The first medical textbook on anti-racist healthcare, launching in Parliament on Monday, warns that ethnic inequalities still run deep throughout UK medicine. Its authors argue that proactively fighting racism is fundamental to fulfilling a founding promise of the NHS: fairness.

Being ‘race‑blind’ in medicine is not enough. The NHS must actively become anti‑racist if it is serious about equity.Zeshan Qureshi

The first medical textbook dedicated to tackling racism in medicine and delivering anti-racist healthcare in the UK is launched today in Parliament with MPs, professors, clinicians, students and patient advocates.

The project is co-led by Dr Zeshan Qureshi, an NHS doctor and philosopher, who is currently conducting a PhD at the University of Cambridge on how race and ethnicity are vital to understanding and improving healthcare outcomes in the UK.

Despite the NHS being founded on universal access, Qureshi argues that equal access to healthcare remains “an ideal rather than a reality,” with ethnic health inequalities persisting and even worsening since Sir Michael Marmot’s landmark 2010 review on health inequality in the UK.

The new book, Anti-Racist Medicine, offers a “blueprint” for medical students as well as existing frontline healthcare staff who serve ethnically diverse populations, says Qureshi, who argues that ‘race-blindness’ alone is not enough, and medical practice needs to be actively anti-racist to achieve equity in healthcare.

“The NHS England constitution, in its first principle, says that it has a duty ‘to pay particular attention to groups where improvements in health and life expectancy are not keeping pace with the rest of the population’,” said Qureshi. “Sadly, the NHS is still failing ethnic minorities, 75 years after it promised care for all.”

“Racism affects how diseases are understood, how patients are treated, who progresses in medical careers, and whose data counts. Racism infiltrates every aspect of medicine.”

“At a time when equality and diversity programmes are being rolled back, we risk treating racism as a side-issue or optional extra in the NHS,” said Qureshi, from Cambridge’s History and Philosophy of Science Department.

“Being ‘race‑blind’ in medicine is not enough. The NHS must actively become anti‑racist if it is serious about equity.”

The book brings together a wide range of case studies and data to show how ethnicity affects the type of health issues people suffer, the ways patients get treated, and the medical professionals who treat them. These divisions are particularly stark in the areas of maternity and mental health.

Qureshi and colleagues cite research showing that Black women in England are more than twice as likely to die in childbirth as White women, while infant mortality for Black children is reported as double that of White children, showing that ethnic health gaps are still present from the very start of life in the UK.

Black patients are between six and nine times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than White patients, and Black individuals are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

Type 2 diabetes is between two and six times more common among South Asian and Black populations compared with White populations in the UK. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities arguably face some of the worst health outcomes of any group in the UK. 

“From sickle cell disease and maternal mortality to mental health and psychosis diagnoses, many areas of medicine cannot be understood or fixed without confronting racism head-on,” said Qureshi. “This includes disparities in medical career progression.”

He points out that, while the UK’s medical workforce has become increasingly diverse, persistent inequalities remain, particularly affecting Black doctors, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, and international medical graduates.

“For example, across London, on average, Black doctors are six times less likely to be appointed as a consultant, rising to 15 times in some trusts,” said Qureshi.

Inequalities in data collection are a major issue for ethnicity in healthcare, argues Qureshi, and new technologies reliant on these datasets, such as artificial intelligence, risk reinforcing racial biases in medicine on both the treatment and career fronts. 

“Ethnicity should only be used in treatment algorithms when there is clear, robust evidence for its use, and no better alternatives, which in practice is rare,” he cautioned.

Improved data is just one of the key recommendations put forward in the book, along with reforms around professional regulation, greater support for international medical graduates, safeguards against bias in digital health, and medical courses that teach “cultural humility”: a recognition of the individual values and lived experiences of patients from all backgrounds.

Qureshi and colleagues say they wanted to create a “vision for anti‑racist medicine, across the domains of leadership, education, workforce, clinical care, research, and technology.”

“Anti‑racist medicine is not about lowering standards or favouring one group over another,” added Qureshi. “It is about removing barriers that worsen outcomes for patients and professionals alike.”

“The NHS was founded on fairness, a principle that the British public holds dear. Anti-racist medicine is at the heart of ensuring this promise is honoured.”

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The news comes as the Fitzwilliam celebrates record-breaking visitor numbers with 2025 becoming the second-highest attendance on record (493,612), following a record-breaking year in 2024 (506,428).

The Fitzwilliam Museum has today been announced as one of five finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2026, the world’s largest museum prize.

Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries, annually shortlists five outstanding museums for Museum of the Year. The 2026 edition recognises inspiring projects and activity from autumn 2024 through to winter 2025. In addition to looking at the overall achievements of the organisation, judges are tasked to evaluate museums who through unexpected, innovative and forward-thinking practices, are pushing the boundaries of what a museum is or can achieve.

The other shortlisted museums are The Box (Plymouth), The National Gallery (London), Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (Norwich), and V&A East Storehouse (London). The winning museum, recipient of £120,000, will be announced on 25 June at a ceremony at Cutty Sark in London. £20,000 will be given to each of the four other finalists – an increase of £5,000 for each museum – bringing the total prize money to £200,000.

The 2026 judging panel, chaired by Art Fund director Jenny Waldman, includes: Tony Butler OBE (Executive Director of Derby Museums), Yinka Ilori MBE (artist), Alice Loxton (historian, author and broadcaster) and June Sarpong OBE (broadcaster, writer and campaigner). The judges will visit each of the finalists to inform their decision-making, while each museum will make the most of being shortlisted over the summer through events and activities for new and current visitors.

Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum said, “This is a really exciting moment for the Fitzwilliam. It’s lovely to receive Art Fund recognition for the journey we’ve been on in the past few years, expanding our narrative and evolving our collection to link past and present, local and global, creating a museum where we hope everyone feels they belong. Our collection remixes, bold exhibitions, and innovative partnerships have encouraged reflection, dialogue and creativity – and Art Fund support has been crucial for our transformation.”

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund said, “Congratulations to the Fitzwilliam Museum on being shortlisted for Art Fund Museum of the Year 2026. The five shortlisted museums this year showcase extraordinary breadth of creativity and innovation, demonstrating the vital role museums play in building a brighter, more connected future for us all. From opening up world-leading collections to connecting with communities of all ages through ambitious exhibitions and programmes, each one offers something special. ‘We are thrilled to celebrate their achievements as finalists for Art Fund Museum of the Year, thanks to our National Art Pass members who make the prize possible. We hope people everywhere will be inspired to explore the finalists and their local museums, to see firsthand the treasures and experiences that are open to everyone.”

Part of the University of Cambridge and founded in 1816 for ‘the pursuit of learning’, the Fitzwilliam Museum is home to an extraordinary collection of works of art and material culture primarily from Europe, North Africa and Asia. Its current exhibition, ‘Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime‘ offers a rare opportunity to see the breadth of Bowling’s career, from his earlier figurative works from the 1960s to the dramatic, abstract paintings that the artist is best known for today.  

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Scientists have found the strongest evidence to date that a condition known as Barrett’s oesophagus is the starting point for all cases of oesophageal adenocarcinoma – the most common type of oesophageal cancer in the developed world – even when telltale signs of this pre-cancerous stage are no longer visible.

If the link between precancers and cancer is unproven or unclear, screening programmes risk doing more harm than goodRebecca Fitzgerald

The findings, published today in Nature Medicine, could help improve screening for and early detection of oesophageal cancer, the sixth most deadly cancer, helping improve outcomes for the disease.

Cancer of the oesophagus, including its most common form oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC), is on the rise in western countries. It is difficult to treat because it is often caught at an advanced stage, when treatment options are limited.

Scientists and doctors have known for some time that the development of oesophageal cancer is linked with Barrett’s oesophagus, which shows up in endoscopy as a pink patch in the surface of the oesophagus. Barrett’s oesophagus affects around one out of every 100 to 200 people in the United Kingdom.

Between three and 13 people out of 100 with Barrett’s oesophagus will go on to develop oesophageal adenocarcinoma in their lifetime. However, around half of OAC patients have no detectable Barrett’s oesophagus when their cancer is found, raising doubts about whether it is always the precursor.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald from the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge said: “Cancer generally takes many years to evolve, giving us a window of opportunity to catch it before if develops into a life-threatening condition. Screening and preventative strategies can have a massive impact on the number of people who die from cancer, but if the link between precancers and cancer is unproven or unclear, screening programmes risk doing more harm than good.”

To answer the question of whether Barrett’s oesophagus is a pre-requisite for OAC, researchers from Professor Fitzgerald and colleagues analysed epidemiological and clinical data from 3,100 OAC patients undergoing surgery to remove their tumour or diseased tissue. Patients were recruited from 25 centres across the UK.

The team also analysed whole genome sequencing data from 710 patients, which allows them to look at all of an individual’s DNA, and whole exome sequencing from multiple samples taken from 87 patients, allowing them to understand how their tumours evolved and how different parts of the same cancer may differ genetically.

The researchers hypothesised that if OAC can arise through different routes – not always involving Barrett’s oesophagus – then genomic data and associated risk factors would differ between these two groups. Conversely, extensive overlap would strongly suggest that Barrett’s oesophagus plays a central role in OAC progression.

Just over a third of participants (35%) had a diagnosis of Barrett’s oesophagus. However, the DNA, mutations, genomic patterns, and cellular ‘identity’ inside the cancers were essentially indistinguishable, regardless of whether doctors could identify Barrett’s oesophagus during endoscopy or in pathology samples.

The only major difference between cancers with or without visible Barrett’s oesophagus was the tumour stage – those patients without signs of Barrett’s oesophagus tended to have more advanced cancers. However, the team found biomarkers for Barrett’s oesophagus, such as the proteins TFF3 and REG4 present in the oesophagus cells at all disease stages including before the cancer has developed. This suggests that the growing tumour can destroy the original Barrett’s tissue, but importantly that proteins such as TFF3 and REG4 could be used to find individuals at future risk of oesophageal cancer.

Dr Shahriar Zamani, joint first author from the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute at Cambridge and now based at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, US, said: “We found no evidence for an alternative pathway to oesophageal adenocarcinoma other than Barrett’s oesophagus. Because it seems to be the universal precursor, detecting Barrett’s oesophagus earlier could offer a clearer route to preventing oesophageal cancer.”

Dr Lianlian Wu, joint first author, also from the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute, said: “What we need now are more sensitive, minimally invasive tests that identify people at risk based on molecular markers rather than relying solely on visible changes found during endoscopy.”

The research was supported by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, with additional support by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Dr Dani Skirrow, Research Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Detecting the earliest signs that cancer might develop gives us the opportunity to intervene and potentially prevent the disease.

“This research helps to clarify how the most common type of oesophageal cancer begins and, crucially, shows that the earliest signs are detectable even when doctors can’t see them.

“This opens the door to future tests that look for molecular clues of hidden pre-cancerous changes, helping people understand their risk of oesophageal cancer and get the necessary support to help keep the disease at bay.”

Professor Fitzgerald is the Research Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a new hospital that will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. She has led the development of a capsule sponge test to diagnose Barrett’s oesophagus, which can be easily administered at a GP surgery, speeding up diagnosis.

The University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) are fundraising for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, where detecting cancer at its earliest stages will be a key goal. Set to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the hospital will bring together clinical excellence from Addenbrooke’s Hospital and world-leading researchers at the University of Cambridge. The research that takes place there promises to change the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond. Find out more here.

Reference

Zamani, SA et al. Integrated epidemiological and molecular data yields insights into the relationship between precancer and cancer states of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Nat Med; 16 Apr 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04331-8

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University spinout, CamGraPhIC, has received the EC greenlight for €211 million funding (about £183 million) from Italy to support the development of photonic optical transceivers based on graphene.

CamGraPhIC (Cambridge Graphene Photonic Integrated Circuits), co-founded by Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre, and Dr Marco Romagnoli, previously at CNIT in Italy, is developing new types of photonic circuits for energy-efficient, high-bandwidth optical interconnect technology.

Optical transceivers are devices used to send and receive data through light instead of electrons in chips. These chips can be used in different sectors, including automotive, telecommunication, aerospace and defence. Replacement of the traditionally used silicon with graphene is expected to significantly improve the devices’ performance and efficiency, vital for the development of AI applications and the transmission of large amounts of cellular data.

CamGraPhIC’s graphene-based transceivers provide a viable, stable, and scalable alternative to current silicon-based photonics. These transceivers deliver higher bandwidth density and exceptional latency performance, while consuming 80% less energy than traditional pluggable data centre optical transceivers. This is particularly effective for transferring large volumes of data between graphic processing units (GPUs) and high bandwidth memory (HBM), which are fundamental to generative AI and high-performance computing.

The transceivers operate efficiently across a broad temperature range, eliminating the need for complex and costly cooling systems. Thanks to a simplified device architecture enabled by the integration of graphene into the photonic structure, these transceivers are also more cost-effective to manufacture.

The funding – approved by the European Commission under its state aid rules – will take the form of a direct grant to CamGraPhIC. It will be used to fund a collaborative project advancing innovation in graphene photonics transceivers to be carried out in Pisa and Bergamo, in partnership with universities and research and technology organisations.

“I am delighted that the European Commission has approved the Italian state aid measure worth €211 million to support the development of graphene-based photonic chips by CamGraPhIC,” said Ferrari. “I believe this to be the largest single grant ever made to a University of Cambridge spinout. It will enable the establishment of a manufacturing facility for these new cutting-edge devices, and it comes a few months after a private investment funding of €25 million co-led by CDP Venture Capital, NATO Innovation Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, and Join Capital, with participation from Bosch Ventures, Frontier IP Group plc, and Indaco Ventures. I would like to extend particular thanks to the Sony Innovation Fund for its strategic engagement with stakeholders connected to the Italian government funding process.”

Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director, Sony Ventures EMEA, added: “This announcement represents an important milestone, marking the first concrete step in the project’s progression. The decision highlights the strategic importance of graphene photonics for the European semiconductor ecosystem and the project’s potential contribution to technological progress in the automotive, telecommunications and aerospace sectors.”

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French trip highlighting the power of partnership for innovation with Ox-Cam, Manchester and Station F.

“I believe we have a genuine opportunity to help drive the next industrial revolution for the UK. That means engaging confidently in global conversations about what world‑class innovation infrastructure looks like.”University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice

University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, recently returned from a trip to France, where Cambridge was cementing partnerships across the Channel with French innovators.

Organised by the OxCam Supercluster, the visit showcased Cambridge’s growing UK and international research and innovation partnerships, especially with Ox-Cam, Manchester, and Station F. Cambridge was part of a wider UK delegation that included academic leaders, industry partners, and investors from across the Ox-Cam corridor and Manchester.

Cross-Channel innovation

At Station F on 7 April, Roxanne Varza, Director of Station F, who hosted innovation leaders, discussed how to further enhance international and national collaboration.

The Vice-Chancellor addressed attendees: “For us, this kind of cross‑Channel learning really matters, and it’s inspiring to be here with colleagues from Oxford and Manchester Universities and many other partners and friends who share a commitment to creating meaningful impact through excellence. Innovation doesn’t stop at internal or external borders, and neither should the systems that support it.” She continued, “I believe we have a genuine opportunity to help drive the next industrial revolution for the UK. That means engaging confidently in global conversations about what world‑class innovation infrastructure looks like.”

At the same event, the Vice Chancellor announced Pascal Levensohn as Chair of the Cambridge Innovation Hub Global Advisory Board, explaining: “The Cambridge Innovation Hub is the centrepiece of this renewed focus on partnership: a way to seize the opportunities we know are there, together.”

The vital importance of national and international partnerships

At a visit to the UK Embassy in Paris for a reception later the same day, hosted by His Excellency the UK Ambassador to France, Sir Thomas Drew, the Vice-Chancellor spoke about the exchange of ideas between Station F and the Cambridge Innovation ecosystem, including joint initiatives such as the Entente CordIAle artificial intelligence initiative between Paris Saclay Oxford and Cambridge signed last year, and the renewed flow of people and talent between countries.

In a speech to attendees, the Vice-Chancellor described the special relationship between France and the United Kingdom, highlighting the collaborative relationship.

The Vice-Chancellor also spoke about the strength of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, adding how: “Cambridge and Oxford are two of the most innovation‑intensive ecosystems anywhere in the world – highly concentrated, mutually complementary, and at a scale where strategic connection across the corridor becomes a competitive advantage.” The corridor hosts over 8,000 high‑tech firms, 2,500 start-ups and more than 500 spin‑outs, generating tens of billions for the UK economy every year.

The Vice-Chancellor also signalled the importance of the Manchester-Cambridge partnership, with the University of Manchester Vice-Chancellor, Professor Duncan Ivison, joining the delegation to further strengthen pan-regional innovation partnerships across the UK.

Innovation accelerating in Cambridge

This trip comes at a time when both the pace and intensity of innovation in and around Cambridge have accelerated dramatically. In the past month, Cambridge has announced major new investments in quantum and AI – including the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre and a significant expansion of national AI supercomputing capacity. Cambridge companies are scaling at an incredible rate. Quantinuum’s $10 billion valuation and multiple Cambridge ventures raising over $100 million illustrate the strength of momentum. This month, Cambridge also announced the creation of the Rokos School of Government – a new school designed to place science and innovation at the very centre of how future leaders are educated.

Hackathon

The visit concluded with a trip, on 8 April, with Christine Neau-Leduc, the Présidente of the Sorbonne-Panthéon, to attend part of a hackathon organised by the Entente Cordiale. Cambridge students were delighted to win the top Entente Cordiale Prize this year, and won 3 of the top 5 Prizes. All the laureates will have the opportunity to present their reports to Buckingham Palace in June.

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Professor Mark Brown has devoted decades to defending pollinators from disease, pesticides and parasites.

By Liam Morgan

One-third of the food we eat relies on bee-pollinated crops. But in Europe, at least 23% of bee species are in decline.

“What happens to pollinators could have huge knock-on effects for humanity,” says Professor Lynn Dicks from the Department of Zoology. “These small creatures play central roles in the world’s ecosystems, including many that humans and other animals rely on for nutrition. If they go, we may be in serious trouble.”

Help is coming. Meet Mark Brown, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology and the new Director of the Museum of Zoology.

Mark looks at the reasons behind pollinator decline. The story is a complex one, where pollinators are beset by stressors: emerging diseases, pesticides, disappearing habitats and parasites.

Mark has spent 28 years tracking this story, from Zürich to Dublin, then London and now to Cambridge. His teams have quantified the harmful chemicals that wild bees are exposed to and produced the world’s first regional IUCN Red List for bees – allowing for detailed plans on how to preserve pollinators in the UK.

In rearing bee colonies in his lab, Mark puts his life on the line:

“I’m actually allergic to bumblebee stings, so I have to be super careful. I became allergic through working with them and getting stung so many times. If I was stung now and didn’t receive treatment, I’d die.”

To reverse pollinator decline, we need to entwine our lives with the behaviour of these species. Mark, alongside a growing cadre of pollinator researchers at Cambridge, can point the way.

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“I’m actually allergic to bumblebee stings, so I have to be super careful. If I was stung now and didn’t receive treatment, I’d die.”

Mark Brown, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology and Director of the Museum of Zoology

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The stressful life of bees

Bees, ants, wasps and termites are special kinds of insects. Biologists sometimes call them ‘eusocial’, to reflect their complex social dynamics. They have specialised roles for individuals, with some members devoted to breeding, while others gather food.

Social insect biologists are still debating the efficiencies of these roles. They create colonies in the lab to test the strengths of different make-ups – where every ant is a worker, for instance – and compare them to each other. Zoology’s Duygu Sevilgen is doing the same with corals, in measuring how lab-grown colonies respond to varying ocean environments. 

Likewise, keeping bee colonies in the lab allows Mark to vary the environment and measure how the hive reacts. 

Mark says, “If you think of a colony as a superorganism, it opens up some fascinating possibilities. We couldn’t take a human, break up their cells, and put them back together in different ways to see how they work. But you can do that with social insect colonies.”

Coupled with bees collected in the wild, Mark can build a picture of how bee populations respond to threats. At sites across Europe, Mark and his collaborators measure environmental toxins, climate data and the number of flowers in a given area, to build a picture of the resources available to bee colonies. 

Mark says, “We take all of that information and do some heavy statistical crunching. We come out with a clear picture of what is the main driver of bee decline, and how that varies across space.”

Mark’s team found that pesticides are still a key driver of bee population decline, despite measures being taken to limit the chemicals’ spread. These findings highlight the difficulty in assessing agricultural chemicals: until they are unleashed in the real world, we can’t always foresee how an ecosystem will respond.

In addition to pesticides, Mark’s team identified the potential for pathogens to spillover from managed honeybees to wild bumblebees – something like bee COVID – and ways to stop this from happening.

“We need to work with beekeepers to make sure they have the tools and training to keep beehives as healthy as possible,” Mark says.

When trying to control the spread of diseases, Mark recommends buffer zones around protected areas that support wild bees, or other measures to prevent spillover.

We can take comfort in wider Cambridge research uncovering bees’ ability to combat disease. Biochemistry’s Dr Eyal Maori has found a new form of social immunity in honeybees, where individuals can share anti-viral RNA with each other. In this way, information on how to fight diseases can spread rapidly across the colony. 

To ensure the latest research is put to use in the real world, Mark lobbies policymakers across Europe, letting them know the best ways that we can allow pollinators to recover. 

“Seeing real world positive impacts as a result of this work is enormously satisfying,” Mark says. “To make a reliably good change sometimes takes decades, but it’s worth it.”

Using ‘natural pharmacies’ to fight parasites

The degradation of the natural world also affects the delicate balance between bees and their parasites.

Bumblebees have an annual lifecycle. The bigger bumblebees we see in spring are queens freshly out of hibernation (a sleepy state where queens slow their metabolic rate by 99%, and can breathe underwater if their home floods). Queens emerge from slumber ready to start a new colony. 

But there’s a catch, Mark says: “If a queen is infected with a particular parasite when she enters hibernation, she’ll produce 40% fewer queens and males in the next colony. For social insects like bees, there’s a huge cost to being parasitised.”

Bumblebees’ most common parasite is a trypanosome. It’s been co-evolving with bees for millions of years, with the parasite trying to exploit the bee, while the bee adapts its defences. Bees catch it when drinking nectar that’s been visited by other infected bees, who leave their poo on the flowers. The parasites then swim through the bee’s stomach and embed themselves in their gut wall. 

Mark has first-hand experience in collecting parasitised samples. 

“Bumblebees use their poo as a defence mechanism,” he says. “When you come towards the nest, many of them lie on their back and shoot their poo at you. I’ve been in the line of fire more times than I care to admit.”

Where floral resources are abundant, bees can use the environment as a ‘natural pharmacy’ – weakening their parasites with chemicals found in nectar and pollen. 

“There’s a chemical found in heather that stops bees getting infected by the parasite,” Mark explains. “It causes the parasite to lose its tail, meaning it can’t embed in bee guts.”

Land-use change, driven by intensive agriculture and urbanisation, has dramatically reduced the natural resources that bees can call upon to fight their parasites. In the UK, 80% of lowland heaths have vanished, meaning many bees have lost that method of parasite control. 

Mark thinks this is replicated elsewhere: that many flowering plants with antimicrobial benefits to bees and other pollinators are no longer available. 

These insights are crucial for future restoration efforts, which can aim to rebuild such ‘natural pharmacies’.

Mark warns, “We need to give bees their full range of defensive options, which they had access to before we simplified the landscape.”

Here, Mark’s role as Director of the Museum of Zoology comes to the fore.

“When it comes to biodiversity, the Museum’s collections underpin our understanding of what the world was like, and what we can aim for the world to be again,” Mark says. “The more museum collections are used in this way, the more important they become.”

Mark is keen for future exhibitions to directly link to current research being done at the Museum, and the wider University. He’ll also reinforce the invitation to people from all over the world to use its collections for their work. 

“We want to interrogate our collections, and work together with the communities who collected them, and from whose lands they were collected. I want to remove all barriers to access, and encourage people who’ve never been to a university museum before to visit. We want to make our collections accessible to all, and welcome people from all parts of society.”

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Support Cambridge’s pollinator research

Cambridge is working on solutions to regenerate nature, rewire energy, redefine economics, and rethink transport. You can support our pollinator research by donating online.

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Published on 8 April 2026.

Words: Liam Morgan.
Photography: Lloyd Mann.

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New immersive experience will help University astronomers inspire next generation of scientists

A state-of-the-art planetarium is set to transform how pupils across the East of England learn about space and the universe – and how Cambridge University supports teaching in schools.

Believed to be the first free planetarium in the region, and one of only a handful of free planetariums in the whole of the UK, the University’s Institute of Astronomy says the new digital resource – which they have just taken delivery of – will revolutionise how they inspire the next generation of scientists.

Powered by the most up-to-date technology available, the planetarium creates an entirely immersive experience, with fully rendered 3D environments in space. It is big enough to take a class of 30 pupils on a journey tens of millions of light years from Earth, but portable enough so that the University’s AstroEast schools outreach team can take the experience to them.

Dr Matt Bothwell, Public Astronomer at the University of Cambridge, said: “The planetarium will transform our work in schools – it’s an entirely different way of engaging with the universe. I’ve been doing this job for about 10 years, and up until now it hasn’t changed all that much in terms of how we try to capture kids’ imaginations.

“The planetarium is completely immersive, and you get a feel for space in a way that you just don’t get from listening to a talk, or even Googling it and seeing images on a computer screen. We can put pupils in the middle of space, in orbit around the Moon or a planet, or on a trip to neighbouring galaxies. Basically, we now have the universe in a box.”

AstroEast already provides curriculum-based workshops and activities at schools across the East of England, using astronomy to inspire Key Stage 3 (year 7-9) pupils and improve numeracy and literacy. But Dr Hannah Strathern, Outreach Facilitator at the Institute of Astronomy, says being able to offer schools the planetarium experience is a game changer.

She said: “It will have such a huge impact on how we approach our outreach and work with schools, because we can take this amazing experience to them – and for free. And I’m sure it will be an experience that many children never forget, even more than just having an astronomer come in and talk to them – no matter how interesting the talk is! The planetarium is awe-inspiring, as soon as you go into it you feel this ‘whoosh’ as you’re transported into space.”

The University’s new planetarium was made possible following a generous philanthropic gift from Dr May Chiao, a former Research Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory, and Darwin College. It is bespoke, and because of its specialist design needed to be custom-made. Dr Bothwell said: “It’s something we’ve wanted for years. So many astronomers – and scientists more broadly – say that their first experience of science was the thing that made them fall in love with the subject, and quite often that is a planetarium. It makes science material, more visceral and real.

“Even as an astronomer, this is something entirely different. I’ve obviously spent a lot of time looking at the Moon through a telescope, but being about to travel to the Moon in 3D and fly over its mountains and valleys – rendered in extraordinary detail using images captured by NASA’s Lunar Orbiter programme – really is on another level.”

As well as its focus on school outreach, The Institute of Astronomy’s public engagement work includes public lectures and regular free stargazing evenings, which an estimated 100,000 members of the community have taken part in since they were launched in the 1990s.

To find out more about arranging a school visit, contact outreach@ast.cam.ac.uk

Published: 7th April, 2026
Words: Stephen Bevan
Images: Dr Hannah Strathern

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The announcement was made by the Vice‑Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, during a visit to Station F in Paris.

Pascal’s leadership will help ensure that our scientists and entrepreneurs have the environment, investment, and support they need to build companies that change the world.University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice

Cambridge University has appointed Pascal Levensohn as Chair of the Global Advisory Board for the Cambridge Innovation Hub, the flagship new initiative which seeks to transform the UK’s capacity to scale world‑leading deep tech and life sciences companies.

The announcement was made by the Vice‑Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, during a visit to Station F in Paris. Station F hosts more than 1,000 early‑stage companies and provides a fully connected ecosystem of programmes, investors, corporates and support services to accelerate startup growth.

Welcoming the appointment, Vice‑Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said:
“The Innovation Hub strengthens Cambridge’s mission to translate outstanding research into real‑world impact. Pascal’s leadership will help ensure that our scientists and entrepreneurs have the environment, investment, and support they need to build companies that change the world.”

An innovation hub for the UK

The Cambridge Innovation Hub, backed by at least £15 million in government investment as part of the £800 million Oxford–Cambridge Growth Package, is proposed to become Europe’s premier destination for early‑stage science‑based companies.

The Hub will seek to provide:

• A dedicated home for deep tech and life sciences startups
• Shared laboratories, prototyping facilities, and collaboration spaces
• A central convening point for researchers, investors, corporates, and entrepreneurs
• Focus on Cambridge’s strengths and deliver growth of the IS8 sectors
• A nationally networked platform to accelerate research translation.

Cambridge is at the forefront of new science and technology. Soon to be home to the UK’s most powerful quantum computer at the Ray Dolby Centre, the city sits at the intersection of AI, quantum computing, life sciences, engineering and advanced materials. The Innovation Hub is designed to accelerate breakthroughs across these converging fields.

Speaking about his appointment, Pascal Levensohn said: “The UK is writing the biggest cheque in its history on innovation. As Chair of the Global Advisory Board, my mandate is to advise Cambridge University’s leadership on strategy and the implementation of best governance practices related to the Innovation Hub. Our objective is to scale a robust innovation ecosystem extending well beyond the University that will deliver not just financial returns, but returns for society.”

Why the Innovation Hub matters now

Cambridge is doubling down to meet the current pace and intensity of innovation. There is a need to capitalise on the rich pool of talent in the region at a time when the UK is moving decisively to expand its innovation capacity. Recent government commitments include:

• £2 billion for quantum technologies
• £500 million for the Sovereign AI initiative
• £800 million for the Oxford–Cambridge Growth Corridor

This national investment aligns with the rapid rise of the Cambridge ecosystem, which has grown 80% in the past decade, with startups raising £7.9 billion since 2015 and attracting nearly 40% international investor participation.

An asset designed for the Oxford–Cambridge Corridor

The UK’s competitive advantage lies in the research‑to‑growth corridor between Oxford and Cambridge. An Innovation Hub is proposed to amplify this advantage by providing a single, interconnected platform for scaling science and deep tech‑based companies. As Pascal Levensohn explained:

“The UK doesn’t need a single centre of gravity — it needs an interconnected system, an Innovation Hub which exists in the Oxford–Cambridge corridor. The Cambridge Innovation Hub Global Advisory Board exists to serve Cambridge University’s leadership and the UK’s broader national innovation initiative; to magnify the distinctive position of the UK’s top research universities as the world’s leading research‑to‑commercialisation cluster.”

With Innovate UK shifting toward high‑conviction investment and the £500 million Sovereign AI Fund launching on 16 April, the UK is entering a new era of strategic public investment. The Innovation Hub will play a central role in ensuring that this investment is matched with world‑class governance.

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Researchers have developed a solar-powered reactor to break down hard-to-recycle forms of plastic waste – such as drinks bottles, nylon textiles and polyurethane foams – using acid recovered from old car batteries, and converting it into clean hydrogen fuel and valuable industrial chemicals.

The reactor, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, is powered by the energy from the sun, and could be a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to current chemical-based recycling methods. The team say their method could create a circular system where one waste stream solves another. Their results are reported in the journal Joule.

Global plastic production exceeds 400 million tonnes per year, yet only 18% is recycled. The rest is burned, landfilled, or leaks into ecosystems. The researchers say that their method, known as solar‑powered acid photoreforming, could help address the global mountain of plastic waste.

The researchers engineered a photocatalyst that is robust enough to withstand the highly corrosive effects of acid, while making productive use of the acid inside spent car batteries, which is normally neutralised and discarded.

“The discovery was almost accidental,” said Professor Erwin Reisner from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who led the research. “We used to think acid was completely off limits in these solar-powered systems, because it would simply dissolve everything. But our catalyst developed didn’t – and suddenly a whole new world of reactions opened up.”

“Acids have long been used to break plastics apart, but we never had a cheap and scalable photocatalyst that could withstand them,” said lead author Kay Kwarteng, a PhD candidate in Reisner’s research group, who developed the photocatalyst. “Once we solved that problem, the advantages of this type of system became obvious.”

The method developed by Kwarteng, Reisner and their colleagues first treats waste plastics with the car battery waste acid, breaking the long polymer chains into chemical building blocks such as ethylene glycol, which the photocatalyst then converts into hydrogen and acetic acid (the main ingredient in vinegar) when exposed to sunlight.

In laboratory tests, the reactor generated high hydrogen yields and produced acetic acid with high selectivity. It also ran for more than 260 hours without any loss in performance.

The approach works for multiple types of plastic waste, even those that are currently tough to recycle, such as nylon and polyurethane. This offers a real advancement to current upcycling technologies that do not cover plastics beyond PET.

The approach works not just with new, laboratory-grade acid, but with the acid recovered from car batteries. These batteries contain between 20-40% acid by volume, and are replaced worldwide in huge numbers every year. The lead in these batteries is typically extracted for resale, but the acid creates extra waste once it is safely neutralised.

“It’s an untapped resource,” said Kwarteng. “If we can collect the acid before it’s neutralised, we can use it again and again to break down plastics: it’s a real win-win, avoiding the environmental cost of neutralising the acid, while putting it to work generating clean hydrogen.”

The researchers say their method offers a potential order‑of‑magnitude cost reduction compared with other photoreforming approaches, largely because the acid enables increased hydrogen production rates and can be reused rather than consumed or wasted.

Kwarteng says that although challenges remain – such as ensuring reactors can withstand corrosive conditions – the fundamental chemistry is sound. “These acids are already handled safely in industry,” he said. “The question now is engineering: how do we build reactors that can run continuously and handle real‑world waste?”

The researchers say that their approach won’t replace conventional recycling, but it could complement it by handling contaminated or mixed plastics that currently have no viable route to reuse.

“We’re not promising to fix the global plastics problem,” said Reisner. “But this shows how waste can become a resource. The fact we can create value from plastic waste using sunlight and discarded battery acid makes this a really promising process.”

The team plans to commercialise this process with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm, and with a UKRI Impact Acceleration Account. The research was supported in part by the Cambridge Trust, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Leverhulme Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Erwin Reisner is a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Kay Kwarteng is a Member of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Papa K. Kwarteng et al. ‘Solar Reforming of Plastics using Acid-catalyzed Depolymerization.’ Joule (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2026.102347

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Cambridge Men’s Blue Boat has won The Boat Race for the fourth time in a row.

More than 200,000 spectators lined the banks of the Thames in London on Easter Saturday as Oxford and Cambridge met in the 2026 chapter of nearly 200 years of competition.

Conditions were expected to be challenging, with a south-westerly wind causing choppy conditions, and so it proved – particularly towards the end of the course.

In the Men’s race, Oxford won the toss and selected arguably the most advantageous side of the river, the Surrey station. But it was in fact Cambridge who took the advantage, getting off to a strong start. Despite strong challenges from the Dark Blues in the first two thirds of the race, the Light Blues pulled clear in the final third, claiming victory by 11.02 seconds for a seventh win in eight years.

The result meant that it is the fourth time Cambridge Men’s President Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall), has won the Boat Race, the first Cambridge man to win four consecutive Boat Races in the 21st century and the first since Christopher Baillieu MBE in 1970, 71, 72, 73. Interestingly, both rowed in the 2 seat.

He said: “This was the most difficult race we’ve had in years.

“In these conditions we knew we had to get the job done early on in the race, which we did, but Oxford put some very good pushes in and made it as hard as possible so props to them for that.

“At the moment my main feeling is one of relief! We didn’t make any mistakes in such rough water and now I’m just going to relax and enjoy the moment. Tonight we’ll have a great dinner then take a step back and reflect on what we have achieved.”

Cox Sammy Houdaigui (Fitzwilliam) said: “We talked a lot before the race about what that first half would look like.

“Given that we were on the Middlesex [station], and given the way the race was playing out – and knowing the conditions were going to get biblical in the second half – we really wanted to make sure we had a margin and that we could be in the water we wanted to be in the second half and not be forced to stay wide into the rougher water.

“Oxford were leaning fairly hard on us in the first quarter but at a certain point, with the conditions we had, I had to put the bow ball where it needed to be for these guys to drive us out and ahead. There were some risky moments in that of course, but I had complete confidence in the crew to come out on top. It just feels fantastic.”

Earlier in the afternoon Cambridge Women’s President Gemma King (St John’s) had won the toss and selected the Surrey station. But Oxford made a strong start to the race in the tricky conditions.

Cambridge’s Women’s Blue Boat cox Matt Moran (Emmanuel), who had honed his skills on the Tideway while a member of Thames Rowing Club, tried everything to bridge the gap, but Oxford managed to hold onto their lead.

It was better news for the reserve crews, with both the women’s boat Blondie and the men’s boat Goldie winning their respective races. Blondie won by nine lengths and Goldie won by a massive margin of 58 seconds.

And on Friday both the Women and Men’s Lightweight Crews won their respective races and also both the Women’s and Men’s Veterans Crews won their races.

University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said: “It was brilliant. It was rough out there on the water, it was really crazy in the middle of the course, and I’m so impressed with what both sides did.

“It’s delightful that Cambridge have won the Men’s race again, as well as both reserve races. The women in the Blue Boat rowed well, it was a tough course, they did everything they could to win. They rowed with real heart and we are proud of them.”

Today’s results mean the records currently stand as 49-31 in the favour of Cambridge Women and 89-81 in the favour of Cambridge Men.

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Cambridge University Cricket Club (CUCC) has begun its 2026 tour in Mumbai, marking the club’s first visit to India in approximately 15 years and continuing a long-standing cricketing relationship between Cambridge and India dating back to the late 19th century. 

The tour forms part of a broader programme of engagement between the University of Cambridge and India, following the announcement earlier this year of new initiatives to strengthen academic, research and cultural ties between the two. 

CUCC travelled to Mumbai on 28 March and will play a series of fixtures against local sides and institutions, including the Cricket Club of India, Bombay Gymkhana, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and the Dilip Vengsarkar Cricket Academy.

The opening match of the tour, a 45-over fixture against MCA Under-23s, took place at Parsee Gymkhana.

Match result

MCA U23s win by three wickets

Match summary

CUCC Men’s Captain Stan Norman writes:

Thrown straight into conditions unlike anything back home, the Men’s Blues squad faced 30-degree heat and a demanding outfield on their first day of competitive cricket. Having lost the toss and been asked to bat, the Blues posted 179 all out, with Johnny Kershaw the standout performer: his 67 off 51 balls, including five towering sixes, showed a fine ability to read and attack the local spinners. The total proved a fighting one in difficult conditions.

MCA began their chase at a rapid pace, but the Cambridge spinners grew into the game, with Simpson, Mahesh and Rajkumar taking regular wickets to drag the contest back. Excellent fielding across a tricky outfield kept the pressure on, though MCA ultimately sealed victory by three wickets. There were plenty of positives to take, not least a much clearer understanding of subcontinental conditions ahead of the remaining fixtures. The evening brought a fittingly memorable close to the day, with the squad attending a drinks reception hosted by the British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India, Harjinder Kang.

The tour itinerary includes a mix of T20, 40-over and 50-over matches across venues in Mumbai, alongside training sessions and engagement activities. Fixtures include games at the Cricket Club of India and at MIG Bandra and Bombay Gymkhana. 

Off the field, the squad will visit the International Institute of Sports & Management for an orientation session and also attend an Indian Premier League match at Wankhede Stadium. 

The tour is supported by CUCC sponsor JMAN Group and organised in India by Cutting Edge. 

Cambridge University Cricket Club, founded in 1820, is the University’s oldest Blues sport and has been based at Fenner’s Cricket Ground since 1848. The club has produced 62 Test players and 21 Test captains and today comprises more than 1,000 members across men’s and women’s squads. 

The India tour precedes the annual Varsity Matches against Oxford University Cricket Club, which will take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London in May. 

This tour also builds on the University’s renewed engagement with India, following the announcement in January of a series of initiatives to strengthen academic and cultural partnerships, including the launch of the Cambridge-India Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) with a focus on innovation, research and learning. 

The Cambridge-India CAS establishes a bridge between the University of Cambridge, globally renowned as a leader in science and technology, and India’s rapidly evolving knowledge economy. The Centre, operating as a hub for the University’s presence in India, will serve as a catalyst for intellectual exchange, policy influence, and societal impact. 

In addition, the University will broaden undergraduate entry pathways for top students educated in India. The Indian CBSE Class XII qualification will now be accepted by the University for some undergraduate courses, alongside additional requirements where appropriate.  The University is also exploring new philanthropic opportunities for the funding of scholarships for India’s most talented students. 

Cambridge has also established a Section 8 company in India, the Cambridge India Research Foundation, which enables members of the public, Cambridge alumni, and friends of the University in India to provide funds for bursaries, fees and other expenses incurred by Indian students studying in Cambridge, as well as supporting research partnerships. See the Foundation’s web pages for further information.

Speaking at the time, Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice said: “I am delighted to build on the strong and deep links between Cambridge University and India. The Cambridge-India CAS is an exciting opportunity to form collaborations with the best researchers and innovators in India and strengthen ties with such a rapidly growing knowledge economy. And our best cricketers are looking forward to testing their skills against their Indian counterparts.” 

The new Cambridge-India CAS Centre will provide a hub for the University’s activities in India, and will feature three integrated elements which align strongly with the UK Government’s recently announced International Education Strategy:

• Centre for Advanced Research and Synthesis: a research institute, hosting programmes co-convened by Cambridge and Indian research leads  
• Knowledge-Policy-Innovation Hub: addressing issues of knowledge transfer and impact by creating an incubation space for academics, innovators, entrepreneurs and decision makers
• The Learning Hub: providing learning opportunities, scholarships and mobility programmes for students and staff

Cambridge-India CAS will act as an ‘umbrella’ for a range of programmes, building on the many bilateral partnerships between the University and India over recent decades. Working with partners, the Centre will act as a framework for a portfolio of activity across the whole of India without the limits of a specific physical presence. It will be multi-sited, and multi-dimensional. 

One of the first initiatives under the Learning Hub was announced in January, with the establishment of a Real Estate educational programme by P E Analytics Ltd, with technical assistance and curriculum support from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Land Economy, working towards the creation of the first School of Real Estate in India. Senior members of the University also attended the India Global Education Summit in Chennai on 28-29 January. 

These announcements, alongside Cambridge University Cricket Club’s tour, reflects the shared ambition to deepen collaboration between Cambridge and India across research, education, sport and wider exchange. 

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source: cam.ac.uk

Scientists have created the most detailed map to date, comprised of over 3 million cells, showing how breast tissue changes as women age – including dramatic changes during menopause.

Our map revealed that as women age, their breast tissue goes through major changes, with the most dramatic changes occurring at menopausePulkit Gupta

The map reveals how, as women age, the number of cells in their breast tissue decreases, and these in turn proliferate less, and the structure of breast tissue changes. This creates a ‘micro-environment’ in which cancer cells can thrive.

Details of the study, led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and British Columbia, are published today in Nature Aging.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. It accounts for 15% of all new cancer cases, with four out of five cases occurring in women over 50. As many as one in seven women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

Pulkit Gupta from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge, joint first author, said: “Even though breast cancer affects well over two million women worldwide, we understand very little about why and when it occurs. As cells divide and replicate, they accumulate mutations that can drive cancer, but why is it that the body can get rid of these mutated cells when we’re younger, but struggles later in life?”

The team used advanced imaging techniques to analyse breast tissue from more than 500 women aged 15 to 86 years old. The tissue included biopsies taken from women for non-cancer-related reasons.

Combining these images with details of the hormone receptors and immune cells present, as well as the tissue architecture, the researchers were able to map how breast tissue changes over time in unprecedented detail. Their findings point to reasons why breast cancer risk increases with age and why tumours in younger women differ biologically.

Gupta added: “Our map revealed that as women age, their breast tissue goes through major changes, with the most dramatic changes occurring at menopause. There are changes, too, during their twenties, possibly linked to pregnancy and childbirth, but these are far less pronounced.”

The map revealed that all types of cells become fewer in number and divide far less often. Milk-producing structures known as lobules shrink or disappear, while the ducts that that carry milk become relatively more common, with the supporting layer around them becoming thicker. Fat cells increase while blood vessels decrease.

Meanwhile, changes occur in the immune environment. Younger breasts have more B cells and active T cells, which helps them identify and kill cancer cells. As tissue ages, these types of cells decline in number, replaced by other types of immune cell that indicate a more inflammatory and potentially less protective immune environment.

Co-senior author Dr Raza Ali from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge said: “We don’t know for certain why the types of immune cell change. We can speculate that one reason may be because breast milk contains a high concentration of immunoglobulins, probably to help build the infant’s immunity, and these are produced by B cells.”

At the same time, the cells begin to interact with each other less. Immune cells and stromal cells (those that create a tissue ‘scaffold’) become physically further away from epithelial cells (specialised cells that line the mammary ducts and lobules, forming a structure responsible for milk production and transport). This may make it easier for pre-cancerous cells to escape control.

Co-senior author Professor Samuel Aparicio from BC Cancer, University of British Columbia, Canada, said: “We’ve previously seen that age dependent changes in oestrogen activity occur strongly in milk secreting cells of the breast and now we can see the surprising extent of changes in all cell types, including the immune system, with age. We are now seeking to understand the relationship between changes in immune cells and surveillance of early mutations that can arise in milk secreting cells over time.”

Dr Ali added: “It isn’t surprising that we should see fewer epithelial cells, as these play a role in producing breast milk, something that becomes less important with age, but the sheer scale of changes across the breast surprised us.

“What is clear from our map is that all of these changes create an environment where cancer cells that emerge naturally find it easier with age take hold and spread.”

The research was supported by Cancer Research UK.

Reference

Gupta, P et al. Single-cell spatial atlas of the aging human breast. Nature Aging; DATE; DOI: 10.1038/s43587-026-01104-3

Image

The image visualises multiscale spatial remodelling of the ageing human breast, with a branching ductal network embedded within a dense, cell-rich microenvironment that progressively gives way to fat-rich tissue with age. Faint spatial network lines evoke the underlying cell-neighbourhood structure revealed by spatial proteomics.

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Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital

The University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) are fundraising for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, where detecting cancer at its earliest stages will be a key goal. Set to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the hospital will bring together clinical excellence from Addenbrooke’s Hospital and world-leading researchers at the University of Cambridge. The research that takes place there promises to change the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond. Find out more about the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.

source: cam.ac.uk

Everyday financial anxieties and frustration with low-quality work – rather than immigration alone – helped populist politics explode across Europe from the mid-2010s, according to a new book that analyses data from over 75,000 voters.

The data suggest that populist support is rooted in everyday insecurities that affect the lower-middle classes as much as the so-called left behindLorenza Antonucci

While immigration is often blamed for the rise of populism, it was cost of living and male job dissatisfaction that played a major role in the European surge in support for populist politics a decade ago, according to a University of Cambridge social scientist.

Research by Dr Lorenza Antonucci and her team used data from over 75,000 people across ten countries between 2015 and 2018, when the populist wave crashed across Europe: from the UK’s ‘Brexit’ and Poland’s PiS taking power to the AfD entering the Bundestag.^*

Much handwringing has focused on ‘left-behind outsiders’ driving European populism. However, Antonucci’s findings, published in the new book ‘Insecurity Politics’, show that working people increasingly stressed by money worries and disillusioned with their jobs became far more likely to back populist parties.

For people across Europe, feelings of financial insecurity regardless of income – from anxiety over bills to an inability to cover unexpected costs – emerged as by far the strongest predictor of an anti-elite outlook, and of voting for populist parties on both the right and left.

In fact, Antonucci’s research shows that in 2018, scoring above average for worrying about finances increased the chances of voting populist by 17-20 percentage points in Germany, France and Sweden, compared to those who felt more financially secure.^**

In the same year, the link between money worries and voting increased populist support in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands by between 4-10 percentage points. 

The research also shows that an overall disillusionment with quality of work was linked to voting populist in most of the large European nations, by up to 12 percentage points.

Antonucci points out that, at the time, the two leading parties in several of these countries were only separated by around ten percent of the vote.

“The political party system is extremely fragmented, and most national elections are won by much smaller swings than some of the effects money worries had on votes for radical parties at the height of Europe’s populist wave,” said Antonucci, from Cambridge’s Department of Sociology.

“The cost-of-living crisis is viewed as a post-pandemic shock, but it runs much deeper across Europe in the years following the banking bailout. The data suggest that populist support is rooted in everyday insecurities that affect the lower-middle classes as much as the so-called left behind.”

“Even for people with stable jobs, many workers feel like they are fighting a losing battle against job intensification, work pressure, declining wages, and a loss of control over how they do their job,” said Antonucci, who calls this the hidden face of work-based insecurity.

A further study featured in the book reveals a gender split in the way work quality affects populist support. Antonucci and her team compared data from almost 21,000 statistically matched pairs of workers across 23 European countries between 2015 and 2018, to investigate how working conditions related to voting intentions.^***

For men, being in a high-pressure job – working at speed to tight deadlines – increases the probability of voting for radical right-wing parties from 14% to 18%.

However, men who felt they were underpaid, lacked career prospects and received little in the way of recognition had an even greater likelihood of voting radical right, with probability shifting from 12% to almost 20% when job dissatisfaction is high.

For men, this workplace disillusionment was a far better predictor of populist voting than a fear of redundancy, which made little difference to populist support.

“Work insecurity is about job quality, not just unemployment,” said Antonucci. “People feel rising pressures and a lack of autonomy, along with limited prospects and a poor work-life balance. For many men, this is about loss of status in society connected to how they are treated at work.”

For women, feelings of economic strain rather than working conditions swayed them towards populism. The probability of voting for populist parties on both left and right rose from 18% to 25% for women who reported difficulties living on their income.

Antonucci argues that this age of financial precarity is compounded by the agendas of big political parties, which push policies that condition citizens to believe individual competition at school and work is the basis of a good life, while moving away from the idea that people also need security to function in society.

“Europe’s mainstream parties have abandoned much of the traditional political ground on security, family and social safety nets, focusing instead on enhancing competitiveness through deregulation, hire-and-fire flexibility, and offering more targeted benefits. This has made our societies more economically competitive, but less socially secure.”

In the book, Antonucci analyses political party manifestos across Europe in the first two decades of this century, showing that populists stepped into this political vacuum by pushing stories of “security”: whether pro-state redistribution on the left, or nativist national solidarity and ‘support for our own’ on the right.

“Populist parties exploited the gap by offering simple answers to insecurity. On the right, that meant claiming voters were losing out to migrants in the competition for jobs, welfare and resources. These parties offer security through welfare chauvinism and a return to the role of the family as provider,” said Antonucci.

“Financial insecurity and disillusionment with poor-quality jobs are at the heart of Europe’s populist boom. Hostility towards migrants resonates because money worries and status anxiety are widespread and anti-migration feelings are an easy way to channel frustrations that people have about their lives.”

_{* The 10 European countries are Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden. Minimum 2,500 respondents per country, including 1,000+ employed respondents per country.}

_{** The researchers divided respondents into four groups based on how financially insecure they felt, from the most secure quarter to the most insecure quarter. Comparing someone in the relatively secure first quarter with someone in the more insecure third quarter was associated with a 17-20 percentage point jump in the likelihood of voting populist in Germany, France and Sweden.}

 _{*** The research combined two major European surveys: the European Social Survey (ESS) and the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). Statistical matching algorithms paired each person in the ESS with a near identical worker in the EWCS, using shared features like age, country, occupation and contract type. Various statistical methods were then used to validate the new dataset and ensure variations had been preserved.}

_{For the purposes of the research, populism is defined as an ideology that divides society into antagonistic groups, and calls for politics to follow the ‘will of the people’. The research also used PopuList: a scholarly database of European populist parties.}

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source: cam.ac.uk

Over 1,200 KS2 and KS3 pupils from across the region and beyond flocked to the Cambridge West site to experience studying at the University of Cambridge with a selection of lectures and workshops held as part of the Cambridge Festival.

Running over two days (24 and 26 March), students attended talks held in the Ray Dolby Centre and explored the multiverse with Dr Matthew Bothwell, a maths workshop delivered by NRICH and explored Must Farm with Department of Archaeology and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. 

Workshops held in the Department of Computer Science and Technology allowed students to get hands on with mini robots while sessions at the Department of Material Sciences and Metallurgy found out what happens when you freeze a squash ball with liquid nitrogen in sessions exploring the science of temperature, structure and materials. 

The Cambridge University Vet School gave students the opportunity see what a career as a vet could involve by getting hands-on with animal x-rays, discovered how each professional works together to treat animals as well as meeting some of the school’s cows and horses to learn how veterinarians diagnose and treat these large animals. 

Students investigated physics in workshops held by the outreach team at the Department of Physics as well as discovering coding with Raspberry Pi, understanding the human body and the history of medicine with the Whipple Museum, learning how to disagree well with Dr Elizabeth Phillips from The Woolf Institute, how to get creative through a poetry workshop and how antibodies save lives. 

We were delighted to welcome KS2 pupils from Cheveley Primary School, Hope Street School, Kettlefields Primary, St Andrews Primary, Meldreth Primary School, St Anthonys Prep, Mayfield Primary, Stephen Perse, William Westley Primary School, Wetheringsett Manor, Isle of Ely Primary School, Holme Court School, St Laurence Catholic Primary School, and the University of Cambridge Primary School. 

Our group of KS3 pupils came from Hope Street School, Marshland High School near King’s Lynn, Thomas Clarkson Academy from Wisbech, Wetheringsett Manor, Lymm High School from Warrington, Rickmansworth School, Impington Village College, Ipswich High School, The Duston School from Northampton, Charter School North Dulwich, Heritage School Cambridge, Ballard School from Hampshire and The Harleston Sancroft Academy from Norfolk. 

We are also delighted that we have a growing number of homeschool pupils joining us on both days. One parent said: “”I want to thank you for all your time and support to help my son to attend activities on both days. It was fantastic and he has learned a lot and actively interacted with the academics and children he met. Now he likes science even more!” 

Another said: “Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the festival yesterday- organisation, the quality of presentations, communication. Thank you!” 

Now in their fourth year, the Cambridge Festival schools days are offering students the opportunity to experience studying at Cambridge with a series of curriculum linked talks and hands on workshops.    

The Cambridge Festival runs from 16 March – 2 April and is a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge. The public have the chance to meet some of the researchers and thought-leaders working in some of the pioneering fields that will impact us all.

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An additional 13 subjects are ranked in the top three worldwide.

The University of Cambridge ranks number one globally for both Archaeology and English Language and Literature in the 2026 QS World University Subject Rankings. The rankings are compiled annually to help prospective students identify the world’s leading universities in specific subjects.

More than 1900 institutions worldwide are reviewed. Cambridge secured second place in ranked subjects Anatomy and Physiology, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Modern Languages, and Psychology. The University was also ranked third in Anthropology, Arts and Humanities, Earth and Marine Sciences, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, and Maths.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said: “It is with immense pride to hear that Cambridge continues to rank so highly for the study of multiple disciplines again this year. These outstanding results reflect our exceptional success, particularly in Archaeology and in English Language and Literature which ranked top globally. The dedication and hard work of colleagues across the university continues to ensure that Cambridge is a world-leading institution committed to excellence in education and research.”

Archaeology:

Speaking about the outstanding achievement of first place, the Head of the Archaeology Department, Professor Cameron Petrie, said: “We are delighted that Cambridge has topped the list of University rankings for Archaeology again in the QS World University Rankings. We are extremely proud of our achievements in recent times, notably international awards for research projects and unexpected discoveries during our student training excavation. We are committed to transforming our understanding of the past through world-leading research and teaching.”

Last year’s Wandlebury Hillfort excavation uncovered a remarkable 9th-century mass grave, including a 6ft 5in man with a trepanned skull. Archaeology also received major awards – Chris Evans, former Director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, with an MA honoris causa, and Professor Broobank’s team won at the Shanghai World Archaeology Forum. The department also launched an open-access portal for historic Survey of India maps from the Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia Project. 

English:

English Faculty Chair, Professor Alex da Costa, said of the preeminent ranking: “It is a pleasure to see the English Faculty recognised as world-leading for the study of Anglophone Literature. It is testimony to the excellent work of our entire community, especially the globally influential research and inspirational teaching of my colleagues. The Faculty is committed to demonstrating the central place of literary study in understanding cultural, intellectual and political life across time and meeting the challenges of today.”

This year alone, the English Faculty’s influence was highlighted when alumna Dame Pippa Harris produced Hamnet, which won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama (among many other awards). The Faculty’s commitment to teaching excellence was further demonstrated by Professor Orietta Da Rold becoming the tenth member of the Faculty to be awarded a Pilkington Prize.

About QS:

The QS World University Rankings features 55 subjects grouped into five broad faculty areas: Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and Management.

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As prices rise and the UK Government considers energy bill help once again, a new study warns that the country’s approach to energy support is structurally geared towards short-term crisis response rather than long-term solutions.

Support often arrives too late and mostly functions as a stopgapMinna Sunikka-Blank

A Cambridge-led study, published in Environmental Policy and Governance, traces the evolution of British energy policy support since World War II up to reforms announced in 2025. It highlights a clear shift away from broad-based and preventive approaches, such as large-scale energy efficiency programmes, towards narrowly targeted measures that compensate households only after energy costs increase.

“The key question is not just who receives support, but why policy so often reacts rather than prevents,” says Tijn Croon, a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge’s Department of Architecture from TU Delft. “We find that this is not accidental: it reflects deeper political and institutional dynamics that consistently favour short-term, visible interventions over long-term investment.”

Recent decades reveal a recurring pattern, the researchers argue. During crises, governments introduce broad, often universal support and promise large-scale green investment, but this is typically short-lived. As pressures ease, policy shifts back towards narrowly targeted schemes, largely delivered through energy supplier obligations, leaving many households outside support despite ongoing energy affordability challenges.

The study suggests that this pattern is driven by political economy factors. Preventive policies such as home insulation require upfront investment and deliver benefits over longer time horizons, making them less attractive within short electoral cycles. In contrast, compensatory measures like energy bill support provide immediate, visible relief.

“What we see is a system that increasingly responds to crises rather than reducing vulnerability in advance,” says Minna Sunikka-Blank, Professor of Architecture and Environmental Policy at Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College. “This means support often arrives too late and mostly functions as a stopgap.”

The study points out that in the 1970s and 1980s, the UK was a global leader in energy efficiency, launching the world’s first dedicated Energy Efficiency Office, nationwide awareness campaigns, and coordinated government support for households and industry. In stark contrast, it argues, the UK today “is one of the few high-income European countries without a comprehensive, universally accessible scheme for retrofitting grants or loans that goes beyond heating system replacement.

“Instead, it relies on a fragmented patchwork of policies, mostly financed through consumer levies and limited to low-income households, despite an ageing and relatively inefficient housing stock and the pressing challenges of climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.”

Dr Ray Galvin, from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) says: “Without stronger investment in preventive measures like energy efficiency, on-site renewables, and low-carbon heating systems, governments risk repeatedly facing the same affordability crises. Short-term relief may be necessary, but it cannot substitute for structural solutions.”

The findings are particularly relevant in the current context of rising energy prices, where governments once again face pressure to intervene quickly. The authors warn that relying primarily on compensation risks entrenching a recurring cycle of crisis response.

While recent government commitments, such as the expansion of the Warm Homes Programme, signal a renewed focus on energy efficiency, the study argues that current plans remain insufficient in scale and ambition to fundamentally shift this trajectory.

To break this pattern, the authors call for a rethinking of how energy policy is evaluated and funded. They also suggest that framing energy affordability as a social right, such as a right to a warm and comfortable home, could help anchor more long-term policy approaches.

Reference

T M Croon, M G Elsinga, J S C M Hoekstra, M Sunikka-Blank, R Galvin, ‘For the Few, Not the Many: Tracing the Residualist and Compensatory Nature of British Energy Support’, Environmental Policy and Governance (2026). DOI: 10.1002/eet.70067

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A new report finds that class and gender inequalities in the UK’s creative industries are linked to students’ experiences at school, where ‘educational hierarchies’ steer them away from subjects like art, music and drama.

[T]he patterns that develop throughout students’ educational careers are more likely to perpetuate inequalities in the creative industriesSonia Ilie

Schools, families and social pressures are channelling young people – especially girls and poorer students – away from studying creative subjects because they are considered low-status or financially ‘risky’, a report says.

The University of Cambridge study argues that the underrepresentation of women and people from lower-income backgrounds in the creative industries reflects a “narrowing pathway” that begins at school, and steers students away from subjects like art, music and drama as their education progresses.

The study, funded by the social and economic well-being charity, the Nuffield Foundation, used the educational records of 1.7 million students in England, longitudinal data about 7,200 young people’s progress into work, and interviews and surveys with people studying and working in creative fields.

Although almost half of 14-year-olds said they enjoyed creative subjects, just one in 25 was working in a creative occupation by their early 30s. In between, the study found that participation drops at every stage: at GCSE, post-16 and in higher education. The fall-off is especially steep among poorer students and girls, with girls from lower-income backgrounds facing a ‘double disadvantage’.

The report is particularly critical of underlying educational ‘hierarchies’ – the low status of both creative subjects, and of creative qualifications from further education (FE) colleges.

Professor Sonia Ilie, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, said: “If you have a university degree in a creative subject, you are much more likely to end up in a creative career. Young people from low-income families, however, and especially girls, are less likely to reach the point where studying for a creative degree is even an option.”

“That reflects wider societal structures, inequalities, cultural messaging and pressure on schools to deliver academic results. We need a more thoughtful conversation about the value of creative subjects – and frankly about the snobbery that still surrounds certain qualifications.”

While class inequalities in the creative sector have been raised in previous reports, the Cambridge study explored the problem’s underlying educational dynamics. The researchers mapped young people’s trajectories into and out of creative subjects such as art, dance, design, drama, media studies, music and photography; among others.

The longitudinal data showed that 42% of 14-year-olds indicated a preference for a creative subject, with girls more likely to do so than boys. This, however, did not translate into sustained study as they advanced through the education system.

Using the large-scale data from educational records, the study found that at age 16, 24.7% of students had made a creative subject choice. This proportion then fell to 16.9% post-16, and further, to 12.2%, at university. Only 3.8% of students who reached higher education had made creative subject choices at every possible stage.

Students eligible for free school meals (FSM) – a proxy for those from less wealthy backgrounds – were more likely than their peers to choose creative subjects at GCSE, but less likely to do so after 16. Girls were more likely than boys to choose creative subjects into post-16 education, but at university, the pattern reversed, with thousands of young women leaving the creative pathway before higher education.

The report describes a “push-pull” dynamic behind these trends. While many young people enjoy creative subjects – and some schools, colleges and universities offer substantial tailored support – they are often urged to prioritise “academic” subjects and advised that creative careers will involve greater financial risk.

Study participants said that teachers, family and friends had discouraged them from creative study. This does not reflect statutory guidance for schools, the report notes, but “seems to reflect cultural hierarchies that devalue creative work”.

Students from less wealthy families may also lack the resources to pursue creative interests, or the networks to break into the creative industries. Many cannot afford the unpaid internships or portfolio-building opportunities that often represent the first step in a creative career. At the same time, the report acknowledges the challenging reality of creative work: study participants often described this as hard and precarious – if artistically rewarding.

The report also highlights the often-underestimated role of FE colleges in creative education. It describes a “bifurcated system” in which hands-on creative education is concentrated in FE, but few FE students have the same employment opportunities as their university-educated peers. The mismatch means that disadvantaged students may face barriers to furthering their creative careers despite thriving in FE.

The study calls for a clearer post-16 framework to help students navigate the range of creative qualifications available in FE, and for universities and employers to recognise and value further education more. Ilie suggested that the Government’s newly announced vocational V-levels could help to make the system more navigable.

“The FE offer we saw in our study is clearly on a par with so-called ‘academic’ routes and is producing amazing students who could succeed in creative degrees and jobs,” Professor Pamela Burnard, co-lead on the study, said. “Equally, just because university is not a preferred route for some should not mean that they cannot access future employment.”

The report urges a system-wide rethink of how creative talent is supported. The authors argue for schools and policymakers to challenge the hierarchies that prize academic routes over creative options, and to provide students with clear, but also realistic, advice about how to pursue creative employment that can often be precarious. They also call for targeted initiatives to support creative education among girls, low-income students and those in deprived areas.

“If things stay as they are, the patterns that develop throughout students’ educational careers are more likely to perpetuate inequalities in the creative industries, rather than disrupt them,” Ilie added.

Dr Emily Tanner, Education Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation said: “With creative industries identified as among the highest-potential sectors in the UK’s Industrial Strategy, this research is timely. It shows that ensuring equitable access to opportunities will require concerted action to remove barriers for girls and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

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Researchers have developed a new kind of nanoelectronic device that could dramatically cut the energy consumed by artificial intelligence hardware by mimicking the human brain.

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, developed a form of hafnium oxide that acts as a highly stable, low‑energy ‘memristor’ — a component designed to mimic the efficient way neurons are connected in the brain. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

Current AI systems rely on conventional computer chips that shuttle data back and forth between memory and processing units. This constant movement consumes large amounts of electricity, and global demand is exploding as AI adoption expands across industries.

Brain-inspired, or neuromorphic, computing is an alternative way to process information that could reduce energy use by as much as 70% by storing and processing information in the same place, and doing so with extremely low power. Such a system would also be far more adaptable, in the same way our own brains are able to learn and adapt.

“Energy consumption is one of the key challenges in current AI hardware,” said lead author Dr Babak Bakhit, from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. “To address that, you need devices with extremely low currents, excellent stability, outstanding uniformity across switching cycles and devices, and the ability to switch between many distinct states.”

Most existing memristors rely on the formation of tiny conductive filaments inside metal oxide material. But these filaments behave unpredictably and typically require high forming and operating voltages, limiting their usefulness in large-scale data storage and computing systems.

The Cambridge team instead created a new type of hafnium-based thin film that switches states in a completely different way. By adding strontium and titanium and growing the film using a two‑step method, the researchers were able to form tiny electronic gates, or ‘p-n junctions’, inside the oxide where the layers meet. This allows the device to change its resistance smoothly by shifting the height of an energy barrier at the interface, rather than by growing or rupturing the filaments.

Bakhit, who is also affiliated with Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, said this mechanism overcomes one of the biggest challenges in developing memristor technology. “Filamentary devices suffer from random behaviour,” he said. “But because our devices switch at the interface, they show outstanding uniformity from cycle to cycle and from device to device.”

Using the hafnium-based devices, the researchers achieved switching currents about a million times lower than those of some conventional oxide-based devices. The memristors also produced hundreds of distinct, stable conductance levels, a key requirement for analogue ‘in-memory’ computing.

Laboratory tests showed the devices could reliably endure tens of thousands of switching cycles and store their programmed states for around a day. They also reproduced fundamental learning rules observed in biology, such as spike-timing dependent plasticity: the mechanism by which neurons strengthen or weaken their connections depending on when signals arrive.

“These are the properties you need if you want hardware that can learn and adapt, rather than just store bits,” said Bakhit.

However, there are still some challenges to overcome. The current fabrication process requires temperatures of around 700°C — higher than standard semiconductor manufacturing tolerances. “This is currently the main challenge in our device fabrication process,” said Bakhit. “But we’re now working on ways to bring the temperature down to make it more compatible with standard industry processes.”

Despite this, he believes the technology could ultimately be integrated into chip-scale systems. “If we can reduce the temperature and put these devices onto a chip, it would be a major step forward,” he said.

Bakhit, a materials physicist, said the breakthrough followed several years of unsuccessful experiments. The turning point came late last year when he tried a twist on the two‑stage deposition method, adding oxygen only after the first layer had been grown.

“I spent almost three years on this,” he said. “There were a huge number of failures. But at the end of November, we saw the first really good results. It’s still early days of course, but if we can solve the temperature issue, this technology could be game-changing because the energy consumption is so much lower and at the same time, the device performance is highly promising.”

The research was supported in part by the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). A patent application has been filed by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm.

Reference:
Babak Bakhit et al. ‘HfO2-based memristive synapses with asymmetrically extended p-n heterointerfaces for highly energy-efficient neuromorphic hardware.’ Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec2324

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Published by Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy, based at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), the UK Innovation Report offers a detailed analysis of the UK’s innovation landscape, assessing the performance of key industrial sectors compared to global competitors.

The UK is one of the world’s leading innovation economies. It ranks fourth globally for scientific publications (behind only China, the USA, and India) and sits among the top countries for high-impact research and patents in critical technologies. It has also built one of the strongest startup ecosystems outside the United States. 

The latest UK Innovation Report finds that while the UK excels in research and early-stage innovation, it underperforms on innovation outcomes such as high-technology exports, technology scale-up, and global industrial market share.   

As the UK Government implements its national Industrial Strategy, the report provides new evidence on the UK’s innovation and industrial performance. The report highlights that competitiveness – measured at sector level through value-added, export performance, employment and global position – should become the central benchmark for success.  

A central feature of this year’s report is a deep-dive sectoral analysis of the Electronics and Electrical Equipment sectors. Recognised as Advanced Manufacturing sectors under the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, these sectors sit at the heart of electrification and the net-zero transition.  

On Thursday 19 March, policymakers, industry leaders, and experts gathered at the Institute for Government for the official launch of the Innovation Report 2026.

As the demand for stronger evidence in industrial and innovation policymaking increases, the UK Innovation Report 2026 makes a timely contribution by offering new data, analyses, and perspectives to support evidence-based policy development.

Read the report.

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Professor Grant Stewart has led the development of the first national guideline on improving the diagnosis and management of kidney cancer.

By offering more patients with a kidney lump a biopsy, clinicians can tell patients if the lesion is cancer or benign and if they need to consider a treatment like surgery, or if they can avoid these treatmentsGrant Stewart

The guideline, published today by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), promotes the gold standard approach to the management of kidney cancer across all stages of the disease.

The new recommendations aim to improve kidney cancer care across the NHS by helping healthcare professionals offer people the right treatments and support, while considering individual preferences.

Professor Grant Stewart, who co-directs the Urological Malignancies Virtual Institute at the University of Cambridge and is Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine at Selwyn College has been the clinical lead for developing the guideline on kidney cancer.

The guideline covers all stages of diagnosing and managing patients with renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. It includes recommendations on imaging, biopsy, active surveillance, risk prediction, surgical and non-surgical treatments, and drug therapy.

One of the key recommendations in the guideline is to offer biopsies to more people with suspected kidney cancer. This would mean more people with a small kidney lump – which is a mass measuring 4 centimetres or less – are offered a biopsy to confirm their diagnosis.

A biopsy is when a sample of abnormal cells is collected using a needle through the skin into the tumour in the kidney during a CT or ultrasound scan. The cells are then tested to confirm whether or not the lump is cancer, or in fact benign. The results help clinicians offer the best treatment options, possibly avoiding unnecessary surgery in people with benign or low-risk tumours.

This recommendation could double the number of biopsies undertaken on suspected kidney cancer patients. The committee acknowledged that some hospitals would need to adapt their clinical pathways to offer biopsies to more patients, but that reducing unnecessary surgeries would benefit patients and save surgical costs.

Professor Stewart, who is also Consultant Urological Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said: “By offering more patients with a kidney lump a biopsy, clinicians can tell patients if the lesion is cancer or benign and if they need to consider a treatment like surgery, or if they can avoid these treatments which do have some risks associated with them.”

Another important recommendation is that patients should have access to a clinical nurse specialist with training and experience in kidney cancer to provide support and information, from their initial diagnosis through their treatment and follow-up.

The committee acknowledged that more clinical nurse specialists may need to be recruited, and specialist training provided, to be able to offer this support to all kidney cancer patients.

Professor Stewart added: “Access to a clinical nurse specialist, with training and experience in kidney cancer care, will ensure that patients have a single point of contact for all the questions at any time that arise during their care journey.”

Professor Stewart has long been championing practice-changing initiatives to improve the management and outcomes of kidney cancer patients.

He has already introduced a new kidney clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital where patients with suspected kidney cancer receive their diagnosis on the same day, reducing the anxiety of waiting days or weeks for test results.

Professor Stewart explained: “In Cambridge, we have developed a one-stop biopsy clinic for kidney cancer, so we can biopsy more patients while reducing the time patients wait between presentation and diagnosis to half the time for the traditional multi-appointment route.”

Adapted from a story from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre

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UK ministers have appointed University of Cambridge Professor Laura Díaz Anadón to the independent statutory body which advises their governments on greenhouse gas emissions targets and reports to parliament on climate progress.

The CCC has been a pioneering institution globally and I look forward to contributingProf Laura Díaz Anadón

Professor Anadón was appointed to the Climate Change Committee (CCC) for five years by ministers of the UK and Devolved Governments.

Anadón is the Chaired Professor of Climate Change Policy at Cambridge and a leading global expert on climate and energy policy.

The CCC is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Its purpose is to advise the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

“I am honoured to join the Climate Change Committee at this important moment for climate change mitigation,” Anadón said. “The CCC has been a pioneering institution globally and I look forward to contributing to further its role as a key provider of independent, evidence-based advice to the UK and devolved governments.”

Professor Anadón is also Director of the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG) in the Department of Land Economy and a Fellow of St John’s College.

She is a founding member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate and a lead author for both the 6th and 7th IPCC Assessment Reports prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change.

The CCC is made up of two separate committees: one on mitigation (the Committee) and one on adaptation (the Adaptation Committee). The Act requires that the Committee comprises a Chair and not fewer than five but not more than eight other Members appointed by the national authorities (UK Government and the Devolved Governments).

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Small changes to aircraft flight paths to avoid the atmospheric conditions that create condensation trails – known as contrails – could reduce aviation’s global warming impact by nearly half, a new study suggests.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, suggests that changing cruising altitude by a few thousand feet, either up or down, could prevent contrails from forming. Reducing or avoiding contrail formation in this way would also be faster and cheaper than other climate mitigation measures for the aviation industry, since the practice can be adopted with existing aircraft and fuel.

However, the researchers say that time is of the essence and that the sooner airlines adopt contrail avoidance policies, the bigger the positive climate impact will be. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Contrails are the thin white streaks seen behind aircraft flying at high altitude, and form when hot exhaust gases mix with cold, humid air at cruising altitude. Under the right conditions, the water vapour freezes into ice crystals, forming clouds that can persist for hours.

Contrails also trap heat in the atmosphere. Aviation contributes around 2–3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, but its total climate impact is larger because of non-CO₂ effects such as contrails. Interest in contrail avoidance has grown rapidly in recent years as governments and airlines search for ways to reduce aviation’s climate impact while the sector transitions to lower-carbon fuels.

“Contrail avoidance can often be as simple as changing the flight paths,” said lead author Dr Jessie Smith, from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Often it’s even simpler than that – just moving slightly to a higher or lower altitude to avoid the areas of the atmosphere where contrails form.”

Smith and her colleagues modelled how altitude adjustments for contrail avoidance could affect aviation’s overall climate footprint. They found that such a programme, phased in between 2035 and 2045, could recover around 9% of the temperature budget the world has left before breaching the Paris Agreement’s 2°C limit.

However, they also found that if no action is taken, by 2050 aviation contrails will have added around 0.054°C of warming — 36% more than the warming attributable to aviation CO₂ over the same period.

“What surprised me was how quickly the temperature saving could be made,” said Smith. “Over a decade, you can take a really big chunk of aviation’s warming impact out very rapidly. That’s unusual in climate science, where most changes take a very long time.”

The researchers also found that while rerouting aircraft can increase fuel use slightly, the reduction in warming from fewer contrails would more than offset the extra carbon dioxide emissions.

Implementing contrail avoidance would require airlines and air traffic controllers to adjust routes dynamically based on atmospheric conditions. Some aviation experts have raised concerns about whether such changes could increase workload for air traffic management systems, but the researchers say the adjustments required may be relatively modest.

Flights already alter their routes or altitude to avoid turbulence or bad weather, meaning similar systems could potentially be used to avoid contrail-forming regions.

“It’s an operational change, not a technological one,” said Smith. “You don’t need to modify aircraft. You just need to work out how it will operate, and then the system is already built for it — pilots do these manoeuvres all the time. That’s why we have more hope for this than for other interventions like sustainable aviation fuels, which face enormous infrastructure and supply-chain hurdles.”

Using a climate model that tracks temperature responses across 10,000 simulated scenarios, the researchers found that beginning contrail avoidance in 2035 rather than 2045 produces a temperature reduction at 2050 that is equivalent to roughly a 78% improvement in effectiveness. “In other words, waiting a decade has roughly the same effect as making the programme almost five times less efficient,” said Smith.

While more work is needed to improve forecasts of the atmospheric conditions that cause contrails and to better understand their climate effects, the researchers say that imperfect avoidance — even at 25% effectiveness — still delivers a meaningful climate benefit, and that starting early matters more than waiting for the technology to be perfected.

Scaling up contrail avoidance will require coordination from pilots, air traffic controllers, weather forecasters and policymakers, however. “The first step is demonstrating this works on a large scale through testing,” said Smith. “Once that’s done, the policy can follow. But the modelling shows clearly that you do not want to wait for perfect conditions before you begin.”

Smith said the findings show the approach could play a major role in aviation’s climate strategy. “We’re not saying it solves everything,” she said. “But it could make a very big difference.”

Reference:
Jessie R Smith et al. ‘The climate opportunities and risks of contrail avoidance.’ Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68784-8

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source: cam.ac.uk

Published: 13 March 2026
Story: Tom Kirk

The first systematic study of how generative AI toys affect young children finds that they can misread emotions and struggle with developmentally important types of play.

AI-powered toys that “talk” with young children should be more tightly regulated and carry new safety kitemarks, according to a report that warns they are not always developed with children’s psychological safety in mind.

The recommendation appears in the initial report from AI in the Early Years: a University of Cambridge project and the first systematic study of how Generative AI (GenAI) toys capable of human-like conversation may influence development in the critical years up to age five.

The year-long project, at the university’s Faculty of Education, included structured scientific observations of children interacting with a GenAI toy for the first time.

The report captures the views of some early-years practitioners that, eventually, these toys could support aspects of children’s development, such as language and communication skills.

The researchers also found, however, that GenAI toys struggle with social and pretend play, misunderstand children, and react inappropriately to emotions.

For example, when one five-year-old told the toy, “I love you,” it replied: “As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”

Although GenAI toys are widely marketed as learning companions or friends, their impact on early years development has barely been studied. The report urges parents and educators to proceed with caution. It recommends clearer regulation, transparent privacy policies and new labelling standards to help families judge whether toys are appropriate.

The research was commissioned by the children’s poverty charity, The Childhood Trust, and focused on children from areas with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage. It was undertaken by researchers from the Faculty’s Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Centre.

Researcher Dr Emily Goodacre said: “Generative AI toys often affirm their friendship with children who are just starting to learn what friendship means.

“They may start talking to the toy about feelings and needs, perhaps instead of sharing them with a grown-up. Because these toys can misread emotions or respond inappropriately, children may be left without comfort from the toy – and without emotional support from an adult, either.”

The study was kept deliberately small-scale to enable detailed observations of children’s play and capture nuances that larger-scale studies might miss.

The researchers surveyed early years educators to explore their attitudes and concerns, then ran more detailed focus groups and workshops with early years practitioners and 19 children’s charity leaders.

Working with Babyzone, an early years charity, they also video-recorded 14 children at London children’s centres playing with a GenAI soft toy called Gabbo, developed by Curio Interactive. After the play sessions, they interviewed each child and a parent, using a drawing activity to support the conversation.

Most parents and educators felt that AI toys could help develop children’s communication skills and some parents were enthusiastic about their learning potential. One told researchers: “If it’s sold, I want to buy it.”

Many worried, however, about children forming “parasocial” relationships with toys. The observations supported this: children hugged and kissed the toy, said they loved it and – in the case of one child – suggested they could play hide-and-seek together.

Goodacre stressed that these reactions might simply reflect children’s vivid imaginations but added that there was potential for an unhealthy relationship with a toy which, as one early years practitioner put it, “they think loves them back, but doesn’t”.

Children in the study often struggled with the toy’s conversation. It sometimes ignored their interruptions, mistook parents’ voices for the child and failed to respond to apparently important statements about feelings. Several children became visibly frustrated when it seemed not to be listening.

When one three-year-old told the toy: “I’m sad,” it misheard and replied: “Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?” Researchers note this may have signalled that the child’s sadness was unimportant.

The authors found that GenAI toys also perform poorly in social play, involving multiple children and/or adults, and pretend play – both of which are key during early childhood development. For example, when a three-year-old offered the toy an imaginary present, it responded: “I can’t open the present” – and then changed the subject.

Many parents worried about what information the toy might be recording and where this would be stored. When selecting a toy for the study, the researchers found that many GenAI toys’ privacy practices are unclear or lack important details.

Nearly 50% of early years practitioners surveyed said they did not know where to find reliable AI safety information for young children, and 69% said the sector needed more guidance. They also raised concerns about safeguarding and affordability, with some fearing AI toys could widen the digital divide.

The authors argue that clearer regulation would address many of these concerns. They recommend limiting how far toys encourage children to befriend or confide in them, more transparent privacy policies, and tighter controls over third party access to AI models.

“A recurring theme during focus groups was that people do not trust tech companies to do the right thing,” Professor Jenny Gibson, the study’s other co-author, said. “Clear, robust, regulated standards would significantly improve consumer confidence.”

The report urges manufacturers to test toys with children and consult safeguarding specialists before releasing new products. Parents are encouraged to research GenAI toys before buying, and to play with their children to create opportunities for discussing what the toy is saying and how the child feels about the toy.

The authors also recommend keeping AI toys in shared family spaces where parents can monitor interactions. The report will inform further PEDAL Centre studies and new guidance for early years practitioners.

Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive of The Childhood Trust said: “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way children play and learn, yet we are only beginning to understand its effects on development and wellbeing.

“We believe it is essential that regulation keeps pace with innovation, ensuring that these technologies are designed, used, and monitored in ways that protect all children and prevent widening inequalities.”

George Looker, CEO of Babyzone, said: “Generative AI toys should only be marketed to parents where a robust evidence base exists and clear regulatory safeguards are in place. Anything less isn’t good enough for our youngest children.

“Parents need clear labelling, enforceable standards, and products that were actually tested with real children in mind. This report is a vital first step.”

The full report is available for download here.

Funding for the study was provided by the KPMG Foundation and Ethos Foundation.

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Published 13 March 2026

<sub>Photographs:
Top: Gabbo and study participant Mya, age 3. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #1: Gabbo in the study space. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #2: Drawing of Gabbo by study participant. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #3: Gabbo and study participant Mya, age 3. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</sub>

source: cam.ac.uk

The Right Honourable Lord Smith of Finsbury is installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Chris Smith, Lord Smith of Finsbury, has been formally installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, following his election in July 2025. The formal and ceremonial head of the University, in addition to presiding at major ceremonial occasions the Chancellor advises senior figures, supports fundraising and is an ambassador and advocate for the University and its mission.

Today’s Congregation in the Senate-House was attended by the principal University officers, Heads and staff of the thirty-one Colleges, students, alumni, Civic representatives and other invited guests. Lord Smith shared what Cambridge means to him.

He said: “Cambridge is in my blood. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student here, reading English and then completing a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge. I returned ten and a half years ago as Master of Pembroke, my own old College. And I never would have dreamed, as a young eighteen-year-old arriving in Cambridge for the first time, that I would now be standing here as Chancellor.”

Lord Smith also expressed a desire to uphold academic freedom and freedom of speech. He said: “We live in an age dominated by misinformation and “fake news”…It is precisely why academic freedom and freedom of speech are so fundamentally important to universities.”

Today’s installation follows an election by the Senate – a very large body made up of all those holding the Cambridge MA or any other master’s degree or doctorate, along with the members of the Regent House. This election was the first at which votes could be taken online as well as in person and more than 25,000 were registered.

The post of Chancellor dates back more than 800 years to the beginning of the University. The last installation ceremony to be held in 2012 was for Lord Sainsbury of Turville.

At today’s ceremony the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, confirmed Lord Smith’s election and administered the oath of office. Music was performed by student brass-players and by the Chapel Choir of Pembroke College.

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Chris Smith arrived as an undergraduate student at Pembroke College in 1969, earning a first in English, and was elected President of the Cambridge Union Society in Michaelmas Term 1972.

Elected MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983, following the Labour victory of 1997 he served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001. The first openly gay MP and Cabinet minister, he left the Commons in 2005 and was made a life peer.

Among his other accomplishments outside parliament have been periods as Chair of the Advertising Standards Authority, of the Environment Agency and of the Wordsworth Trust. A founding director of the Clore Leadership Programme, Lord Smith is a keen hill-walker and former President of the Ramblers’ Association.

Published 16 March 2026

Photos: Lloyd Mann

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

source: cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University Boat Club has announced its Women’s and Men’s Blue Boats for The Boat Race 2026.

A mixture of Olympic, international and homegrown student rowing talent has been selected for the meeting on London’s iconic Championship Course, a 4.25-mile (6.8 km) stretch of tidal Thames from Putney to Mortlake, on Saturday 4 April.

More than 200,000 spectators are expected to watch along the riverbanks of the free-to-attend ‘Party by the River’ as Oxford and Cambridge meet in the 2026 chapter of nearly 200 years of competition. 

Cambridge Women, who are on a winning streak stretching back to 2017, will be led this year by President Gemma King (St John’s College), whose twin sister Catherine represents Oxford. 
Gemma will have fellow two-time winner and fifth-year medic Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius) to count on, along with a sprinkling of new recruits such as world champion Camille Vandermeer and Mia Freischem (Darwin). Mia will make history when she races against her sister Lilli who has been selected for the Oxford Blue Boat.

Gemma told the crew announcement at London’s Somerset House: “It’s such an honour to be able to represent Cambridge in the Boat Race.
“It is such a unique and historic event. We’ve got such a strong squad, there’s so much depth. To see the progress made throughout the year has been really exciting and I really can’t wait for the race.”

Cambridge Men have their eyes on a fourth successive victory in the Men’s Race. They will be led by French national Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall). His Oxford counterpart Tobias Bernard has dual British/French nationality, marking the first time in Boat Race history that a pair of Frenchmen have led the Oxford and Cambridge Blue Boat crews. 

Noam said: “It’s an honour to make the Cambridge Men’s Blue Boat again and we’re taking nothing for granted. We know what it takes to win this race and I believe we have the perfect combination of experience and new blood to extend our winning run in three weeks’ time.”

Noam can call on the experienced Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse), while the selection of Gabriel Obholzer (Peterhouse) represents the continuation of a proud family tradition after his parents both competed in the 1991 event – with father Rupert going on to Olympic honours.  

The event is being broadcast live on Channel 4 and on Times Radio for the first time in its history. Broadcaster Clare Balding, who will anchor Channel 4’s coverage, told the crew announcement: “This is the most amazing sporting rivalry… it is a great event, but it is also a real showcase for how education and sport go hand in hand. You don’t have to be academic or sporty – you can be both.”

With 2025 seeing Cambridge win both the Men’s and Women’s Races, the overall records stand as 88-81 in favour of Cambridge Men and 49-30 in favour of Cambridge Women.

The crews selected for The Boat Race 2026 are as follows: 
 
Cambridge Women
Cox – Matt Moran (Emmanuel)
Stroke – Aidan Wrenn-Walz (Fitzwilliam)
7 – Mia Freischem (Darwin)
6 – Camille VanderMeer (Peterhouse)
5 – Antonia Galland (Peterhouse)
4 – Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius)
3 – Charlotte Ebel (Newnham)
2 – Isobel Campbell (Hughes Hall)
Bow – Gemma King (President) (St John’s)
 
Oxford Women 
Cox – Louis Corrigan 
Stroke – Heidi Long (President) 
7 – Sarah Marshall 
6 – Esther Briz Zamorano 
5 – Kyra Delray 
4 – Julietta Camahort 
3 – Lilli Freischem 
2 – Emily Molins 
Bow – Annie Anezakis 
 
Cambridge Men
Cox – Sammy Houdaigui (Fitzwilliam)
Stroke – Freddy Breuer (Lucy Cavendish)
7 – Will Klipstine (Hughes Hall)
6 – Alexander McClean (Hughes Hall)
5 – Gabriel Obholzer (Peterhouse)
4 – Patrick Wild (Peterhouse)
3 – Kyle Fram (Lucy Cavendish)
2 – Noam Mouelle (President) (Hughes Hall)
Bow – Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse)

Oxford Men
Cox- Tobias Bernard (President) 
Stroke – Harry Geffen 
7 – Alex Sullivan 
6 – Jamie Arnold 
5 – Alex Underwood 
4 – Fergus Pim 
3 – James Fetter 
2 – Julian Schöberl  
Bow – Felix Crabtree 
 

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The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk