University of Cambridge Research Horizons Issue 10

HRESOEARRCH IZONS

In this issue ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT plus news and views from across the University

University of Cambridge research magazine www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk

Issue 10 | Autumn 2009 eDitoriAL p D r e o A f A very warm n e

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Low Carbon transition plan to move y towards a permanent low carbon footing through cleaner and more efficient use of energy, and in this issue we look at how energy-related research in Cambridge is rising to this challenge of delivering a sustainable, secure and clean energy future. much Organic solar cells Dragonsblood: the alchemy research is being directed at how we of paint can reduce energy demand and improve energy efficiency, clean up energy generation from fossil fuels, develop new forms of renewable Contents energy, and understand the policy frameworks that are needed to make Research News 3–6 it all work in practice. Do join us on 1 october at the energy & Spotlight: Energy & Environment 7–19 environment horizon seminar to Energy & Environment 7 hear first-hand from the individuals Energy Efficient Cities initiative 8 involved in these far-reaching research Organic solar cells 10 projects. further details can be found Towards a smarter electricity future 12 on pages 7 and 35 of this issue. Clean power from coal 14 on our front cover are three newly Lighting for the 21st century 15 appointed lecturers who are leading the research programme of the Bioenergy research blooms in Cambridge 16 energy efficient Cities initiative: Material efficiency 18 engineers Dr steven barrett (left) Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies 19 and Dr ruchi Choudhary (centre) and architect Dr ying Jin. this Preview 20–21 multidisciplinary initiative, which Dragonsblood: the alchemy of paint links over 30 researchers from seven departments, is focusing on the Knowledge Transfer 22 –23 complex energy requirements of cities and how they can be reshaped. but it’s not all about energy… Features 24–31 elsewhere in the magazine we The Cambridge BioResource: facilitating the study of health and disease 24 look back to the time of medieval Treasures of the genizah 26 artists crafting pigments from The Greek Bible of the Byzantine Jews 27 ‘dragonsblood’; back further to the The Planck satellite: looking back to the dawn of time 28 early history and transmission of the Young people, morality and crime 30 bible; and further still to the first moments of the Universe and the In Focus: BP 32 –33 mission of the planck satellite to understand some of the most important questions of modern Inside Out: Dr Abigail Brundin 34 science. these are just a few of the remarkable stories in this issue, for Forthcoming Events 35 which we thank our contributors for the fascinating insight they’ve The Back Page 36 provided into their research. Your way into Cambridge if you have any comments and suggestions, please email them to me at [email protected] Cover photograph of Dr Steven Barrett (left), Dr Ruchi Choudhary (centre) and Dr Ying Jin. Edited by Dr Louise Walsh. Designed by Cambridge Design Studio (www.cambridgedesignstudio.org). Dr Louise Walsh Printed by Falcon Printing Services Ltd (www.falcon-printing.co.uk). editor ©2009 University of Cambridge and Contributors as identified. All rights reserved.

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Creative research on musical performance A pioneering research centre studying live musical performance as creative practice launches in the Faculty of Music in October with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). C m p C p

the five-year AhrC research Centre for A grant of £1.7 million from the AhrC who previously directed ChArm, was musical performance as Creative practice has provided ‘phase 2’ funding to elected last year to the University of (CmpCp) will address key questions about establish the Centre in Cambridge in Cambridge’s 1684 Chair of music. how musical performances take shape partnership with King’s College London, Cambridge is well placed to host over time, how knowledge is transformed the University of oxford and royal CmpCp thanks to its outstanding into practice in performance, and how holloway, University of London, and in performance environment. but as professor understanding this creative practice varies association with the Guildhall school of Cook explained, its strengths as host across different traditions and cultures. music & Drama and the royal College of institution go even further: ‘because music ‘scholarly interest in musical music. CmpCp will build on the is a central feature of everyday life, its performance has practically exploded achievements of its predecessor, the scope extends beyond the arts and during the last 20 years,’ said Centre AhrC research Centre for the history humanities into the social and even the Director professor John rink. ‘Whereas and Analysis of recorded music hard sciences. Cambridge’s pre-eminence musicologists once understood music (ChArm), which focused on musical in all these areas, coupled with the primarily in terms of notated texts, the recordings and was based at royal possibility of creating working relationships experience of music in sound and through holloway. between researchers in different time, as well as the creative processes Cambridge’s contribution to the disciplines, make it an ideal location to behind it, now inform research of the Centre will be spearheaded by professor develop a musicology for the 21st century.’ highest quality and urgency. performance rink, who will lead a project on creative studies are at the top of the international learning and ‘original’ performance, and For more information, please contact research agenda – one which CmpCp will professor nick Cook, who is investigating Professor John Rink ([email protected]) shape for years to come.’ music as creative practice. professor Cook, or visit www.cmpcp.ac.uk/

Students give doctors a clear vision of invention potential A technique for testing the peripheral vision of young children could be given a boost – thanks to the inventors putting it into the hands of Cambridge students. Kidzeyez is a new low-cost product picked up and treated earlier if visual- ‘i-teams has been an incredibly designed to help gather accurate field loss can be detected, preventing useful resource for us in the readings of toddlers’ fields of vision. it permanent loss of vision and development of Kidzeyez,’ said Dr Allen. was created by Dr Louise Allen, who is neurological deficit. ‘the team has been able to confirm a a paediatric ophthalmologist from now a group of research students is large potential market for Kidzeyez Addenbrooke’s hospital and an helping to formulate a plan to and enabled me, as a clinician, to Associate Lecturer at the University of commercialise the product and market understand the principles and Cambridge’s Department of medicine, it to health providers. the students are practicalities of marketing the device.’ and Dr Adar pelah of york University. part of the University of Cambridge the prototype device is a first in its i-teams programme, which brings For more information about i-Teams, field. Although similar products are used together students from across the to measure the peripheral vision of University to analyse the commercial please contact i-Teams Programme adults, they are not suitable for small potential of an emerging, breakthrough Director Amy Mokady children. Dr Allen and Dr pelah’s technology. the team was mentored ([email protected]; invention could become a lifesaver as by Cambridge business angel bob www.iteamsonline.org/); for more potentially serious neurological pettigrew and Dr nikoletta information about KidzEyez, please conditions such as tumours of the optic Athanassopoulou of the institute for contact Dr Louise Allen chiasm and pituitary gland can be manufacturing. ([email protected]).

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Recharging energy research A new phase of research harnessing materials for rechargeable batteries is beginning in the Department of Chemistry. p r

Laboratory refurbishment has fundamental challenges relating to o f e s

commenced in readiness for a new lithium chemistry that need to be s o r

programme of research on energy overcome,’ said professor Grey. ‘our C L A r

materials under the leadership of Clare research is aimed at a better e

G r

Grey, the newly elected Geoffrey understanding of how lithium batteries e y moorhouse Gibson professor of work, and how to recharge them faster, Chemistry. for the past 15 years, for longer and more safely.’ professor Grey has led a research team one component of professor Grey’s at stony brook University, new york, research is to develop new tools based investigating materials for energy on nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) Using NMR to investigate changes in local structure during electrical discharge in a storage and conversion. for visualising how ions are transported lithium-ion battery professor Grey’s particular focus through the different materials in real among energy materials is electrodes time and to use this information to the key areas where solutions are for lithium-ion batteries. these feed into the design of the next needed in energy technology,’ she said. lightweight and energy-dense generation of batteries. the laboratory, professor Jeremy sanders, Chair of materials have provided one of the which will incorporate a new solid-state the school of physical sciences, added: most important recent breakthroughs nmr machine, has received funding ‘We are delighted to welcome professor in batteries used for consumer from the royal society and the Grey, whose appointment not only electronics, and are increasingly being engineering and physical sciences brings an important new dimension to considered by the automotive industry research Council (epsrC). materials chemistry in the Department, to power hybrid and electric vehicles, the opportunity of being part of but also represents a commitment to and for load levelling to manage the Cambridge’s energy research agenda is building research in the area of energy.’ flow of electricity in a power grid. an important draw for professor Grey: ‘to expedite the use of lithium- ’i am very excited about the prospect For more information, please based materials in energy-efficient of building a programme aimed at contact Professor Clare Grey applications, there are some significant having significant impact in some of ([email protected]).

Clean technology cleans up Despite the economic downturn, four University spin-out clean tech companies have received over £12 million in funding.

the four companies – enecsys, metalysis developed to convert the energy and members of the Cambridge Angels Limited, enval and Camfridge – are part gathered by solar modules from DC to and Cambridge Capital Group. of a growing portfolio of clean tech much more useable AC. companies in which Cambridge Camfridge , a spin-out from research by enterprise Limited holds equity on behalf Metalysis Limited , a spin-out from professor Derek fray and Dr Karl of the University as a result of licensing professor Derek fray’s research in the sandeman in the Department of intellectual property and direct cash Department of materials science and materials science and metallurgy, which investments. Clean technology describes metallurgy, which has raised £5.1 million is developing a platform for use in key products or processes that balance high to develop its environmentally friendly target applications in eco-refrigeration productivity and efficiency with reduced method to produce tantalum and and has received r&D grants from the energy consumption, costs and pollution; titanium metals and alloys. the funds will Carbon trust and the european Union. the Cambridge enterprise portfolio now mainly be used to support the scale-up includes nine clean tech companies, with of a novel semi-continuous pilot plant. For more information on the clean more in the pipeline. tech portfolio held by Cambridge Enval , a spin-out from research by Enterprise Ltd, please contact the four recent recipients of new funding Dr Carlos Ludlow-palafox and professor Nick Slaymaker (nick.slaymaker@ are: howard Chase in the Department of enterprise.cam.ac.uk), Investment Chemical engineering, which has Manager, Cambridge Enterprise Enecsys , a spin-out from professor Gehan developed a pilot plant for environmental Seed Funds, or visit Amaratunga’s research in the Department recycling technology specifically for www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/ of engineering, which has raised laminated packaging waste. enval $10 million in a series A funding round. recently completed its series A round of the funds will be used to speed up funding led by iQ Capital and other commercialisation of the micro-inverters investors including Cambridge enterprise

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future, and through working with engaged Voices of vanishing worlds and committed scholars, our project is A new project is recording and making accessible the responding to this urgent challenge .’ endangered oral literatures of indigenous peoples before they With initial funding from the firebird foundation for Anthropological research, are lost forever. the onaway trust and the Chadwyck- s A

r healey Charitable trust, the first phase of A s h the project is under way. A digital n e i D repository of oral literatures from around e r m the world has been launched, as has the A n first tranche of supplemental funding for fieldwork projects, including the recording of folk music of Lo monthang, nepal, and ceremonial chanting in the Vaupés region of Colombia. A training workshop at the Centre for research in the Arts, social sciences and humanities (CrAssh) will run in December, bringing together scholars, indigenous researchers, curators and archivists. in a remarkable cross-disciplinary research collaboration, the project is also working with zoologist bill sutherland, the miriam rothschild professor of

Recitation of oral texts by Latte Apa, senior ritual practitioner of the Thangmi community, Darjeeling, India Conservation biology at Cambridge, to develop a consolidated database on the World oral Literature project has culture through assimilation to more- endangered cultures, languages and recently been established to support the dominant ways of life. of the world’s 6,000 ecology at a global level. ‘While the World collection of oral literature by funding, natural languages, as many as half will oral Literature project has been forming in training and working with local probably not survive for another our minds for some time, only by communities and fieldworkers who are generation. As vehicles for the engaged in documentation projects. transmission of unique cultural knowledge, collaborating with colleagues and for many communities around the languages are repositories of oral traditions coordinating resources and expertise can world, the transmission of oral literature that become threatened when elders die we hope to document the voices of these from one generation to the next lies at the and livelihoods are disrupted. vanishing worlds,’ explained Dr turin. heart of cultural practice. these creative Dr mark turin, who leads the project, the pilot project is currently seeking expressions may be ritual texts, curative which is associated with the museum of sustainable long-term funding to make it a chants, epic poems, folk tales, songs, word Archaeology and Anthropology , explains permanent fixture in the University’s games, life histories or historical narratives. its importance: ‘it’s often the vernacular research agenda. however, globalisation and socio- traditions of communities living on the economic change exert complex pressures margins of nation states that are most at For more information, please contact on smaller communities, eroding risk . by supporting communities to Dr Mark Turin ([email protected]) or expressive diversity and transforming document their own cultures for the visit www.oralliterature.org/

managed environments for sharing their Open Access in Cambridge digital research output.’ The University of Cambridge’s first Open Access Week will enhance open Access literature is digital, online, knowledge and understanding of the Open Access phenomenon. free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. by publishing in the open Access movement worldwide ensuring the greatest open Access journals, or through has been gathering pace as top-tier possible impact for the placing copies of material in open universities embrace the effort to provide research they fund,’ Access repositories, authors free online access to research literature explained barbara maximise their research impact and data. to support understanding of bültmann, Dspace’s and increase the visibility of open Access, the University Library is support and Liaison their data, which are then used, organising a number of events in officer and one of cited and built upon, ultimately october during the international open the organisers of the furthering the research itself. Access Week. the events are built conference. ‘All seven around Dspace@Cambridge UK research Councils Find out more about Open (www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/), the University's expect research they Access by visiting one of the institutional open Access repository. support to be available on events in Cambridge during the first ‘increasingly, research funding open Access and the majority of UK International Open Access Week on agencies and universities are viewing universities have institutional repositories 19–23 October 2009 (www.lib.cam.ac. open Access as an effective way of like Dspace@Cambridge to provide uk/create_change/events.html).

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Broers Building available soon! EU boost for A new opportunity will shortly be available for companies obesity research wishing to be part of Cambridge’s premier science and Cambridge will play a major role innovation cluster. in a new European research consortium studying molecular mechanisms that give rise to obesity. the ‘euroChip’ consortium, which launches in november, brings together experts from seven european institutions to investigate how signals from the gut communicate with the brain to control appetite. the project has been awarded €3 million from the european Union seventh framework programme and is being coordinated by Dr Giles yeo from the University of Cambridge metabolic research Laboratories (mrL) and the medical research Council (mrC) Centre for obesity and related metabolic Diseases (mrC CorD). obesity is widely accepted to pose one The Broers Building alongside the new Hauser Forum of the greatest public health challenges we A prestigious new building on the West Already located on site are the currently face. Already it is responsible for up Cambridge site is on target for completion University’s Cavendish Laboratory, Whittle to 8% of health costs and 10–13% of deaths well ahead of the year end, providing a Laboratory, Computer Laboratory, Centre throughout europe – and these figures are likely to increase significantly in the coming good opportunity for r&D-intensive for Advanced photonics and electronics, years if the rising incidence of the disease businesses to co-locate in a very exciting and nanoscience Centre, as well as the continues unchecked. new environment. named in honour of institute for manufacturing and the the former University of Cambridge the euroChip project will undertake Department of Veterinary medicine. this multidisciplinary studies to better Vice-Chancellor Lord broers, the broers cluster of prestigious research facilities, understand how different diets affect the building will provide a pioneering centre together with the increasing number of secretion of gut hormones and how the for research collaboration for emerging University collaborations in West brain responds to these hormones to smes and international companies Cambridge with commercial organisations regulate appetite, energy expenditure and, working with the University. such as microsoft, nokia, hitachi and ultimately, body weight. the broers building is part of a new schlumberger, has strengthened ‘in order to effectively tackle the problem development by turnstone estates and the of obesity, we need to better understand the University. the development will enable Cambridge’s position as europe’s leading centre for entrepreneurial science-based biology that underlies the control of food companies involved in, and supporting, intake and bodyweight,’ explained Dr yeo. business. the University’s commercialisation activities ‘We hope that euroChip will go some way to work in closer partnership with to achieving this goal, thereby having an Cambridge enterprise Limited, which will Businesses interested in leasing space impact on the development of effective new be located in the adjacent hauser forum, are invited to contact Jonathan strategies to prevent and treat obesity.’ as well as with the growing number of Burroughs (jonathan.burroughs@ academic researchers located at West creativeplaces.com or 01223 559347) For more information, please contact Cambridge. or visit www.broersbuilding.co.uk/ Dr Giles Yeo ([email protected]).

Cambridge to host genetic research hub Cambridge is one of four ‘hub’ universities receiving funding for high-throughput sequencing machines. the medical research Council (mrC) is biomedical Campus, Addenbrooke’s one of the hubs’ principal investigators, investing over £9 million in supporting hospital, will enable researchers working professor John todd, from the Department fundamental genetics research by in the region to take advantage of the of medical Genetics and the Cambridge creating four high-throughput sequencing latest research technology. it will be institute for medical research, said: (hts) hubs in scotland (edinburgh), oxford, part of a collaboration with the ‘only a few years ago, it took an the north of england (Liverpool) and the european molecular biology Laboratory’s international consortium many years of east of england (Cambridge), giving every european bioinformatics institute, the effort to produce a first draft of the human gene scientist across the UK access to babraham institute, the national institute genome sequence, but now it will be state-of-the-art equipment for DnA for health research (nihr) Cambridge possible for the hub in Cambridge to sequencing. biomedical research Centre, and the sequence 100 human genomes in a year.’ the creation of the eastern sequencing next-generation sequencing technology and informatics hub (www.easih.org/), companies roche-454, illumina and For more information, please visit hosted by the University at the Cambridge Life technologies. www.easih.org/

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L o r A n Energy & Environment To introduce our Spotlight section on Energy & Environment, Professor Dame Ann Dowling describes the strength of Cambridge’s research portfolio in this area. The University will be showcasing this research at a Horizon Seminar on 1 October. one of the greatest challenges facing Various forms of renewable energy are there will be no single solution to the mankind is how to deliver our energy being developed at Cambridge, from challenge of balancing energy requirements sustainably and securely biofuels, through wind and wave power, to requirements and the environment. without damaging the environment. photovoltaic cells. the power conversion instead, a combination of changes in Addressing this challenge is an area of electronics for connecting solar cells to technologies, policies and practice will be intense activity within Cambridge, networks is also being studied, as are the needed. researchers at Cambridge are resulting in several pan-University planning and grid stability implications of fully involved in bringing about these collaborations that have developed distributed micro-generation combined changes. around key themes of energy demand with more nuclear power. Within the reduction, energy supply and energy University, we are finding tremendous policy, embedded within an overall interest from undergraduates in our framework for sustainability. the value of courses on nuclear engineering and the University’s current portfolio of energy- materials, and research activities in areas to related grants is £100 million. in the support the building of new nuclear Department of engineering alone, the power stations are growing fast. figure is £30 million, with 50% of that renewable energy has a vital role in funding coming from industry. much of the diversification of energy supply, but for the University’s energy-related research is the foreseeable future most of our linked to international collaborations with electrical power will continue to come the UsA, european Union, india and China. from fossil fuels. the clean use of fossil reducing energy demand and fuels depends on research efforts such as increasing energy efficiency are significant those that are developing ways to burn Professor Dame drivers for research today. in the UK, coal and separate Co in the exhaust, 2 Ann Dowling buildings account for approximately 40% ready for sequestration. of the demand for energy (excluding the Addressing these challenges requires embedded energy of construction the development of not only new Professor Dame Ann Dowling is at the materials), and ground transportation uses technologies but also policies and pricing Department of Engineering. another 27%. Ways of heating and cooling strategies to encourage their adoption. buildings more efficiently are being energy policy research is an active area at The Horizon Seminar takes place at the investigated in several departments in Cambridge, bringing together researchers Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge and are being exploited in in economics, business and many other Cambridge, on 1 October 2009. For building designs. reducing our energy fields through the electricity policy more information and to book online, consumption from lighting is also research Group and the Cambridge please visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/ important, and has led to the Centre for energy studies. energyandenvironment/ development in Cambridge of materials that emit light with high efficiency. A Participating speakers and chairs multidisciplinary study in Cambridge is horizon analysing the effect of these and other Dr Julian Allwood , Department of engineering new technologies by taking a systems- Professor Dame Ann Dowling , Department of engineering level approach to the complex Professor Neil Greenham , Department of physics optimisation of towns and cities. other Professor Peter Guthrie , Department of engineering studies are tackling ways in which Professor Chris Howe , Department of biochemistry materials can be produced more Tim Longstaff , Ws Atkins plc efficiently, because as much as 20% of Professor David MacKay , Department of physics global greenhouse gas emissions from Professor Robert Mair , Department of engineering using energy arise in the production of five Professor David Newbery , faculty of economics key materials: cement, steel, plastic, paper Dr Glenn Vinnicombe , Department of engineering and aluminium.

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‘Cities… embody the environmental damage done by modern civilization; yet experts and policymakers increasingly recognize the potential value of cities to long-term sustainability. If cities create environmental problems, they also contain the solutions .’ United Nations Population Fund today, more than half of the world’s Dowling and professor robert mair at the Technologies and design population, over 3.3 billion people, Department of engineering, and professor A distinctive feature of research on the live in urban areas; a figure that, marcial echenique and professor Koen technologies and design of buildings will according to current predictions, may steemers at the Department of be the development of feasibility metrics rise to 5 billion by 2030. economic Architecture. for implementing suitable technologies growth goes hand-in-hand with that improve the environmental conditions urbanisation, but this leads to an A complex system and lower the operating utility costs of increasing demand for energy and a Cities can be thought of as integrated buildings, both domestic and commercial. rising environmental impact. taking systems composed of numerous this will require an expanded the UK as an example, the buildings components with interconnecting links. representation of geographical, physical and ground transportation in urban into the complex equation of analysing and behavioural inputs in building energy areas (in which 80% of the population energy efficiency in cities must be factored models. the scope of the work will span currently lives) account for variables such as the density, layout and urban design strategies for reducing approximately two-thirds of the types of buildings, the transport energy use and carbon emissions in cities, country’s current total energy requirements, the location of green spaces as well as more-detailed investigations of demands. Clearly, large benefits are and the proximity of local forms of power enabling technologies. to be gained from addressing the generation. A very significant proportion of the challenge of improved energy ‘Cities are complex systems,’ explained built environment is influenced by the efficiency in towns and cities. professor Leslie. ‘even individual issues such need for mobility. Currently, vehicle Cambridge’s energy efficient Cities as environmental impact, transport, quality performance, in terms of acceleration, top initiative (eeCi) is working towards this of life and economic growth are speed, size and weight, far exceeds that vision – aiming to strengthen the UK’s themselves complex, let alone their needed in an urban environment – a capacity to address energy demand interaction. Devising practical and realistic situation that has been driven partly by reduction and environmental impact proposals for how cities can be reshaped customer preference and partly by crash- in cities through cross-disciplinary can only be achieved through a holistic, worthiness. research on transport will research that embraces building and cross-disciplinary approach.’ consider the options for innovations: could, transport technologies, district power to achieve this, eeCi has devised a for instance, the transition to electric cars systems and urban planning. systems-level approach that brings improve air quality and lead to more ‘open’ the five-year interdisciplinary together technologies and design (of city centres with improved public places collaboration is being funded by buildings, transport and energy), impacts and natural ventilation within large office £2.9 million from the engineering and and assessment (of the environment, and and commercial buildings? Would there be physical sciences research Council of society and the economy) and city-level climate change trade-offs in doing this? (epsrC) under a science & innovation integration of planning and design. three And what would be the impact of ‘smart Award. this joint effort brings new lecturers appointed through the charging’ of electric cars on overall energy together over 30 researchers (see epsrC award are leading the research consumption and building design? panel) under the leadership of modules: Dr ruchi Choudhary and Dr the UK Government’s new Low Carbon professor ian Leslie (principal steven barrett from the Department of transition plan has reinforced its investigator and pro-Vice-Chancellor engineering and Dr ying Jin from the commitment to increase its renewable for research), professor Dame Ann Department of Architecture. energy capacity to cover 30% of energy

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t the goal is to use insights gained from o City-level integration C K

p urban models to inspire new

h to solve the challenges posed by o

t technological, planning and design

o integrated systems that have the . C

o solutions, both in cities of the developed

m complexity and scale of cities, a systems- /

f world, where the bulk of the building o level approach must combine economic, t o stock is already complete, and in cities of V technical and design ideas with macro- o y

A the developing world, where some cities

G economic trends, demographic e r projections and environmental data. may double or triple in size in the next the intention of eeCi is to combine 30 years. these criteria into a coherent computer model calibrated on real data. not only does this enable a more robust scaling up of the impact of technological innovations at the city level, but it also allows the assessment of different trade-offs between the environmental, societal and economic impacts. this helps to inform regulators and policymakers. how, for instance, can the planning of land use in city regions be coordinated with significant land requirements for generating renewable energy? What alternatives are there in Dr Steven Barrett (left), building forms and density that reduce Dr Ying Jin (centre) and the impact on energy use for travel and activities within an urban environment? Dr Ruchi Choudhary the eeCi models will represent not consumption by 2020. research in the only geographical patterns of land use and energy module of eeCi will assess the physical built forms, but also business and For more information, please feasibility and environmental benefits of household activities and their responses to contact Dr Steven Barrett district power systems and alternative policy and technological change. the ([email protected]) energy supply technologies on different models will cover both new development and Dr Ruchi Choudhary building configurations and geographical and the retrofit of existing urban areas, ([email protected]) at the Department of Engineering, scales. ‘We know that the feasibility of and will therefore be relevant to a much and Dr Ying Jin ([email protected]) using energy supply systems is in wider technology and policy context than at the Department of Architecture, principle influenced by physical and it has been possible to envisage or visit www.eeci.cam.ac.uk/ geographical characteristics of the previously. context in which they’re used,’ explained Dr Choudhary. ‘imbalances between total Collaborators in the EECi supply and demand, and variations in the building’s heat capacity and demand Department of Engineering : professor Dame Ann Dowling, professor robert mair, variability resulting from seasonal cycles, Dr ruchi Choudhary, Dr steven barrett, professor nick Collings, professor randall can be critical.’ thomas, professor peter Guthrie, Dr heather Cruickshank, Dr Alan mcrobie, Dr mauro overend, professor John young, professor simone hochgreb, professor Impacts and assessment epaminondas mastorakos, Dr Alex White, Dr stuart scott, Dr matthew Juniper, Designing the most efficient and Dr holger babinsky, professor Gehan Amaratunga, Dr richard mcmahon, Dr patrick sustainable cities must be balanced with palmer, Dr Claire barlow economic and social impacts: after all, cities need to be comfortable and cost- Department of Architecture : professor marcial echenique, professor Koen effective to live in. ‘We need to quantify steemers, Dr ying Jin, professor Alan short, michael ramage, Dr torwong the impacts of technology and policy Chenvidyakarn, Dr minna sunikka measures upon society and the economy for a variety of settlement designs,’ said Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology : Dr John Dennis Dr Jin. ‘only then can we hope to work out realistically how good they Computer Laboratory : professor Andy hopper, professor ian Leslie, Dr Andy rice, are.’ professor Jean bacon similarly, assessments of environmental impact are crucial: ‘it’s no good designing BP Institute : professor Andy Woods, Dr shaun fitzgerald energy-efficient approaches that have a net negative impact on global climate, or Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy : professor Colin humphreys that result in poor air quality,’ explained Dr barrett. ‘monitoring the impact of the Judge Business School : Dr bill nuttall, Cambridge Centre for energy studies, urban microclimate and translating this Dr theo hacking into public health and environmental effects is fundamental to assessing which Plus over 15 external collaborating companies technological scenarios will work.’

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Organic solar cells

Solar cells can now be manufactured by roll-to-roll printing

How can the cost of solar cells be reduced enough to make them a feasible source of large-scale renewable energy? The answer is to make them thin.

research that began at the Cavendish New materials roll up Laboratory in the Department of physics, A worldwide search has been under way and now draws in departments from across during the past decade to find other the University, has discovered how to make semiconducting materials that may lightweight, flexible and cheaper provide cheaper solar cells. if we are to photovoltaic (‘solar’) cells. this technology reduce the cost of deployment, we need unlocks new potential to deploy vast areas to bring down the cost not just of the of solar cells that will be needed as part of semiconductor materials used in the solar the renewable energy portfolio when we cell itself, but also of all the other materials move away from fossil fuels. used in the solar cell assembly, such as the substrate and how it is encapsulated in Prototype solar cell panel Converting light energy to the panel. electricity the best solution might be to print the solar cells use semiconductors to capture entire apparatus – the active light. each photon of light that is absorbed semiconductor layers, metal electrodes and raises an electron in the semiconductor tracks – directly onto a plastic film. And the material to a high-energy state. the fastest way to do this would be to use electron then drifts away from the net continuous roll-to-roll printing, in much the positive charge left behind (termed a same way that newspapers are printed. ‘hole’) and this generates a current, solar cells manufactured in this way would which is drawn off as electricity. be lightweight, flexible and, crucially, much silicon makes excellent solar cells – cheaper and easier to deploy than current it’s the right colour, absorbing across the systems enclosed within glass sheets. visible and near infrared parts of the solar roll-to-roll printing sets us some big spectrum, and makes reasonably efficient challenges. it requires scientists to develop cells. however, its efficiency has a completely new materials set, re-design limitations: for silicon to absorb enough the solar cell semiconductor architecture light, relatively thick slabs (typically and build up the manufacturing skills that 0.2 mm) need to be used. semiconductor- allow precise control of printed film grade silicon is an expensive material, too thickness. Within the University, we now expensive to make the scale-up of have a broad programme of science and silicon-based solar panels a feasible engineering to cover this full set of prospect. research tasks: professor sir richard friend,

10 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 enerGy & enVironment professor neil Greenham, professor engineering and physical sciences being developed by professors Welland henning sirringhaus, Dr Chris mcneill and research Council (epsrC) programme and Driscoll in their respective research professor Ulli steiner in the Cavendish Grant (£6.8 million over five years). groups. Laboratory; professor Wilhelm huck in the A significant programme of chemical Department of Chemistry; professor mark synthesis, materials processing and Towards manufacturing Welland and Dr Andrea ferrari in the semiconductor physics measurements the programme of work on the process Department of engineering; and professor aims to develop more-controlled engineering of the printed solar cell has Judith Driscoll in the Department of heterojunctions that will be better at been positioned to provide the best materials science and metallurgy. moving the two charges away from one interface between research and its another. the goal is to raise energy move to industry. Cambridge’s epsrC- Persuading electrons to leave conversion efficiencies from current levels supported integrated Knowledge Centre home of around 5% to at least 10%, making the has been used to start the printing technology competitive with other solar roll-to-roll printing requires project. this has also brought in cell technologies – a big challenge but semiconductor materials that can be Dr ferrari’s work in engineering on one that the multidisciplinary group of handled as ‘inks’ and printed at room conducting carbon nanotube and researchers believes is attainable. temperature – a very different world from graphene electrodes. together with the the traditional high-temperature and technology and product development high-vacuum processing world of silicon Grand challenges at the company the technology partnership, technology. one very attractive set of nanoscale the researchers bid for and won a materials are the polymeric organic We face a second challenge: the competition run by the Carbon trust in semiconductors that professors friend, excitation produced by the absorbed 2007 to set up an industrial activity to Greenham and sirringhaus have photon needs to find its way to the prove the manufacturability of new solar developed for use both in light-emitting heterojunction before it decays. it is cell technologies. With a commitment of diodes (exploited through the University usually short-lived (about 1 nanosecond) £5 million from the Carbon trust, the printing activity is growing rapidly, and spin-out company Cambridge Display and cannot therefore travel very far, large-scale solar power has now become technology Ltd) and in printed transistors typically about 10 nm (i.e. 20 or so a possibility that is within our grasp. for electronic paper displays (under intermolecular spacings). however, we development by another spin-out, plastic need much greater thicknesses of Logic Ltd). there is however a catch. While semiconductor to absorb all incident silicon readily liberates electrons from light. the solution that is being holes when a photon is absorbed, the investigated worldwide is to arrange excited electron generated in an organic that the electron-accepting and hole- semiconductor is very reluctant to leave accepting materials form an inter- its positively charged hole. penetrating network with dimensions nature has already solved this at this nanometre lengthscale. not only problem in plants: in photosynthesis, the does this need to give efficient charge excited electron is generated at the separation, but it also needs to allow p h i interface between two semiconducting the electrons and holes to move along L

m y

molecules that have different electron continuous pathways to the electrode – n o t

affinities. this causes the electron to move a by no means trivial set of t to the adjacent molecule, leaving the requirements! hole behind. subsequent steps in one very promising route is to use photosynthesis use the reducing power polymers composed of two blocks of of the electron and the oxidising power chemically distinct polymers (diblock of the hole to complete the chemistry. copolymers). When the two blocks are for solar cells, we have the simpler selected so that they repel one another, task of arranging that the separated they form very specific ordered structures electron and the hole can be collected at with regions of one block tied to regions their respective electrodes to either side of the other block by the chemical bond Professor of the device. Although it was discovered that links them. the researchers are Sir Richard Friend some time ago by the researchers at the developing these nanostructures in a Cavendish Laboratory that single programme supported by a £1.3 million interfaces (or heterojunctions) seem to epsrC grant under the nanotechnology function reasonably well, the electron energy Grand Challenge programme, would often move no further than to the which draws on professor steiner’s adjacent site across the heterojunction, polymer expertise, together with bound by its electrostatic attraction to the professor huck’s synthesis expertise and positively charged hole. Although this continuing developments in solar cell creates a current, the efficiency of energy research at the Cavendish. this and conversion is limited. related approaches are facilitating the the Cavendish group, together with use of inorganic semiconductors such as professor huck in the Department of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide to form For more information, please contact the Chemistry and colleagues at imperial nanocrystalline frameworks that can be author Professor Sir Richard Friend at the College London, are just beginning work subsequently filled with organic Cavendish Laboratory in the Department to tackle this problem, funded by a major semiconductors; these structures are of Physics ([email protected]).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 11 enerGy & enVironment © f r e e f o t o . C

Towards a smarter o m / i A n

b r i t t o

electricity future n

Drax Power Station

The Electricity Policy Global efforts to address climate change supported by the industry and Research Group –a will involve the massive roll-out of existing government sponsors of its energy policy low carbon energy technologies as well as forum, which helps leverage research programme that spans the the development of new technologies, funding and enhances the eprG’s ability Faculty of Economics and together with increased energy efficiency, to respond to important research Judge Business School – fundamental behavioural shifts, and questions as they arise. is providing world-class processes that will reduce carbon two recently completed eprG emissions, all on an unprecedented scale. research projects (see panels) exemplify analysis to support an such change requires smart engineers, the types of analyses that are helping the evolving electricity willing industries and green consumers. electricity industry evolve: the risks and industry. but it also requires getting the regulatory incentives for taking forward carbon framework structures and policies right capture and storage (CCs), and the at national and international levels. opportunities for increasing energy A better understanding of these efficiency through smart metering, both incentives and policies forms part of the of which are key elements in the UK’s new work of the electricity policy research Low Carbon transition plan. Group (eprG), along with analysis of liberalised energy markets, and pricing carbon via taxes or emissions trading. this joint research programme between the faculty of economics and Judge business school was launched in 2005, when the eprG was awarded a five-year, £2.38 million grant from research Councils UK (rCUK), expanding on the work of the Cambridge-mit institute electricity project. professor David newbery, Director of the eprG, leads a group that now Dr Michael Pollitt (left), numbers more than 30 researchers, Professor David Newbery including a team of 12 faculty and senior (centre) and Dr David Reiner research staff, together with phD students and Associates from departments across For more information, please contact Cambridge and other leading institutions. the authors Dr David Reiner the research team is built around core ([email protected]. uk) and Dr expertise in economics and policy, with Michael Pollitt ([email protected]) active collaboration between experts at Judge Business School and Professor from different academic traditions, and David Newbery ([email protected]) draws on insights from engineering, at the Faculty of Economics or visit political science and law. the group is also www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/

12 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 enerGy & enVironment

Carbon capture and storage (CCS): risks and incentives A study sponsored by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has analysed the incentives needed to reduce emissions from fossil-fired electricity generation. the idea behind CCs is to capture the Co 2 emitted from power plants burning fossil fuels and to store it safely in geological formations such as depleted oil fields. by 2015, the european Union (eU) aims to have up to 12 commercial-scale CCs demonstration projects deployed across europe, but as of today there are still no commercial projects operating and each project is expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds. With so much at stake, a competition has been launched by the UK Government to build one of the world’s first commercial- scale CCs power plants in the UK. this was followed by recent announcements of support for CCs at the level of the eU, and a UK Government commitment of up to four demonstration plants. but how to select the projects? A study led by Dr David reiner and professor David newbery set out to identify the key risks in designing the project selection process and to examine the interactions between incentives for CCs at the eU level and those at the national level. Getting the incentives right bringing together experts on auction design, game theory and r&D policy, the study examined european support schemes in greater detail. in addition to stimulus spending of over €1 billion (up to €180 million per project), the eU has earmarked 300 million allowances under the eU emissions trading systems to support CCs and innovative renewables technologies (up to 45 million allowances per project). several risks were identified in designing the project selection process, including the carbon price risk, the variable cost risk, the technological risk and inefficiencies such as the effect of firms colluding or possessing information unavailable to governments. to overcome these concerns, a technology Category Auction was proposed that would deliver learning from diversity (validation of the main available technological options) rather than learning by doing. the hope is that research such as this can help governments put in place policy frameworks at national and international levels that will enable the CCs demonstration phase to be conducted in a manner that is both effective, by demonstrating a range of CCs technologies across europe, and accomplishes it at least cost.

Examining the prospects for smart metering Could smart meters be the answer to promoting efficient, flexible and sustainable energy consumption? Decarbonising the electricity system is just part of the story. Achieving the UK’s target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2050 will involve perhaps as much as a 50% or more improvement in energy efficiency relative to business as usual. A key part of any climate change strategy therefore is to change the nature of the relationship between the energy services that people need and the amount of energy that is supplied. one mechanism for delivering this is the so-called smart electricity meter – a two-way real-time communication between the household and the electricity grid that enables demand to be varied in response to available supply. the UK Government is currently in a two-year consultation period prior to announcing its strategy for how to roll out smart meters to all households by 2020 in line with the eU energy services Directive. Dr michael pollitt and colleagues Dr tooraj Jamasb and Aoife brophy haney in the eprG have been examining the prospects for smart meters in the light of international roll-outs that have already occurred. From dumb to smart Currently, we have an electricity system in which supply is largely driven by demand. At the household level, most homes have a ‘dumb’ electricity meter that records cumulative consumption to date. individuals have very poor information about their instantaneous electricity consumption, and hence may be consuming more energy than they need. it also means that individual electricity demands are unable to respond to the situation of the electricity system as a whole. A ‘smart’ electricity meter would address both of these problems and be an essential part of delivering an electricity system based on the concept of energy services rather than consumption. the eprG study is providing a comprehensive framework for assessing the costs and benefits of smart meters. Data from ontario and California show that the introduction of smart metering can have two immediate impacts on the electricity system. it might reduce electricity consumption by 5–7% simply by giving people real-time information on their electricity use. it can also allow for the variation of electricity prices across the day to better reflect the costliness of the generation required at that time. such real-time pricing can result in shifts in peak energy consumption of 8–13% of total electricity demand. however, these two effects are only the start of the possibilities that smart meters offer. smart meters are central to the use of information technology to seamlessly manage household energy consumption and production. A smart meter can also ensure that any electricity produced by the household (via micro-combined heat and power or solar panels) can be sold to the grid at a price that reflects its real-time value. FlexNet smart metering research is part of the work that the eprG has been carrying out for the past three years in collaboration with a consortium of nine universities under the flexnet project. funded by £7 million from the economic and physical sciences research Council (epsrC), the project as a whole is looking at the evolution of the UK electricity system to 2050. the research on smart metering has been submitted to the UK Government to assist in its assessment of the best way to roll out smart meters.

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 13 enerGy & enVironment © i s gasifying the fuel first (essentially turning t o C

K coal into hydrogen and carbon p h

o monoxide). in the first phase of the cycle, t o . C solid fuel is fed continuously into a bed of o m

/ oxygen carrier, through which is passed A n D

y steam or Co 2, or both: this gasifies the

o L

s fuel, which reacts in turn with the carrier e n to form Co 2 and steam. When the carrier becomes depleted towards the end of the first phase, the feed of coal is stopped and the inventory of carbon in the bed is allowed to gasify and combust until it is sufficiently small. in the second phase, air is passed through the bed, instead of

steam or Co 2, regenerating the depleted oxygen carrier. A new cycle then starts. in a further modification of the process, the researchers have found that Coal – affordable and still they can also isolate hydrogen by regenerating the oxygen carrier in the abundant – but also the presence of steam. the resulting worst offender when it hydrogen is clean enough to be used in a comes to fuel-associated fuel cell ; the process also has the carbon emissions. How well desirable outcome of exporting heat energy in addition to the hydrogen can coal be cleaned up? energy, and also produces pure Co 2 that could be sequestered. Work is ongoing to develop synthetic calcium-based Clean power sorbents to capture the Co 2 for sequestration. the UK Government’s White paper from coal ‘our energy future’ recognised the important part that coal-fired generation plays in widening the diversity of the energy mix ‘provided ways can be found Coal generates the largest share of the turbines to generate electricity). because materially to reduce its carbon emissions’. world’s electricity and remains the most the coal burns in air, which contains a the hope is that techniques such as those plentiful of all the fossil fuels. figures large amount of nitrogen, the resulting being developed in Cambridge will released by the World energy Council Co 2 is impossible to sequester without facilitate cleaner and more efficient coal have estimated that reserves of being purified first. not only is this costly, power generation in the future. economically recoverable coal are but a coal-fired station might use as sufficient to last for another 150 years. its much as a third of its energy output just abundance and low cost have ensured to run a carbon-capture plant. coal’s place as a mainstay of energy the epsrC-funded study has gone generation worldwide and especially in back to the drawing board to find a more

developing countries. however, burning effective way of removing Co 2, focusing coal produces more of the greenhouse on improving the efficiency of a process

gas Co 2 than most other fossil fuels per for coal combustion known as chemical unit of energy generated. how can our looping combustion (CLC). in need for coal be balanced with a move conventional CLC, the fuel is first oxidised towards a carbon-constrained future? in a fuel reactor by a solid metal oxide With funding from the engineering (the oxygen carrier) in the absence of air,

and physical sciences research Council creating steam and pure Co 2. When the (epsrC), chemical engineer Dr John steam is condensed, what’s left is almost Dennis has teamed up with engineer pure Co plus the reduced metal. the 2 Dr John Dennis (left) and Dr stuart scott to create a coal metal is then regenerated into metal combustion process that not only oxide in an oxygen reactor, generating Dr Stuart Scott maximises energy output but also substantial quantities of heat for power

captures pure Co 2, which can then be generation, and is recycled to begin a sequestered in the earth. new cycle of reduction and oxidation. For more information, please contact however, using solid fuels in CLC is Dr John Dennis ([email protected]) at Clean coal technology difficult because the particles of fuel and the Department of Chemical Coal power stations usually burn highly oxygen carrier cannot be easily separated. Engineering and Biotechnology, and pulverised fuel, turning the hydrocarbons Drs Dennis and scott are developing a Dr Stuart Scott ( [email protected] ) to Co 2 and water (as steam, which drives technique that overcomes this by at the Department of Engineering.

14 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 enerGy & enVironment p r o

f The future e s s

o Gan LeDs have hit the market rapidly r

C

o and are already widely used in L i n

flashlights and front bicycle lights, as h U m backlighting for mobile phones and p h r

e interior lighting in cars and y s aeroplanes, and even to light up landmarks such as the façade of buckingham palace and the length of the severn bridge. Looking ahead, the timescale for the widespread adoption of Gan LeDs in homes and offices is probably as short as 5–10 years. other applications also look promising. research at the Centre is investigating the possibility of using Gan LeDs to mimic sunlight, which Packaged green LEDs grown could have important benefits for by the Cambridge Centre for sufferers of seasonal affective disorder Gallium Nitride (sAD). And other studies are investigating how UV LeDs, created by adding aluminium to Gan, could be used for killing bacteria and stopping viruses from reproducing, either to Lighting for the 21st century purify water in the developing world A remarkable light-emitting material, gallium nitride, could or to ‘sweep’ hospital wards to eradicate superbugs. slash electricity consumption, purify water and kill superbugs.

A revolution in lighting is under way. 100,000 hours. in practical terms, this thanks to advances in the technology, means it only needs replacing after 60 years efficiency and cost of light-emitting diodes of typical household use. (LeDs), these devices are ready to take over in the UK, lighting consumes over a in the very near future from conventional fifth of all the electricity generated at forms of incandescent lighting. the power stations, and Gan LeDs have the potential energy savings are huge: statistics potential to reduce this figure by at least from the Us Department of energy 50% and possibly by 75%. estimate that, by 2025, solid-state lighting the holy Grail for Gan is home and such as LeDs could reduce the global office lighting. research directed at amount of electricity used for lighting by reducing manufacturing costs and 50% and, in the Us alone, could eliminate improving the quality of light is bringing Professor 258 million metric tons of carbon emission, this goal closer. alleviate the need for 133 new power Colin Humphreys stations, and result in cumulative financial Materials and devices savings of over a hundred billion dollars. At research at the Cambridge Centre for the forefront of research underpinning this Gallium nitride, directed by professor Colin new lighting paradigm is a focus on the humphreys, the Director of research in the semiconductor gallium nitride (Gan) at the Department of materials science and Cambridge Centre for Gallium nitride in the metallurgy, stretches from fundamental For more information, please Department of materials science and materials studies through to applications contact the author Professor metallurgy. and devices. Colin Humphreys (colin.humphreys@ the Centre has world-class Gan growth msm.cam.ac.uk) at the Cambridge Why use GaN for LEDs? and characterisation facilities and has Centre for Gallium Nitride LeDs based on Gan, which emits brilliant recently developed an innovative (www.msm.cam.ac.uk/GaN/). The light when electricity is passed through it, technique for growing Gan on large silicon Centre’s research is funded by the are extremely energy efficient and long wafers, instead of the more expensive Engineering and Physical Sciences lasting. traditional incandescent light bulbs sapphire wafers; this could deliver a tenfold Research Council (EPSRC), the are only 5% efficient at converting the reduction in LeD manufacturing costs. the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), electricity they consume into light, and, Centre is also working on improving the Aixtron Ltd, Sharp Electronics although low-energy light bulbs are 20% quality of light by coating blue LeDs with Europe, QinetiQ, Forge Europa, efficient, they contain hazardous mercury. phosphors to produce white light. this will Philips, Imago Scientific Instruments Compare this with white Gan LeDs, which be improved still further through the use of and RFMD (UK) Ltd, and is are already 30% efficient and have a target novel phosphors produced by professor performed in collaboration with the efficiency of 60%. Gan LeDs are also tony Cheetham in the Department of University of Manchester and incredibly long lasting: an LeD can burn for materials science and metallurgy. Sheffield Hallam University.

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 15 enerGy & enVironment p © r i s o t f o e C s s K o p h r

o A t L o i s . o C o n m

s / m J o i t z h e

p o J b i C Bioenergy research blooms in Cambridge The Bioenergy Initiative is bringing biology and engineering together to address the challenge of meeting our future energy needs.

plants are the most important natural interdisciplinary collaborations are of six research hubs and industry. As part resource on the planet. not only do they tackling the technical and environmental of this, Dr paul Dupree in the Department provide all the food we eat, either directly obstacles that must be addressed to of biochemistry leads the bsbeC Cell Wall or indirectly as animal feed, but they are make next-generation biofuels sugars programme in Cambridge. the also an important source of building commercially viable. the research is programme aims to improve the energy materials and biopolymers, such as focusing on two main areas: developing conversion process by understanding rubber, as well as many important fuels based on non-food crops and the how sugars are locked into the plant pharmaceutical products. parts of food crops that are normally biomass. now plants are increasingly being discarded as waste, and developing ways Up to 10 million tonnes of wheat exploited as a source of renewable of harvesting energy from algae. straw could be available in the UK each energy. plants harness solar radiation by year for energy production. if converted photosynthesis; because this fixes Plants for bioenergy to ethanol, this could generate a few atmospheric Co 2 to produce biomass, plant material such as wood and straw percent of UK transport fuel using plants as a source of energy is has the potential to be part of the low requirements. increases beyond this are potentially carbon neutral. in addition, carbon solution to replace our fossil-fuel- possible if crops such as willow or compared with other sources of based liquid transport fuels, provided an Miscanthus grass are grown on land that renewable energy, biofuels also offer the environmentally, socially and is unsuitable for food crops. Cambridge major advantage of providing a source of economically sustainable production bsbeC researchers are contributing to liquid fuel, which is required for transport. method is found. plants store most of the studies on the farming of these crops at but biofuels have also come under carbon they take from the atmosphere in rothamsted research, hertfordshire, to criticism. so-called first-generation their cell walls as polysaccharides. instead improve yields and to understand how to biofuels are produced by fermentation of of burning plants to release energy, the optimise sustainability of the crops in starch from crops such as maize to yield plant biomass could be more usefully terms of energy input and biodiversity. ethanol, or are derived from plant oils converted to liquid fuels such as ethanol by analysing how sugars are locked yielding biodiesel. Although the amounts by chemically releasing these sugars, and into plant cell walls, research in the produced are small (approximately 3% of then using microbes to ferment them to Dupree group aims to identify the best european transport fuel energy fuels. this requires that as much as plants and the right enzymes to release consumption comes from first-generation possible of the cell wall polysaccharides the maximum amount of sugars for biofuels), the use of food crops as a are used, with minimal expenditure of conversion to biofuels. the research team source of raw materials at a time when energy and minimal use of expensive is building links with industry and other populations are increasing in size has led chemical and enzymatic treatment to research centres to ensure their findings to a ‘food versus fuel’ debate. extract them. much research is needed to will increase the sustainable use of plants sources of alternative biofuel make this an industrial reality. for fuels and other renewable products. feedstock that don’t compete with food early in 2009, the UK biotechnology production are needed. Within the past and biological sciences research Council Pond slime to the rescue two years, scientists from several (bbsrC) announced a £27 million the other major strand of research being Cambridge departments have come investment in research in this area. the undertaken in the initiative has focused together to form the bioenergy initiative new virtual BBSRC Sustainable on algae. these simple aquatic plants are to explore the potential of next- Bioenergy Centre (bsbeC, responsible for an estimated 50% of generation biofuels. these www.bsbec.bbsrc.ac.uk/) is a partnership global carbon fixation and offer

16 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 enerGy & enVironment © © p r i i s s o t t f o o e C C s K K s p p o h h r o o

A t t L o o i s . . C C o o o n m m

s / m f e i t L h i p

e

b e L L o

Sources of next- generation biofuel

considerable advantages compared with algal kingdom is incredibly diverse. essential. Given the size of the challenge biofuels from land crops. many species however, our knowledge of algal biology to provide energy security in a are able to produce high levels of in general is poor, and we know even less sustainable way, it is important to explore hydrocarbons, and they can also divert about how these organisms would the entire spectrum of possible energy photosynthetic energy into another behave in the large-scale dense cultures sources. biofuels from plants and algae ready-to-use fuel, hydrogen. Algal that would be needed for biofuel have the potential to offer both a productivity can be much higher than feedstock production. sustainable and carbon-neutral supply, that of land plants per unit area, because the research focus of the AbC is to but many hurdles need to be overcome of their fast growth rates, and they can be study a few species in depth, taking before this potential is realised. With the grown on marginal land, or even offshore, advantage of molecular tools that are critical mass of bioenergy researchers where they don’t compete with food being developed for some model species. now working in Cambridge, the crops. through studying ways in which algae bioenergy initiative has the opportunity however, there is little or no make fuel molecules and how the algal to play a major role in tackling these infrastructure for the cultivation and cell wall is built, the researchers aim to issues. harvesting of microalgae on a large scale, discover ways to increase the extraction apart from commercial operations of fuel molecules with maximum yields. employed for the production of high- together with Dr Adrian fisher in the value products such as the food Department of Chemical engineering and supplement astaxanthin, which is used in biotechnology, the AbC is also the fish industry. moreover, for fuel investigating ways of harvesting production, cost margins are critical, and hydrogen as an energy source in a most importantly the energy that is biophotovoltaic device. the method is obtained from the fuel extracted must be based on ‘stealing’ electrons from the greater than that used in the process. to photosynthetic process. Although address some of the many difficulties that currents so far are low, with funding from will be encountered in attempts to the engineering and physical sciences commercialise biofuel production from research Council (epsrC) and the algae, the Algal Bioenergy Consortium formation of a University spin-out, (AbC, www.bioenergy.cam.ac.uk/abc.html) h+ energy, the combination of biological Professor Alison Smith was founded in 2007 by professor Alison and engineering approaches is helping and Dr Paul Dupree smith (Department of plant sciences), to optimise the prototypes. together with professor Chris howe (biochemistry), Dr John Dennis (Chemical Part of the energy spectrum engineering and biotechnology) and At the present time, an estimated For more information, please contact Dr stuart scott (engineering). 1 million years’ worth of fossil fuel the authors Professor Alison Smith A major issue is which algal species to deposition is consumed each year. As ([email protected]) at the Department grow. Although most people are familiar fossil fuels become scarcer and more of Plant Sciences and Dr Paul Dupree with the two broad categories of algae – expensive to extract, and carbon ([email protected]) at the seaweed on the beach or the scum that emissions increase as a result of their use, Department of Biochemistry, or visit grows on ponds or on the patio – the renewable sources of energy will be www.bioenergy.cam.ac.uk/

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 17 enerGy & enVironment i s t o C K p h o t o . C o m / r i C A r D o

A z o U r Material y efficiency A consortium led by Dr Julian Allwood aims to drive a step-change in the

manufacturing of steel and aluminium One way to save energy in steel manufacturing is to reduce the number of heating and cooling to meet 2050 carbon targets. stages required

it is widely agreed that a cut of at least Dr Allwood. ‘these will be explored with a Creating change in industry 60% in global greenhouse gas emissions consortium of 20 major global companies the research will be split between two will be required by 2050 to limit the spanning the metals supply chain, to themes: a business analysis theme will adverse effects of climate change. identify the barriers to achieving them identify future scenarios, barriers and a emissions from industry are dominated and to find technical, economic and roadmap for meeting the target. this by those arising through the manufacture policy measures required to overcome work will include specific analysis of of five key materials: cement, steel, plastic, these barriers.’ in total, the companies future metal flows, application of a global paper and aluminum. steel and have committed £2 million of in-kind economic model and the analysis of aluminium are responsible for 8% of funding. policy measures. A technology innovation global energy-related emissions, and theme aims to optimise the requirements demand for these metals is forecast to Collaborating with companies for metal use through novel double by 2050. industry efforts to date Analysing examples of material manufacturing process design, to have focused on reducing energy in efficiency strategies will form an increase material and energy efficiency in primary production, as well as recycling important component of the research. forming and finishing, and to develop metal by melting and re-casting. for instance, in india, up to a sixth of the solid-state closed-loop recycling for however, recycling rates are already country’s supply of steel is provided by metals. together, this basic research has around 60–70% and the most optimistic labour-intensive ship breaking, supplying the potential to drive a step-change in projections for energy efficiency material efficiency, by demonstrating that plates of used steel that are re-rolled improvements deliver only 30% reduction a different flow of metal through the rather than melted. Can oil companies per unit output of material. how, then, global economy is technically and such as bp, faced with finding can the 2050 targets be achieved? economically possible, and by inspiring economically and environmentally Dr Julian Allwood, senior Lecturer in and informing those who can influence sound ways of decommissioning the Department of engineering, has been change. awarded a five-year, £1.5 million end-of-life oil rigs, learn valuable lessons engineering and physical sciences from this approach? Can such lessons research Council (epsrC) Leadership also apply to the reuse of steel girders fellowship that aims to help industry from old buildings? the average life of meet this challenge. he proposes that a a commercial building is 30–60 years key element of a low carbon metals before demolition, but the buildings economy will come from applying are rarely ‘broken’, just no longer ‘fit for material efficiency strategies in which purpose’. Can buildings that are future production of new primary metal is constructed on a strong and open reduced, for instance by reusing metals frame be re-configured? research without melting them or by extending with industrial partner Arup will explore their service life. the funding for the the carbon emissions savings that could project, Wellmet2050, supports a team of be achieved through extending seven and is supported by a large building life. Dr Julian Allwood industrial consortium. the research will also include work ‘Working with academic partners in with Corus, novelis and Alcoa to see if For more information, please several countries, future scenarios of designing ways of better thermal contact Dr Julian Allwood metal flows and associated economic management could reduce the number ([email protected]) at the forecasts will be developed to anticipate of heating and cooling stages required in Department of Engineering or visit what must be achieved,’ explained metals production. www.wellmet2050.com/

18 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 enerGy & enVironment

Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies

The future of the global energy network is the driving force for the research programme at Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies.

the future of energy is high on the global account for 24% of world Co 2 emissions. technologies, how to manage human political agenda and presents rich increasing energy efficiency in cities is resources, and the role of noCs in opportunities for innovative, therefore a crucial step in delivering responding to environmental change. interdisciplinary research. Cambridge reductions in energy consumption. CCes is Challenges to noC business models from Centre for energy studies (CCes), exploring the demand side of energy external forces need to be investigated to established in 2007 and based at Judge management in the built environment, understand how noCs will improve their business school, provides a platform for investigating possible interventions for efficiency and performance, develop new energy-related research and addressing the economic, regulatory, cleaner energy production, and ultimately discussion, investigating the future of the technological and behavioural challenges deliver greater shareholder value. (principal global energy system, the barriers to to increasing energy efficiency. investigator: Dr othman Cole, energy security, and the policies and through case studies in the UK and [email protected]). interventions required to overcome them. around the world, in existing and new CCes comprises a multidisciplinary residential and commercial properties, Global Water Initiative : As part of the team of researchers and project CCes is preparing a series of scenario University of Cambridge’s collaboration coordinators, linking researchers in the analyses and research papers for release with the University of California san Diego, fields of management, engineering, during the next three years. the project has supported by the moore foundation, CCes architecture, physics, economics, applied the support of property management firm is contributing to an international research maths and geography to a wider network Grosvenor and participation by research network to investigate the impact of of specialists in government and partners, including other universities, local climate change and climate variability on businesses around the world. With core government, regional development water resources in vulnerable regions. CCes support from bp, exxonmobil, Grosvenor agencies and specialist consultancy firms is convening experts from around the and Deloitte, CCes is developing a diverse with expertise in the future of the built world to examine the connections research framework, bringing in key environment. CCes is also involved in the between changing water supply and specialists and advisors for individual energy efficient Cities initiative (see page climate variability in order to develop projects to give a range of perspectives on 8). (principal investigator: Dr theo integrated approaches to managing challenges to the future of global energy hacking, [email protected]). natural resources, and to support the security. CCes also funds the Arctic expansion of regional research capacity Geopolitics programme based at National oil companies (NOCs) : noCs and adaptation to changing water Cambridge’s scott polar research institute. control approximately 71% of proven availability. Working with professor Lord global reserves and their share of world oil Julian hunt, CCes is conducting field A broad research portfolio production is predicted to rise from 57% in research and analysis, and in september research projects under way at CCes fall 2007 to 62% by 2030. Unlike international 2009 will be hosting an international within three major work programmes – the oil companies, noCs must balance the symposium on the impacts of climate efficiency of energy use, the geopolitics of needs of their consumer base, their change in Africa. energy, and the information management shareholder governments and their citizens and governance of environmental change. as the ultimate beneficiaries of national CCES welcomes opportunities that examples of the broad research portfolio at petroleum wealth. contribute to the wealth of energy CCes include: CCes is identifying and categorising research at the University of Cambridge. the challenges that will influence the For more information, please contact Energy efficiency in the built performance and decisions of noCs over Sally Daultrey ([email protected]), environment : existing buildings are the next decade, such as how to manage Acting Development Manager at responsible for over 40% of the world’s political relationships both domestically Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies total primary energy consumption, and and abroad, how to integrate new (www.futureofenergy.org.uk/).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 19 preVieW D e A n

A n D

C h A p t e r ,

W e s t m i n s t e r

A b b e y

Through his exploration of the science of art, the recipes of medieval artists and the writings of alchemists, art conservation scientist Spike Bucklow sets out to disentangle the alchemy of medieval paint.

The feeding of the five thousand; detail from the Westminster Retable Dragonsblood: the alchemy of paint

Dragonsblood – a red pigment prized for paintings. in 1994, the institute received Cultural contexts, recipes and the best part of two millennia and the thornham parva retable, a 12ft-long alchemists discussed by apothecaries, alchemists altarpiece painted in the 14th century for the suggested treatment strategy was and painters alike – was said to be the a Dominican priory in thetford, norfolk, accepted, in large part, because it was mixed, coagulated blood of dragons and by artists from norwich. it had survived elephants collected from the place where destruction in henry Vlll’s dissolution of based on scientific evidence. As a the beasts fought and died together. the monasteries in the 16th century but conservation scientist, from these Actually, it was a tree resin, and a sample was lost until 1927, when it was analyses i understood the consequence of the pigment can be found today in discovered in a stable loft. by this time, of the artists’ materials in terms of their Queens’ College, in a medicine cabinet the original 1330s paint was almost physical and chemical properties, their assembled in 1702 by Giovanni francesco entirely covered with paint applied in the interaction with the environment and Vigani, the University of Cambridge’s first 1770s, which had to be removed in order their behaviour when undergoing professor of Chemistry. Dragonsblood to conserve the medieval material. conservation treatment. but i began to also features in The Alchemy of Paint, a the institute’s treatment of the wonder about the medieval artists book about the colours used by medieval retable was the focus of considerable themselves: how would they have artists. it is a book that attempts to scrutiny because it is the largest, best- explained the materials and methods understand medieval artists’ materials as preserved and second oldest altarpiece in involved in making an altarpiece? Were they were perceived by the people who the UK. A 22-strong committee of they influenced by their Dominican used them. but it was inspired by a very academics, funding bodies and patrons or indeed by the closeness of practical modern problem. parishioners discussed how to proceed. Cambridge’s intellectual orbit, both well over the course of two years, during known in the 14th century for their Conserving the lost Retable which microscopic paint samples were interest in science? i work as a scientist in the University’s analysed by electron microscopy, gas Looking for clues, i consulted artists’ hamilton Kerr institute, a department of chromatography and mass spectrometry, treatises detailing medieval recipes for the fitzwilliam museum that specialises a consensus gradually came together and pigments and paints, such as the manuals in the conservation and restoration of the conservation work began. written by theophilus presbyter, a

20 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 preVieW

12th-century benedictine monk, and poetic way that the medieval world view theodore turquet de mayerne, physician synthesised ‘the whole organisation of to Charles i and friend of the artist van their theology, science and history into a Dyck. but connecting the physical single, complex, harmonious mental evidence offered by paintings to the model of the universe’. in the medieval artists’ recipes, which often verged on the world, everything had meaning, even the bizarre and magical, was not always pigments they painted with. Guidance straightforward. the legendary origin of from the ‘discarded image’ helped me to dragonsblood is a case in point. Why consider artists’ materials and methods in would artists say that this derived from ways that modern science could not. dragons and elephants fighting to the The Alchemy of Paint was a response to death when they knew dragonsblood a very practical situation: the desire for a was really a tree resin? other medieval broader and deeper view of the thornham recipes were just as evocative: a stone parva retable, as well as the Westminster from the doorstep of paradise and a metal retable, treated between 1998 and 2005 at won by one-eyed horsemen from the institute, and the macclesfield psalter ferocious griffins near the north pole. the acquired by the fitzwilliam museum in recipe books certainly didn’t make sense 2005. i was lucky enough to be by the bus- according to the science that i knew. i stop, as it were, when three medieval needed to brush up on the science with masterpieces came along together. it was which the artists were familiar: alchemy. an enormous privilege to get to know them and they all informed the thinking Cloak-and-dagger behind The Alchemy of Paint . And i certainly hope that the book will have a practical the medieval palette owed much to what effect – to encourage students and some have described as ‘cloak-and- researchers to engage more profoundly dagger science’, conducted by artists with the products of other cultures. employing secret recipes to create the And the thornham parva retable? it luxurious colours we are familiar with finally returned home in 2003, its today. this was the era of alchemy, best treatment hailed as a great success by known for the quest of alchemists to turn parishioners, funding bodies and the base metals into gold and to find the academic community alike. it even won elixir of eternal life, when scientists like an award. the Dominican Albertus magnus wrote on the subject. researching their writings provided me with the necessary technical background to begin the challenge of connecting the physical evidence offered by the scientific analysis of paintings and the recipes in artists’ treatises. The Alchemy of Paint is the fruit of that challenge. Colours, it seems, were read differently in the mindset of medieval europe. not only in how people responded to them – ‘scarlet’ today describes a colour, but it was originally a type of cloth – but also in how artists considered their materials. their ideas, fed by the philosophers and scientists of the time, would probably not be too out of place in the University’s 1209 syllabus 800 years ago. today, an awareness of their ideas helps ensure that Dr Spike Bucklow conservation of art is undertaken with cultural sensitivity and also immeasurably enhances our appreciation of their art.

Walking the dog Attempting to join up artists’ theory and practice has been a lot of fun. Walking my dog around Cambridgeshire, across fields The Alchemy of Paint: Art, Science and Secrets and over the nearest things to hills that from the Middle Ages by Dr Spike Bucklow is published by Marion Boyars Publishers the region has to offer, i saw the sun set and the stars come out, the seasons For more information, please contact come and go, and the colours change. i the author Dr Spike Bucklow at attempted to familiarise myself with what the Hamilton Kerr Institute Cs Lewis called The Discarded Image , the (www-hki.fitzwilliam.cam.ac.uk/).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 21 KnoWLeDGe trAnsfer

‘the inspiration to use the spanish design came from my Zero-carbon houses research into contemporary applications of historic construction A consultancy project with grand designs is methods,’ explained ramage. the vaulting gives the house informing the structure of energy-efficient structural strength and obviates the need for embodied energy- homes of the future. intensive materials such as reinforced concrete. it also provides it with great thermal mass, enabling the building to retain heat and m i C

h absorb fluctuations in temperature, reducing the need for central A e

L heating or cooling systems.

r A m the roof, which is overlaid with gravel and soil, holds solar A G e panels that generate 3,600 kwh of energy a year. rather than buying electricity, the excess is sold to the national Grid. the heat from the solar panels is captured in a unique storage system in which a specially developed salt solution changes from solid to liquid in order to conserve heat. ramage and Dr Allan mcrobie (Department of engineering) are monitoring the performance of the energy system to develop better ways to reduce demand. the Consultancy services of Cambridge enterprise Limited set up and managed the contracts with michael ramage and with scott Wilson Limited, acting as an intermediary party. this arrangement provides the academic with reduced personal risk Tile vaulting gives the house strength and thermal mass and the ability to use the University’s name and facilities, which they are unable to do if acting in a personal capacity. Cambridge over 600 years ago spanish builders knew how to design a house enterprise enters into over 100 contracts annually with public and that would retain the natural heat of the winter sun and be cool private sector organisations worldwide who wish to use the in the summer. the techniques they built with, called tile vaulting, are being revived by michael ramage of the University’s services of University of Cambridge academics. Department of Architecture in a state-of the-art building that could be a prototype for cheaper energy-efficient homes. For more information about this research, please contact the house, which was featured on Channel 4 television’s Michael Ramage ([email protected]). For more Grand Designs , was designed by architect richard hawkes, with information about Cambridge Enterprise Consultancy consultation on structural design by michael ramage and philip Services, please contact Dr Paul Seabright, Head of Cooper, who is a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Consultancy Services ([email protected]; Architecture and the technical Director of scott Wilson engineers. www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/). Increasing value generation from product-related services Cambridge will lead a consortium of universities awarded £2.2 million as part of an initiative to take an integrated approach to knowledge transfer. b A

the engineering and physical sciences research Council (epsrC) e

s y s

last year launched a multimillion pound scheme to help t e m

universities ensure that their academics’ discoveries are turned s into tangible economic and societal benefits for the UK. As part of this initiative, a collaboration of the Universities of Cambridge, bath, Cranfield, exeter and nottingham has been awarded £2.2 million through a Collaborative Knowledge transfer Award (KtA) to commence on 1 october 2009 and last for three years. the partner universities are all members of the support service solutions: strategy and transition (s4t) consortium, a research programme led by Cambridge’s institute for manufacturing and jointly funded by epsrC and bAe systems. the programme is developing and applying service science to increase value generation in sectors where products and services are combined, such as aerospace, power generation, pharmaceuticals and chemical engineering. the KtA will help to ensure that epsrC-funded research in Cambridge and the other partner universities is fully exploited, the value created remains within the UK.’ Dr Chris pearson, s4t helping to create an environment in which knowledge transfer is programme Coordinator, added: ‘this funding will allow us to valued and encouraged just as much as is the generation of develop ways in which new knowledge is turned into practical original results. tools and innovative techniques that will provide long-term professor Duncan mcfarlane, s4t principal investigator, benefits.’ explained: ‘the KtA aims to bridge the knowledge transfer gap between research into complex engineering services and its For more information, please contact Dr Chris Pearson practical application. this will ensure that a greater proportion of ([email protected]) at the Institute for Manufacturing.

22 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 KnoWLeDGe trAnsfer

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks for academic research A pioneering commercial and R&D relationship between the Department of Chemistry and a leading provider of scientific software solutions brings research E-notebooks to Cambridge. i D b the ways in which we store and access data are constantly s improving, and one of the latest technologies to reach the academic environment is the electronic Laboratory notebook (eLn). Already well known in the pharmaceutical industry, eLns hold great promise as tools to enhance research excellence by improving the capture, storage, searchability and sharing of experimental data. eLns for academic research are moving a step closer thanks to a new relationship between the Department of Chemistry and iDbs, a leading supplier of research data management to international r&D organisations. iDbs has been chosen to supply the Department with its award-winning laboratory notebook (e-Workbook) and will also enter a collaborative r&D initiative in research informatics. through the implementation of e-Workbook, which is Electronic Laboratory Notebooks will provide an environment that helps chemists optimise workflow and manage data already in use within commercial life sciences, engineering, manufacturing, energy and food technology organisations, iDbs Department. Working with some of the most advanced minds in will gain valuable knowledge as to how its existing functionality the development of new chemical informatics technologies will can be expanded to benefit the broad spectrum of academic allow innovative products to be brought to the market,’ said neil chemical research carried out within the Department. And the Kipling, founder and Ceo of iDbs. Department in turn will use the system as a collaborative professor robert Glen, from the Department of Chemistry, platform for many of its ongoing national and international added: ‘We see this as an exciting opportunity to capture, academic research programmes. analyse and investigate our data at a deeper level, enabling easy the collaborative aspect of this relationship provides both access and interrogation of results, and making research much organisations with significant cheminformatics assets and more effective and faster. there is a great opportunity to opportunities for future technology development. research how we can expand functionality to all of chemistry – ‘Working as both a supplier and research collaborator with a big task but something that is a very worthwhile goal.’ the Department of Chemistry is an exciting prospect for iDbs. We are confident that our existing capabilities will support the For more information, please contact Professor Robert Glen diverse research and data-sharing requirements of the ([email protected]) or visit www.idbs.com/

Polymer interconnects The Department of Engineering and Dow Corning are working together to develop low-cost optical interconnects for high-speed data communications. over the past five years, the photonics systems Group in the Corning explained: ‘systems proof of the materials and process engineering Department has collaborated with Dow Corning required a team of exceptional skill and knowledge of the through their participation in the Centre for Advanced contemporary state of communication technology and we photonics and electronics (CApe) and the Cambridge identified that in professor ian White’s and professor richard integrated Knowledge Centre (CiKC). Led by professor ian penty’s activities in CApe.’ White and professor richard penty, the project’s goal has As well as contributing materials expertise, Dow Corning been to achieve highly manufacturable but very high-speed transferred the technology for waveguide processing (>10 gigabits per second) communication systems, such as to the University to allow independent demonstration of required between high-end computers. device fabrication. the photonics systems Group has in turn to accomplish this, the efficiency of high-speed data provided waveguide and device designs, mask layout, and interconnects on electronic circuit boards must be increased device and systems test. without also increasing manufacturing costs. the material Commenting on the success of the relationship, professor chosen to realise this goal is siloxane, which is capable of penty said: ‘Working with the materials expertise from Dow withstanding high operating and process temperatures, and Corning has allowed us to develop state-of-the-art polymer yet components can be manufactured under conditions components and systems in a way we wouldn’t have been similar to those used to manufacture standard printed circuit able to do on our own.’ A computer backplane to interconnect boards. multiple computer blade servers has now been built with a siloxane materials have been developed by Dow Corning, total data capacity in the terabit range and a signal loss that is a global leader in silicon-based technology and innovation. a world-record low. the company wished to see their materials come closer to the marketplace through the realisation of high-performance For further information, please contact Professor technology demonstrators, as Dr terry Clapp from Dow Richard Penty ([email protected]).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 23 feAtUres

The Cambridge BioResource: facilitating the study of health and disease

The Cambridge BioResource provides a new approach to understanding why some of us suffer from certain common diseases, while others don’t. not everyone reacts in the same way of identifying gene functions and their through collaboration with the national to the challenges of a modern lifestyle. altered effects due to common gene health service blood and transplant the incidence of common conditions variants is to study healthy individuals from Centre, Cambridge bioresource now has such as heart disease and obesity, and the general population. over 9,000 members on its volunteer panel. immune-mediated diseases such as the Cambridge bioresource, located selection for phase 2 studies is based on allergy, asthma, inflammatory bowel on the Cambridge biomedical Campus, has the volunteer’s genotype, determined from disease and type 1 diabetes, is on the been designed specifically for this purpose. DnA isolated from their blood or saliva increase. some 20 million people in the set up in 2004 as a joint collaboration sample taken as part of their recruitment. UK are said to be living with some form between the University of Cambridge and each phase 2 study has its own specific of chronic disease, which presents a the medical research Council (mrC) selection criteria that are used by the significant cost burden to t he UK’s epidemiology Unit, Cambridge Cambridge bioresource team to screen economy and healthcare system , and bioresource has taken an innovative and the bank and approach those volunteers has a major impact on quality of life. highly efficient approach to facilitating who match. Volunteers are free to decide recent advances have elucidated disease-specific studies that are based on whether or not they wish to take part in how genes and their natural variants studying normal characteristics of healthy the ensuing study and are approached a influence susceptibility to common individuals. maximum of four times each year. diseases. but our understanding of the in this way, the resource provides links between disease susceptibility, One-stop shop something of a ‘one-stop shop’ for any genetic make-up (genotype), how the Cambridge bioresource has study that requires the analysis of a cohort genes affect the characteristics of established a resource of volunteers (phase of individuals selected from a large cross- individuals (phenotype), and what the 1) from the Cambridge area who are section of the general population: a impact is of environmental effects such willing to be approached and invited to researcher studying a specific disease is as our lifestyle choices, has lagged participate in a wide variety of local essentially provided with a bespoke bank behind. one solution to the challenge medical research studies (phase 2 studies). of samples that correspond to precisely the

24 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 feAtUres C A m subset of the population they need to b BioResourcing the study of diabetes r i D study. this allows much more powerful G e n and cost-effective analyses of e W s genotype–phenotype associations by p A p e

r normalising as many features of the s

L t analysis as possible. it also does away with D the need for each research study to conduct its own costly and time- consuming recruitment of volunteers.

Facilitating research the Cambridge bioresource has grown into an invaluable facility that is being utilised by several research groups: • professors John todd, David Clayton

and Linda Wicker at the Cambridge Professor John Todd institute for medical research are using blood samples to determine the type 1 diabetes is one of the most common and serious diseases of children, functions of the genes that cause type requiring constant blood glucose monitoring and life-long insulin injections, 1 diabetes (see panel). and its incidence is increasing. in europe, new cases of diabetes in children • Dr David savage, Dr sadaf farooqi, under five are expected to double by 2020. professor steve o’rahilly, professor nick over the past 10 years, professors John todd, David Clayton and Linda Wicker in the Juvenile Diabetes research foundation/Wellcome trust Diabetes and Wareham and Dr francis finucane at inflammation Laboratory (DiL) have been hunting for genes in the human the institute of metabolic science are genome that are responsible for the strong inheritance of type 1 diabetes in aiming to improve our understanding families. they have discovered over 40 regions of the genome that in various of how genetic variants alter body- combinations give rise to genetic susceptibility or resistance to the disease. weight regulation and diabetes risk. Diabetes is caused by an adverse reaction of the immune system to the • Dr Willem ouwehand at the pancreatic beta cells that make insulin. Genes known as hLA, which normally Department of haematology is recognise infections and initiate immune responses against them, aberrantly analysing the genes and mechanisms recognise insulin and instigate the destruction of the cells that produce it. these involved in cardiovascular disease. anti-self responses are normally held in check by the immune system in a process known as tolerance but, in people at risk of type 1 diabetes, this • Dr Andy Calder at the mrC Cognition regulation is not as strong. and brain sciences Unit (CbsU) is using DiL researchers are using the Cambridge bioresource to understand how functional magnetic resonance imaging the diabetes genes work in establishing tolerance. the activity of a cell type (fmri) to determine what genetic (t cell) that carries out the destruction of beta cells is modulated by binding to a factors affect the neural coding of soluble molecule called interleukin-2 (iL-2). Using the Cambridge bioresource, emotional signals in the brain. phD student Calli Dendrou and Dr Vincent plagnol in the DiL have discovered that some individuals have variants of the iL-2 receptor gene that alter the • Dr Adrian owen at the mrC CbsU is expression of iL-2 receptors on t cells. because this modulates the ability of using fmri to understand conditions t cells to respond to iL-2, it presumably also determines whether healthy or such as parkinson’s disease and dangerous immune responses take place, and therefore may be an inherited obsessive–compulsive disorder. phenotype of the development of type 1 diabetes. importantly, because the volunteers selected through the Cambridge bioresource were selected on the Towards 10K and beyond basis of their genotype (i.e. variants of the iL-2 receptor gene) rather than their funding until march 2012 has recently phenotype (having or not having diabetes), the researchers know the immune been secured from the national institute characteristics being uncovered are not caused by type 1 diabetes but occur for health research (nihr) through naturally in the general population. collaboration with the Cambridge the ongoing research project will continue to use the Cambridge biomedical research Centre. this will help bioresource to investigate the iL-2 pathway, as well as other pathways increase the panel to over 10,000, as well suggested by new genes that the researchers have mapped across the genome. as assist in the recall of volunteers to the long-term goal is to identify disease precursor phenotypes that occur in further phase 2 scientific research studies. children before the harmful autoimmune response gathers pace, and to Applications from researchers who would determine whether these precursors are altered by environmental factors that like to use the Cambridge bioresource are occur early in life. Knowledge of these genotype–phenotype–environment open to ethically approved research interactions will help in the design and undertaking of future clinical trials to studies across Cambridge. prevent the autoimmune response occurring in the first place, by bolstering the natural regulatory mechanisms of the immune system that in most of us are For further information, please highly successful at preventing autoimmune disease such as type 1 diabetes. contact the Study Coordinator (Tel: +44 (0)1223 763223; Email: For more information, please contact Professor John Todd [email protected]) or visit ([email protected]) at the Cambridge Institute for Medical www.cambridgebioresource.org.uk/ Research (www.cimr.cam.ac.uk/).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 25 feAtUres t A y L How did an Egyptian o r - s C storeroom come to h e C h hold a thousand years’ t e r

G e

worth of manuscript n i z A fragments and why h

r e s e

are they one of the A r C h greatest literary U n i t ,

treasures ever found? C A m b r i D G e

U n i V e r

Treasures s i t y

L i b r A r of the y genizah The genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue the single largest and most important Collection was presented to Cambridge 30,000 images will be available online by collection of medieval Jewish University Library in 1898. the autumn of 2009 thanks to a previous manuscripts in the world, and one of Great discoveries followed: the first AhrC grant. this is just a beginning, the greatest literary treasures of glimpse of an unknown text that would, however, as the Us-based friedberg Cambridge University Library, was following its unearthing among the Dead Genizah project, together with its sister recovered from the dusty storeroom, sea scrolls, become known as the charity in Canada, the Jewish manuscripts known as a genizah, of an ancient Damascus Document; and dozens of preservation society, has made a egyptian synagogue. the fragments, manuscripts written in the hand of some of substantial grant to the Library to digitise now known as the taylor-schechter medieval Judaism’s greatest figures. but the the remainder of the entire Collection – a Genizah Collection, are a treasure-trove unique aspect of this archive is that it staggering 310,000 digital images. the of priceless Jewish manuscripts, preserves the spectacular alongside the high-quality images will be produced over containing examples of practically commonplace: butcher’s bills, marriage the next three years by the Library’s every kind of written text produced by contracts, private letters and ioUs nestle imaging services Department. they will be the Jewish communities of Cairo, against invaluable manuscript leaves of the made available online by both friedberg Jerusalem, Damascus and elsewhere Jerusalem talmud, rare or unique biblical and Cambridge, the latter through the over a period of more than 1000 years. commentaries and thousands of previously University’s digital repository unknown poems by the leading hebrew Dspace@Cambridge, which will safely store Bibles and bills poets of spain and palestine. the an estimated 25 terabytes of manuscript images as a 21st-century genizah of its the Collection was discovered by fragments continue to provide a rich own. solomon schechter, reader in talmudic research resource today (see opposite and rabbinic Literature at Cambridge, page). in 1896, in a synagogue in fustat, old Cairo. schechter was taken to see the A 21st-century genizah genizah of the 1000-year-old ben ezra this spectacular archive has been the synagogue, into which worn-out subject of intensive work in Cambridge Jewish books, documents and other University Library for the past 30 years, writings had continually been placed since the creation of the Genizah research since the middle Ages in fulfilment of a Unit in 1974. reliant upon charitable and rabbinic prohibition against the research grant funding, the Unit has destruction of sacred texts. realising succeeded in completing the conservation the immense scholarly potential of of 193,000 fragments, and continues with these manuscripts, schechter obtained an extensive programme of cataloguing, Dr Ben Outhwaite the approval of the synagogue research and public education. now, For more information, please contact authorities to bring them back to thanks to an Arts and humanities research the author Dr Ben Outhwaite Cambridge, where they could be Council (AhrC) grant, three research ([email protected]), Head of the carefully conserved and studied. With Associates have begun work describing Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research financial backing from the master of and digitising 14,000 items from the ‘old Unit in Cambridge University Library st John’s College, Charles taylor, he series’ of the Collection, containing some (www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor- packed two-thirds of the contents of of the rarest pieces. Schechter/). A longer article has the genizah into tea-chests and the Unit has been digitising been published online at shipped them to england. the manuscripts for over 10 years, and some www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk/

26 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 feAtUres t A y L o r - s C

The Greek h e C h t e r

G e n i Bible of the z A h

r e s e A r C

Byzantine h

U n i t ,

C A m b r

Jews i D G e

U n

Researchers at the Faculty of i V e r s i

Divinity are using ancient t y

L i b

manuscript fragments to r A r re-evaluate a forgotten y episode of biblical history.

Geniza palimpsest: Hebrew (shown upside down) written over the top of a 6th-century copy of Akylas’ Greek translation (c. 125 CE) of the Books of Kings (shown the right way up); T-S 12.184r one of the greatest and most lasting is also providing the latest instalment of a searchable corpus permits comparison of achievements of Jewish civilisation in the quintessentially Cambridge story. each word with the hebrew text, the Graeco-roman period was the translation septuagint, and the fragments of Akylas’ of the hebrew scriptures into Greek Rediscovering Jewish tradition and other Jewish translations from between the 3rd and 1st centuries bCe. it in the 1890s, the University of Cambridge antiquity. was an unprecedented project: not only was the world centre of septuagint was it the first translation on such a scale, scholarship. Cambridge academic Lifting the shroud of mystery but it also opened up the core teachings solomon schechter had returned from the project will aid understanding of the of the Jewish religion to Jews who did Cairo with the largest and by far the most Jewish tradition of bible translation in not understand the sacred language, as important hoard of hebrew manuscripts Greek-speaking lands throughout the well as to the non-Jewish world. Without ever discovered (see opposite page). one middle Ages: who produced the this translation, it is doubtful whether of the most exciting discoveries to translations, who used them, and for Christianity could have spread as quickly emerge from a first trawl through the what purposes? how widespread was and successfully as it did. the translated fragments was a palimpsest, a manuscript their use at different times? to what books – which came to be known that had been reused for writing another extent was it an oral rather than a written collectively as the septuagint, after the 70 text. the original writing was from a tradition? the project will offer us a rare Jewish scholars said to have translated handsome Greek copy of the Books of glimpse of byzantine Jewish life and them – became a keystone of teaching Kings , not in the septuagint translation culture, the cross-fertilisation between and worship for large numbers of Jews but in a later translation made in the early Jewish and Christian biblical scholars in and Christians for centuries, and still 2nd century Ce by a convert to Judaism the middle Ages, and add to our constitute the old testament for Greek- named Akylas. this was the first evidence understanding of the history of the Greek speaking Christians today. of the continuous transmission of Greek language at that time. the study of the Christian history of bible translations; many others were to these books has long been pursued in follow. european universities. but the Jewish since the 1970s, professor de Lange origin of the translations, although not has been collecting and studying entirely forgotten, has been sidelined, evidence for the use of Greek bible according to a general supposition that translations by Jews in the middle Ages. Jews gave up using the translations along over the past three years, these have with their use of the Greek language. been gathered into an online corpus however, evidence has been (http://gbbj.org/) that, for the first time, unfolding to the contrary, aided by the has made the texts and analysis of them discovery of long-lost manuscript available to other scholars. fragments confirming that Greek bible With funding from the Arts and translations continued to be used in humanities research Council (AhrC), the Professor Nicholas de Lange byzantine Judaism. A project led by corpus is being prepared with the help of nicholas de Lange, professor of hebrew Dr Cameron boyd-taylor and Dr Julia For more information, please contact and Jewish studies in the faculties of Krivoruchko in the faculty, as well as the the author Professor Nicholas de Divinity and Asian and middle eastern highly specialised it expertise of the Lange ([email protected]; studies, is spearheading this re-evaluation Centre for Computing in the humanities http://gbbj.org/) at the Faculty of of a mysterious time in biblical history. it at King’s College London. the fully Divinity.

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 27 feAtUres The Planck satellite: looking back to the dawn of time

The Planck satellite has just reached its orbit, 1.5 million km from Earth, on a mission to understand the origin and evolution of our Universe .

Ariane 5 was launched successfully by The ultimate questions fluctuations in the Cmb (often called ‘Cmb the european space Agency (esA) on the planck satellite has been designed to anisotropies’) with the highest accuracy the 14 may 2009 from french Guiana. answer some of the most important ever achieved. these fluctuations are Aboard the rocket were the planck and questions of modern science – how did thought to have been generated within −35 herschel observatories. Worth a the Universe begin, how did it evolve to 10 seconds of the big bang. At these combined £1.7 billion, these are two of the state we observe today, and how will it early times, the billions of galaxies that we the most expensive scientific satellites evolve in the future? the satellite is see today would fit into a volume about ever built by esA. Within a few hours, equipped with powerful microwave the size of a grapefruit. the satellites had separated, and the detectors chilled to close to absolute zero, Very little is known about the Universe planck satellite (named after the and its objective is to provide a major at times close to the big bang. planck may German nobel Laureate max planck) source of information to test theories of show that our Universe has more than began the journey to its current orbit the early Universe and the origin of cosmic three spatial dimensions, or that it is one of 1.5 million km from earth in the structure. many others, and may even uncover what opposite direction to the sun. for the Cosmologists have a much clearer happened before the big bang. next two years, the satellite will complete a full scan of the whole sky picture of the Universe than they did 15 every six months. years ago. According to current Probing the data researchers at the Cambridge understanding, the Universe is spatially flat, by the end of the two-year mission, planck planck Analysis Centre (CpAC), which is about 13.7 billion years old and is mostly will have extracted a wealth of spread between the institute of composed of mysterious ‘dark energy’ (an cosmological information from the Cmb. Astronomy, the Kavli institute for energy form that is thought to account for one of many vital mission components is Cosmology, the Department of the Universe’s accelerating expansion). the data analysis and simulation software, physics, and the Department of much of this information has come from which is being developed by scientists at a Applied mathematics and theoretical studying the remnants of the radiation that number of european institutions including physics, are working in partnership filled the Universe immediately after the CpAC. Cambridge researchers will be with over 40 institutes as part of the big bang, which we observe today as the actively involved in the scientific pan-european planck collaboration. cosmic microwave background (Cmb). but interpretation of the data sent back from professor George efstathiou, Director of cosmologists believe that only a fraction of planck and will also be responsible for the Kavli institute, has been part of the the information has been extracted so far, providing a catalogue of the many project since its inception in 1993, and limited by the sensitivity of detectors used hundreds of galaxy clusters within the is one of the 10-member international to study it. Universe. planck science team whose task is to this is where planck comes in. by to do this requires substantial monitor and direct the planck satellite’s carrying highly sensitive detectors, planck computing power and the University’s scientific programme. is designed to measure tiny temperature Darwin supercomputer in the

28 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 feAtUres © e s A

Cambridge supercomputing

Darwin, the University of Cambridge’s supercomputer, has the power to process hundreds of terabytes of raw data in a matter of weeks.

Cambridge’s high-performance Computing service (hpCs) is home to a 20-tonne supercomputer called Darwin. Comprising 585 Dell servers and 2,340 processor cores, Darwin is one of the fastest computers in the UK, and a forthcoming upgrade will increase this yet further, taking the processing power from 20 to 30 teraflops. Darwin is a central resource that is open to all research staff within the University. it processes complex simulations for a wide variety of research projects: from simulating crack propagation in materials modelling and analysing air flow over turbine blades, to interrogating raw data sent back by the planck satellite.

Value for money the hpCs is a self-sustaining cost centre, whereby users are charged at point of use of the system and the service costs are covered by a combination of Planck satellite aboard Ariane 5 just before launch industrial sponsorship and academic income from research grants. the service has been running this model for just over two years and is now almost entirely self-sustainable. Dr paul Calleja, Director of the hpCs, high-performance Computing service will explained the significance of this attribute: ‘this is an important achievement be essential for the analysis of the because it underpins the viability of the service for future years even with terabytes of data streamed back to earth hard economic times ahead within the public sector.’ from planck (see panel). the cost model and overall service delivery strategy of the hpCs has been the goals for the planck satellite are successfully constructed with value for money as one of the primary goals. ambitious but the returns could be ‘this is a key reason why many groups and departments within the University spectacular. planck will establish real facts are looking to outsource their high-performance computing and research where once there were unknowns and computing requirements to the hpCs,’ said Dr Calleja. ‘not only does the has the potential to uncover completely facility maximise the resources available to staff but it also reduces the overall unanticipated phenomena that could cost base of departments.’ revolutionise our understanding of physics. free usage of the system is also supported by the hpCs, both to allow new users to develop their skills and to enable pre-existing users a level of continuity if they fall between grant lines. moving forward, the hpCs will always ensure that there is adequate free access to the system within the cost model but will link free access to grant-writing activity to guarantee that the entire user community is helping to underpin the financial stability of the service.

Research productivity the hpCs offers a wide range of general research computing services and support options that map well to the varied workflow processes required by different projects; such flexibility and range of services greatly increase the productivity and output of its users. Professor George Efstathiou facilitating new and world-class computational science for research purposes is the primary mission of the hpCs, as amply demonstrated by the For more information, please wide range of research publications being produced by its user community. contact Professor George for users such as the Cambridge planck Analysis Centre, the kinds of Efstathiou ([email protected]), cosmological breakthroughs anticipated with the planck satellite would be Director of the Kavli Institute for impossible to achieve without this level of supercomputing power. Cosmology (www.kicc.cam.ac.uk/). The Cambridge contribution to the For more information, please contact the HPCS Account Manager, Planck consortium has been Kamila Lembrych ([email protected]) or visit www.hpc.cam.ac.uk/ funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 29 feAtUres

Young people, morality and crime

A study at the Institute of Criminology links moral context to the scene of the crime.

building on the premise that crime and rules differ, as do the moral emotions rules, emotions and self-control, plus morality are two sides of the same coin, a such as shame and guilt that they attach details about home, school and study funded by the economic and social to those rules. Different rules apply to neighbourhood experiences. participants’ research Council (esrC) based at the different circumstances and are enforced decision-making abilities are measured institute of Criminology is set to reveal to different degrees: this represents the annually via neurocognitive tasks. they some fascinating findings from six years moral context. also complete an innovative space –time of research into the links between social to explain why people break rules, we budget, which records where they were environments and young people’s need to clarify how their personal every hour; the setting; their geographical attitudes to crime. morality interacts with the moral context coordinates; who they were with; what of different social environments to they were doing; and their involvement The crime conundrum indicate which types of people will offend in any risky behaviour, such as crime, in today’s highly regulated society, the and in what circumstances. Unlike other victimisation and drug use. these data significance of rules and rule-breaking is action theories, sAt suggests that actions are used to measure how much time participants spend, and how they of great interest. it is a universal truth that can be deliberate, whereby various act, in certain types of social any crime is a breach of the moral code alternatives are considered, or habitual environment. as defined by law, yet there has been when people see only one course of in 2005, the team gathered detailed surprisingly little work to test the action. Although habitual choices are geographically coded data about the influence of morality on deviant rarely studied in criminology, the theory city’s social environments via the behaviour. With nearly half of all crimes suggests that they may contribute peterborough Community survey. by committed by less than a tenth of all significantly to persistent offending. linking this to the space –time budget criminals, it is vital to understand what data, exposure to specific social leads certain individuals to offend and The Peterborough Study environments – such as disadvantaged some to become persistent criminals. the theory is being tested through the areas or those with poor social the key to preventing crime is to peterborough Adolescent and young cohesion and trust – could be measured. identify what motivates individuals to Adult Development study (pADs+), under it is the first criminological study of this break the rules that define right and professor Wikström’s direction. it began in type to use such a detailed measure wrong. this demands a better 2002, when the participants were aged of exposure to different types of understanding of the interplay between 11. randomly selected, they represented social environments beyond the core two key factors: first, how different social one-third of their age group living in the home environment. environments and experiences affect an medium-sized city of peterborough, UK. furthermore, the longitudinal profile individual’s morality; and second, the role following interviews with their parents, of the data will enable the researchers to of exposure to moral contexts that are the participants have been interviewed evaluate the impact of change during conducive to crime. annually since 2004, with two more data adolescence when young people gain waves planned for 2010 and 2012. by mobility and independence, so increasing Situational Action Theory 2012, approximately 700 participants will their exposure to diverse social professor per-olof Wikström, from the have been tracked from ages 11 to 21 – environments. the team can explore how institute of Criminology, has developed a critical 10-year period for personal and personal changes influence criminal situational Action theory (sAt) to explain social development. involvement, for instance, when they start crime as moral action. his theory reference data include information offending, how often they offend and suggests that individuals’ personal moral about personal characteristics, moral whether and when they stop.

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m A C K e n z i e

Early findings back moral to different social environments relate to position changes in offending. this highlights the need to identify critical points in the early findings support sAt predictions. development process that can be personal morality appears to play a key role manipulated to achieve the best in influencing which young people offend, outcomes. further analysis will explore while moral context influences where they how emotions and moral values develop, offend. young people with weaker moral how they are externally influenced and rules report more offences, as do those how to halt the emergence of who spend time unsupervised in places disadvantaged social environments. with unstructured peer-group activities. previous research has highlighted the importance of self-control in offending. the Implications for the future pADs+ findings qualify this, showing that While much criminological research has self-control is only important for young focused on personal traits like self-control, people with weaker moral rules and attention deficits and psychopathy, this emotions who see crime as an option. study demonstrates that crime has a young people who don’t consider strong social dimension. the data show offending don’t need to exhibit self-control; that young people who spend more time their morality alone explains why they don’t in disadvantaged social environments with offend. this strengthens the case for further greater disorder, less social cohesion and research and points to interventions based less trust are more likely to offend. because on moral education in addition to, for it is often quicker and easier to change example, cognitive skills training. social environments than individual traits, Professor As predicted by sAt, the findings reveal the findings reinforce the need for more Per-Olof Wikström an interaction between personal traits and research into the link between social exposure to different social environments. environments and crime. young people with strong moral rules and As one of the first studies to analyse emotions rarely offend, no matter how changes in young people’s moral rules, long they spend in disadvantaged social emotions and behaviours from both a environments. however, the more personal and social perspective, the pADs+ exposure young people with weak moral data will be invaluable in better rules have to disadvantaged social understanding which types of people tend environments, the more they report to commit crimes in certain types of social offending. this has important implications environments. Although these findings for crime prevention, suggesting that support early interventions, such as moral environmental interventions may be most skills training and careful supervision of effective for those with a propensity to social environments, they also suggest that For more information, please contact offend. change can be implemented at any stage Professor Per-Olof Wikström finally, the findings show that changes of life, pointing to new and neglected ([email protected]) at the Institute of in moral values and changes in exposure avenues for research and intervention. Criminology or visit www.pads.ac.uk/

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 31 in foCUs r o b

Energy giant BP looks to its e p engagement with universities like Cambridge to help stay connected to cutting-edge research in science and technology. ‘As head of bp’s research and technology significant,’ portfolio, my job is to ensure that bp has said eyton. the technology it needs to contribute to ‘the University the world’s future energy demands,’ said has a fabulous David eyton, bp Group head of research track record of & technology and executive sponsor for creating important Cambridge. ‘As part of this, we work knowledge and that is one of the reasons closely with a handful of excellent we are investing in Cambridge. As a academic centres like Cambridge to keep business, we have to stay competitive us plugged into the fast-changing world and invest in areas that we believe will of science and technology.’ benefit our shareholders.’ bp’s relationship with the University, which stretches back through the past Recruiting the best century, was recently formalised by the recruitment is very much part of the BP Institute for Multiphase Flow signing of a memorandum of strategic relationship with Cambridge. Understanding (moU). ‘the moU,’ David ‘the people we recruit today could have eyton explained, ‘embraces all of our a profound impact on the company over BP Institute for current interactions with Cambridge at a many decades,’ explained Andy Leonard, strategic level – from research activities, ‘so we need to ensure that the highest Multiphase Flow through policy development and quality students are exposed to the training, to recruitment – as well as laying range of employment opportunities Understanding flow – whether the groundwork for mutual support and within bp.’ Also of importance, partly from it’s of oil, air, lubricants, lava, development so that the relationship a recruiting perspective, is the large seawater or CO – lies at the can fulfil its greatest potential.’ these number of scholarship programmes bp 2 interactions are being overseen by Andy runs for research students, mainly in heart of Cambridge’s BP Institute. Leonard in his role as bp’s Vice-president collaboration with the Cambridge endowed by a £22 million donation from bp, for Cambridge. Commonwealth and overseas trusts. this the bp institute for multiphase flow (bpi) year, bp has made job offers to 20 was created in 2000 with the explicit intent Valuing research graduates and 17 interns in Cambridge, of hosting research teams from five as well as partially funding 49 research bp’s annual spend for 2009 across the departments within the University: Applied scholarships. University is £3.6 million, of which maths and theoretical physics, Chemical approximately £1 million is funding engineering, Chemistry, earth sciences and technical research and the remainder is Recognising opportunities engineering. principally funding endowments and ‘the key to success in strategic today, a multidisciplinary team of almost scholarships. relationships is to create situations where 40 academics and students is working to the company’s main channels of there is genuine mutuality,’ said eyton. understand how gases and fluids move. engagement are the bp institute for ‘We want the relationship with multiphase flow is an area of great interest multiphase flow (see centre panel), Cambridge to acheive its greatest to bp as it underpins all parts of its business: established in 2000 with a £22 million potential and to progress the strategic from enhancing oil recovery to delivering it endowment from bp, and Judge business aims of the University and bp.’ the to customers, and from refining school through the Centre for india and company is also keen to support the hydrocarbons to investing in a low carbon Global business and the Cambridge strengthening of links between future. Centre for energy studies (see page 19). universities such as Cambridge, the for the bpi, engagement with bp bp has also had long and fruitful massachusetts institute of technology enriches research in a very practical sense, collaborations elsewhere in the (mit) and tsinghua University in beijing, as professor Andy Woods, Director, University, especially with the bullard predominantly with regard to finding explained: ‘our close working relationship Laboratories within the Department of new forms of low carbon energy and with bp gives us in-depth exposure to earth sciences (see far-right panel). moving towards a more sustainable technical challenges in the industry as well several areas of applied research energy landscape in the world. as unparalleled access to field data that activities in Cambridge have brought ‘i am a big believer in investing in would be impossible for us to collect. this world-class expertise to bear on practical places like Cambridge that have a proven means that we can frame research issues that have reaped immediate record of success,’ explained eyton. ‘i also directions that are fundamentally interesting benefits for bp, from exploration through think that we have even more to to us as academics and can also solve to fuels and lubricants. but bp also views discover in terms of opportunities for problems that are of relevance to the fundamental research as strategically productive interactions. i’m delighted to industry.’ important: ‘Although fundamental say that we are on this journey.’ Currently, a large pan-institute project is research can take years from invention to analysing the interactions between fluids commercialisation, it also has the For more information about BP, please and solids in oil fields to understand the potential to yield something truly visit www.bp.com/ physical chemistry that controls how much

32 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 in foCUs r o s s

Acoustic image of h A r

landscape buried 2 km t L e beneath the seabed y oil can be recovered as a function of the salinity of the water used to pump it from ‘Elephant hunting’ with less risk the well. other projects vary from analysing Cambridge scientists are helping to improve the chances of success the molecular basis of how lubricants work of oil exploration in some of the Earth’s most hostile frontiers. to understanding how volcanoes erupt, and from addressing questions about the long- increasingly, companies such as bp are areas – known in the industry as ‘elephant exploring for oil in very deep waters along hunting’ – resulted in a string of term storage of Co 2 in redundant oil wells to determining how you can control heat the edges of the continents. Drilling exploration successes in places such as transfer in buildings through natural beneath the seabed through rocks down the Gulf of mexico, Angola, egypt, russia convection. this latter research theme led in to depths of 4 km and in water depths of and Azerbaijan. 2006 to the spin-out company e-stack, which nearly 3 km is both risky and costly. Dr White’s work continues this was set up to commercialise a low energy scientists at the bullard Laboratories in the pioneering geophysical research, ventilation system that uses natural Department of earth sciences are helping generating sophisticated numerical convection to keep the interior temperature to reduce the uncertainty of finding oil in models of sub-surface conditions. of buildings buffered from exterior changes. these hostile environments by developing Working with bp has been key to the professor Woods sees the link between an understanding of the structure and research, as Dr White explained: evolution of the earth’s tectonic plates. ‘A quantitative understanding of thermal basic research and industrial applications as Dr nicky White leads a project funded maturation is only possible with access to key to research at bpi. ‘We determine our by bp that studies the prime focus of terabytes of high-quality seismic data. bp own research programme and our prime deep-sea oil exploration: submerged acquires amazing sub-surface images that interest is in answering fundamental continental margins at the edges of ocean we then interpret and model.’ questions about flow. but we’re also looking basins. it is in these regions that the With billions of dollars at stake, at how this impacts on ‘real world’ thinning of the tectonic plate over many reducing uncertainties in oil exploration applications because this in turn informs a millions of years has generated rock layers will help bp to continue their century-long whole new set of fundamental questions and structures that have favoured oil success in exploration and production, and, if we’re lucky, the development of formation and trapping. over time, bringing new reserves on stream to unforeseen applications.’ organic-rich rocks produce oil, which is compensate for depleting global expelled upwards, where it fills the pore inventories. spaces of a reservoir rock and is trapped in place by overlying impermeable rocks. for oil generation, it is crucial that the organic-rich rocks have been subjected to suitable temperatures for the right amount of time (thermal maturation) and it is here that Dr White’s group is providing invaluable new understanding. the laboratory’s track record of active involvement with bp reaches back to Professor Andy Woods professor Dan mcKenzie, whose fundamental work on plate tectonics in For more information, please contact the 1970s and 1980s helped bp undergo a Dr Nicky White Professor Andy Woods major refocus on exploring sedimentary For more information, please ([email protected]) or visit basins around the world. Within 10 years, contact Dr Nicky White www.bpi.cam.ac.uk/ bp’s search for giant oil fields in frontier ([email protected]).

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 33 insiDe oUt Dr Abigail Brundin Renaissance scholar Dr Abigail Brundin, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Italian, has been awarded an ‘I Tatti’ Fellowship from Harvard University, enabling her to spend time exploring 16th- and 17th-century Florentine archives. She hopes to shed light on a turbulent period in Italy’s literary history, when poets and writers laboured in the face of religious censorship. having been chosen as one of 15 production by the church and, yet, as it is understanding of the way things happen, academics awarded the prestigious now becoming apparent, characterised a subtle and gradual creeping towards ‘i tatti’ fellowship each year, of which by individuals who resisted the pull of a greater insight. I have come across only half are open to non-Us scholars, Dr literary stagnation. ‘if you look at some arresting pieces in the archives, brundin is embarking on a year of study traditional historiographies of the period but I’ve yet in my career to stumble upon in florence at the harvard University known as the Counter-reformation, it that life-changing document, that Center for italian renaissance studies. has been widely written off as a time missing piece of the jigsaw – maybe she will be continuing her where nothing very exciting happened next year! examination of italian literature from a in terms of italian literature,’ she period dominated by censorship of explained. ‘but there is growing evidence What’s the best piece of advice creative expression and literary of patterns of resistance to censorship, you’ve ever been given? including the existence of groups of That you shouldn’t feel that a piece of outspoken and experimental writers.’ work has to be definitive. A thesis or a Dr brundin aims to redress the balance paper is really a snapshot of where your by exploring this under-researched area, thinking has arrived at as a result of your enabling a reappraisal of the effects of research up till that moment. But it’s not censorship on literature of the time. Dr brundin relocates to florence necessarily the final answer – if you go with her partner and three children, back to it in a year’s time, you might aged 5 months, 5 years and 7 years, have other information that causes on what she happily anticipates will you to interpret your findings in a new be an adventure for them all. from an way. I see some doctoral students blocked academic perspective, she is relishing by the inability to let go of something the opportunities afforded by the because they don’t feel that it’s finished, chance for a sustained period of but actually it’s never finished. In archival work, which, as she says, ‘is research, you need to constantly always a voyage of discovery.’ respond to new information as you find it. What would others be surprised to learn about you? If you could wake up tomorrow with a I’m a really atrocious speller. I was never new skill, what would it be? taught to spell properly at my rather I would love to have really good Latin. It hippy primary school and I used to sound would mean that when I come across words out phonetically. Word spellcheck documents that look like they really matter is now my best friend. It’s interesting my heart doesn’t sink at the number of that I’ve ended up working in Italian, hours I’m going to have to put into which is an entirely phonetic language – deciphering them! basically, as long as you know what a word sounds like, you can spell it! What is your favourite research tool? Possibly the internet – it’s wonderful today Who or what inspires you? how much is digitised and online, from In relation to my work, I am inspired by a generous scholars who’ve put their life’s desire to take a fresh look at the ‘grand work online in searchable format, to rare narratives’ of literary history to uncover the and inaccessible manuscripts that are marginal or less obvious voices and perspectives. Thus far, this has meant the available at the touch of a button. But, voices of women, and of Italians who were phenomenally useful as this is, my interested in the Reformation and its ideas. favourite research tool has to be the On a personal note, I always feel inspired by archive. I still cherish the incredible the beautiful landscape of Cornwall, where experience I had travelling to Rome for I’ve been going every year since I was born the first time as a doctoral student, and now take my own children. getting my reader’s pass for the Vatican Archives, and venturing into the unknown. Have you ever had a Eureka moment? Nothing replaces that excitement of Genuinely, I think the answer is no. I don’t enquiry when you’re on the spot, holding know if they really occur in my field of the books and papers in your own hands. work – it’s more about incremental Thrilling!

34 | issue 10 | Autumn 2009 forthCominG eVents

Forthcoming events: Save the dates!

22–23 September 2009 Physics of Living Matter 4 Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge the 4th symposium on the physics of Living matter is part of an initiative at the University of Cambridge to underpin the interface between the physical and biomedical sciences. this year, the symposium will be held in conjunction with the University’s Centre for systems biology and will cover predictive biology, dynamical assemblies of living matter and organisation of biological networks. the keynote speaker is professor Uri Alon of the Weizmann institute. please visit www.gen.cam.ac.uk/plm/ for more information and http://tinyurl.com/nrbcvy/ to register. © i s

t 1 October 2009 o

C horizon K p Horizon Seminar ‘Energy & Environment’ h o t o Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge . C o m there is an imperative need for a shift in society’s approach to climate change / n i C

o and energy if the risk of serious social, environmental or economic harm is to be L A s limited. this horizon seminar will showcase the latest research from the

L o r University of Cambridge, highlighting the need for key infrastructure integration A n as well as the importance of long-term decision making for sustainable growth. please visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/energyandenvironment/ or email [email protected] for more information and to register.

19–23 October 2009 International Open Access Week Cambridge University Library the open Access movement worldwide has been gathering pace as top-tier universities embrace the effort to provide free online access to research literature and data. to support understanding of open Access, the University Library is organising a number of events during the international open Access Week in october, built around Dspace@Cambridge (www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/), the University of Cambridge’s institutional open Access repository. please visit www.lib.cam.ac.uk/create_change/events.html for more information. e L

L 21 October–1 November 2009 A

W o

o Cambridge Festival of Ideas: ‘Centuries of Ideas’ L n

e Celebrating the arts, humanities and social sciences, Cambridge’s festival of r ideas brings together 100 free events in history, literature, languages, drama and art. this year’s festival looks back at ideas that have shaped the world and forward to the challenges for the future. Watch fascinating performances and discover how the study of arts, humanities and social sciences helps us to understand vital issues past, present and future. please visit www.cambridgefestivalofideas.org/ or email [email protected] for more information.

8–21 March 2010 Cambridge Science Festival: ‘Diverse Science’ Join us for the UK’s largest free science festival, exploring subjects from astronomy to zoology, with demonstrations, hands-on experiments, talks from leading scientists, and visits to University and partner facilities. the 2010 science festival’s theme is ‘Diverse science’ , to tie in with the international year of biodiversity. over 180 events will be on offer, with topics designed for families, adults and sixth-formers. the full programme will be available at www.cambridgescience.org/ from January 2010.

issue 10 | Autumn 2009 | 35 the bACK pAGe

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