News

In a new film, Sir David Attenborough, Dr Jane Goodall DBE and leading Cambridge University researchers talk about the urgency of the climate crisis – and some of the solutions that will take us towards zero carbon.If we are to avoid climate disaster we must sharply reduce our carbon dioxide emissions starting today – but how? Cambridge researchers…

Scientists have developed a three-dimensional imaging technique to observe complex behaviours in magnets, including fast-moving waves and ‘tornadoes’ thousands of times thinner than a human hair.The team, from the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow in the UK and ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, used their technique to o…

Digital tools could reduce carbon emissions by more than 50 per cent.A new review from our researchers in the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES) has shown how integrating digital tools into the world’s energy systems could drastically reduce carbon emissions.The review re-assesses the famous marginal abatement…

A rapid way of turning ideas into new technologies in the aviation and power industries has been developed at Cambridge’s Whittle Laboratory. Here, Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle, describes how researchers plan to scale the process to cover around 80% of the UK’s future aerodynamic technology needs.We’re seeing a transformational cha…

It's time for blue-sky thinking plus practical measures in the battle to reduce plastic waste.In Tokyo, a householder consults her 60-page ‘Garbage Separation and Disposal’ system to check whether it's a recycle day for plastic bottles or for all other plastic packaging.In a coastal village in Kenya, an order has been received for 2,000 bricks made…

The Prince of Wales launched the National Centre for Propulsion and Power last week, during a visit to the University of Cambridge. Based at the world famous Whittle Laboratory, the Centre aims to accelerate the development of decarbonisation technologies.The Centre, which is due to open in 2022, will bring together researchers from across UK Unive…

The effectiveness of non-mechanical, low-energy methods for moderating temperature and humidity has been evaluated in a series of experiments by researchers from the University of Cambridge.Temperature difference between inside and outside has a remarkably small effect on how well a room is ventilated when ventilation is primarily driven by wind. I…

Discovery means simpler and cheaper manufacturing methods are actually beneficial for the material’s use in next-generation solar cells or LED lighting.University of Cambridge researchers from the Stranks Lab and Deschler Lab studying perovskite materials for next-generation solar cells and flexible LEDs have discovered that they can be more effici…

Modified natural materials will be an essential component of a sustainable future, but first a detailed understanding of their properties is needed. The way heat flows across bamboo cell walls has been mapped using advanced scanning thermal microscopy, providing a new understanding of how variations in thermal conductivity are linked to the bamboo’…

Discovery means simpler and cheaper manufacturing methods are actually beneficial for the material’s use in next-generation solar cells or LED lighting.Scientists at the University of Cambridge studying perovskite materials for next-generation solar cells and flexible LEDs have discovered that they can be more efficient when their chemical composit…

A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an ‘artificial leaf’ that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to petrol.The carbon-neutral device sets a new benchmark in the field of solar fuels, after researchers at t…

The University of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new climate change initiative.Cambridge Zero will harness the full breadth of the University’s research capabilities – from the sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences – and policy expertise, to respond to climate change and support the transit…

“There’s almost no problem in the real world you can solve with a single approach”, stressed Simon Sharpe, Head of International Climate Strategy at BEIS. Mr. Sharpe was speaking to a lively crowd who had gathered in the reading rooms of the British Academy to participate in a knowledge exchange between policymakers and the contributing authors of …

Eight Cambridge researchers are among the latest recipients of European Union awards given to early-career researchers from over 50 countries.The European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants have been awarded to 408 researchers from across Europe. The awards will help individual researchers to build their own teams and conduct world-leading rese…

Three Royal Medals are awarded annually by the Sovereign on the recommendation of the Council of the Royal Society. Prof Dame Ann Dowling joins other leading Fellows, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and geneticist and cell biologist Sir Paul Nurse, who have previously received the award.Dame Ann is Professor of Mechan…