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Researchers have created a plant-based, sustainable, scalable material that could replace single-use plastics in many consumer products.The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, created a polymer film by mimicking the properties of spider silk, one of the strongest materials in nature. The new material is as strong as many common plastics …

Professor John Miles from the Department of Engineering has been guiding a project looking at out-of-hours travel from city centres and employment sitesThe University’s expertise in sustainable transport technology is advising on a West Cambridge Site trial of a fully electric Autonomous Vehicle.Suitably sci-fi in appearance - prompting double take…

Twelve University of Cambridge researchers have won advanced grants from the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premier research funding body. Cambridge has the most grant winners of any UK institution, and the second-most winners overall. Their work is set to provide new insights into many subjects, such as how to deal with vast scales of d…

Cambridge engineers will develop next-generation lithium-ion batteries with improved performance as part of a collaborative project to scale up production ahead of a predicted electric vehicle boom. The electric revolution is already well underway in the car industry, with the UK Government announcing plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol …

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2019 was awarded to John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." These rechargeable batteries are in our phones, and in our laptops. And they will be the batteries powering electric vehicles which we are being urged to use in place of ones fuelled by gasoline…

In the heart of London there is a farm like no other. It's subterranean, sustainable and energy smart. It also has a digital twin looking out for its every need. Thirty-three metres below London’s Clapham High Street is the world’s first underground farm. It’s shaping the future of urban farming.Stacked racks of fresh green leaves thrive under bank…

A carbon-neutral economy in 50 years? Maybe. But what if we were to go faster? Professor Rob Miller says that it is time to completely rethink the schedule.How long will it take to make zero-carbon flight a reality? Thirty years? Longer? “Climate change means that we just don’t have that timescale,” says Professor Rob Miller. “I believe that this t…

On the 3rd March 2021, Professor David Cebon (University of Cambridge) presented to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on the role of hydrogen in achieving net zero.Professor Cebon summarised the potential, the energy efficiency and economical cost for hydrogen-use in reaching net zero target. He provided evidence in the use of h…

Researchers from the Catalysis and Process Integration group (Department of Chemical engineering and Biotechnology), led by Dr Laura Torrente, have developed a new way to produce ammonia. The new system redefines the century old Haber-Bosch process within an energy landscape shifting to renewables, where ‘green ammonia’ will have a role as a long-t…

Nyobolt (previously named CB2 Technology), a spinout of the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry in 2016 and co-founded by Professor Clare Grey and Dr Sai Shivareddy. has secured £7.7 milion ($10m) in Series A funding. The start-up is defining a new category of ultra-high power technology, The round is led by IQ Capital with participation from Camb…

Researchers have identified a new form of magnetism in so-called magnetic graphene, which could point the way toward understanding superconductivity in this unusual type of material. This gain in fundamental understanding of phenomena could potentially have use in energy efficiency, generation and storage..The researchers, led by the University of …

New type of optical computing could solve highly complex problems that are out of reach for even the most powerful supercomputers.An important class of challenging computational problems, with applications in graph theory, neural networks, artificial intelligence and error-correcting codes can be solved by multiplying light signals, according to re…

When she’s not making atomic-scale changes to create super-efficient light bulbs and cut carbon emissions, Professor Rachel Oliver has her sights set on helping to level-up equality and diversity in science. This Cambridge Life spoke with Professor Oliver on International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February).This mindset of delving down …

The winners of the Helios Prize (Department of Engineering) – awarded for graduate research in sustainable energy or energy efficiencyThe Helios Prize, Department of Engineering (University of Cambridge) was awarded to Matteo Craglia, for his research in energy efficiency in the transport sector. Matteo is supervised by Dr Jonathan Cullen and won t…

The widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles offers the greatest energy efficiency and potential for CO2 reduction, new analysis by Cambridge engineers has shown.But they warn, that in order for the full potential of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to be unlocked, grid improvements will be necessary to meet elevated electricity demand and …