shops, those selling everything from books to clothes, saw sales evaporate during the first lockdown when they had to shut, costing around £20 billion in turnover. Sales returned to normal once national lockdown lifted.

The shortfall for bars, pubs and restaurants was “dramatic”, say researchers, with the first UK lockdown causing sales to fall as much as 90% below the business-as-usual level, equating to around a £25 billion revenue loss.

Hospitality sales saw some recovery post-lockdown, as government schemes such as ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ kicked in, but were still 25% below estimated business-as-usual revenues by the end of summer. 

Writing in the journal Global Food Security, researchers say they found no evidence of a post-lockdown fall in food-shop sales as people used up their stockpiles, or an “overshoot” on the high street due to “pent-up demand” during lockdown.

“Lockdown restrictions led to behaviour changes in consumers and retailers that caused huge fluctuations in sales,” said Dr Shaun Larcom from the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study with his Cambridge colleague Dr Po-Wen She and Dr Luca Panzone from the Newcastle University.   

“Shopping frequency dramatically reduced, and footfall vanished from many commercial areas, with people going online or using local outlets within residential areas when they had to shop.”

“Consequences of lockdown, such as long queues outside supermarkets, led to ‘forced experimentation’. Consumers had to explore new purchasing methods,” said Larcom, from Cambridge’s Department of Land Economy.

“Many people shopped online for the first time. They also bought directly from wholesalers or even farms, and trialled different types of home cooking. When people are forced to experiment, it can lead to behaviour changes that last well beyond the life of a crisis.”

The researcher say that, while online sales peaked during lockdown, they remained above pre-lockdown levels in August 2020, which they suggest may be early signs of a more permanent “structural change” in shopping habits.

Recent media reports suggest that the UK Treasury is considering a one-off tax for online retailers who saw profits boosted by the lockdowns.

In February 2020, stores primarily selling food had sales figures almost identical to business-as-usual (BAU) estimates produced by the researchers’ econometric models: £12.6 billion. Sales for March ran at £17.5 billion – around 10% higher than the £16 billion BAU estimates – but had returned to BAU levels by July.

For online retail, sales sharply diverged from BAU estimates by May – £5.3 billion against a predicted value of £4.1 billion (+29%) – and peaked in June at £6.8 billion compared to £5 billion BAU estimate (+36%). While online sales then started to fall, they were still above BAU estimates by the end of summer.

Non-food shops had February sales figures almost equal to their BAU estimates: £11.6 and £11.9 billion respectively. Actual sales tumbled as the pandemic took hold, with an April nadir of £5.9 billion compared to BAU estimates of £13 billion (-54.6%). Sales then started to recover, and by August only just lagged BAU estimates.

Sales in “food and beverage serving services” suffered most in terms of lost revenue. In February, turnover was £5.7 billion, just shy of the £6 billion BAU estimate. By March this had slumped to £4.3 billion against a prediction of £6.7 billion.

April sales for bars, pubs and restaurants were just £0.7 billion compared to a BAU estimate of £6.7 billion: an approximate shortfall of 90%. While this gap shrank it remained startling. Even with the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, August sales were £5.2 billion compared to a BAU estimate of £7 billon (-25%).

“Understanding the monetary impact of the pandemic is important to gauge the magnitude of the damage, and can help government design policies to assist these sectors,” said Panzone from the University of Newcastle.

“Food services and non-food retailers lost a huge share of their yearly business, compared to food stores and online retailers that actually gained from lockdown. One-size-fits-all policy approaches across retail won’t work,” he said.

Facebook has sought the help of experts on anti-environment propaganda, including a Cambridge psychologist, to improve their Climate Science Information Centre and help more of the platform’s almost three billion monthly users find the latest accurate climate science data.  

Dr Sander van der Linden is one of three experts on behaviour and communication to have been drafted in by the social media giant to advise on how best to debunk the toxic myths about global heating that spread like wildfire on digital platforms such as Facebook.

Along with academics from Yale and George Mason universities, Van der Linden has helped Facebook to expand their digital Centre, which connects its users with vetted, proven research from the world’s leading climate change organisations, including the UN Environment programme.

Van der Linden and colleagues worked with teams at Facebook to design the most effective types of communication for the platform’s misinformation debunking initiative, including a section that challenges damaging climate change myths, such as the belief that global warming is just part of a natural cycle of temperature fluctuation, and that more atmospheric carbon dioxide greens the planet.      

Already available in the US and parts of Europe, today also marks Facebook’s expansion of their Climate Science Information Centre’s availability to other major nations including Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Spain.  

“Climate change is an existential threat, which makes misinformation about climate change an existential threat,” said Van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab at the University’s Department of Psychology.

“The spread of damaging falsehoods endangers the level of international cooperation required to prevent catastrophic global warming. Facebook is in a unique position to counter the circulation of online misinformation, and the new climate ‘mythbusting’ section is an important step toward debunking dangerous falsehoods."

“We hope this collaboration will help people the world over to better discern fact from fiction,” Van der Linden said.

In an article published to Facebook’s Newsroom, the company contends that fighting climate change starts with “fighting the misinformation around it”. “We will keep working to expand the Climate Science Information Centre, providing trusted information from verifiable sources, and, we hope, inspiring people to take action in their community,” it states.

Dr Anthony Leiserowitz from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, who worked with Van der Linden and Dr John Cook from George Mason University, said that while misinformation about climate change long predates the internet, it has been “greatly amplified in our new digital world”.

In an additional UK-specific trial, Facebook says it will automatically label posts containing climate change misinformation with one of several tags that not only direct users to the new Centre, but issue them with a short corrective message – such as the fact that 97% of the world’s scientific community are in agreement about the threat of global heating.

Van der Linden has previously conducted research showing that presenting facts in the form of a statement about consensus can encourage agreement, and work right across the political spectrum to pull people's opinions closer to the truth.

He has even showed that facts about scientific consensus can be used to “pre-bunk” – pre-emptively debunk – the public against climate misinformation, in a form of psychological “inoculation”. More recently he has worked with colleagues and the UK Cabinet Office to adapt these techniques to tackle conspiracy theories about COVID-19.    

Facebook say that, in nations where its Climate Science Information Centre is yet to become available, the platform will direct people to the UN Environment Programme website. Nancy Groves from the United Nations said that it aims to continue working with Facebook “to dispel myths and to provide access to the latest science on the climate emergency.”