The research project is taking place in the Republic of Maldives, in south Asia, which has the largest population of reef manta rays in the world. The team hope that their work will help establish the factors responsible for annual fluctuations in breeding and discover why animals breed in certain areas but not others.

Manta rays are close relatives of sharks and rays. The largest individuals can reach as many as seven metres in width and weigh up to two tonnes. However, despite their size, and compared to some of their close relatives, mantas are gentle creatures.

Mantas are found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical oceans of the world. The animals never stop moving, as they must keep water flowing over their gills to respire. Their daily and seasonal movements are tuned to the ebb and flow of the ocean currents that carry the planktonic food upon which they depend.

“Manta rays are one of the most beautiful and iconic creatures that swim in our oceans,” says Dr Gareth Pearce from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. “Unfortunately, like many animals, their future is threatened. They are increasingly fished, both deliberately and through bycatch and their populations are now at risk.”

In recent years, manta ray populations have become threatened through bycatch in fisheries targeting other species, such as tuna and swordfish, but also because their gill plates have recently become sought after for use in Asian medicine.

Working with the Manta Trust, Dr Pearce and PhD student Niv Froman use the new ‘Duo-Scan:Go Oceanic’ ultrasound scanner, developed by IMV-imaging, to study the reproductive ecology of manta rays. To scan the manta rays, researchers dive down to a ‘cleaning station’ where smaller fish remove parasites from the mantas’ skin. These stations are typically 20-30 metres down, often with poor visibility and potentially strong ocean currents.

The diver then approaches a manta from above to avoid disturbing the animal. He positions the scanner 4-5cm above the surface of the manta, targeting the left side of the dorsal fin, which is where the reproductive structures such as the ovaries and the uterus are visible.

“It’s important not to cause the manta ray any stress,” explains Froman. “Using these portable scanners, we’re able to obtain ultrasound images of their internal structures, particularly their reproductive tracts, without disturbing the animal. This is the first time that this has been possible in free-swimming mantas.”

The scanner enabled the team to obtain the first ever scans of wild reef manta rays, including pregnant and non-pregnant females, as well as mature males.

“Using the scans, we’re able to determine the stages of maturity and when animals are becoming reproductively active,” adds Dr Pearce. “We can observe the stages of pregnancy, the development of the foetus and importantly, whether an animal maintains that pregnancy and gives birth to a live animal.”

Sightings of the animals in the Maldives are reliable and consistent, allowing the researchers to take images of the same animal multiple times throughout its gestational period, which lasts just over a year.

“Ultimately, our work aims to inform the conservation of manta rays both in the Maldives and other areas of the world, enabling the populations to survive and hopefully flourish,” says Dr Pearce. “Our hope is that this research project will contribute to conserving the species for future generations.”

“When the project began, none of the team knew whether scanning wild reef manta rays would even be possible. What has been achieved is beyond what we could have hoped for,” says Dr Guy Stevens, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the Manta Trust. “Manta rays are threatened worldwide and we still know so little about their reproductive strategies. The ability to scan pregnant individuals will be invaluable in our quest to protect them.”

According to IMV-imaging, the ‘Duo-Scan:Go Oceanic’ represents significant improvements on previous technologies. It can be taken to depths of up to 30 metres and —with the assistance of Wi-Fi and a smartphone as a viewing screen—it is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Chief Executive of IMV imaging, Alan Picken, says: “What we are really excited about is the contactless nature of this technology. There are significant benefits for animal welfare, but you also open up a whole range of possible applications if you can scan animals that ordinarily wouldn’t let you get close enough to touch them.”

The Cambridge researchers, in collaboration with a team from the Manta Trust, verified that the contactless technology works in field tests carried out in collaboration with the Vetsonic (UK) Ltd and Six Senses Laamu, a five-star resort in the Maldives with a nearby resident reef manta ray population.

In a study of Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, which covers an area roughly the size of France, the scientists spent several years building up a record of how the north-west sector of this vast ice shelf interacts with the ocean beneath it. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, show that the ice is melting much more rapidly than previously thought due to inflowing warm water.

“The stability of ice shelves is generally thought to be related to their exposure to warm deep ocean water, but we’ve found that solar heated surface water also plays a crucial role in melting ice shelves,” said first author Dr Craig Stewart from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand, who conducted the work while a PhD student at the University of Cambridge.

Although the interactions between ice and ocean occurring hundreds of metres below the surface of ice shelves seem remote, they have a direct impact on long-term sea level. The Ross Ice Shelf stabilises the West Antarctic ice sheet by blocking the ice which flows into it from some of the world’s largest glaciers.

“Previous studies have shown that when ice shelves collapse, the feeding glaciers can speed up by a factor or two or three,” said co-author Dr Poul Christoffersen from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute. “The difference here is the sheer size of Ross Ice Shelf, which over one hundred times larger than the ice shelves we’ve already seen disappear.”

The team collected four years of data from an oceanographic mooring installed under the Ross Ice Shelf by collaborators at NIWA. Using instruments deployed through a 260 metre-deep borehole, the team measured temperature, salinity, melt rates and ocean currents in the cavity under the ice.

The team also used an extremely precise custom-made radar system to survey the changing thickness of the ice shelf. Supported by Antarctica New Zealand and the Rutherford Foundation’s Scott Centenary Scholarship at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Dr Stewart and Dr Christoffersen travelled more than 1000 km by snowmobile in order to measure ice thicknesses and map basal melt rates.

Data from the instruments deployed on the mooring showed that solar heated surface water flows into the cavity under the ice shelf near Ross Island, causing melt rates to nearly triple during the summer months.

The melting is affected by a large area of open ocean in front of the ice shelf that is empty of sea ice due to strong offshore winds. This area, known as the Ross Sea Polynya, absorbs solar heat quickly in summer and this solar heat source is clearly influencing melting in the ice shelf cavity.

The findings suggest that conditions in the ice shelf cavity are more closely coupled with the surface ocean and atmosphere than previously assumed, implying that melt rates near the ice front will respond quickly to changes in the uppermost layer of the ocean.

“Climate change is likely to result in less sea ice, and higher surface ocean temperatures in the Ross Sea, suggesting that melt rates in this region will increase in the future,” said Stewart.

The potential for increasing melt rates in this region has implications for ice shelf stability due to the shape of the ice shelf. Rapid melting identified by the study happens beneath a thin and structurally important part of the ice shelf, where the ice pushes against Ross Island. Pressure from the island, transmitted through this region, slows the flow of the entire ice shelf.

“The observations we made at the front of the ice shelf have direct implications for many large glaciers that flow into the ice shelf, some as far as 900 km away,” said Christoffersen.

While the Ross Ice Shelf is considered to be relatively stable, the new findings show that it may be more vulnerable than thought so far. The point of vulnerability lies in the fact that that solar heated surface water flows into the cavity near a stabilising pinning point, which could be undermined if basal melting intensifies further. The study shows that melting in this specific region is 10 times higher than the average melt rate expected for the ice shelf as a whole.

The researchers point out that melting measured by the study does not imply that the ice shelf is currently unstable. The ice shelf has evolved over time and ice lost by melting due to inflow of warm water is roughly balanced by the inputs of ice from feeding glaciers and snow accumulation. This balance is, however, depending on the stability provided by the Ross Island pinning point, which the new study identifies as a point of future vulnerability.

Reference:
Craig L. Stewart et al. ‘Basal melting of Ross Ice Shelf from solar heat absorption in an ice-front polynya.’ Nature Geoscience (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0356-0

Adapted from a NIWA press release.

Scientists have known for several years that genes can influence a person’s weight. One of the genes that is known to play a key role in regulating weight is MC4R, which codes for the melanocortin 4 receptor. This receptor acts like a switch in the brain to suppress appetite. People who have genetic variants that disrupt this receptor gain weight easily.

Now, in a study published today in the journal Cell, researchers have shown that other genetic variants in the MC4R gene that increase the activity of this brain receptor can protect people from becoming overweight, a finding that could lead to the development of new medicines that ‘copy’ the protective effect of these genetic variants to achieve or maintain weight-loss.

A team led by Professors Sadaf Farooqi and Nick Wareham and Dr Claudia Langenberg at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge looked at the MC4R gene in half a million volunteers from the UK population who have taken part in the UK Biobank study, finding 61 distinct naturally-occurring genetic variants. While some of these genetic variants predisposed people to become obese, other variants provided protection against obesity and some of its major complications, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

To investigate the reasons for this mystery, Professor Farooqi’s team, who previously showed that MC4R works in the brain as a ‘switch’ to tell us to stop eating after a meal, studied the function of these genetic variants in a number of laboratory experiments. They found that MC4R gene variants linked to higher obesity risk stopped the gene from working, whereas variants that offered protection against obesity kept the gene ‘switched on’.

Around six per cent of study participants carried genetic variants that caused the receptor to remain ‘switched on’. People with these variants would eat less, which could explain their lower weight. People with two copies of these particular variants (1 in over 1,000 people) were on average 2.5 kg lighter than people without the variants and had a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

“This study drives home the fact that genetics plays a major role in why some people are obese – and that some people are fortunate enough to have genes that protect them from obesity,” says Professor Farooqi of the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories.

The discovery adds to recent work by the team which showed that some slim people have a genetic advantage when it comes to maintaining their weight.

“It doesn’t mean that we can’t influence our weight by watching what we eat, but it does mean the odds are stacked against some people and in favour of others,” added Professor Farooqi.

When the researchers looked in detail at the genetic variants in laboratory experiments, they found that MC4R can send signals through a pathway – known as the beta-arrestin pathway – that had not previously been linked to weight regulation. Genetic variants that sent signals preferentially through this pathway were the ones driving the association with protection against obesity and its complications and, importantly, were also associated with lower blood pressure. Designing drugs that mimic the effect of the protective variants in MC4R could provide new, safer weight loss therapies.

“A powerful emerging concept is that genetic variants that protect against disease can be used as models for the development of medicines that are more effective and safer,” said Dr Luca Lotta, Senior Clinical Investigator at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit and joint lead author of the study. “Our findings may pave the way for a new generation of weight loss therapies that activate MC4R preferentially via the beta-arrestin pathway.”

“Our work would not have been possible without the unique blend of expertise in large-scale genetic epidemiology analysis and laboratory experiments at the Institute of Metabolic Science,” says Professor Wareham, Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit and Co-Director of the Institute.

“Genetic studies of thousands of people and a functional understanding of the mechanisms behind protective genetic variants can really help us inform the development of a new generation of medicines for common diseases like obesity and diabetes that affect millions of people globally.”

The work was funded by the MRC and Wellcome, with support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Lotta, LA, Mokrosiński, J et al. Human gain-of-function MC4R variants show signaling bias and protect against obesity. Cell; 18 April 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.044

A common feature of these diseases – collectively known as neurodegenerative diseases – is the build-up of misfolded proteins. These proteins, such as huntingtin in Huntington’s disease and tau in some dementias, form ‘aggregates’ that can cause irreversible damage to nerve cells in the brain.

In healthy individuals, the body uses a mechanism to prevent the build-up of such toxic materials. This mechanism is known as autophagy, or ‘self-eating’, and involves ‘Pac-Man’-like cells eating and breaking down the materials. However, in neurodegenerative diseases this mechanism is impaired and unable to clear the proteins building up in the brain.

As the global population ages, an increasing number of people are being diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases, making the search for effective drugs ever more urgent. However, there are currently no drugs that can induce autophagy effectively in patients.

In addition to searching for new drugs, scientists often look to re-purpose existing drugs. These have the advantage that they have already been shown to be safe for use in humans. If they can be shown to be effective against the target diseases, then the journey to clinical use is much faster.

In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at the University of Cambridge have shown in mice that felodipine, a hypertension drug, may be a candidate for re-purposing.

Epidemiological studies have already hinted at a possible link between the drug and reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, but now the researchers have shown that it may be able to induce autophagy in several neurodegenerative conditions.

A team led by Professor David Rubinsztein used mice that had been genetically modified to express mutations that cause Huntington’s disease or a form of Parkinson’s disease, and zebrafish that model a form of dementia.

Mice are a useful model for studying human disease as their short life span and fast reproductive rate make it possible to investigate biological processes in many areas. Their biology and physiology have a number of important characteristics in common with those of humans, including similar nervous systems.

Felodipine was effective at reducing the build-up of aggregates in the mice with the Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease mutations and in the zebrafish dementia model. The treated animals also showed fewer signs of the diseases.

Studies in mice often use doses that are much higher than those known to be safe to use in humans. Professor Rubinsztein and colleagues showed in the Parkinson’s mice that it is possible to show beneficial effects even at concentrations similar to those tolerated by humans. They did so by controlling the concentrations using a small pump under the mouse’s skin.

“This is the first time that we’re aware of that a study has shown that an approved drug can slow the build-up of harmful proteins in the brains of mice using doses aiming to mimic the concentrations of the drug seen in humans,” says Professor Rubinsztein. “As a result, the drug was able to slow down progression of these potentially devastating conditions and so we believe it should be trialled in patients.”

“This is only the first stage, though. The drug will need to be tested in patients to see if it has the same effects in humans as it does in mice. We need to be cautious, but I would like to say we can be cautiously optimistic.”

The study was funded by Wellcome, the Medical Research Council, Alzheimer’s Research UK, the Alzheimer’s Society, Rosetrees Trust, The Tau Consortium, an anonymous donation to the Cambridge Centre for Parkinson-Plus, Open Targets,  the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Program, with additional support from the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Siddiqi, FH et al. Felodipine induces autophagy in mouse brains with pharmacokinetics amenable to repurposing. Nature Communications; 18 April 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09494-2

These are some of the conclusions of the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction study published this week in PLOS Medicine led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Undiagnosed breech presentation — when a baby’s buttocks or feet emerge first at birth — increases the risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality. In current practice, fetal presentation is assessed by palpation of the maternal abdomen, but the sensitivity of this approach varies by practitioner. By routinely using ultrasound screening, undiagnosed breech presentation in labour could be avoided, lowering the risk of morbidity and mortality for both mother and baby.

In the new study, researchers performed research screening ultrasounds at 36 weeks’ gestation in 3879 women having first pregnancies in England. A total of 179 women (4.6%) were diagnosed with breech presentation by the research scan. However, in over half of these cases (55%) there was no prior suspicion that the baby was presenting in the breech position.

Making the diagnosis at 36 weeks allowed women to opt for an attempt at turning the baby, called external cephalic version. For the women who declined this procedure, or where it was unsuccessful, a planned caesarean section was arranged. None of the women opted to attempt a vaginal breech birth, which is known to be associated with an increased risk of complications, particularly in first pregnancies.

Across the UK, the analysis estimated that routine scanning could prevent around 15,000 undiagnosed breech presentations, more than 4,000 emergency caesarean sections and 7 to 8 baby deaths per year. If a scan could be done for less than £12.90 then it could be cost-saving to the NHS. This could be possible once midwives are instructed how to perform the simple technique, using inexpensive portable equipment.

Professor Gordon Smith from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, who led the study, said: “We believe the study highlights an opportunity to identify women at increased risk of a complicated birth. It seems likely that screening for breech presentation near term could be introduced in a cost-effective manner and this should be considered by the NHS and other health systems.”

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

Reference
Wastlund, D et al. Screening for breech presentation using universal late-pregnancy ultrasonography: A prospective cohort study and cost effectiveness analysis. PLOS Medicine; 16 April 2019; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002778

Adapted from a press release from PLOS

The results, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, have enabled astronomers to zero in on the time when reionisation ended and the universe emerged from a cold and dark state to become what it is today: full of hot and ionised hydrogen gas permeating the space between luminous galaxies.

Hydrogen gas dims light from distant galaxies much like streetlights are dimmed by fog on a winter morning. By observing this dimming in the spectra of a special type of bright galaxies, called quasars, astronomers can study conditions in the early universe.

In the last few years, observations of this specific dimming pattern (called the Lyman-alpha Forest) suggested that the fogginess of the universe varies significantly from one part of the universe to another, but the reason behind these variations was unknown.

“We expected the light from quasars to vary from place to place at most by a factor of two at this time, but it is seen to vary by a factor of about 500,” said lead author Girish Kulkarni, who completed the research while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. “Some hypotheses were put forward for why this is so, but none were satisfactory.”

The new study concludes that these variations result from large regions full of cold hydrogen gas present in the universe when it was just one billion years old, a result which enables researchers to pinpoint when reionisation ended.

During reionisation, when the universe transitioned out of the cosmic ‘dark ages’, the space between galaxies was filled with a plasma of ionised hydrogen with a temperature of about 10,000˚C. This is puzzling because fifty million years after the big bang, the universe was cold and dark. It contained gas with temperatures only a few degrees above absolute zero, and no luminous stars and galaxies. How is it then that today, about 13.6 billion years later, the universe is bathed in light from stars in a variety of galaxies, and the gas is a thousand times hotter?

Answering this question has been an important goal of cosmological research over the last two decades. The conclusions of the new study suggest that reionisation occurred 1.1 billion years after the big bang (or 12.7 billion years ago), quite a bit later than previously thought.

The team of researchers from India, the UK, Canada, Germany, and France drew their conclusions with the help of state-of-the-art computer simulations performed on supercomputers based at the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, and Paris, funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE).

“When the universe was 1.1 billion years old there were still large pockets of the cosmos where the gas between galaxies was still cold and it is these neutral islands of cold gas that explain the puzzling observations,” said Martin Haehnelt of the University of Cambridge, who led the group that conducted this research, supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC).

“This finally allows us to pinpoint the end of reionisation much more accurately than before,” said Laura Keating of the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics.

The new study suggests that the universe was reionised by light from young stars in the first galaxies to form.

“Late reionisation is also good news for future experiments that aim to detect the neutral hydrogen from the early universe,” said Kulkarni, who is now based at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India. “The later the reionisation, the easier it will be for these experiments to succeed.”

One such experiment is the ten-nation Square Kilometre Array (SKA) of which Canada, France, India, and the UK are members.

Reference:
Girish Kulkarni et al. ‘Large Ly α opacity fluctuations and low CMB τ in models of late reionisation with large islands of neutral hydrogen extending to z < 5:5.’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019). DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slz025

Our DNA, the human genome, comprises of a string of molecules known as nucleotides. These are represented by the letters A, C, G and T. Sometimes, changes occur in the ‘spelling’ of our DNA – an A becomes a G, for example. These changes, known as mutations, can be caused by a number of factors, some environmental, such as exposure to tobacco smoke or to ultraviolet light.

As cells divide and multiply, they make copies of their DNA, so any spelling mistakes will be reproduced. Over time, the number of errors accumulates leading to uncontrolled cell growth – the development of tumours.

Previously, scientists have had only a limited number of tools for working out the cause of an individual’s tumour. As it is now possible to study the entire human genome very rapidly, scientists have been able to find all the mutations in a patient’s cancer, and see patterns – or ‘mutational signatures’ – in these tumours.

Now, in a study published in the journal Cell, a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and King’s College London have developed a comprehensive catalogue of the mutational signatures caused by 41 environmental agents linked to cancer. In future they hope to expand it further, using similar experimental techniques, to produce an encyclopaedia of mutation patterns caused by environmental agents.

“Mutational signatures are the fingerprints that carcinogens leave behind on our DNA, and just like fingerprints, each one is unique,” explains Dr Serena Nik-Zainal from the Department of Medical Genetics and MRC Cancer Unit at the University of Cambridge, who led the Cambridge Team. “They allow us to treat tumours as a crime scene and, like forensic scientists, allow us to identify the culprit – and their accomplices – responsible for the tumour.”

The researchers exposed induced pluripotent stem cells – skin cells that have been reprogrammed to return to their original, ‘master’ state – to 79 known or suspected environmental carcinogens. The team then used whole genome sequencing to look at the patterns of changes caused by the agents and found that 41 of the suspects left a characteristic fingerprint on the stem cells’ DNA.

“We’ve used this technique to create the most comprehensive catalogue to date of the patterns of DNA damage produced by environmental agents across the whole human genome,” explains Professor David Phillips, who led the King’s College London team. “It should allow us to examine a patient’s tumour and identify some of the carcinogens they have been exposed to that may have caused the cancer.”

Some of the environmental agents studied are known carcinogens, such as polycyclic hydrocarbons and sunlight. For the first time, the researchers also studied some of the individual chemicals found in tobacco smoke and identified which ones cause signatures similar to those found in smokers’ lung cancer.

They also identified the fingerprints left behind by common chemotherapy drugs, some dietary chemicals and some present in diesel exhaust fumes. This study shows how human DNA is vulnerable to many agents in our surroundings.

Image: Whole cancer genomes of six different patients: the plots show all the mutations that are present in whole cancer genomes.

Dr Nik-Zainal illustrates potential uses of the catalogue by referring to the case of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), which is linked to dietary exposure to a plant chemical called aristolochic acid. The mutational signature of this chemical was verified in this study to be virtually identical to the signature found in the tumours of BEN patients. So, although this connection was first made prior to the current study, Dr Nik-Zainal says it is an example of how one might use their catalogue in future.

“Our reference library will allow doctors in future to identify those culprits responsible for causing cancer,” adds Dr Nik-Zainal. “Such information could be invaluable in helping inform measures to reduce people’s exposure to potentially dangerous carcinogens.”

The research was funded by a Wellcome Strategic Award, with additional support from Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council.

Reference
Kucab, JE & Zou, X et al. A compendium of mutational signatures of environmental agents. Cell; 2 May 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.001

The first large-scale study of the views held by those working to protect the natural world has found agreement on the goals of conservation – but substantial disagreement on how to move towards them.

Latest research reveals a sizable consensus among conservationists for many core aims: maintaining ecosystems, securing public support, and reducing environmental impact of the world’s richest.

However, the study also shows the global community is deeply split on whether to place economic value on nature. The necessity of protected areas – and whether people should be moved to create them – is highly disputed, as is the worth of “non-native” species.

Conducted by Cambridge University’s Dr Chris Sandbrook with colleagues from Edinburgh and Leeds universities, the new study collected opinions of over 9,200 conservationists in over 140 countries. It is published today in the journal Nature Sustainability.

The research uncovers some demographic variation. For example, women and those from Africa and South America lean more toward “people-centered” conservation, which aims to benefit communities and give them a say in conservation decisions. Men and those from North America tend to favour a “science-led” approach associated with protecting nature for its own sake.

‘…like a political party’

Next year’s Convention on Biological Diversity meeting will see UN member states gather in Beijing to set global conservation goals for the following decade. The research team says their findings “raise important questions about whose voices get heard in conservation debates”.

“A core set of aims must form the bedrock of any social movement,” said lead author Sandbrook, from the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. “We can see that the world’s conservation community is in general agreement on many fundamental beliefs and objectives.”

“When it comes to the mechanisms for delivering conservation, we find significant rifts emerge. In some ways the conservation movement is like a political party, where some underlying beliefs bind together people who don’t agree on absolutely everything. When big decisions need to be taken these splits come to the surface.”

Researchers took great pains to reach as many conservationists around the world as possible. However, they say their sample is still skewed towards Europe and North America.

Sandbrook cautions that the diversity of opinion the study is helping to reveal is often underrepresented. “There will be huge decisions taken about the future of conservation in the next 18 months. Let’s make sure we ask the whole global community, so we can build an inclusive and effective movement.”

Fault lines

While the study’s authors say conservation is facing “bitter internal disputes” over its future, their research confirms some key ideas around which the majority of conservationists coalesce.

The study finds 90% agreement for science-based conservation goals, as well as for giving a voice to people affected by those goals. Some 88% agree that the environmental impact of the rich must be curtailed, and only 8% think global trade is fine as it is.

Some 77% believe human population growth should be reduced, and only 6% think humans are separate from nature.

The fault lines in the global movement are also revealed. For example, only 57% think strict protected areas are required, and almost half (49%) believe it’s wrong to displace humans in the process. Reports of ‘eco-guards’ suppressing local people in Africa’s protected areas have recently brought these debates into sharp focus.

So-called invasive species also prove divisive. Some 35% think they offer little value to conservation, while 50% disagree. Sandbrook says that some examples of non-native species can help engage the public, but they are often bad news for local species.

“In the UK, many people love Ring-Necked Parakeets because they look beautiful and tropical. But these animals can threaten native wildlife and some argue they should be culled,” he said.

‘Conservation through capitalism’

The study shows the application of economics to nature is one of conservation’s most contentious issues. “Some think assigning monetary value to nature is a pragmatic way to assist policy-making. Others believe it reprehensible to put a price tag on things that are priceless,” said Sandbrook.

Only around half (52%) of conservationists think their movement “should work with capitalism”. Some 61% believe “economic arguments for conservation are risky”, and 73% think economic rationales risk displacing other motivations for protecting species.

However, a high number – some 84% – believe corporations “can be a positive force for conservation” and 62% say the movement needs the support of corporations, suggesting many conservationists see both the pros and cons of economic approaches.

This “conservation through capitalism” is viewed more favorably by younger conservationists and those from Africa, but also among those in more senior jobs.

“Our study shows that conservation is a diverse movement, both in people and ideas,” added Sandbrook. “As the Convention on Biological Diversity 2020 meeting approaches, we need to improve the representation of this diversity when debating how best to preserve life on Earth.”

In my previous research on emotions in prison, I have been struck by the prevalence of suppression among prisoners. I distinctly recall one participant saying:

“I bottle it up, bottle it up, bottle it up until it spills over and then I talk about what’s on the surface but never actually get in too deep. And then you skim the top away and then you go again. And then when it runs over, you do the same thing, but you never actually empty that bottle.”

Prisoners find limited channels for releasing such pent-up emotions: some of which are ‘prosocial’ (such as engaging with arts programmes and finding mentors), but some are far more destructive (e.g. self-harm and fighting with other prisoners).

Because the process of suppressing and releasing emotions seems closely tied to the social world of the prison, I want to find out what happens to prisoners’ emotions in more extreme forms isolation.

The use of segregation units in England and Wales – where prisoners spend 23 hours a day in solitude – is increasingly being scrutinized by policy makers and academics. However, we know surprisingly little about the affective dimensions of these closed spaces, and how they affect prisoners over time.

Is solitary confinement just bad practice?

Interestingly, while there is a spate of research on the oppressive effects of segregation – which some have described as a form of punishment close to torture – the experience of solitary confinement is not uniform.

In fact, some prisoners have quite transformative experiences, even if they are in the minority. Others seek out isolation as an escape from retributive violence and accrued debts. The importance of this fact is not to advocate for isolation, but rather to highlight that we don’t exactly understand how segregation plays a role in the individual change process.

Looking for emotions

There’s been a rejuvenation of interest in researching emotions, and increasing recognition that emotions are essential to human behaviour.  It’s surprising that emotions have typically been left out of studies of imprisonment and segregation because they are such ‘charged’ environments, where intense feelings are often on display. Importantly, intense does not always translate to unanimously ‘negative’ emotions either. In fact, my previous research has alerted me to the importance of expressions of joy, care and serenity in the prisoner experience.

This study will try to understand the specific ways prisoners manage their emotions and the prevalence of different ‘feeling states’. Looking for emotions can help us learn more about how prisoners locate avenues for change. While change is hardly a linear process, recent strands of research show that emotions play an essential role in shaping social life and the dynamics of why offenders desist from crime.

I want to explore emotions among both male and female prisoners. Though women only make up a small part of the penal estate (around 5 per cent) their experiences of segregation are rarely spotlighted. By directly exploring two segregation units I can not only learn more about gender differences, but also about the more ‘universal’ experiences of isolation.

Changes over time

Much of the research on segregation has failed to measure changes over time. But there may be a high rate of variability over time and first impressions are not always enduring. For example: initial experiences of shock can, in some cases, morph into constructive processes of reflection and clarity of thought.

Through repeated discussions with, and observations of prisoners, I hope to examine how prisoners develop (or get ‘stuck’). This will include understanding how cycles of infractions in segregation can amplify violence and cycles of despair. But will also attempt to explain triumphs as well as tragedies, and the possibilities for transformation, healing and locating hope.

Ben is an Economic & Social Research Council New Investigator at the Prisons Research Centre, University of Cambridge. He can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ben_Laws 

The research, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, found that exposing fetuses to chronic hypoxia (low oxygen levels) during development led to them having advanced ageing of the ovaries and fewer eggs available.

Hypoxia in the womb can be caused by a number of factors, including smoking, pre-eclampsia, maternal obesity, and living at high altitude. The condition is already known to have potential long term effects on the health of offspring, including increased risk of heart disease. However, this study, published in The FASEB Journal, is the first time it has been shown to affect fertility.

To investigate the effects of hypoxia, researchers from the Metabolic Research Laboratories at the University of Cambridge placed pregnant female rats in reduced levels of oxygen (13%, compared to the standard 21% found in air) from day six to day 20 of their pregnancy. They then examined the reproductive tract of their female pups at age four months.

Rats are a useful model for studying pregnancy. As a mammal, their bodies and underlying biology share some key similarities with those of humans. However, their gestation period and lifecycles are much shorter than those of humans, making them an ideal animal model in which to study pregnancy and fetal development.

When the team examined the pups, they found a decrease in the number of ovarian follicles in the reproductive tract. Females are born with fixed numbers of follicles, each with the potential of developing into an egg. In humans, women usually expend all their eggs around the age of fifty, at which point they will enter menopause.

The researchers also looked at telomere length in the pups’ ovarian tissue. Telomeres are found at the end of chromosomes and prevent the chromosome from deteriorating – they are often compared to the plastic that seals the end of shoe laces. As we age, telomeres become shorter and shorter, and hence their length can be used as a proxy to measure ageing. The researchers found that telomeres in the ovarian tissue of pups exposed to hypoxia were shorter than in unexposed pups.

“It’s as if low levels of oxygen caused the female’s ovarian tissue to age faster,” says Dr Catherine Aiken from the University of Cambridge. “Biologically, the tissue appears older and the female would run out of eggs – in other words, become infertile – at a younger age.”

Although the research was carried out in rats, Dr Aiken says there is every reason to expect that the findings could be translated to humans as previous studies looking at hypoxia during pregnancy in relation to other conditions such as heart disease have been shown to be relevant in humans.

While women are recommended not to smoke during pregnancy, other causes of hypoxia, such as pre-eclampsia and living in a high altitude, are beyond their control. However, says Dr Aiken, the findings of her team’s research may prove helpful to women who were exposed to low levels of oxygen during their mother’s pregnancy.

“Now that we’ve seen a link between hypoxia and fertility problems in rats, we know what to look for in women,” she says. “If the same turns out to be true for them, then women at risk will be able to take action: by having children earlier in life or looking to assisted reproduction, such as IVF, there should be no reason why these women cannot have children.”

Dr Aiken is also involved in research looking at whether anti-oxidant medication may help undo any damage caused by hypoxia.

Reference
Aiken, CE et al. Chronic gestational hypoxia accelerates ovarian ageing and lowers ovarian reserve in next-generation adult rats. FASEB; 27 March 2019; DOI: 10.1096/fj.201802772R

Two hundred and twenty-two senior scientists from across Europe were awarded grants in today’s announcement, representing a total of €540 million in research funding. The UK has 47 grantees in this year’s funding round, the most of any ERC participating country.

ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe. The sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence.

ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent scientists in any field with a recognised track record of research achievements in the last ten years.

Professor Clare Grey from the Department of Chemistry, and a Fellow of Pembroke College, leads a project focused on the development of longer lasting, higher energy density and cheaper rechargeable batteries, one of society’s major technological challenges. Batteries are currently the limiting components in the shift from gasoline-powered to electric vehicles.

Using a variety of experimental techniques, including dynamic nuclear polarisation NMR spectroscopy, Grey and her team will explore a variety of different battery chemistries, including more traditional lithium-ion and newer solid state and redox-flow batteries, with a particular focus on understanding the interfaces and interphases that form in these systems. The interdisciplinary project combines analytical and physical chemistry, materials characterisation, electrochemistry and electronic structures of materials, interfaces and nanoparticles. The final result will be a significantly improved understanding of the structures of new types of batteries and how they evolve during the charge-discharge cycle, coupled with strategies for designing improved battery structures.

Professor Cecilia Mascolo from the Department of Computer Science and Technology, and a Fellow of Jesus College, will lead a project focused on the use of mobile devices for medical diagnostics. Mascolo and her team will study how the microphone in mobile and wearable devices may be used to diagnose and monitor various health conditions since sounds from the human body can be indicators of disease or the onsets of disease.

While audio sensing in a mobile context is inexpensive to deploy and can reach people who may not have access to or be able to afford other diagnostic tests, it does come with challenges which threaten its use in clinical context: namely its power-hungry nature and the sensitivity of the data it collects. Mascolo’s ERC funding will support the development of a systematic framework to link sounds to disease diagnosis while addressing power consumption and privacy concerns by maximising the use of local hardware resources with power optimisation and accuracy.

Professor Christopher Reynolds from the Institute of Astronomy, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, leads a project focused on the feedback from supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies. These supermassive black holes have a profound influence on the evolution of galaxies and galaxy groups/clusters, but fundamental questions remain.

To help address these questions, Reynolds and his team are studying the highly luminous central regions of galaxies around the black hole, known as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Reynolds’ ERC funding will support a set of projects to explore the multi-scale physics of AGN feedback. A new theoretical understanding of AGN feedback as a function of mass, environment, and cosmic time will be essential for interpreting the torrent of data from current and future observatories, and understanding some of the most powerful phenomena in the universe.

Professor Alfonso Martinez Arias from the Department of Genetics will lead a project focused on understanding the early stages of mammalian embryogenesis. The development of an embryo requires the spatially structured emergence of tissues and organs, a process which relies on the early establishment of a coordinate system that acts as a template for the organism. Exactly how this process occurs is an open question and one which is difficult to investigate experimentally, particularly in mammals.

Using gastruloids, a stem cell-based experimental system they have developed, Martinez Arias and his team will probe into the functional relationships between the mechanical activities of multicellular ensembles and the dynamics that control the organisation and shape of the mammalian body plan: the arrangement of tissue and organs with reference to a global coordinate system.

Finally, Professor Austin Smith from the Wellcome – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and the Department of Biochemistry will lead a project on the plasticity of the pluripotent stem cell network. Pluripotent stem cells have the potential to become any of the cells and tissues in the body, but the evolutionary origins of this phenomenon are unclear.

Using a cross-disciplinary approach, Smith and his team hope to uncover the core biological program moulded by evolution into different forms. The team are investigating the molecular logic governing early development, lineage plasticity, pluripotent identity and stem cell self-renewal.

The President of the European Research Council (ERC), Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, said: “Since 2007, the European Research Council has attracted and financed some of the most audacious research proposals, and independent evaluations show that this approach has paid off. With this call, another 222 researchers from all over Europe and beyond will pursue their best ideas and are in an excellent position to trigger breakthroughs and major scientific advances.”

Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “The ERC Advanced Grants back outstanding researchers throughout Europe. Their pioneering work has the potential to make a difference in people’s everyday life and deliver solutions to some of our most urgent challenges. The ERC gives these bright minds the possibility to follow their most creative ideas and to play a decisive role in the advancement of all domains of knowledge.”

The international team from the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, have found that these materials could be used for ‘spintronic’ applications, which could make cheap organic semiconductors competitive with silicon for future computing applications. The results are reported in the journal Nature Electronics.

‘Spin’ is the term for the intrinsic angular momentum of electrons, which is referred to as up or down. Using the up/down states of electrons instead of the 0 and 1 in conventional computer logic could transform the way in which computers process information.

Instead of moving packets of charge around, a device built on spintronics would transmit information using the relative spin of a series of electrons, known as a pure spin current. By eliminating the movement of charge, any such device would need less power and be less prone to overheating – removing some of the most significant obstacles to further improving computer efficiency. Spintronics could therefore give us faster, energy-efficient computers, capable of performing more complex operations than at present.

Since organic semiconductors, widely used in applications such as OLEDs, are cheaper and easier to produce than silicon, it had been thought that spintronic devices based on organic semiconductors could power a future computer revolution. But so far, it hasn’t worked out that way.

“To actually transfer information through spin, the electron’s spin needs to travel reasonable distances and live for a long enough time before the information encoded on it is randomised,” said Dr Shu-Jen Wang, a recent PhD graduate of the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, and the paper’s co-first author.

“Organic semiconductors have not been realistic candidates for spintronics so far because it was impossible to move spins around a polymer circuit far enough without losing the original information,” said co-first author Dr Deepak Venkateshvaran, also from the Cavendish Laboratory. “As a result, the field of organic spintronics has been pretty quiet for the past decade.”

The internal structure of organic semiconductors tends to be highly disordered, like a plate of spaghetti. As such, packets of charge don’t move nearly as fast as they do in semiconductors like silicon or gallium arsenide, both of which have a highly ordered crystalline structure. Most experiments on studying spin in organic semiconductors have found that electron spins and their charges move together, and since the charges move more slowly, the spin information doesn’t go far: typically only a few tens of nanometres.

Now, the Cambridge-led team say they have found the conditions that could enable electron spins to travel far enough for a working organic spintronic device.

The researchers artificially increased the number of electrons in the materials and were able to inject a pure spin current into them using a technique called spin pumping. Highly conductive organic semiconductors, the researchers found, are governed by a new mechanism for spin transport that transforms them into excellent conductors of spin.

This mechanism essentially decouples the spin information from the charge, so that the spins are transported quickly over distances of up to a micrometre: far enough for a lab-based spintronic device.

“Organic semiconductors that have both long spin transport lengths and long spin lifetimes are promising candidates for applications in future spin-based, low energy computing, control and communications devices, a field that has been largely dominated by inorganic semiconductors to date,” said Venkateshvaran, who is also a Fellow of Selwyn College.

As a next step, the researchers intend to investigate the role that chemical composition plays in an organic semiconductor’s ability to efficiently transport spin information within prototype devices.

The research was coordinated by Professor Henning Sirringhaus at the Cavendish Laboratory and funded through a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant jointly held by the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of Mainz, Czech Academy of Sciences and Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory.

Reference:
Shu-Jen Wang, Deepak Venkateshvaran et al. ‘Long spin diffusion lengths in doped conjugated polymers due to enhanced exchange coupling.’ Nature Electronics (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-019-0222-5

The research was carried out by an international team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is the result of an international partnership launched in 2013.

Autism spectrum conditions – which include autism and Asperger’s syndrome – are characterised by impairments in social interaction and communication, alongside the presence of unusually repetitive behaviour and narrow interests, difficulties adjusting to unexpected change, and sensory hyper-sensitivity.

Autism was first described in Western cultures, and only later recognised in Asian countries. Around one in 100 school age children in the UK is autistic, but autism prevalence in China has been reported to be lower than in the West. The reasons for this difference are that most studies in China have only included the special school population, overlooking the mainstream school population; and that most studies in China have not used validated and reliable screening and diagnostic methods.

“Understanding the prevalence of autism is important because of its relevance to planning services to support those living with the condition, as well as their families,” said Professor Carol Brayne from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge (ARC) added: “We need to study autism outside Western populations, since most of the research to date has only been carried out in the West. This collaboration with colleagues in China is so valuable to help us understand what is universal and what is culture-specific in autism research.”

To address the gap in understanding autism in China, the researchers tested the total autism prevalence in mainstream and special schools in Jilin City, and mainstream school autism prevalence in Jiamusi and Shenzhen cities. They screened children aged 6 to 10 years old in the three cities using the Childhood Autism Screening Test (or CAST), a 37-item questionnaire, completed by parents, and developed and validated by the Cambridge team. The questionnaire gives a score of 0 to 31, and children scoring 15 or above were then given a clinical assessment. The results are published in the journal Molecular Autism.

In Jilin City, from a total population of 7,258, the team identified 77 cases of autism, equating to a prevalence of 108 per 10,000, very similar to that found in the West.

In Shenzhen and Jiamusi cities, only data for children in mainstream education was available; in Shenzhen City, 42 out of every 10,000 children in mainstream education had autism, and in Jiamusi City this figure was 19 per 10,000. In all three cities, the researchers identified new cases of autism in mainstream schools, confirming that there is under-diagnosis of autism in China.

“Contrary to previous studies, we have shown that the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in China is in line with that found in the West,” said Dr Sophia Xiang Sun, who conducted this study as part of her PhD at Cambridge University and who is now based in the Star Kay Bridge Research Centre for Children with Autism in Xiamen, China.

Professor Patrick Leung, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “Previous research into the autism spectrum in China has mainly focused on the most severe subtype, childhood autism. We have been able to use a standardised screening methodology, allowing us to compare the results with Western countries to show that autism occurs broadly at the same rate, irrespective of culture.”

Dr Carrie Allison, from the Cambridge Autism Research Centre, commented: “Completing this study with colleagues in China has been nothing short of remarkable. It has involved translating Western autism screening instruments into Chinese, training Chinese clinicians in autism diagnosis, and working with national Chinese agencies, screening in three Chinese cities.”

Professor Fiona Matthews, the statistician on the Cambridge team and now based in Newcastle University, noted: “A strength of this study is the near universal response rate that is possible in China, which we rarely achieve in the West, making the epidemiology far more representative.”

The research was funded by the Autism Research Trust, the NIHR CLAHRC for East of England, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the Medical Research Council UK.

Reference
Xiang Sun et al. Autism prevalence in China is comparable to Western prevalence. Molecular Autism; 28 Feb 2019; DOI: 10.1186/s13229-018-0246-0

While the current practice of using glucocorticoid therapy shows life-saving benefits for the preterm infant, the researchers say that combining them with antioxidants would overcome potential safety concerns associated with existing treatment.

One in ten babies is born prematurely and up to three-quarters of these are at significant risk of death or long-term illness because premature babies are born with immature lungs and hence are at risk of dying from respiratory problems.

The clinical use of glucocorticoids both in mothers at risk of premature labour and in premature babies has become common practice in the last 40 years. The treatment is based on research which discovered the important role played by glucocorticoids in fetal development and that giving premature babies synthetic glucocorticoids could accelerate the development of their lungs and respiratory system.

Now, every mother at risk of preterm birth gets this treatment worldwide in developed societies. It is regarded as one of the best examples of successfully translating basic experimental science into efficient human clinical practice and it has saved millions of preterm children every year.

However, despite the very clear life-saving effects of antenatal and postnatal glucocorticoid therapy to accelerate lung maturation in the infant, new research has identified some potential adverse side effects on the offspring’s growth, central nervous and cardiovascular systems. Some of these effects will not be seen until the child is fully grown and is in adulthood.

“The evidence supporting the life-saving benefits of glucocorticoid treatment for premature babies is overwhelming. Without it, preterm babies would mostly die or suffer significantly from conditions associated with prematurity, leaving them with significant disability,” says Professor Dino Giussani from the Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.

“Unfortunately, there can be subtle adverse effects from the therapy that suggest we need to fine-tune current clinical therapy to maintain its beneficial effects but weed out any potential negative adverse effects later in life.”

In a review published online in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Professor Giussani and PhD student Tessa Garrud propose that in future, combined therapy of glucocorticoids with specific antioxidants may be safer for the treatment of the premature baby.

In their article, the researchers argue that while much is known about the physiological mechanisms via which glucocorticoids have a beneficial effect, far less is understood about those mechanisms by which the treatment can cause subtle negative effects. In part this is because it is difficult to ascertain which long term health problems are as a result of glucocorticoid treatment and which are due to the detrimental effects of preterm birth.

Professor Giussani and Ms Garrud point to research that suggests one likely culprit mechanism is the capacity of synthetic glucocorticoids to induce what is so-called ‘oxidative stress’, caused by an imbalance in the body of unstable atoms known as free radicals. While the body needs a certain number of free radicals for cell signalling or to stimulate repair, an overabundance can cause damage. Oxidative stress has been shown to lead to restricted blood flow and can damage the cardiovascular system in the long-term.

“When we bring together the research out there on this issue, we find strong evidence to suggest that combined antioxidant and glucocorticoid therapy may be safer than glucocorticoid therapy alone for the treatment of preterm birth,” says Ms Garrud.

Professor Giussani adds: “We believe it is time to study these further potential benefits in clinical trials. Glucocorticoid therapy is clearly a life-saver and is here to stay, but we support that treatment could be improved even further to maintain benefits while improving safety.”

The research was supported by the British Heart Foundation and Wellcome.

Reference
Garrud, TAC and Giussani, DA. Combined antioxidant and glucocorticoid therapy for safer treatment of preterm birth. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism; April 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.tem.2019.02.003

In the Atlantic Ocean, a giant ‘conveyor belt’ carries warm waters from the tropics into the North Atlantic, where they cool and sink and then return southwards in the deep ocean. This circulation pattern is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and it’s an important player in the global climate, regulating weather patterns in the Arctic, Europe, and around the world.

Evidence increasingly suggests that this oceanic current system is slowing down, and some scientists fear it could have major effects, such as causing temperatures to dive in Europe and warming the waters off the eastern coast of the USA, potentially harming fisheries and exacerbating hurricanes.

A new study published in Nature Communications provides insight into how quickly these changes could take effect if the ocean current system continues weakening.

An international team of scientists studied one of the key sections of the AMOC –where North Atlantic water sinks from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. They confirmed that changes in the ocean conveyor belt preceded abrupt and major climatic changes during the transition out of the last ice age, referred to as the last deglaciation. The study is the first to determine the time lags between past changes to the AMOC and major climate changes.

“Our reconstructions indicate that there are clear climate precursors provided by the ocean state — like warning signs, so to speak,” said lead author Francesco Muschitiello from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Geography, who completed the work while a postdoc at Columbia University.

Until now, it has been difficult to resolve whether past changes in the ocean conveyor belt occurred before or after the abrupt climate shifts that punctuated the last deglaciation in the Northern Hemisphere. To overcome the usual challenges, the team pieced together data from a sediment core drilled from the bottom of the Nordic Seas, a lake sediment core from southern Scandinavia, and ice cores from Greenland.

Scientists typically rely on radioactive carbon (carbon 14) dating to determine the ages of sediments. This relationship is tricky in ocean sediments, though, because carbon 14 is created in the atmosphere, and it takes time for the carbon to make its way through the ocean. By the time it reaches the organisms at the bottom of the water column, the carbon 14 could already be hundreds or thousands of years old. So the team needed a different way to date the sediment layers in the marine core.

The researchers solved this puzzle by measuring carbon 14 levels from a nearby lake sediment core and matching it to the marine core layers. Next, they compared the real age of the marine sediments to the deep ocean carbon 14 measurement, giving them a record of ocean circulation patterns in this region over time. The final piece of the puzzle was to analyse ice cores from Greenland, to study changes in temperature and climate over the same time period.

Comparing the data from the three cores revealed that the AMOC weakened in the time leading up to the planet’s last major cold snap around 13,000 years ago. The ocean circulation began slowing down about 400 years before the cold snap, but once the climate started changing, temperatures over Greenland plunged quickly by about 6 degrees.

A similar pattern emerged near the end of that cold snap, transitioning out of the ice age; the current started strengthening roughly 400 years before the atmosphere began to heat up dramatically, when Greenland warmed up rapidly — its average temperature climbed by about 8 degrees over just a few decades, causing glaciers to melt and sea ice to drop off considerably in the North Atlantic.

For now it’s not fully clear why there was such a long delay between the AMOC changes and climatic changes over the North Atlantic.

It’s also difficult to pinpoint what these patterns from the past could signify for Earth’s future. Recent evidence suggests that the AMOC began weakening again 150 years ago. However, current conditions are quite different from the last time around, says Muschitiello: the global thermostat was much lower back then, winter sea ice stretched farther south than New York Harbour, and the ocean structure would have been much different. In addition, the past weakening of the AMOC was much more dramatic than today’s trend so far.

“It is clear that there are some precursors in the ocean, so we should be watching the ocean. The mere fact that AMOC has been slowing down, that should be a concern based on what we have found,” said Muschitiello.

The study should also help to improve the physics behind climate models, which generally assume the climate alters abruptly at the same time as AMOC intensity changes. The model refinements, in turn, could make climate predictions more accurate. As Svensson puts it: “As long as we do not understand the climate of the past, it is very difficult to constrain the climate models needed to make realistic future scenarios.”

Reference:
Francesco Muschitiello et al. ‘Deep-water circulation changes lead North Atlantic climate during deglaciation.’ Nature Communications (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09237-3

Adapted from Columbia University story. 

While inflammation is a natural response necessary to fight off infection, chronic inflammation – which may result from psychological stress as well as lifestyle factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake, physical inactivity and obesity – is harmful.

The link between heart disease and depression is well documented. People who have a heart attack are at a significantly higher risk of experiencing depression. Yet scientists have been unable to determine whether this is due to the two conditions sharing common genetic factors or whether shared environmental factors provide the link.

“It is possible that heart disease and depression share common underlying biological mechanisms, which manifest as two different conditions in two different organs – the cardiovascular system and the brain,” says Dr Golam Khandaker, a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow at the University of Cambridge. “Our work suggests that inflammation could be a shared mechanism for these conditions.”

In a study published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, Dr Khandaker and colleague Dr Stephen Burgess led a team of researchers from Cambridge who examined this link by studying data relating to almost 370,000 middle-aged participants of UK Biobank.

First, the team looked at whether family history of coronary heart disease was associated with risk of major depression. They found that people who reported at least one parent having died of heart disease were 20% more likely to develop depression at some point in their life.

Next, the researchers calculated a genetic risk score for coronary heart disease – a measure of the contribution made by the various genes known to increase the risk of heart disease. Heart disease is a so-called ‘polygenic’ disease – in other words, it is caused not by a single genetic variant, but rather by a large number of genes, each increasing an individual’s chances of developing heart disease by a small amount. Unlike for family history, however, the researchers found no strong association between the genetic predisposition for heart disease and the likelihood of experiencing depression.

Together, these results suggest that the link between heart disease and depression cannot be explained by a common genetic predisposition to the two diseases. Instead, it implies that something about an individual’s environment – such as the risk factors they are exposed to – not only increases their risk of heart disease, but at the same time increases their risk of depression.

This finding was given further support by the next stage of the team’s research. They used a technique known as Mendelian randomisation to investigate 15 biomarkers – biological ‘red flags’ –  associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. Mendelian randomisation is a statistical technique that allows researchers to rule out the influence of factors that otherwise confuse, or confound, a study, such as social status.

Of these common biomarkers, they found that triglycerides (a type of fat found in the blood) and the inflammation-related proteins IL-6 and CRP were also risk factors for depression.

Both IL-6 and CRP are inflammatory markers that are produced in response to damaging stimuli, such as infection, stress or smoking. Studies by Dr Khandaker and others have previously shown that people with elevated levels of IL-6 and CRP in the blood are more prone to develop  depression, and that levels of these biomarkers are high in some patients during acute depressive episode. Elevated markers of inflammation are also seen in people with treatment resistant depression. This has raised the prospect that anti-inflammatory drugs might be used to treat some patients with depression. Dr Khandaker is currently involved in a clinical trial to test tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis that inhibits IL-6, to see if reducing inflammation leads to improvement in mood and cognitive function in patients with depression.

While the link between triglycerides and coronary heart disease is well documented, it is not clear why they, too, should contribute to depression. The link is unlikely to be related by obesity, for example, as this study has found no evidence for a causal link between body mass index (BMI) and depression.

“Although we don’t know what the shared mechanisms between these diseases are, we now have clues to work with that point towards the involvement of the immune system,” says Dr Burgess. “Identifying genetic variants that regulate modifiable risk factors helps to find what is actually driving disease risk.”

The research was funded by Wellcome and MQ: Transforming Mental Health.

Dr Sophie Dix, Director of Research at MQ, says: “This study adds important new insight into the emergence and risk of depression, a significantly under researched area.

“Taking a holistic view of a person’s health – such as looking at heart disease and depression together – enables us to understand how factors like traumatic experiences and the environment impact on both our physical and mental health.

“This research shows clearly the shared biological changes that are involved. This not only opens opportunities for earlier diagnosis, but also create a solid foundation for exploring new treatments or using existing treatments differently. We need to stop thinking about mental and physical health in isolation and continue this example of bringing sciences together to create real change.”

Reference
Khandaker, GM et al. Shared mechanisms between coronary heart disease and depression: findings from a large UK general population-based cohort. Molecular Psychiatry; 19 March 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0395-3

Latest research on hundreds of new green technology companies in the US shows the patenting activity of a startup climbs by over 73% on average every time they collaborate with a government agency on “cleantech” development – from next-generation solar cells to new energy storage materials.

The study also found that every time a cleantech startup licensed a technology developed by a government agency, the company secured – on average – more than double the amount of financing deals when compared to similar startups: a 155% increase one year after taking out a licence.

Collaboration with universities and private firms are a familiar path for many startups, yet government partnerships are significantly undervalued when it comes to green technologies, say researchers.

While the role of public-private partnerships in sectors such as biotech and IT is well known, they say that – until now – there has been a lack of data on the effectiveness of these alliances in cleantech. The study is published in the journal Research Policy.

“Our findings suggest that some of the signs commonly used to track innovation and business success, such as patents and financing, increase when new cleantech companies partner with US government departments or labs,” said study co-author Laura Diaz Anadon, Professor of Climate Change Policy at the University of Cambridge.

Prof Claudia Doblinger, study first author from the Technical University of Munich, said: “Government research laboratories have a major role to play in the climate challenge but also the growth of small businesses – twin objectives at the heart of many policy discussions, such as the Green New Deal in the United States.”

The researchers built a new dataset of 657 US cleantech startups and the more than 2,000 partnerships those companies established between 2008 and 2012, to gauge the different outcomes for private and public alliances.

Around 66% of the startups were less than five years old in 2008, with the remaining 34% commencing during the selected study period. The research included companies across the sustainable sector: from wind to marine power, and recycling to batteries.

In addition to the benefits seen in patenting and investment, researchers also found that alliances with some of the stronger innovation outcomes were outside of major tech hubs such as Silicon Valley – suggesting the potential for building “regional ecosystems”.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for example, part of the US Department of Energy and situated in Colorado, is a “prominent example of government organisations in the US partnering with cleantech startups”, say researchers.

A major player in the development of green technologies, NREL it worked throughout the 2000s with startup companies in “thin film” such as First Solar, which in 2009 became the largest producer of Cadmium Telluride solar technology.

Researchers point out that NREL has granted more than 260 licenses since 2000, and this study shows the value of government agencies such as this have on startups in particular.

The study’s authors argue that the scale, facilities, and longer-term perspective of state agencies, such as the US Department of Energy and its seventeen national laboratories, naturally complement the nimble startups that can sniff out and adapt technological developments to market opportunities at a faster rate.

“Governments can and should have longer-term perspectives when compared to the private sector, and thus play a critical role in energy innovation,” said study co-author Prof Kavita Surana, from the University of Maryland.

“Beyond grants and supporting the early markets, it is the joint development and transfer of knowledge that government agencies are able to foster with startups that makes a difference.

“As the US Congress and civil society prepare to debate the substance of the policies like the Green New Deal, facilitating public-private partnerships could well be an important, and relatively inexpensive, part of any forward-looking policy package,” said Surana.

Doblinger says that to forge lasting partnerships with emerging businesses, government agencies should test out incentives that support collaborative projects.

“Initiatives such as investing more in technology transfer capabilities, starting entrepreneurs in residence programs, or allowing government scientists to take temporary leave to work with a private firm, could reduce information asymmetry and provide incentives to researchers,” she said.

Anadon believes that the lessons from the study are worth considering in national contexts beyond the US. “For the agencies of any government to successfully work with startups, sufficient and stable funding is vital – along with technology transfer and communication support.”

“Our findings should be taken into consideration whenever funding for public research into sustainable energy is being debated. Cleantech that comes from public-private partnerships will be essential for meeting global climate and sustainability goals,” she said.

The tool, PREDICT Prostate, launches today to coincide with publication in the journal PLOS Medicine of the research that underpins it. It brings together the latest evidence and mathematical models to give a personalised prognosis, which the researchers say will empower patients as they discuss treatment options with their consultant.

According to Cancer Research UK, there were 47,151 new cases of prostate cancer in 2015. Progression of the disease, which usually presents in later life, is very variable: in most cases, the disease progresses slowly and is not fatal. It is often said that more men die with prostate cancer than from it. However, it is still the case that in a significant number of men, the tumour will metastasise and spread to other organs, threatening their health.

When a patient is diagnosed with prostate cancer, they are currently classified as low, intermediate or high risk. Depending on the patient’s risk group, clinicians will recommend either an ‘active monitoring’ approach or treatment. Treatment options include radiotherapy or surgery and can have potentially significant side-effects, including erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.

However, evidence suggests that these classifications, which are in the current guidelines provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), are only 60-70% accurate. This means that many men may elect for treatment when it is not necessary. In fact, a recent study carried out in the UK showed that for early prostate cancer (low and intermediate risk), treatment is no more beneficial in terms of ten year survival compared to no treatment.

Cambridge researchers have already shown that it is possible to improve the accuracy of the NICE-endorsed model to more than 80% by stratifying patients into five rather than three groups. Their next challenge was to use this information to give a more individual prediction of outcome to patients at no extra cost. The result is PREDICT Prostate.

PREDICT Prostate takes routinely available information including PSA test results, the cancer grade and stage, the proportion of biopsies with cancerous cells, and details about the patient including his age and other illnesses. It then gives a 10-15 year survival estimate. Importantly, the tool also estimates how his chance of survival differs depending on whether he opts for monitoring or treatment, providing context of the likelihood of success of treatment and risk of side effects.

“As far as we are aware, this is the first personalised tool to give an overall survival estimate for men following a prostate cancer diagnosis,” says first author Dr David Thurtle, Academic Clinical Fellow in Urology at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which is part of Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CUH).

“PREDICT Prostate is designed for men who are considering whether to choose to monitor or to opt for treatment. This is the choice that faces nearly half of all men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer. We hope it will provide a more accurate and objective estimate to help men reach an informed decision in discussion with their consultant.”

The research was led by Dr Vincent Gnanapragasam, University Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at CUH, and undertaken by Dr Thurtle, both of the Academic Urology Group in Cambridge, and in collaboration with Professor Paul Pharoah of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology.

“We believe this tool could significantly reduce the number of unnecessary – and potentially harmful – treatments that patients receive and save the NHS millions every year,” says Dr Gnanapragasam.

“This isn’t about rationing treatments – it’s about empowering patients and their clinicians to make decisions based on better evidence. In some cases, treatment will be the right option, but in many others, patients will want to weigh up the treatment benefits versus the risks of side effects. It will also show men who do need treatment a realistic estimate of their survival after treatment.”

Data from the National Prostate Cancer Audit has shown that rates of treatment for low risk prostate cancer vary across different hospitals between 2-25%. ‘Radical’ treatment – surgery or radiotherapy, for example – costs on average around £7,000 per patient and treating these men unnecessarily wastes considerable resources as well as causing significant side-effects.

Dr Thurtle and Dr Gnanapragasam have since carried out a randomised study of almost 200 prostate cancer specialists in which they gave some clinicians access to the tool and a series of patient vignettes, while others received the vignettes only. In most cases, the clinician overestimated the risk of the patient dying from the cancer, compared to the estimate given by PREDICT, going on to recommended treatment in many cases and overestimate how successful this treatment would be. When given access to the tool, the clinicians were less likely to recommend treatment in good prognosis cancers.

Dr Gnanapragasam says that the development of PREDICT Prostate has only been possible because of the intactness of records available through Public Health England – the tool was developed using data from over 10,000 UK men recorded in the East of England. This regional registry, he says, is one of the highest quality and most comprehensive data sets available both in the UK and internationally. The data was then validated externally in a sample of 2,500 prostate cancer patients in Singapore. The web tool was developed in collaboration with the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication

The researchers caution that the tool is strongly recommended for use only in consultation with a clinician. It is also not suitable for men with very aggressive disease or who have evidence of disease spread at the time of diagnosis.

The research was funded by the Evelyn Trust and the Urology Foundation.

Reference
Thurtle, DR et al. Individual prognosis at diagnosis in non-metastatic prostate cancer: Development and external validation of the PREDICT Prostate multivariable model. PLOS Medicine; 12 March 2019; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002758

Making prostate biopsies safer

Dr Gnanapragasam recently announced the start of clinical trials of CamProbe, a device to make prostate biopsies safer.

The current method to retrieve samples from the prostate uses a transrectal ultrasound probe inserted into the anus to allow the biopsy to be taken. Patients who undergo this procedure are at risk of urinary infections or sepsis as the needle has to pass through the bowel wall to reach the prostate.  Around 30-40,000 prostate biopsies are done every year using this method in the UK alone.

The CamProbe, invented and developed in Cambridge, has been designed so the biopsies can be taken more safely through the skin under the scrotum (transperineal) and avoid the bowel.

“The design of the CamProbe is a needle within a needle and allows us to collect tissue from the prostate through a more sterile part of the body,” says Dr Gnanapragasam, who co-leads the Urological Malignancies Programme at the CRUK Cambridge Centre.

“Most importantly it can be done under local anaesthetic in the out-patient department. Previously this kind of approach was only possible if a general anaesthetic was used with very significant additional costs.”

The trial for the CamProbe is now underway using funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It will run for a year at several hospitals around the UK including at the Cambridge Clinical Research Centre. If the trial is successful, the CamProbe could be adopted into mainstream use within two years.

“Our goal is to show that the CamProbe is a simple alternative for taking prostate biopsies which eliminates infection risks to patients and drastically reduces the need for antibiotics,” added Dr Gnanapragasam. “Its simplicity also means it will be a very low-cost device, and, in addition to reducing infections, the need for antibiotics and sepsis related admissions, could potentially save the NHS an estimated £7-11 million pounds every year.”

In the first study of its kind, scientists at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Professor Christina Curtis at Stanford University, examined the patterns of genetic changes within tumours from nearly 2,000 women with breast cancer and followed their progress over 20 years – including whether their cancer returned. They used this information to create a statistical tool that can better predict if, and when a women’s breast cancer could come back.

While the genetic analyses used in the study are too detailed for everyday use, the team are now working on a routine test that could one day help doctors offer women a more accurate prediction of if, and when, their disease may return. Although not available to patients yet, this means that in the future, treatments and follow-up can be tailored, improving women’s chances of survival.

Professor Carlos Caldas, lead researcher at the Institute, said: “Treatments for breast cancer have improved dramatically in recent years, but unfortunately for some women, their breast cancer returns and spreads, becoming incurable. For some, this can be many years later – but it’s been impossible to accurately predict who is at risk of recurrence and who is all clear.

“In this study, we’ve delved deeper into breast cancer molecular subtypes, so we can more accurately identify who might be at risk of relapsing and uncover new ways of treating them.”

Previous results from this group of researchers had already revealed that breast cancer isn’t just one disease, but instead could be classified into one of eleven different molecular subgroups.

The latest findings highlight how these molecular subtypes have distinct clinical ‘trajectories’, which can’t be predicted by looking at commonly used characteristics (such as size, stage, oestrogen receptor (ER), or Her2 status) alone.

These clinical trajectories vary considerably, even between tumours that seem similar. For example, the team found, among women with a form of the disease called triple-negative breast cancer, there was a distinct subgroup whose outlook is initially poor, but for whom the disease is unlikely to come back in those who survived 5 years.

They also identified subgroups of women with oestrogen receptor-positive (ER+) tumours, who were at a higher risk of their cancer coming back up to 20 years after they were first diagnosed.  Around 12,300 women in the UK could belong to one of these late relapse subgroups and therefore might benefit from longer courses of treatments such as tamoxifen, or more frequent check-ups

“We’ve shown that the molecular nature of a woman’s breast cancer determines how their disease could progress, not just for the first 5 years, but also later, even if it comes back.” said Dr Oscar Rueda, first author of the paper and senior research associate at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. “We hope that our research tool can be turned into a test doctors can easily use to guide treatment recommendations.”

The model also revealed how molecular subgroups could behave very differently if a patient’s cancer returns. They commonly spread to different parts of the body and some are more aggressive than others, affecting how much time women survive for following a relapse

Professor Karen Vousden, Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist, said: “This study provides some valuable new insights into how we might identify women whose breast cancer is likely to return.

“We’re still a way off being able to offer this type of detailed molecular testing to all women and we need more research to understand how we can tailor treatments to a patient’s individual tumour biology. But this is incredibly encouraging progress. One in seven women will get breast cancer in their lifetime in the UK, and we hope that research like this will mean that if faced with the disease, even more of our daughters and granddaughters will survive.”

In addition to developing an affordable test for future use in hospitals, Caldas’ team are also already investigating personalised treatment options for different breast cancer subtypes. The next steps will be to recruit patients onto different clinical trials depending on the molecular makeup of their tumour.

Catharine Scott, 51, from Cambridge, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2016. She had the molecular biology of her tumour analysed as part of the Personalised Breast Cancer Programme at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which is part of Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This programme aims to confirm whether women are receiving the best treatment for their tumour type, and if they might be eligible for a clinical trial should they relapse in the future.

Since finishing treatment, Catharine had one scare in the summer of 2018, but it was not a recurrence. She has annual check-ups and mammograms.

Catharine said: “I finished my treatment and found it very strange knowing I wouldn’t see anyone for a year. I was at the hospital every week, then every three, then suddenly that’s it. It’s quite scary and definitely a worry. I spoke to my consultant at the time and asked, ‘How likely am I to get this again?’

“They can tell you the risks and likelihood, and how things have been in the past. If they were able to make it more personalised that would be more reassuring. It would definitely be better than feeling you have to cross your fingers.

“I feel lucky to have been on the trials and I’m glad to be helping with research. Women in the past contributed to get treatment where it is today and I’m glad to be doing my bit for my daughter, for other women and for the future generations.”

Adapted from a press release from Cancer Research UK.

Reference:
Rueda, O., et al. Dynamics of breast cancer relapse reveal late recurring ER-positive genomic subgroups. Nature; 13 March 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1007-8

The report was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, with additional support from the James S McDonnell Foundation.

The UK is facing a maths crisis: according to a 2014 report from National Numeracy, four out of five adults have low functional mathematics skills compared to fewer than half of UK adults having low functional literacy levels.

While mathematics is often considered a hard subject, not all difficulties with the subject result from cognitive difficulties. Many children and adults experience feelings of anxiety, apprehension, tension or discomfort when confronted by a maths problem.

A report published today by the Centre for Neuroscience in Education at the University of Cambridge explores the nature and resolution of so-called ‘mathematics anxiety’.

Origins of maths anxiety

In a sample of 1,000 Italian students, the researchers found that girls in both primary and secondary school had higher levels of both maths anxiety and general anxiety.

More detailed investigation in 1,700 UK schoolchildren found that a general feeling that maths was more difficult than other subjects often contributed to maths anxiety, leading to a lack or loss of confidence. Students pointed to poor marks or test results, or negative comparisons to peers or siblings as reasons for feeling anxious.

“While every child’s maths anxiety may be different, with unique origins and triggers, we found several common issues among both the primary and secondary school students that we interviewed,” says Dr Denes Szucs from the Department of Psychology, the study’s lead author.

Students often discussed the role that their teachers and parents played in their development of maths anxiety. Primary-aged children referred to instances where they had been confused by different teaching methods, while secondary students commented on poor interpersonal relations.

Secondary students indicated that the transition from primary to secondary school had been a cause of maths anxiety, as the work seemed harder and they couldn’t cope. There was also greater pressure from tests – in particular, SATS – and an increased homework load.

Relationship between maths anxiety and performance

In a study published in 2018, the researchers showed that it is not only children with low maths ability who experience maths anxiety – more than three-quarters (77%) of children with high maths anxiety are normal to high achievers on curriculum maths tests.

“Because these children perform well at tests, their maths anxiety is at high risk of going unnoticed by their teachers and parents, who may only look at performance but not at emotional factors,” says Dr Amy Devine, the 2018 study’s first author, who now works for Cambridge Assessment English. “But their anxiety may keep these students away from STEM fields for life when in fact they would be perfectly able to perform well in these fields.”

However, it is almost certainly the case that in the long term, people with greater maths anxiety perform worse than their true maths ability. Today’s report includes a review of existing research literature that shows that this can lead to a vicious circle: maths anxiety leading to poorer performance and poorer performance increasing maths anxiety.

Recommendations

The researchers set out a number of recommendations in the report. These include the need for teachers to be conscious that an individual’s maths anxiety likely affects their mathematics performance. Teachers and parents also need to be aware that their own maths anxiety might influence their students’ or child’s maths anxiety and that gendered stereotypes about mathematics suitability and ability might contribute to the gender gap in maths performance.

“Teachers, parents, brothers and sisters and classmates can all play a role in shaping a child’s maths anxiety,” adds co-author Dr Ros McLellan from the Faculty of Education. “Parents and teachers should also be mindful of how they may unwittingly contribute to a child’s maths anxiety. Tackling their own anxieties and belief systems in maths might be the first step to helping their children or students.”

The researchers say that as maths anxiety is present from a young age but may develop as the child grows, further research should be focused on how maths anxiety can be best remediated before any strong link with performance begins to emerge.

“Our findings should be of real concern for educators. We should be tackling the problem of maths anxiety now to enable these young people to stop feeling anxious about learning mathematics and give them the opportunity to flourish,” says Dr Szucs. “If we can improve a student’s experience within their maths lessons, we can help lessen their maths anxiety, and in turn this may increase their overall maths performance.”

Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation, said: “Mathematical achievement is valuable in its own right, as a foundation for many other subjects and as an important predictor of future academic outcomes, employment opportunities and even health. Maths anxiety can severely disrupt students’ performance in the subject in both primary and secondary school. But importantly – and surprisingly – this new research suggests that the majority of students experiencing maths anxiety have normal to high maths ability. We hope that the report’s recommendations will inform the design of school and home-based interventions and approaches to prevent maths anxiety developing in the first place.”

Background

Researchers worked with more than 2,700 primary and secondary students in the UK and Italy to examine both maths anxiety and general anxiety, and gain a measure of mathematics performance. They then worked one-to-one with the children to gain a deeper understanding of their cognitive abilities and feelings towards mathematics.

This is the first interview-based study of its kind to compare the mathematics learning experiences of a relatively large sample of students identified as mathematics anxious with similar children that are not mathematics anxious. Although further in-depth studies are needed to substantiate and expand upon this work, the findings indicate that the mathematics classroom is a very different world for children that are mathematics anxious compared to those that are not.

Reference
Understanding Mathematics Anxiety: Investigating the experiences of UK primary and secondary school students. 14 March 2019

Latest research on hundreds of new green technology companies in the US shows the patenting activity of a startup climbs by over 73% on average every time they collaborate with a government agency on “cleantech” development – from next-generation solar cells to new energy storage materials.

The study also found that every time a cleantech startup licensed a technology developed by a government agency, the company secured – on average – more than double the amount of financing deals when compared to similar startups: a 155% increase one year after taking out a licence.

Collaboration with universities and private firms are a familiar path for many startups, yet government partnerships are significantly undervalued when it comes to green technologies, say researchers.

While the role of public-private partnerships in sectors such as biotech and IT is well known, they say that – until now – there has been a lack of data on the effectiveness of these alliances in cleantech. The study is published in the journal Research Policy.

“Our findings suggest that some of the signs commonly used to track innovation and business success, such as patents and financing, increase when new cleantech companies partner with US government departments or labs,” said study co-author Laura Diaz Anadon, Professor of Climate Change Policy at the University of Cambridge.

Prof Claudia Doblinger, study first author from the Technical University of Munich, said: “Government research laboratories have a major role to play in the climate challenge but also the growth of small businesses – twin objectives at the heart of many policy discussions, such as the Green New Deal in the United States.”

The researchers built a new dataset of 657 US cleantech startups and the more than 2,000 partnerships those companies established between 2008 and 2012, to gauge the different outcomes for private and public alliances.

Around 66% of the startups were less than five years old in 2008, with the remaining 34% commencing during the selected study period. The research included companies across the sustainable sector: from wind to marine power, and recycling to batteries.

In addition to the benefits seen in patenting and investment, researchers also found that alliances with some of the stronger innovation outcomes were outside of major tech hubs such as Silicon Valley – suggesting the potential for building “regional ecosystems”.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for example, part of the US Department of Energy and situated in Colorado, is a “prominent example of government organisations in the US partnering with cleantech startups”, say researchers.

A major player in the development of green technologies, NREL it worked throughout the 2000s with startup companies in “thin film” such as First Solar, which in 2009 became the largest producer of Cadmium Telluride solar technology.

Researchers point out that NREL has granted more than 260 licenses since 2000, and this study shows the value of government agencies such as this have on startups in particular.

The study’s authors argue that the scale, facilities, and longer-term perspective of state agencies, such as the US Department of Energy and its seventeen national laboratories, naturally complement the nimble startups that can sniff out and adapt technological developments to market opportunities at a faster rate.

“Governments can and should have longer-term perspectives when compared to the private sector, and thus play a critical role in energy innovation,” said study co-author Prof Kavita Surana, from the University of Maryland.

“Beyond grants and supporting the early markets, it is the joint development and transfer of knowledge that government agencies are able to foster with startups that makes a difference.

“As the US Congress and civil society prepare to debate the substance of the policies like the Green New Deal, facilitating public-private partnerships could well be an important, and relatively inexpensive, part of any forward-looking policy package,” said Surana.

Doblinger says that to forge lasting partnerships with emerging businesses, government agencies should test out incentives that support collaborative projects.

“Initiatives such as investing more in technology transfer capabilities, starting entrepreneurs in residence programs, or allowing government scientists to take temporary leave to work with a private firm, could reduce information asymmetry and provide incentives to researchers,” she said.

Anadon believes that the lessons from the study are worth considering in national contexts beyond the US. “For the agencies of any government to successfully work with startups, sufficient and stable funding is vital – along with technology transfer and communication support.”

“Our findings should be taken into consideration whenever funding for public research into sustainable energy is being debated. Cleantech that comes from public-private partnerships will be essential for meeting global climate and sustainability goals,” she said.