source: www.cam.ac.uk

Astronomers have detected a giant exoplanet – between three and ten times the size of Jupiter – hiding in the swirling disc of gas and dust surrounding a young star.

Earlier observations of this star, called MP Mus, suggested that it was all alone without any planets in orbit around it, surrounded by a featureless cloud of gas and dust.

However, a second look at MP Mus, using a combination of results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, suggests that the star is not alone after all.

The international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, detected a large gas giant in the star’s protoplanetary disc: the pancake-like cloud of gases, dust and ice where the process of planet formation begins. This is the first time that Gaia has detected an exoplanet within a protoplanetary disc. The results, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that similar methods could be useful in the hunt for young planets around other stars.

By studying how planets form in the protoplanetary discs around young stars, researchers can learn more about how our own Solar System evolved. Through a process known as core accretion, gravity causes particles in the disc to stick to each other, eventually forming larger solid bodies like asteroids or planets. As young planets form, they start to carve gaps in the disc, like grooves on a vinyl record.

However, observing these young planets is extremely challenging, due to the interference from the gas and dust in the disc. To date, only three robust detections of young planets in a protoplanetary disc have been made.

Dr Álvaro Ribas from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, who led the research, specialises in studying protoplanetary discs. “We first observed this star at the time when we learned that most discs have rings and gaps, and I was hoping to find features around MP Mus that could hint at the presence of a planet or planets,” he said.

Using ALMA, Ribas observed the protoplanetary disc around MP Mus (PDS 66) in 2023. The results showed a young star seemingly all alone in the universe. Its surrounding disc showed none of the gaps where planets might be forming, and was completely flat and featureless.

“Our earlier observations showed a boring, flat disc,” said Ribas. “But this seemed odd to us, since the disc is between seven and ten million years old. In a disc of that age, we would expect to see some evidence of planet formation.”

Now, Ribas and his colleagues from Germany, Chile, and France have given MP Mus another chance. Once again using ALMA, they observed the star at the 3mm range, a longer wavelength than the earlier observations, allowing them to probe deeper into the disc.

The new observations turned up a cavity close to the star and two gaps further out, which were obscured in the earlier observations, suggesting that MP Mus may not be alone after all.

At the same time, Miguel Vioque, a researcher at the European Southern Observatory, was uncovering another piece of the puzzle. Using data from Gaia, he found MP Mus was ‘wobbling’.

“My first reaction was that I must have made a mistake in my calculations, because MP Mus was known to have a featureless disc,” said Vioque. “I was revising my calculations when I saw Álvaro give a talk presenting preliminary results of a newly-discovered inner cavity in the disc, which meant the wobbling I was detecting was real and had a good chance of being caused by a forming planet.”

Using a combination of the Gaia and ALMA observations, along with some computer modelling, the researchers say the wobbling is likely caused by a gas giant – less than ten times the mass of Jupiter – orbiting the star at a distance between one and three times the distance of the Earth to the Sun.

“Our modelling work showed that if you put a giant planet inside the new-found cavity, you can also explain the Gaia signal,” said Ribas. “And using the longer ALMA wavelengths allowed us to see structures we couldn’t see before.”

This is the first time an exoplanet embedded in a protoplanetary disc has been indirectly discovered in this way – by combining precise star movement data from the Gaia with deep observations of the disc. It also means that many more hidden planets might exist in other discs, just waiting to be found.

“We think this might be one of the reasons why it’s hard to detect young planets in protoplanetary discs, because in this case, we needed the ALMA and Gaia data together,” said Ribas. “The longer ALMA wavelength is incredibly useful, but to observe at this wavelength requires more time on the telescope.”

Ribas says that upcoming upgrades to ALMA, as well as future telescopes such as the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), may be used to look deeper into more discs and better understand the hidden population of young planets, which could in turn help us learn how our own planet may have formed.

The research was supported in part by the European Union’s Horizon Programme, the European Research Council, and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Álvaro Ribas et al. ‘A young gas giant and hidden substructures in a protoplanetary disc.’ Nature Astronomy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02576-w 

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The University of Cambridge has been awarded two Prosperity Partnerships by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The awards are designed to support partnerships between universities and business which are focused on fundamental research addressing key industry challenges.

Using carbon capture to create a cleaner chemical supply chain

A collaboration on carbon capture between Cambridge and Hitachi Europe Ltd has been awarded Prosperity Partnership funding to develop a new way of converting green methanol – made from captured CO₂ – into high-value chemicals used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and materials manufacturing.

While many technologies focus on capturing and storing surplus CO₂, the researchers, led by Professor Ljiljana Fruk, aim to turn it into something genuinely useful.

The approach uses compact, continuous‑flow reactors – systems that enable chemical reactions to run more efficiently – with lower energy demand, less waste, and better control at scale. The catalysts themselves are being designed to work under mild, sustainable conditions, helping reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Professor Fruk said: “It’s exciting to be part of something that is working towards a future where science helps build a cleaner, healthier world.”

Read the full story here

Low-emission steel-making

With Prosperity Partnership funding from UKRI and Tata Steel, Cambridge University, Imperial College and the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick will work in partnership to drive innovation in low-emission steel production.

As the UK steel industry transitions towards electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, the programme will address one of the key challenges of using high-recycled-content steel: how to ensure its performance in demanding applications such as some automotive components and packaging.

The five-year programme will also fund 13 PhD studentships across the three universities to conduct leading research into the advanced manufacturing of steels and steel products suited to EAF steelmaking.

Professor Howard Stone, lead academic for the project, said: “This partnership will enable us to unlock the full potential of electric arc furnace steelmaking, combining advanced data science with metallurgical expertise. By working closely with Tata Steel, we aim to deliver practical solutions that support a more sustainable future for the UK steel industry and beyond.”

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Three Cambridge academics have been appointed to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s new Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), which met for the first time on Wednesday 9 July 2025. 

Evidence-based decision-making is fundamental to the drive for clean powerUK Energy Secretary David Miliband

Engineering Professor Julian Allwood (St Catharine’s), Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh (Darwin) and Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group Director Emeritus Professor David Newbery (Churchill) join a panel of 17 expert advisors on STAC, which has been created to provide robust, scientific, evidence-based information to support key decisions as the UK overhauls its energy system to reach clean power by 2030.

The Council is expected to also offer independent viewpoints and cutting-edge research on topics from climate science, energy networks and engineering, to the latest technologies and artificial intelligence.

“Evidence-based decision-making is fundamental to the drive for clean power and tackling the climate crisis, with informed policymaking the key to securing a better, fairer world for current and future generations,” UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said in the Government’s announcement.

Professor Allwood is Professor of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Cambridge and directs the Use Less Group. Uniquely, his research aims to articulate a pathway to zero emissions based on technologies that already exist at scale. His projects include ground-breaking innovations such as electric cement.

Professor Shuckburgh is Director of Cambridge Zero, the University’s major climate change initiative. A mathematician and data scientist, Emily Shuckburgh is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER). 

As a climate scientist, Professor Shuckburgh worked for more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate.

Professor Newbery is the Director of the Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and a Professorial Research Associate in the UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at University College London.

STAC’s expert advice is expected to allow ministers to access the most up-to-date and well-informed scientific evidence, improving decision-making and effectiveness of policy implementation. 

STAC is led by Professor Paul Monks, STAC Co-Chair and Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ); and Professor David Greenwood FREng, STAC Co-Chair and CEO of Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre.

Read the UK Government announcement

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With countries such as the UK declaring ambitious goals for both AI leadership and decarbonisation, a new report suggests that AI could drive a 25-fold increase in the global tech sector’s energy use.

By 2040, the energy demands of the tech industry could be up to 25 times higher than today, with unchecked growth of data centres driven by AI expected to create surges in electricity consumption that will strain power grids and accelerate carbon emissions.  

This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which suggests that even the most conservative estimate for big tech’s energy needs will see a five-fold increase over the next 15 years.

The idea that governments such as the UK can become leaders in AI while simultaneously meeting their net zero targets amounts to “magical thinking at the highest levels,” according to the report’s authors. The UK is committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Researchers call for global standards in reporting AI’s environmental cost through forums such as COP, the UN climate summit, and argue that the UK should advocate for this on the international stage while ensuring democratic oversight at home.

The report, published today, synthesises projections from leading consultancies to forecast the energy demands of the global tech industry. The researchers note that these projections are based on claims by tech firms themselves. 

At the moment, data centres – the facilities that house servers for processing and storing data, along with cooling systems preventing this hardware from overheating – account for nearly 1.5% of global emissions.

This figure is expected to grow by 15-30% each year to reach 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, write the report’s authors. They point out that this would far exceed current emissions from air travel. 

The report highlights that in the US, China, and Europe, data centres already consume around 2-4% of national electricity, with regional concentrations becoming extreme. For example, up to 20% of all power in Ireland now goes to data centres in Dublin’s cluster.

“We know the environmental impact of AI will be formidable, but tech giants are deliberately vague about the energy requirements implicit in their aims,” said Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan, the report’s lead author from Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre.

“The lack of hard data on electricity and water consumption as well as associated carbon emissions of digital technology leaves policymakers and researchers in the dark about the climate harms AI might cause.”

“We need to see urgent action from governments to prevent AI from derailing climate goals, not just deferring to tech companies on the promise of economic growth,” said Desikan.

The researchers also use data from corporate press releases and ESG reports of some of the world’s tech giants to show the alarming trajectory of energy use before the AI race had fully kicked into gear.

Google’s reported greenhouse gas emissions rose by 48% between 2019 and 2023, while Microsoft’s reported emissions increased by nearly 30% from 2020 to 2023. Amazon’s carbon footprint grew around 40% between 2019 and 2021, and – while it has begun to fall – remains well above 2019 levels.

This self-reported data is contested, note the researchers, and some independent reporting suggests that actual emissions from tech companies are much higher.

Several tech giants are looking to nuclear power to defuse the energy timebomb at the heart of their ambitions. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has argued that fusion is needed to meet AI’s potential, while Meta have said that nuclear energy can ‘provide firm, baseload power’ to supply their data centres.

Microsoft have even signed a 20-year agreement to reactivate the Three Mile Island plant – site of the worst nuclear accident in US history.

Some tech leaders, such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, argue that environmental costs of AI will be offset by its benefits for the climate crisis – from contributing to scientific breakthroughs in green energy to enhanced climate change modelling.

“Despite the rapacious energy demands of AI, tech companies encourage governments to see these technologies as accelerators for the green transition,” said Professor Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“These claims appeal to governments banking on AI to grow the economy, but they may compromise society’s climate commitments.”

“Big Tech is blowing past their own climate goals, while they rely heavily on renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets rather than reducing their emissions,” said Prof Neff.

“Generative AI may be helpful for designing climate solutions, but there is a real risk that emissions from the AI build-out will outstrip any climate gains as tech companies abandon net zero goals and pursue huge AI-driven profits.”

The report calls for the UK’s environmental policies to be updated for the ‘AI era’. Recommendations include adding AI’s energy footprint into national decarbonisation plans, with specific carbon reduction targets for data centres and AI services, and requirements for detailed reporting of energy and water consumption.  

Ofgem should set strict energy efficiency targets for data centres, write the report’s authors, while the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology should tie AI research funding and data centre operations to clean power adoption.

The report’s authors note that that UK’s new AI Energy Council currently consists entirely of energy bodies and tech companies – with no representation for communities, climate groups or civil society.  

“Energy grids are already stretched,” said Professor John Naughton, Chair of the Advisory Board at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“Every megawatt allocated to AI data centres will be a megawatt unavailable for housing or manufacturing. Governments need to be straight with the public about the inevitable energy trade-offs that will come with doubling down on AI as an engine of economic growth.”

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Researchers have mapped the spread of infectious diseases in humans across millennia, to reveal how human-animal interactions permanently transformed our health today.

We’ve long suspected that the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease – now DNA shows us that it happened at least 6,500 years agoEske Willerslev

A new study suggests that our ancestors’ close cohabitation with domesticated animals and large-scale migrations played a key role in the spread of infectious diseases.

The team, led by Professor Eske Willerslev at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, recovered ancient DNA from 214 known human pathogens in prehistoric humans from Eurasia.

They found that the earliest evidence of zoonotic diseases – illnesses transmitted from animals to humans, like COVID in recent times – dates back to around 6,500 years ago, with these diseases becoming more widespread approximately 5,000 years ago.

The study detected the world’s oldest genetic trace of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in a 5,500-year-old sample. The plague is estimated to have killed between one-quarter and one-half of Europe’s population during the Middle Ages.

In addition, the researchers found traces of many other diseases including:

Malaria (Plasmodium vivax) – 4,200 years ago

Leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) – 1,400 years ago

Hepatitis B virus – 9,800 years ago

Diphtheria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae) – 11,100 years ago

This is the largest study to date on the history of infectious diseases and is published today in the journal Nature.

The researchers analysed DNA from over 1,300 prehistoric humans, some up to 37,000 years old. The ancient bones and teeth have provided a unique insight into the development of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

“We’ve long suspected that the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease – now DNA shows us that it happened at least 6,500 years ago,” said Willerslev.

He added: “These infections didn’t just cause illness – they may have contributed to population collapse, migration, and genetic adaptation.”

The significant increase in the incidence of zoonoses around 5,000 years ago coincides with a migration to north-western Europe from the Pontic Steppe – that is from parts of present-day Ukraine, south-western Russia and western Kazakhstan. The people embarking on this migration – and who to a large extent passed on the genetic profile found among people in north-western Europe today – belonged to the Yamnaya herders.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kUQkjHXvykA%3Fsi%3DPjCqcDTXpi-RfJ7R%26enablejsapi%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.cam.ac.uk

The findings could be significant for the development of vaccines and for understanding how diseases arise and mutate over time.

“If we understand what happened in the past, it can help us prepare for the future. Many of the newly emerging infectious diseases are predicted to originate from animals,” said Associate Professor Martin Sikora at the University of Copenhagen, and first author of the report.

Willerslev added: “Mutations that were successful in the past are likely to reappear. This knowledge is important for future vaccines, as it allows us to test whether current vaccines provide sufficient coverage or whether new ones need to be developed due to mutations.”

The sample material was primarily provided by museums in Europe and Asia. The samples were partly extracted from teeth, where the enamel acts as a lid that can protect the DNA against degradation as a result of the ravages of time. The rest of the DNA was primarily extracted from petrosa bones – the hardest bone in humans – located on the inside of the skull.

The research was funded by the Lundbeck Foundation.

Reference

Sikora, M et al: ‘The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia.’ Nature, July 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09192-8

Adapted from a press release by the University of Copenhagen.

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The Saclay Cluster, which includes Institut Polytechnique de Paris, HEC Paris and Université Paris-Saclay, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are joining forces to build AI excellence.

Combining our strengths and sharing knowledge will help us to address the most pressing challenges of our time and ensure AI serves the common goodProfessor Deborah Prentice

During the French President’s state visit to the United Kingdom, Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris), HEC Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Oxford University and Cambridge University formalised a joint commitment to create a strategic partnership in the field of artificial intelligence.

Named the Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative, this partnership brings together two leading centres of scientific and technological excellence: the Saclay Cluster and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They share a common ambition – to foster the emergence of excellent, ethical and sovereign artificial intelligence on a European scale.

The aim of the partnership is to structure long-term cooperation in AI research, training and innovation, in order to meet the major challenges of our time. It is organised around five key areas:

• Encouraging academic mobility between students, doctoral students, researchers and teachers to enhance expertise and training.
• Organising joint scientific events (seminars, workshops, symposia) on the major scientific and ethical challenges of AI.
• Launching collaborative research projects: co-direction of theses, interdisciplinary programmes, joint applications for funding.
• Involving industrial and innovation players, to accelerate technology transfer and support AI entrepreneurship.
• Strengthen bilateral cooperation, in line with national and European strategic priorities.

The ‘Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative’ extends the shared vision of Institut Polytechnique de Paris and HEC Paris to establish a leading European hub in artificial intelligence, at the intersection of cutting-edge research, innovation, and the major challenges of our time.

A firmly solution-oriented ambition realised through Hi! PARIS, a key actor in the France 2030 strategy, integrating cutting-edge research, excellence in education, and concrete technological innovations to enhance European competitiveness, this interdisciplinary centre was co-founded by IP Paris and HEC Paris in 2020, joined by Inria in 2021, and benefits from €70 million in funding over 5 years.

In a joint statement, Thierry Coulhon, President of Institut Polytechnique de Paris and Eloïc Peyrache, Dean of HEC Paris, said:

“With the Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative, we are taking a decisive step forward in European scientific and academic cooperation. By bringing together the excellence of our institutions, through the interdisciplinary centre Hi! PARIS, with that of Oxford and Cambridge, we are laying the foundation for an unparalleled axis of research and innovation in artificial intelligence.”

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, agreed:

“The University of Cambridge is proud to be part of this collaboration, which reflects our deep commitment to shaping the future of AI through rigorous research, inclusive education, and responsible innovation. Combining our strengths and sharing knowledge will help us to address the most pressing challenges of our time and ensure AI serves the common good.”

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The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Connector project is bringing self-driving passenger transport to the city.

Cambridge West Innovation District and Eddington are fitting locations for such an ambitious and forward-thinking project.Professor Anna Philpott, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Resources and Operations

A 15-seater autonomous bus will operate between Madingley Road Park & Ride, and around the University’s Eddington neighbourhood and Cambridge West Innovation District. 

The early phase of the trial, following extensive virtual and on-road testing, starts on Tuesday 24 June with a limited number of morning and afternoon runs each Monday-Friday.

The trial passenger service is free and will enhance local connections, improving access to places of work and study, as well as community and sports facilities for those living and working in the area.

Dan Clarke, Head of Innovation and Technology at the Greater Cambridge Partnership, said: “This is an exciting milestone, but it’s just the beginning. People may have already seen the bus going around Eddington and Cambridge West from Madingley Park & Ride recently, as, after the extensive on-track training with the drivers, we’ve been running the bus on the road without passengers to learn more about how other road-users interact with the technology. We’re now moving gradually to the next stage of this trial by inviting passengers to use Connector.

“As with all new things, our aim is to introduce this new technology in a phased way that balances the trialling of these new systems with safety and the passenger experience. This will ensure we can learn more about this technology and showcase the potential for self-driving vehicles to support sustainable, reliable public transport across Cambridge.”

The vehicle is operated by Whippet Coaches using autonomous technology from Fusion Processing. 

Professor Anna Philpott, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Resources and Operations at the University of Cambridge, said “Innovation and research that contributes to society is at the heart of the University’s mission, and this trial aligns with our vision for sustainable and pioneering transport solutions for everyone travelling to and from our sites. Cambridge West Innovation District and Eddington are fitting locations for such an ambitious and forward-thinking project.”

A full-scale launch of two full-size autonomous buses on a second route to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will begin later this year.

The Connector trial is part of a national Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) programme backed by the UK Government to explore how autonomous buses can be safely and effectively integrated into public transport systems.

All vehicles are supported by trained safety drivers at all times and have already undergone digital simulation and rigorous on-road testing.

Find out more about Connector and check the timetable to see when you can take a ride on the bus

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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a new scientific facility that will bring the night sky to life like never before using the largest camera ever built, has revealed its ‘first look’ images at the start of its 10-year survey of the cosmos.

The Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, has released its first imagery, showing cosmic phenomena at an unprecedented scale.

In just over 10 hours of test observations, the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory has already captured millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars and thousands of asteroids. The imagery is a small preview of the Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year scientific mission to explore and understand some of the universe’s biggest mysteries.

Located on a mountaintop in Chile, the Rubin Observatory will repeatedly scan the sky for 10 years and create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our universe. The region in central Chile is favoured for astronomical observations because of its dry air and dark skies, and allows for an ideal view of the Milky Way’s centre.

The facility is set to achieve ‘first light,’ or make the first scientific observations of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky using its 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope, on 4 July.

UK astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, are celebrating their role in the most ambitious sky survey to date.

“We will be looking at the universe in a way that we have never done before, and this exploration is bound to throw up surprises that we never imagined,” said Professor Hiranya Peiris from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, and a builder of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration. 

Enabled by an investment of £23 million from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), UK astronomers and software developers have been preparing the hardware and software needed to analyse the petabytes of data that the survey will produce to enable groundbreaking science that will enhance our understanding of the universe.

The UK is the second largest international contributor to the multinational project, putting UK astronomers at the forefront when it comes to exploiting this unique window on the Universe.

The UK is also playing a significant role in the management and processing of the unprecedented amounts of data. The UK will host one of three international data facilities and process around 1.5 million images, capturing around 10 billion stars and galaxies. When complete, the full 10-year survey is expected to rack up 500 petabytes of date – the same storage as half-a-million 4K Hollywood movies.

The UK’s science portal for the international community is capable of connecting around 1,500 astronomers with UK Digital Research Infrastructure to support the exploitation of this uniquely rich and detailed view of the Universe.

More than two decades in the making, Rubin is the first of its kind: its mirror design, camera size and sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category. Over the next 10 years, Rubin will perform the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) using the LSST Camera and the Simonyi Survey Telescope.

By repeatedly scanning the sky for 10 years, the observatory will deliver a treasure trove of discoveries: asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, and supernova explosions. Science operations are expected to start towards the end of 2025.

“I can’t wait to explore the first LSST catalogues – revealing the faintest dwarf galaxies and stellar streams swarming through the Milky Way’s halo,” said Professor Vasily Belokurov from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, member of LSST:UK. “A new era of galactic archaeology is beginning!”

“UK researchers have been contributing to the scientific and technical preparation for the Rubin LSST for more than ten years,” said Professor Bob Mann from the University of Edinburgh, LSST:UK Project Leader. “These exciting First Look images show that everything is working well and reassure us that we have a decade’s worth of wonderful data coming our way, with which UK astronomers will do great science.”

Hiranya Peiris is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. 

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Understanding how the universe transitioned from darkness to light with the formation of the first stars and galaxies is a key turning point in the universe’s development, known as the Cosmic Dawn. However, even with the most powerful telescopes, we can’t directly observe these earliest stars, so determining their properties is one of the biggest challenges in astronomy.

This is a unique opportunity to learn how the universe’s first light emerged from the darknessAnastasia Fialkov

Now, an international group of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge have shown that we will be able to learn about the masses of the earliest stars by studying a specific radio signal – created by hydrogen atoms filling the gaps between star-forming regions – originating just a hundred million years after the Big Bang.

By studying how the first stars and their remnants affected this signal, called the 21-centimetre signal, the researchers have shown that future radio telescopes will help us understand the very early universe, and how it transformed from a nearly homogeneous mass of mostly hydrogen to the incredible complexity we see today. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“This is a unique opportunity to learn how the universe’s first light emerged from the darkness,” said co-author Professor Anastasia Fialkov from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “The transition from a cold, dark universe to one filled with stars is a story we’re only beginning to understand.”

The study of the universe’s most ancient stars hinges on the faint glow of the 21-centimetre signal, a subtle energy signal from over 13 billion years ago. This signal, influenced by the radiation from early stars and black holes, provides a rare window into the universe’s infancy.

Fialkov leads the theory group of REACH (the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen). REACH is a radio antenna and is one of two major projects that could help us learn about the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionisation, when the first stars reionised neutral hydrogen atoms in the universe.

Although REACH, which captures radio signals, is still in its calibration stage, it promises to reveal data about the early universe. Meanwhile, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)—a massive array of antennas under construction—will map fluctuations in cosmic signals across vast regions of the sky.

Both projects are vital in probing the masses, luminosities, and distribution of the universe’s earliest stars. In the current study, Fialkov – who is also a member of the SKA – and her collaborators developed a model that makes predictions for the 21-centimetre signal for both REACH and SKA, and found that the signal is sensitive to the masses of first stars.

“We are the first group to consistently model the dependence of the 21-centimetre signal of the masses of the first stars, including the impact of ultraviolet starlight and X-ray emissions from X-ray binaries produced when the first stars die,” said Fialkov, who is also a member of Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “These insights are derived from simulations that integrate the primordial conditions of the universe, such as the hydrogen-helium composition produced by the Big Bang.”

In developing their theoretical model, the researchers studied how the 21-centimetre signal reacts to the mass distribution of the first stars, known as Population III stars. They found that previous studies have underestimated this connection as they did not account for the number and brightness of X-ray binaries – binary systems made of a normal star and a collapsed star – among Population III stars, and how they affect the 21-centimetre signal.

Unlike optical telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, which capture vivid images, radio astronomy relies on statistical analysis of faint signals. REACH and SKA will not be able to image individual stars, but will instead provide information about entire populations of stars, X-ray binary systems and galaxies.

“It takes a bit of imagination to connect radio data to the story of the first stars, but the implications are profound,” said Fialkov.

“The predictions we are reporting have huge implications for our understanding of the nature of the very first stars in the Universe,” said co-author Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, Principal Investigator of the REACH telescope and PI at Cambridge of the SKA development activities. “We show evidence that our radio telescopes can tell us details about the mass of those first stars and how these early lights may have been very different from today’s stars.

“Radio telescopes like REACH are promising to unlock the mysteries of the infant Universe, and these predictions are essential to guide the radio observations we are doing from the Karoo, in South Africa.”

The research was supported in part by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Anastasia Fialkov is a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Eloy de Lera Acedo is an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Reference:
T. Gessey-Jones et al. ‘Determination of the mass distribution of the first stars from the 21-cm signal.’ Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02575-x

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The placenta and the hormones it produces may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioural traits that have made human societies able to thrive and expand, according to a new hypothesis proposed by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

Our hypothesis puts pregnancy at the heart of our story as a speciesAlex Tsompanidis

Dr Alex Tsompanidis, senior researcher at the Autism Research Centre in the University of Cambridge, and the lead author of this new study, said: “Small variations in the prenatal levels of steroid hormones, like testosterone and oestrogen, can predict the rate of social and cognitive learning in infants and even the likelihood of conditions such as autism. This prompted us to consider their relevance for human evolution.”

One explanation for the evolution of the human brain may be in the way humans adapted to be social. Professor Robin Dunbar, an Evolutionary Biologist at the University of Oxford and joint senior author of this new study said: “We’ve known for a long time that living in larger, more complex social groups is associated with increases in the size of the brain. But we still don’t know what mechanisms may link these behavioural and physical adaptations in humans.”

In this new paper, published today in Evolutionary Anthropology, the researchers now propose that the mechanism may be found in prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as testosterone or oestrogens, and the way these affect the developing brain and behaviour in humans.

Using ‘mini-brains’ – clusters of human neuronal cells that are grown in a petri dish from donors’ stem cells – other scientists have been able to study, for the first time, the effects of these hormones on the human brain. Recent discoveries have shown that testosterone can increase the size of the brain, while oestrogens can improve the connectivity between neurons.

In both humans and other primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas, the placenta can link the mother’s and baby’s endocrine systems to produce these hormones in varying amounts.

Professor Graham Burton, Founding Director of the Loke Centre of Trophoblast Research at the University of Cambridge and coauthor of the new paper, said: “The placenta regulates the duration of the pregnancy and the supply of nutrients to the fetus, both of which are crucial for the development of our species’ characteristically large brains. But the advantage of human placentas over those of other primates has been less clear.”

Two previous studies show that levels of oestrogen during pregnancy are higher in human pregnancies than in other primate species.

Another characteristic of humans as a species is our ability to form and maintain large social groups, larger than other primates and other extinct species, such as Neanderthals. But to be able to do this, humans must have adapted in ways that maintain high levels of fertility, while also reducing competition in large groups for mates and resources.

Prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as testosterone and oestrogen, are also important for regulating the way males and females interact and develop, a process known as sex differentiation. For example, having higher testosterone relative to oestrogen leads to more male-like features in anatomy (e.g., in physical size and strength) and in behaviour (e.g., in competition).

But in humans, while these on-average sex differences exist, they are reduced, compared to our closest primate relatives and relative to other extinct human species (such as the Neanderthals). Instead, anatomical features that are specific to humans appear to be related more to aspects of female rather than male biology, and to the effects of oestrogens (e.g., reduced body hair, and a large ratio between the second and fourth digit).

The researchers propose that the key to explain this may lie again with the placenta, which rapidly turns testosterone to oestrogens, using an enzyme called aromatase. Recent discoveries show that humans have higher levels of aromatase compared to macaques, and that males may have slightly higher levels compared to females.

Bringing all these lines of evidence together, the authors propose that high levels of prenatal sex steroid hormones in the womb, combined with increased placental function, may have made human brains larger and more interconnected. At the same time, a lower ratio of androgens (like testosterone) to oestrogens may have led to reductions in competition between males, while also improving fertility in females, allowing humans to form larger, more cohesive social groups.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and joint senior author on the paper, said: “We have been studying the effects of prenatal sex steroids on neurodevelopment for the past 20 years. This has led to the discovery that prenatal sex steroids are important for neurodiversity in human populations. This new hypothesis takes this further in arguing that these hormones may have also shaped the evolution of the human brain.”

Dr Tsompanidis added: “Our hypothesis puts pregnancy at the heart of our story as a species. The human brain is remarkable and unique, but it does not develop in a vacuum. Adaptations in the placenta and the way it produces sex steroid hormones may have been crucial for our brain’s evolution, and for the emergence of the cognitive and social traits that make us human.”

Reference

Tsompanidis, A et al. The placental steroid hypothesis of human brain evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology; 20 June 2025; DOI: 10.1002/evan.70003

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University of Cambridge experts highlighted the key role of education in combatting climate misinformation at a Global Sustainable Development Congress (GDSC) workshop in Turkey.

Representatives from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Cambridge Zero, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Cambridge Judge Business School convened the session and were joined by a range of experts working on climate change-related research and education. Every speaker from across higher education highlighted the importance of identifying misinformation and disinformation in tackling climate action. Read more about the workshop.

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Before the ‘Out of Africa’ migration that led our ancestors into Eurasia and beyond, human populations learned to adapt to new and challenging habitats including African forests and deserts, which was key to the long-term success of our species’ dispersal.

It’s incredibly exciting that we were able to look back in time and pinpoint the changes that enabled our ancestors to successfully migrate out of Africa.Andrea Manica

Today, all non-Africans are known to have descended from a small group of people that ventured into Eurasia around 50,000 years ago. However, fossil evidence shows that there were numerous failed dispersals before this time that left no detectable traces in living people.

In a new study published today in the journal in Nature, scientists say that from around 70,000 years ago, early humans began to exploit different habitat types in Africa in ways not seen before.

At this time, our ancestors started to live in the equatorial forests of West and Central Africa, and in the Sahara and Sahel desert regions of North Africa, where they encountered a range of new environmental conditions.

As they adapted to life in these diverse habitats, early humans gained the flexibility to tackle the range of novel environmental conditions they would encounter during their expansion out of Africa.

This increase in the human niche may have been the result of social adaptations, such as long-distance social networks, which allowed for an increase in cultural exchange. The process would have been self-reinforcing: as people started to inhabit a wider proportion of the African continent, regions previously disconnected would have come into contact, leading to further exchanges and possibly even greater flexibility. The final outcome was that our species became the ultimate generalist, able to tackle a wider range of environments.

Andrea Manica, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who co-led the study with Professor Eleanor Scerri from the Max Plank Institute of Bioanthropology in Germany, said: “Around 70,000-50,000 years ago, the easiest route out of Africa would have been more challenging than during previous periods, and yet this expansion was big – and ultimately successful.”

Manica added: “It’s incredibly exciting that we were able to look back in time and pinpoint the changes that enabled our ancestors to successfully migrate out of Africa.”

Dr Emily Hallett of Loyola University Chicago, co-lead author of the study, said: “We assembled a dataset of archaeological sites and environmental information covering the last 120,000 years in Africa. We used methods developed in ecology to understand changes in human environmental niches – the habitats humans can use and thrive in – during this time.” 

Dr Michela Leonardi at the University of Cambridge and London’s Natural History Museum, the study’s other lead author, said: “Our results showed that the human niche began to expand significantly from 70,000 years ago, and that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts.” 

Many explanations for the uniquely successful dispersal out of Africa have previously been made, from technological innovations, to immunities granted by interbreeding with Eurasian hominins. But there is no evidence of technological innovation, and previous interbreeding does not appear to have helped the long-term success of previous attempts to spread out of Africa.

“Unlike previous humans dispersing out of Africa, those human groups moving into Eurasia after around 60-50,000 years ago were equipped with a distinctive ecological flexibility as a result of coping with climatically challenging habitats,” said Scerri. “This likely provided a key mechanism for the adaptive success of our species beyond their African homeland.”

Previous human dispersals out of Africa – which were not successful in the long term – seem to have happened during particularly favourable windows of increased rainfall in the Saharo-Arabian desert belt, which created ‘green corridors’ for people to move into Eurasia.

The environmental flexibility developed in Africa from around 70,000 years ago ultimately resulted in modern humans’ unique ability to adapt and thrive in diverse environments, and to cope with varying environmental conditions throughout life.

This research was supported by funding from the Max Planck Society, European Research Council and Leverhulme Trust.

Adapted from a press release by the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany

Reference: Hallett, E. Y. et al: ‘Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal.’ Nature, June 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09154-0.

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Earlier this month, Cambridge PhD student Spatika Jayaram was crowned the winner of the FameLab 2025 UK final at this year’s Cheltenham Science Festival.  

After winning a nail-biting East of England final, which was held as part of the Cambridge Festival in April 2025, Spatika went on to represent the East of England in the UK final with her presentation on Time Travel with Your Brain. She will now go on to represent the UK in the International Final taking place live at CERN Science Gateway in Switzerland to mark the 20 year anniversary of the competition. 

“I was so surprised I won!”, said Spatika. “The other communicators were fantastic and we travelled through so many topics from planets to parasites and more!”. 

Spatika took part in FameLab because she enjoyed talking about science to non-scientists and bringing some meaning to the complex work taking place in the labs. “I wanted a chance to bring humour into the science, because most of the times science is presented in professional environments, it’s all very serious”, added Spatika.  

“I would recommend FameLab for anyone who’s even a tiny bit interested in knowing what happens to science when it’s let out in the wild!” 

Claudia Antolini, Public Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge said, “We are delighted for Spatika to represent the UK at the International FameLab final. Both at the East of England regional competition and the UK final Spatika gave outstanding performances, scientifically accurate but also extremely engaging with wise-cracking humour. We wish her the best of luck and we look forward to cheering her on for the International Final.” 

The FameLab final will be streamed live from CERN on YouTube. 

Spatika Jayaram is a PhD student and Gates Cambridge Scholar in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Magdalene College. In her research, she looks at social and emotional behaviours emerging across development, and how regions within the prefrontal cortex contribute to their regulation. 

FameLab was created by Cheltenham Festivals in 2005 and is the largest science communication competition and training programme in the world. Participants have just three minutes to convey a scientific concept of their choice to an audience and expert panel of judges with no presentations and limited props. 

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A total of fourteen dedicated and talented staff have been awarded the Pilkington Prize this year. The annual prizes are awarded in the name of Sir Alastair Pilkington to acknowledge excellence in teaching and to recognise the contribution each individual makes to a Department or Faculty. 

It’s always deeply satisfying to see hard-working staff recognised for their commitment and dedication to teaching and learningProf Bhaskar Vira

This year’s prize winners are;

Dr Tore Butlin – Department of Engineering/Queens’ College: 

Tore has played a key role in reshaping the engineering course content and led the design of the new IA mechanics syllabus.

Dr Alexander Carter – Institute of Continuing Education/Fitzwilliam College:

As Academic Director for Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies, Alexander leads a broad-ranging portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in philosophy, creativity theory and research skills.

Dr Nicholas Evans – Department of Clinical Neurosciences/Wolfson College: 

Nicholas has demonstrated an impressive commitment to medical education at the Clinical School for over a decade. As a mentor he has also shown a keen interest in student welfare.

Dr James Fergusson – Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics:

James is an outstanding lecturer who brings outstanding passion to everything he does. He has been heavily involved in establishing and supporting the new MPhil in Data Intensive Science. 

Dr Marta Halina – Department of History and Philosophy of Science/Selwyn College:

Marta has almost single-handedly overhauled the History and Philosophy of Science Tripos making it a more sought after course. She has led a major restructuring of the MPhil course and has introduced the increasingly popular module, AI in healthcare.

Paul Hoegger – University Language Centre/Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics/Fitzwilliam College: 

Paul is a teacher of German much respected by generations of students. Over the years he has created several new courses including one on German literature through the ages and one on the poetry of Schubert.

Dr Kate Hughes – Department of Veterinary Medicine/Girton College:

Kate makes a valued contribution to Years 4 – 6 of the veterinary programme. She led the design of a new final year rotation in anatomic pathology for which she is educational lead.

Dr Mairi Kilkenny – Department of Biochemistry/Queen’s College:

Mairi delivers innovative and creative teaching with the Department of Biochemistry often incorporating digital media to stimulate the interest of her students. She’s also a supervisor for several Colleges. 

Dr Ewa Marek – Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology/Jesus College:

Ewa is a valued lecturer, supervisor and Director of Studies. Passionate about sustainability, Ewa developed a new Part 1A course which introduces the topic in the context of chemical and biochemical engineering.

Dr Isabelle McNeill – Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics/Trinity Hall:

Isabelle was a passionate and outstanding teacher who made vibrant contributions to French and to Film and Screen within the Faculty. A co-founder and trustee of the Cambridge Film Trust, Isabelle was made aware of her prize two days before she sadly passed away in February. She will be much missed by colleagues and students alike.

Dr Ali Meghji – Department of Sociology/Sidney Sussex College:

Ali has been instrumental in creating a whole new Tripos paper in the Department (Empire, Colonialism, Imperialism). As a teacher, he repeatedly receives glowing comments from students on the clarity of his exposition, the contemporary relevance of his topics, and his effective use of technology. 

Dr Liam Saddington – Department of Geography/Lucy Cavendish College:

Liam was recruited as Training and Skills Director for the Tripos with a remit to oversee the quantitative and qualitative research training across the degree. He has led new innovations, such as creating a museum field trip for first-year students, organising a ‘COP Cambridge’ simulation for second-year students, and developing the dissertation ‘research carousel’. 

Dr Christopher Tilmouth – Faculty of English:

Chris’ visionary leadership has reshaped both undergraduate and postgraduate education at Cambridge. As Director of Undergraduate Studies, Chris introduced critical reforms to enhance student progression.

Dr Juliet Usher-Smith – Department of Public Health and Primary Care/Emmanuel College:

Juliet has made important contributions to the Department through direct teaching, supervision and mentoring and goes the extra mile to foster a culture in which teaching and learning is valued by all. 

The winners were presented with their awards by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, at a ceremony also attended by Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Environmental Sustainability), Professor Bhaskar Vira. He said “The Pilkington Prize Award ceremony is one of my favourite events in the University calendar. It’s always deeply satisfying to see hard-working staff recognised for their commitment and dedication to teaching and learning. We all know that behind every great student is a great teacher and I feel privileged to work alongside such excellent colleagues.”

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Academics at the University of Cambridge are among those featured in the King’s Birthday Honours 2025, which recognises the achievements and contributions of people across the UK.

Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh (Fellow of Darwin, Trinity alumna) has received a CBE for services to Climate Science and to the Public Communication of Climate Science.

“I am deeply honoured to accept this recognition, which is a reflection of the collective efforts of many scientists, communicators, educators, and advocates who strive every day to make climate science accurate, accessible and actionable at a time when honesty, clarity and urgency are more important than ever,” Professor Shuckburgh said.

Professor Emily Shuckburgh CBE.1 of 2

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Alongside leading the University of Cambridge’s major climate change initiative, Cambridge Zero, Emily is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology. Her primary research is focused on the application of artificial intelligence to climate science and in this context she is Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).

Professor Gordon Dougan (Fellow of Wolfson College), an Emeritus Professor who continues to work in the University’s Department of Medicine, and former Director of the Infection Health Challenge area at Wellcome, UK, has been awarded a CBE for services to Vaccines and to Global Health.

Professor Dougan is an internationally recognised expert in vaccinology, global health and infections. He was Head of Pathogens at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WTSI) for over a decade and worked in the pharmaceutical industry (Wellcome Foundation/GSK) for part of his career, developing novel vaccines and other medicines. He has worked as an advisor to health agencies, industry, academia and regulatory agencies. He is an expert on the molecular basis of infection with a strong emphasis on pathogenic mechanisms/immunity, genomics, disease tracking and antibiotic resistance. He is currently President of the Microbiology Society of the UK.

He said: “I am delighted to receive this important recognition for my work and the people I have worked with and for. Applying science to the benefit of people and health is what I have been working toward throughout my career. I can recommend this path to anyone.”

Details of University alumni who are recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours will be published on the University’s alumni website.

The University extends its congratulations to all academics, staff and alumni who have received an honour.

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Researchers have found that chunks of ‘flipped’ DNA can help fish quickly adapt to new habitats and evolve into new species, acting as evolutionary ‘superchargers’.

Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants on Earth? One of biology’s big questions is how new species arise and how nature’s incredible diversity came to be.

Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa offer a clue. In this single lake, over 800 different species have evolved from a common ancestor in a fraction of the time it took for humans and chimpanzees to evolve from their common ancestor.

What’s even more remarkable is that the diversification of cichlids happened all in the same body of water. Some of these fish became large predators, others adapted to eat algae, sift through sand, or feed on plankton. Each species found its own ecological niche.

Now, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Antwerp have determined how this evolution may have happened so quickly. Their results are reported in the journal Science.

The researchers looked at the DNA of over 1,300 cichlids to see if there’s something special about their genes that might explain this rapid evolution. “We discovered that, in some species, large chunks of DNA on five chromosomes are flipped – a type of mutation called a chromosomal inversion,” said senior author Hennes Svardal from the University of Antwerp.

Normally, when animals reproduce, their DNA gets reshuffled in a process called recombination – mixing the genetic material from both parents. But this mixing is blocked within a chromosomal inversion. This means that gene combinations within the inversion are passed down intact without mixing, generation after generation, keeping useful adaptations together and speeding up evolution.

“It’s sort of like a toolbox where all the most useful tools are stuck together, preserving winning genetic combinations that help fish adapt to different environments,” said first author Moritz Blumer from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.

These preserved sets of genes are sometimes called ‘supergenes. In Malawi cichlids, the supergenes seem to play several important roles. Although cichlid species can still interbreed, the inversions help keep species separate by preventing their genes from blending too much. This is especially useful in parts of the lake where fish live side by side – like in open sandy areas where there’s no physical separation between habitats.

The genes inside these supergenes often control traits that are key for survival and reproduction – such as vision, hearing, and behaviour. For example, fish living deep in the lake (down to 200 meters) need different visual abilities than those near the surface, require different food, and need to survive at higher pressures. Their supergenes help maintain those special adaptations.

“When different cichlid species interbred, entire inversions can be passed between them – bringing along key survival traits, like adaptations to specific environments, speeding up the process of evolution,” said Blumer.

The inversions also frequently act as sex chromosomes, helping determine whether a fish becomes male or female. Since sex chromosomes can influence how new species form, this opens new questions about how evolution works.

“While our study focused on cichlids, chromosomal inversions aren’t unique to them,” said co-senior author Professor Richard Durbin, from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics. “They’re also found in many other animals — including humans — and are increasingly seen as a key factor in evolution and biodiversity.”

“We have been studying the process of speciation for a long time,” said Svardal. “Now, by understanding how these supergenes evolve and spread, we’re getting closer to answering one of science’s big questions: how life on Earth becomes so rich and varied.”

Reference:
L. M. Blumer, V. Burskaia, I. Artiushin, J. Saha et al. ‘Introgression dynamics of sex- linked chromosomal inversions shape the Malawi cichlid radiation.’ Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr9961

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The University of Cambridge has made a dazzling debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, winning a prestigious silver-gilt medal for its interactive plant science exhibit, Blooming Numbers.

Presented by The Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, the exhibit is part of a brand-new GreenSTEM section that celebrates cutting-edge research and innovation in the world of plant science.

Blooming Numbers takes visitors on an immersive journey through the latest discoveries in quantitative plant biology—starting with the humble flower and diving deep into molecular biology, genetics, imaging technologies, computational modelling, and the often-overlooked mathematical patterns that govern plant development.

“This award is just so exciting,” said Kathy Grube from the Sainsbury Laboratory.

“We came in in the morning to water the plants and turn on the microscopes, and the medal had been laid out by the judges. We were jumping up and down when we found it.”

The eye-catching exhibit was a collaborative effort across multiple Cambridge institutions and partners. The University’s Department of Engineering co-designed the infrastructure, drawing inspiration from the Fibonacci sequence—an iconic numerical pattern found throughout nature. The Pollinator Patch, a lush highlight of the exhibit, was designed and cultivated by Oakington Garden Centre to demonstrate pollinator-friendly planting. Darwin Nurseries added wildlife-friendly hanging baskets that captivated visitors and judges alike.

“One of our fellow exhibitors, who have been coming to Chelsea for years, told us that getting a silver-gilt on your first try is a real achievement,” said Kathy.

“The judges came over and said the design of the stand was fantastic, and they loved the interactive exhibits. We’re just so honoured.”

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the world’s most famous horticultural show, runs until the end of the week and attracts horticultural experts, designers, and plant lovers from across the globe.
 

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Nine outstanding Cambridge scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.

“The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs.”

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The new Cambridge fellows are:

Professor Edward Bullmore FMedSci FRS

Professor Ed Bullmore is Professor of Psychiatry and former Head of the Department of Psychiatry. His research mainly involves the application of brain imaging to psychiatry. He has introduced an entirely original approach to the analysis of human brain anatomy, involving graph theory and its application to small-world networks. This has had an enormous impact on the field, especially in relation to understanding the biological basis of schizophrenia and depression. His work has been key to the understanding of the ‘wiring’ of the human brain.

Professor Gábor Csányi FRS

Professor Gábor Csányi is Professor of Molecular Modelling in the Department of Engineering, and a Fellow of Pembroke College. His work is in the field of computational chemistry, and is focused on developing algorithms to predict the properties of materials and molecules from first principles. He pioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation.

Professor Judith Driscoll FRS

Professor Judith Driscoll is Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for energy-efficient electronic applications. A particular focus of her research group is oxide thin films, owing to their wide range of functionalities and their stability. However, their compositions tend to be complex, defects are prevalent, and interface effects play a strong role. Also, for many applications device structural dimensions are required down to nanometre length-scales. Together, all these factors produce exciting challenges for the materials scientist.

Professor Marie Edmonds FRS

Professor Marie Edmonds is Head of Department and Professor of Volcanology and Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences. She is also a Fellow of Queens’ College. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of volcanoes on our environment and on the habitability of our planet. Her research spans the boundaries between traditional disciplines, from deciphering the nature of the interior of the Earth, to magma transport and storage in the crust, to volcano monitoring, understanding ore deposits and the dynamic chemistry of volcanic gases in the atmosphere and climate.

Professor Julian Hibberd FRS

Professor Julian Hibberd is Head of the Department of Plant Sciences and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. His research focuses on guiding optimisation of photosynthesis to improve crop yields. The C4 pathway is a complex form of photosynthesis that evolved around 30 million years ago and is now used by the most productive plants on the planet. Professor Hibberd has provided key insights into the evolution of C4 photosynthesis through analysis of plant physiology, cell specialisation, organelle development, and the control of gene expression.

Dr Gregory Jefferis FRS

Dr Gregory Jefferis is Joint Head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of Research of the Department of Zoology. The broad goal of his research is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. His group is particularly interested in how odour information is processed by the higher olfactory centres that mediate innate and learned behaviour.

Professor Jason Miller FRS

Professor Jason Miller is a Professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests are in probability, in particular stochastic interface models, random walk, mixing times for Markov chains, and interacting particle systems.

Professor Andrew Pitts FRS

Professor Andrew Pitts is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College. His research makes use of techniques from category theory, mathematical logic and type theory to advance the foundations of programming language semantics and theorem proving systems. His aim is to develop mathematical models and methods that aid language design and the development of formal logics for specifying and reasoning about programs. He is particularly interested in higher-order typed programming languages and in dependently typed logics.

Dr Marta Zlatic FRS

Dr Marta Zlatic is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Director of Research in the Department of Zoology. She is also a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations. A major focus of her research is the circuit implementation of learning and decision-making.

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By tying together more than a century of memory research at Cambridge, the Memory Lab gives us tangible ways to improve, preserve and understand our memory.

When anxious thoughts flood our minds, they compete for space in our working memory and impair our ability to recall long-term memories. If we can find ways to reduce stress and anxiety, our memory can often bounce back.Jon Simons

What is a memory?

Is it a distinct pattern of brain activity, a blueprint for future behaviour, or a skill that we can improve with a little training? Probably all these things and more, argues Jon Simons, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Head of the School of the Biological Sciences.

Jon’s Memory Lab studies all aspects of memory. They invite volunteers to complete memory tasks online, in the laboratory, or sometimes while lying in an MRI machine while the team scans their brains. 

Together with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and his team at the Autism Research Centre, Jon is currently studying thousands of the UK’s best memorisers to find the keys to their prowess. Volunteers completed a battery of memory tests online – the best performers then came for brain scans and further testing in the lab.

Their early results suggest some interesting traits, as well as the strategies people use to enhance their abilities. 

“There’s a psychological trait called ‘systemising’,” says Jon. “It’s found in people who have a drive to analyse and construct rule-based ways of thinking. Those kinds of people seem to be more likely to have exceptional memories.”

Simon Baron-Cohen was the first to define this trait. He did so in relation to people on the autism spectrum, for whom ‘systemising’ is set very high. 

So if you happen to think like a ‘systemiser’, you may have a better memory. If you don’t, there are also concrete strategies to boost your memory capacities.

“Mnemonics are an evidence-based technique that can improve our memories,” Jon explains. “They often involve thinking spatially. Start by visualising somewhere you know well, then mentally ‘place’ important information in that map. You can then ‘travel through’ that map when recalling.”

Think Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ from the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. Jon points out that pre-BBC, this strategy was familiar to ancient Greek and Roman orators. They called it the method of loci, using it as a way to remember extremely long speeches. It can also be helpful for everyday tasks, like remembering a shopping list.

gettyimages-1270935214.jpg

Jon’s tip for this method is to make the memory triggers striking. Associate the eggs on your shopping list with a fire-breathing dragon guarding its young, for example, and the sensory impression might be distinct enough to stand out from the background noise. 

“The more bizarre the better! Our memories have a big job in trying to differentiate one memory from another. We can help it out by making key information more distinctive. This helps our brains to distinguish memories from one another, and stop irrelevant ones from overlapping or interfering.”

Indeed, one of the functions of the hippocampus is to perform pattern separation – trying to make our memories distinct. If memories are too similar, we find it harder to recall specific experiences. 

This might go some way to explaining the ‘brain fog’ many experienced during COVID-19 lockdowns. With days inside tending to repeat familiar routines, we had less distinct and varied experiences. Our brains were less able to create rich, meaningful memories. Looking back on 2020 and 2021, people find it hard to separate what happened when.

There’s a lesson for non-lockdown living here too. If we want a rich life that feels like it lasts longer and is full of accessible, interesting memories, we should prioritise variety in our experience.

To further improve memory function, we should strive to decrease stress, fear and anxiety (where possible). These emotional states increase our cognitive load and reduce our memory abilities.

“When anxious thoughts flood our minds, they compete for space in our working memory and impair our ability to recall long-term memories. They pull attention and resources away from the things we’d like to focus on. If we can find ways to reduce stress and anxiety, our memory can often bounce back.”

While this might be easier said than done, science has concrete recommendations for reducing stress and anxiety. Done consistently, a healthy diet, regular exercise and a good sleep schedule, as well as techniques like mindfulness practice, can have transformative effects. 

Researchers like Jon are deepening our understanding of what memories are. The Memory Lab follows an illustrious line of Cambridge psychologists who identified key pieces of memory’s endless puzzle. Wherever the next steps lead, they will affirm a wonder of nature: the intricate patterns our mind weaves to make sense of the world outside.

For a handy guide to building mental resilience, check out Brain Boost by Dr Barbara Sahakian and Dr Christelle Langley. To focus on fighting anxiety with scientific techniques, try Dr Olivia Remes.

To find out how you can participate in Memory Lab studies, get in touch.

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The University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, has been appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer of Research Ireland, Ireland’s new research and innovation funding agency, based in Dublin. 

Dr O’Brien, who is an Irish citizen, will leave his role in Cambridge in September.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said: “Diarmuid has helped deliver genuine progress in ensuring that Cambridge continues to be recognised globally as a centre of innovation and technology, building partnerships, working with Government, and driving UK economic growth.

“We have great plans and ambitions, including for a new Innovation Hub in the heart of this city. We wish Diarmuid well in his exciting new role in Ireland.”

Dr O’Brien, who was previously Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, said: “I have hugely enjoyed my time in Cambridge, which is a thriving world leader in innovation.

“The brilliant people and dynamic ecosystem here will continue to generate the startups and success stories of the future. I look forward to watching Cambridge flourish.”

He will remain in the role until September, with Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Sir John Aston, providing continuing leadership through the transition from Diarmuid to his successor. Recruitment will begin in due course.
 

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The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, has led a delegation to Devon, North Somerset and Bristol. It was the first time a serving Cambridge Vice-Chancellor had travelled to the region in an official capacity to engage with local schools and alumni.

The students we met were impressiveProfessor Deborah Prentice

The South West of England has one of the country’s lowest levels of student progression into higher education. One of the key objectives of the visit was to engage with pupils and teachers in an area that is conspicuously under-represented in applications and admissions to Cambridge.

First stop was Colyton Grammar School, in east Devon, where Professor Prentice talked to school leaders about the barriers encountered by students from the region wishing to attend university. Joining her were representatives from Downing College, which has a particular connection to the area.They were also joined by Mike Nicholson, the University’s Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Participation, and Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation and Collaborative Outreach.

The University of Cambridge and Downing College have partnered with the University of Bristol and the Sutton Trust to support the Colyton Foundation Your Future Story – a programme that aims to support high attaining students from under-resourced backgrounds in the South West to pursue higher education opportunities.

In the evening, the Vice-Chancellor attended a reception in Bristol which was attended by nearly 50 Cambridge alumni, including one who matriculated in 1949. 

The following day the Vice-Chancellor travelled to North Somerset for a visit to Priory Community School, part of an Academy Trust in Worle, near Weston-super-Mare. Mike Nicholson led a school assembly for year 11 students. Later that morning, Xanthe Robertson, Access and Recruitment Officer of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, led assemblies for 1,500 students in Years 7 through to 10. 

The Vice-Chancellor and colleagues were interviewed by members of a student news team named after the journalist Jill Dando, who grew up in Worle. The visitors noted that among the school’s notable alumni was Stephen Jenkins, current Professor of Physical & Computational Surface Chemistry at Cambridge.

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The next stop was Weston College, a further and higher education College in Weston-super-Mare that provides education and vocational training to students from the age of 14 through to adulthood. There the group met Sixth Form students to hear about their aspirations.

The final leg of the journey took the Cambridge delegation to St Bede’s Catholic and Sixth Form College in Bristol. The school is part of the HE+ network, through which the University of Cambridge and Colleges work together with schools FE establishments across the country to encourage applications from talented students.

Reflecting on her visit, the Vice-Chancellor said: “Travelling to the South West allowed me to learn more about the region and to understand some of the barriers to aspiration and attainment that prevent bright students from pursuing higher education. The students we met were impressive. Their teachers’ commitment to supporting their educational journey is outstanding. I hope that the outreach partnerships between the University, the Colleges and local schools will help us attract talented students to Cambridge, and will more generally encourage them to consider going to university.”

This visit to the South West followed the Vice-Chancellor’s trip to Rochdale, Manchester and Liverpool a year ago and her visit to Peterborough in the autumn of 2024.

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Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, the Paymaster General and Minister with responsibility for EU relations, visited Cambridge on Thursday 13 March.  

The visit provided the Minister with an opportunity to meet with senior academics to discuss the success of EU funding streams and collaboration with EU institutions, and how this has enabled decisive breakthroughs at Cambridge. 

Professor Erwin Reisner, Professor of Energy and Sustainability, greeted the Minister at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and demonstrated a history of the Chemistry Department’s scientific breakthroughs, before welcoming him to the Reisner Laboratory. During their tour of the Laboratory, Mr Thomas-Symonds also met with Professor Reisner’s team of researchers, some of whom are in receipt of funding from the EU’s prestigious Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship programme.  

Professor Reisner, who has a successful history of securing ERC and Horizon funding awards, then introduced his own work, which focuses on the development of concepts to make fuels, chemicals and plastics from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.  

Mr Thomas-Symonds also received an insight into their research through a series of demonstrations. PhD student Beverly Low supervised him in the Lab’s glovebox, preparing a sample for the solar reforming of biomass waste. Her colleague Andrea Rogolino showed how the team use sunlight to produce hydrogen from biomass waste. 

Professor Erwin Reisner said: “The Minister showed great talent in the lab – he handled a glovebox very well and prepared a sample to produce hydrogen from biomass using solar energy. The visit provided us an opportunity to emphasise the importance of a close alliance with our friends and colleagues in Europe.”

After his tour of the Reisner Lab, the Minister attended a roundtable discussion with Cambridge ERC grant-holders and University leaders. He was joined by academics from across disciplines and heard from those in receipt of funding from variety of EU funding streams.  

The Minister spoke to Professor Chiara Ciccarelli (Professor of Physics), Professor Erwin Reisner (Professor of Energy and Sustainability), Professor Marcos Martinón-Torres (Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science) and Professor David Fairen-Jimenez (Professor of Molecular Engineering and co-founder of successful Cambridge spinouts).  

The roundtable was Chaired by leading Professor of EU Law, Professor Catherine Barnard, and joined by the University’s Director of Research Services, Dr Andrew Jackson. 

Following his visit to the Department of Chemistry, the Minister delivered The Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture, at the University’s Centre for European Legal Studies. 

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Around one in five (over 19%) of India’s deaf and hard-of-hearing children were out-of-school in 2014, according to a survey conducted for the Indian Government. A new study calls on the Government to address this ongoing educational crisis by recognising Indian Sign Language as an official language; rejecting ‘oralism’, the belief that deaf people can and should communicate exclusively by lipreading and speech; and opening more schools and higher education institutes for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students.

India does not have enough teachers trained to support deaf and hard-of-hearing studentsAbhimanyu Sharma

“Many thousands of children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing are missing out on school in India,” said Dr Abhimanyu Sharma, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics, the study’s author. “This has a huge impact on their wellbeing and life chances.”

“One of the main reasons for this very high dropout rate is that their schools do not offer education in sign language.”

Dr Sharma’s study, published today in Language Policy, explains that sign language continues to be ‘shunned’ in most Indian schools because it is still stigmatised as a visible marker of deafness. But, he argues, the alternative preferred by many schools, ‘oralism’ harms the school attainment of deaf students.

“Outside of India, ‘oralism’ is widely criticised but the majority of schools in India continue to use it,” Dr Sharma says. “Gesturing is not sign language, sign language is a language in its own right and these children need it.”

“When I was in primary school in Patna, one of my fellow students was deaf. Sign language was not taught in our school and it was very difficult for him. I would like to support the charities, teachers and policymakers in India who are working hard to improve education for such students today.”

Dr Sharma acknowledges that the Indian Government has taken important steps to make education more inclusive and welcomes measures such as the establishment of the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre in 2015. But, he argues, far more work is needed to ensure that DHH students receive the education which they need and to which they are legally entitled.

Sharma calls for constitutional recognition for Indian Sign Language (ISL) as well as recognition of ISL users as a linguistic minority. Being added to India’s de facto list of official languages would direct more Government financial support to Indian Sign Language.

“Central and state governments need to open more schools and higher education institutes for deaf and hard-of-hearing students,” Sharma also argues.

“In the whole of India, there are only 387 schools for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The Government urgently needs to open many more specialist schools to support the actual number of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, which has been underestimated.”

He points out that deaf and hard-of-hearing people were undercounted in India’s last census because of the use of problematic terminology. The 2011 census reported around 5 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the country but in 2016, the National Association of the Deaf estimated that the true figure was closer to 18 million people.

Sharma also highlights the need for more higher education institutions for these students as there are very few special colleges for them, such as the St. Louis Institute for Deaf and Blind (Chennai, Tamil Nadu). He also calls for an increase in the number of interpreter training programs available across Indian universities.

Dr Sharma advises central and state governments to conduct regular impact assessments of new policy measures to ensure that they are improving inclusion for deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

He also calls on the government to invest in research to support more targeted approaches to teaching and learning for DHH students, and to support public awareness campaigns to tackle biases and negative social attitudes towards deafness.

Dr Sharma’s study examines developments in Indian legislation and policy relating to DHH people since the 1950s. He highlights the fact that parliamentary debates in the Upper House about DHH people declined from 17 in the 1950s, to just 7 in the 1990s, before rising to 96 in the 2010s.

India’s language policy requires pupils to learn three languages at the secondary stage of schooling. Given the problematic nature of the three-language formula for deaf students, the 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act rescinds this requirement for these learners and decrees that they should learn only one language.

The drawback of the 1995 Act, however, is that it does not mention the use of sign language and does not specify how language learning for such learners will be realised. Dr Sharma recognises that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 brought significant improvements but highlights the gap between decrees and implementation. The 2016 Act decrees that the Government and local authorities shall take measures to train and employ teachers who are qualified in sign language and to promote the use of sign language.

“In practice, India does not have enough teachers trained to support deaf and hard-of-hearing students, but I am positive that the country can achieve this,” Dr Sharma said.

References

A. Sharma, ‘India’s language policy for deaf and hard-of-hearing people’, Language Policy (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s10993-025-09729-7

For the % of India’s deaf and hard-of-hearing children out-of-school in 2014, see National Sample Survey of Estimation of Out-of-School Children in the Age 6–13, Social and Rural Research Institute 2014

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People suffering from severe alcohol and opioid addiction are to be offered a revolutionary new technique involving planting electrodes in the brain to modulate brain activity and cravings and improve self-control.

We’ve seen how effective deep brain stimulation can be for neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addictionValerie Voon

The technique – known as deep brain stimulation – is to be trialled at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and King’s College Hospital, London. The team behind the Brain-PACER: Brain Pacemaker Addiction Control to End Relapse study is currently recruiting individuals with severe alcohol or opioid addiction who are interested in taking part.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that delivers ongoing stimulation to the brain. DBS acts as a brain pacemaker to normalise abnormal brain activity. It is well-tolerated, effective and widely used for neurological disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Although there have been several proof-of-concept studies that suggest DBS is effective in addictions, Brain-PACER – a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Kings College London and the University of Oxford – is the first major, multicentre study to use DBS to treat craving and relapse in severe addiction.

Chief Investigator Professor Valerie Voon, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, said: “While many people who experience alcohol or drug addiction can, with the right support, control their impulses, for some people, their addiction is so severe that no treatments are effective. Their addiction is hugely harmful to their health and wellbeing, to their relationships and their everyday lives.

“Initial evidence suggests that deep brain stimulation may be able to help these individuals manage their conditions. We’ve seen how effective it can be for other neurological disorders from Parkinson’s to OCD to depression. We want to see if it can also transform the lives of people with intractable alcohol and opioid addiction.”

The primary aim of the Brain-PACER study is to assess the effects of DBS to treat alcohol and opioid addiction in a randomised controlled trial study. Its mission is twofold: to develop effective treatments for addiction and to understand the brain mechanisms that drive addiction disorders.

DBS is a neurosurgical treatment that involves implanting a slender electrode in the brain and a pacemaker under general anaesthesia. These electrodes deliver electrical impulses to modulate neural activity, which can help alleviate symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Keyoumars Ashkan, Professor of Neurosurgery at King’s College Hospital and the lead surgeon for the study, said: “Deep brain stimulation is a powerful surgical technique that can transform lives. It will be a major leap forward if we can show efficacy in this very difficult disease with huge burden to the patients and society.”

During surgery, thin electrodes are carefully placed in precise locations of the brain. These locations are chosen based on the condition being treated. For addiction, the electrodes are placed in areas involved in reward, motivation, and decision-making.

Harry Bulstrode, Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, said: “We see first-hand how deep brain stimulation surgery can be life-changing for patients with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Thanks to this trial, I am now hopeful that we can help patients and their families – who have often struggled for years – by targeting the parts of the brain linked to addiction.”

Dr David Okai, Visiting Senior Lecturer from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, added: “DBS is safe, reversible and adjustable, so it offers a flexible option for managing chronic conditions. We hope it will offer a lifeline to help improve the quality of life for patients whose treatment until now has been unsuccessful.”

Details on the trial, including criteria for participation and how to sign up, can be found on the Brain-PACER website.

The research is supported by the Medical Research Council, UK Research & Innovation.

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Invasive pests are slipping unnoticed into northern Europe in huge shipments of cut flowers and potted plants, with potential to damage food crops and the natural environment.

Continental European snakes, geckos and Italian wall lizards are making their way to northern Europe undetected among imports of ornamental olive trees destined for gardens and green spaces.

These hitchhiking intruders can become invasive pests that cause extensive damage to the natural environment – as has happened in previously snake-free islands of the Mediterranean like Majorca.

They’re also a red flag for a bigger problem: the range of potentially serious agricultural and environmental pests being unwittingly imported to Britain and mainland Europe on ornamental plants and cut flowers, simply because they are difficult to detect in high-volume, fast-moving shipments of plants.

In a study published today in the journal Bioscience, researchers say that despite regulations and border checks, imported cut flowers and pot plants present a growing risk because the sheer volume of trade makes it difficult to monitor and control.

Insects, fungi, reptiles, spiders and various agricultural pests are being transported live across the world on ornamental plants destined to brighten up our homes and gardens.

The multi-billion dollar global market for ornamental plants is growing fast and geographically expanding, and improved standards are urgently needed, the researchers say.

The changing climate means that disease-carrying insects like mosquitoes, which decades ago would have arrived in northern Europe and died from the cold, might now survive. It is also enabling some ornamental plants themselves to become invasive pests as growing conditions change.

Professor William Sutherland in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who was involved in the study, said:

“Ornamental olive trees for sale in the UK can be over 100 years old, with many hiding places amongst their gnarly bark and the soil they’re transported in. This is incredibly risky in terms of importing pests.

“Adult snakes and lizards are just the tip of the iceberg. If they’re getting through, what’s the chance of us spotting small insects and fungi – the things that really cause the problems? It’s inconceivable that officials can thoroughly check an import of a million roses from Kenya, for example.”

Dr Silviu Petrovan in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and senior author of the paper, added:

“The sheer volume of cut flowers and ornamental plants being traded at speed around the world makes it extremely difficult to intercept all the pests and diseases they carry.

“Even with the best of intentions, unwanted hitchhikers are getting through customs import checks all the time.”

The Sheffield frog

Petrovan, a frog specialist, became interested in the topic when he was asked to identify a live frog found in roses in a florists’ shop in Sheffield. At first he thought it was a prank, because he didn’t recognise it as any European species. When he realised it was a tree-frog that must have arrived with the cut roses from Colombia via Ecuador, he was stunned. He said of the experience:

“Finding a South American tree-frog in a Sheffield florist was extraordinary. It made me realise that if you can get this type of fragile small vertebrate arriving alive in a flower shipment without being noticed at customs, just how hard it must be to detect very small agricultural insect pests or their eggs.”

With no comprehensive international database on the types and numbers of pests found on imported ornamental plants, it is difficult to fully assess the extent of the problem.

To gain a snapshot, the team analysed records of pests found in ornamental plants at customs in The Netherlands over 2017-2018, and reported to DEFRA in the UK over 2021-2023. In both cases, over 80% of the pests intercepted were insects.

Beyond the pests

The study highlights many other concerning environmental and health issues connected with the global ornamental plant trade. These include:

• environment-harming microplastics and agrochemicals entering the soil from the growing process;
• health-harming pesticide residues affecting cut flower handlers;
• the huge volumes of water required to grow flowers that might otherwise be used to grow food – the floriculture industry in Kenya, for example, is responsible for up to 98% of the water drawn from major lakes like Lake Naivasha. Concerns have also been raised on the ability of supplier nations to cater for their own agricultural needs;
• the carbon footprint of chilling and transporting cut flowers between continents – estimated to be as high as 3kg of CO₂ per flower;
• large quantities of plants being taken from the wild, including critically endangered species of cacti, succulents and orchids.

Suppliers do not always operate within the law. Orchids and cacti are amongst the high-value plants sometimes illegally stripped from tropical habitats and included in shipments. Regulations to prevent the trade in protected wild plants are challenging to enforce on a large scale.

Dr Amy Hinsley, a researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme on Wildlife Trade at the University of Oxford, who was involved in the study, said:

“Even with a global trade in cultivated ornamental plants, there is still a market for rare species taken from the wild, and this can lead to rapid species declines, as well as increased risks that wild pests and plant diseases may enter the supply chain.”

But an industry that employs so many people is not all bad: the ornamental plant trade is important for economies worldwide and supports many people and their families in rural areas. In 2022 the export value of cut flowers and foliage was US$10 billion, and for live plants and bulbs was $13 billion.

“We absolutely don’t want to encourage knee-jerk reactions that might be well-meaning, but actually cause more problems than they solve”

said Petrovan, adding: “We need to push to make the industry more sustainable through things like certifications and better regulation, and to work with those involved in the trade to better understand the risks and how to mitigate them.”

Alice Hughes at the University of Hong Kong, who was also involved in the research, said: “We need to be responsible consumers. While certification standards are being developed, buying plants rather than cut flowers can reduce many of the risks that stem from importing cut flowers. They last much longer and also reduce the emission costs.”

source: cam.ac.uk