Research Horizons

Pioneering research from the University of Cambridge

Issue 36

Spotlight Work

Feature Mapping the galaxy

Feature Obesity: the complex truth www.cam.ac.uk/research Issue 36, June 2018 2 Contents

Contents

News Things

4 – 5 Research news 18 – 19 “Natural history museums can save the world”

Features Spotlight: Work

6 – 7 Field notes: crowdfunded to Crusoe 20 – 21 Solving the UK’s productivity puzzle

8 – 9 Turing’s wager and the mathematical mind 22 – 23 The fifty percenters

10 – 11 Muslims leaving prison talk about the layers of their lives 24 – 25 The boss of me

12 – 13 A weighty problem 26 – 27 Legislating labour in the long run

14 – 15 Galaxy quest 28 – 29 For better, for worse: how emotions shape our work life

16 – 17 The ‘brain’ that’s helping reduce carbon emissions 30 – 31 The stresses and strains of work and unemployment

3 Research Horizons

Welcome

32 – 33 How do education and economic growth add up? Work shapes people’s identity and the nation’s prosperity. ‘Good’ work gives citizens security, self-worth and respect, a 34 – 35 Making the numbers count route to social mobility and, for some, the chance to turn ideas into innovations. For a country, this contributes to a healthier 36 – 37 Humans need not apply population, increasing productivity, better living standards and the development of skills that drive economic growth. Good work sounds a simple enough concept to strive towards, but the world of work is continually being buffeted by political, societal This Cambridge Life and economic forces. New technologies, demographics, free markets, gender pay gaps, zero-hours contracts, ‘gig economies’: all of these are shaping and reshaping how we work, while the labour market 38 – 39 The ‘King of Scuttle Flies’ who continues to discover continues to feel the impact of the global financial crisis and faces new species the uncertainties of Brexit. Given these complexities, how can we make the most of our ‘human capital’ for the success of individuals and the country? This question lies at the heart of the Spotlight section of this edition of Research Horizons. Researchers in the University are working with policymakers and businesses to ask questions about productivity, wellbeing and gender parity. They are interrogating vast datasets – in one case, 44 years of labour laws spanning 117 nations, in another the educational achievements of three million schoolchildren per year – to understand, respectively, the balance between having a free economy and safeguarding workers’ rights, and the links between education and the labour market. Researchers are also looking to the future, to ask what impact will this new age of artificial intelligence and robotics have on our jobs. Elsewhere in this varied edition, we learn how research at a newly opened Eating Behaviour Unit will help us to understand the food choices we make. We discover the latest news about the most detailed map of our galaxy ever created. And we meet a PhD student whose fieldwork on seals takes her to the island of Robinson Crusoe and the 80-year-old ‘King of Scuttle Flies’ who continues to discover new species. We hope you enjoy these and other articles this issue.

Professor Chris Abell Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research

Editor Spotlight editors Dr Louise Walsh Fred Lewsey, Dr Louise Walsh

Editorial advisors Professor Catherine Barnard, Dr Brendan Burchell, Professor Simon Deakin

Design The District

T +44 (0)1223 765 443 E [email protected] W cam.ac.uk/research

Copyright ©2018 University of Cambridge and Contributors as identified. The content ofResearch Horizons, with the exception of images and illustrations, is made available for non-commercial re-use in another work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike Licence (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/), subject to acknowledgement of the original author/s, the title of the individual work and the University of Cambridge. This Licence requires any new work with an adaptation of content to be distributed and re-licensed under the same licence terms. Research Horizons is produced by the University of Cambridge’s Office of External Affairs and Communications. 4 News

News

New AI supercomputer

The UK’s fastest academic supercomputer, funded with £10 million, will be based at the University of Cambridge.

As well as helping researchers to make the most of their data, the supercomputer will be made available to artificial intelligence (AI) technology companies from across the UK, in support of the government’s industrial strategy. Capable of solving the largest scientific and industrial challenges at very high speeds, the supercomputer is supported by Cambridge’s Research Computing Service and funded by a £10 million partnership between the Engineering and Credit: Alice Donovan Rouse on Unsplash Physical Sciences Research Council, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, challenges which these trends pose. and the University. Institute to explore It is time to set aside the ingrained “AI projects involving Cambridge assumption that there are technical fixes researchers are already under way,” says public policy in an or ready-made solutions to our most Dr Paul Calleja, Director of the University’s intractable problems.” Research Computing Service. “In the age of disruption The Bennett Institute, funded by a life sciences we are working on medical major gift from Cambridge alumnus and imaging analysis and genomics, and in The Bennett Institute for Public Policy philanthropist Peter Bennett, will offer astronomy AI is being used as part of will connect the world-leading work in a unique combination of deep analysis, the Square Kilometre Array project and technology and science at Cambridge high-level training and effective policy research to map exoplanets.” with the economic and political engagement. Based at the Department Funding for the supercomputer is dimensions of policymaking. of Politics and International Studies, it will part of the UK government’s AI Sector be launching interdisciplinary research Deal, which involves more than 50 leading Led by inaugural Director Professor Michael programmes on policy challenges technology companies and organisations. Kenny and the Bennett Professor of in different parts of the world – from The deal is worth almost £1 billion, Public Policy, economist Diane Coyle, California to Calcutta, as well as in the including almost £300 million of private the Institute will combine fundamental city of Cambridge itself. sector investment into AI. research with the search for new practical “The tensions between expertise “AI provides limitless opportunities solutions to challenges such as the digital and public participation are an to develop new, efficient and accessible divide, resource scarcity and the need for unavoidable feature of our complex, products and services which transform the more equitable growth. technology-powered global world,” way we live and work,” says Business and “We live in an age of unprecedented says Professor Coyle. Energy Secretary Greg Clark. “Today’s disruption. More and more people are “Universities have a vital civic role to new deal with industry will ensure we have disenchanted with politics, and many feel play in this context, ensuring that their the right investment, infrastructure and that the rules of the economic game are accumulated expertise and new knowledge highly skilled workforce to establish the rigged. At the same time, technological contribute to the development of solutions UK as a driving force in the development innovations and breakthroughs in to significant policy challenges. There and commercial use of AI technologies.” scientific knowledge are gathering could not be a more important time to be In addition to computing power, speed,” says Professor Kenny. launching this endeavour.” Calleja and his team will provide training, “Public policy thinking needs to guidance and support to Cambridge engage much more deeply with the www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk researchers and the wider AI industry.

News in brief 10.04.18 13.03.18

Cambridge joins Ceres Agritech Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, More information at Knowledge Exchange Partnership to Economy and Social Change launches boost multidisciplinary agritech research to study the dynamics between ethics, www.cam.ac.uk/research for sustainability and food security. religion and the economy. 5 Research Horizons

WaterScope

A hand-held microscope printed from recycled plastic could help millions of people secure access to clean water.

A biologist, a physicist and an engineer walk into a bar… and start a social enterprise spin-out with a mission to help some of the 650 million people worldwide who struggle to find safe water supplies. Cambridge researchers Dr Alexander Patto (the biologist), Dr Nalin Patel (the physicist) and PhD student Tianheng Zhao (the engineer) met one evening in 2015 at an event run by Cambridge i-Teams – an initiative that helps students and Credit: WaterScope Credit: researchers to commercialise their ideas. WaterScope, the not-for-profit organisation they founded (physicist Dr external NGOs to test their water using a planning water provision. Richard Bowman also joining them), is using fiddly process that can take a couple of Already trialled at one of the world’s an open-source microscope designed by days before a result is known.” largest refugee camps in Tanzania, the Bowman to make a water-testing kit that is WaterScope visualises the bacteria at prototype will next be tested in Bangladesh smaller, lighter, cheaper and much faster the water source with a microscope rather in partnership with Oxfam. than current technology. What’s more, the than having to take a sample back to the “The kit can be used by anyone, mircroscope can potentially be 3D printed lab. The prototype connects to a battery- anywhere, enabling permanent hubs locally for education – even from old plastic powered Raspberry Pi computer to give a for testing to be set up in schools and drinking bottles. faster digital read-out than conventional communities,” adds Patto. “Our aim is “One in ten people don’t have access methods, meaning intervention can happen to empower rural communities both to to clean water and over 80% live in rural rapidly if contamination is detected. understand what contaminates their areas,” explains Patto, who now works The team’s goal is for technicians to water and to test if it is safe to drink.” full time on WaterScope while the others be able to upload and map out the tests, continue their research. “Many rely on creating useful resources for people www.waterscope.org

Clapping with with integrated IT, healthcare and building Speaking before the official signing management. Innovations emerging from of the agreement, Cambridge’s Vice- two hands the Centre will enable the development of Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope smart cities in which sensors will enable said: “This is only the most recent A new joint research Centre, sited in sustainable lifestyles. example of our collaboration with the Chinese city of Nanjing, will support Funded by Nanjing Municipality Chinese partners – but it is by far research into smart cities and fully for five years in the first instance, the the most ambitious to date. integrated urban environments. agreement will allow Cambridge-based “We see it as an essential part of academics to engage with specific, Cambridge’s contribution to society to The Cambridge University-Nanjing long-term projects in Nanjing, in the tackle some of the great world problems. Centre of Technology and Innovation is Jiangsu Province, as well as fund But we cannot do this on our own. There the University’s first overseas enterprise positions in Nanjing and a professorship is a proverb: ‘You cannot clap with just at this scale. based in Cambridge. Any IP generated one hand’. To me this means that we can At the heart of the new Centre’s will be licensed for commercialisation only accomplish great things by working activities will be research into technologies by the University’s innovation branch, together – which is what we will be doing that support a modern 21st-century city Cambridge Enterprise. with Nanjing.”

22.02.18 31.01.18 23.01.18

CRUK funds Children’s Brain Tumour Zero-gravity applications of graphene, Cambridge to lead £11.9 million Centre of Excellence based at the such as cooling satellites, tested by research project to extend battery life University of Cambridge and the researchers at the Cambridge Graphene and accelerate the transition to electric Institute of Cancer Research, London. Centre and the European Space Agency. vehicles and a low-carbon economy. 6 Field notes

ne island. One hundred thousand seals. And O one graduate student so Words determined to study them that she Louise Walsh crowdfunded her own fieldwork.

Fur seals dive in the pristine seas off the island of Robinson Crusoe and among them swims Constanza Toro-Valdivieso. Her research has brought her 7,500 miles to a remote archipelago located between the Chilean coast and Easter Island to study the Island’s only endemic and native mammal: the Juan Fernández seal. The seals live in one of the last great wild places of the ocean and almost nothing is known about them. Even their existence came as a surprise – thought to have been hunted to extinction, they were rediscovered only in the 1950s. Today, they number around 100,000 living in and around the islands, coming ashore in mating season. Although the species is a ‘comeback story’, it is vulnerable once more – this time to ocean pollutants like microplastics and heavy metals. “It’s these larger animals that will suffer first from poor ocean health. If the seals get sick, it could be the first sign you see before a catastrophe,” says Toro-Valdivieso, a PhD student in Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine. “Understanding and monitoring the species is made much harder by our poor knowledge of them.” She first read about the seals while studying for her veterinary degree in Chile: “I seem to remember googling ‘diseases’ and ‘wildlife’ and found them by chance,” she says. Keen not to miss the short season the seals come on land, Toro-Valdivieso crowdfunded her first fieldtrip to Robinson Crusoe just before she started her PhD with Dr Barbara Blacklaws in Cambridge. On the island, she studies the seals, swims with them, and collects their faeces for testing their health and immunity. Meanwhile, following a proposal by the local Juan Fernández community and National Geographic’s Pristine Seas initiative, the Chilean government has recently designated the area a marine park to safeguard its unique ecosystem. “Research for me goes beyond the lab and the publications – I want to make a difference in the community,” adds Toro-Valdivieso. “It would be amazing if I could manage to convince the Chilean government that monitoring these species is not only important for the seals’ own conservation but also as an indication of what’s happening in our oceans.”

Constanza Toro-Valdivieso Department of Veterinary Medicine [email protected] 7 Research Horizons Credit: Enric Sala, Pristine Seas, National Geographic

Crowdfunded to Crusoe 8 Feature The long game: Turing’s wager and the mathematical mind

Words Louise Walsh

ndrew Thwaites knows that “A complete map could introduce a his hope of understanding the wide range of futuristic technologies – A human brain mathematically perhaps the ability to download memories is unlikely to be achieved in his as if they were photographs, to plug lifetime. He’s persevering because in instant multilingual translation or to even the smallest of steps could prove augment intelligence.” enormously important to medicine. These revolutionary applications won’t be here any time soon – a full In 1950, Alan Turing, a Cambridge mathematical description of the human graduate and the father of modern brain (if it is even possible) being so far computing, made a cautious wager. distant – but, says Thwaites, as the Turing regarded the mind as a fascinating map grows, so will the number of computational phenomenon. He believed potential applications. that the key to understanding something The potential for such a map has so complex lay in being able to describe been so alluring that in 2013 the European it using the clearest, most unambiguous Commission invested €1 billion in the encephalographic language there is – mathematics. Human Brain Project to construct an scanner to monitor the Turing’s wager was about how long accurate mathematical model of the brain location of firing neurons when, this might take: over a thousand years. – a decision that has courted much debate for instance, a sound is heard Mentioned in the famous paper on the wisdom of funding something so by volunteers. in which he described the idea of an inherently difficult. What Kymata does is compare what an ‘imitation game’ for comparing human and Thwaites and colleagues know that equation predicts will be the neurological artificial intelligence (see box), Turing’s they face a gigantic task – but they’re making behaviour with what actually happens in the wager provides a reality check on the faster progress than they hoped possible. brain – and searches for good matches at a practical feasibility of brain mapping. The product of their efforts is Kymata. rate of thousands of comparisons a second. And yet, attempting to understand the Built as part of a multidisciplinary “It took seven years to match the first mathematics of the mind – even if they collaboration between the Department equation to what actually happens in the can’t beat the wager – is exactly what Dr and the MRC Unit, and powered by brain,” says Thwaites. “In the three years Andrew Thwaites and colleagues from supercomputers, Kymata is a growing since, we now have almost 100 matches.” Cambridge’s Department of Psychology atlas of precise mathematical maps of Thwaites likens the process to trying and the MRC Cognition and Brain the human brain. It feeds on equations and to complete a jigsaw using a mixture of all Sciences Unit have set out to do. Why? neural data, and it looks for matches. of the jigsaw pieces in the world. “Each “Because there will be major gains along It’s sometimes fussy, preferring one equation is a jigsaw piece, and Kymata is the way,” explains Thwaites. equation over another, and its appetite testing the fit of hundreds of thousands “Prosthetic limbs and hearing aids is insatiable. of pieces around the clock. When they already use mathematical algorithms The loudness of a sound, the fit they are added to the map. But the to mimic the equations of the brain and brightness of a light, the sensation of a number of possible jigsaw pieces that nervous system, and more detailed touch – each of these can be characterised Kymata needs to try is huge – most of maps will make it much easier to replace as equations that take in sensory them won’t fit and some will fit better than lost function. Better maps also allow us inputs and give out electrical outputs others – and they all have to be checked.” to improve diagnosis and treatment of (brain activity) that can be measured. By focusing first on sight, hearing and neurological disorders. Thwaites uses an electro- and magneto- touch, the researchers have metaphorically 9 Research Horizons

What happens when your research is predicted to Turing’s wager take 10100 billion years to complete? Alan Turing’s paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ was Credit: Andrew Thwaites published in 1950 in Mind. It changed the face of computer science by introducing the concept ‘can machines think?’ Within this text was a separate, equally profound, philosophical argument where Turing set out the central difficulty of reverse engineering the brain.

“Turing noted that if the brain is a type of computer, then characterising the brain mathematically is equivalent to guessing the program running on a computer,” explains Dr Andrew Thwaites. “But trying to guess the code of a program running on even a simple computer is very time-consuming. Someone trying to do so would likely have to test many thousands of programs before they chanced upon the one which correctly predicted the computer’s behaviour. Characterising the brain mathematically faces the same problem – multiplied exponentially.” To emphasise the long timescales involved, Turing underscored the argument with a challenge, now known as Turing’s wager. “I have set up on the Manchester computer,” wrote Turing, “a small programme […] whereby the machine supplied with one sixteen-figure number replies with another within two seconds.” So confident was he that no-one would guess the program linking the two numbers, that he defied any reader to do it within a thousand years. The same logic, he claimed, holds true for the brain. started with the easier ‘edges’ of the jigsaw Thwaites will continue to test “Turing never gave an estimate of – still vastly complicated but simpler than equations in Kymata, sourced from how long the brain itself might take to trying to piece together the ‘central pieces’ collaborations with researchers around map,” says Thwaites. “But, following (equivalent to high-level functions of the the world and the public domain. Such his reasoning, one can show that brain like decision-making or personality). is Kymata’s appetite, however, that this figure could be well over 10100 Not that there isn’t an appetite to know one day the research community might billion years.” more: “Kymata is open access and you’d not be able to produce equations Underlying Turing’s wager is be surprised how many people search for fast enough, at which point artificial a plea for realism, says Thwaites. equations related to personality traits like intelligence might be required to “In searching for the mathematical charisma,” says Thwaites. accelerate the community’s efforts. basis of the mind, Turing reflected The equations that feed Kymata range “I think Turing would be delighted that there was only one truth we can in complexity from the relatively simple by our progress, but he was right to be be sure of: ‘We certainly know of no – those that were written in the 1930s cautious,” says Thwaites. “Even with circumstances under which we could and take little account of physiology or the benefit of faster supercomputers, say we have searched enough.’” neuroscience – to equations like those more powerful neuroimaging techniques of Thwaites’ colleague Professor Brian and increasingly complex mathematical Moore, who has been perfecting the descriptions, obtaining a full map may algorithms involved in auditory processing never be finished in our lifetimes. for decades. These latter equations are “My hope is that researchers will still Dr Andrew Thwaites cutting edge, says Thwaites – they take be adding to Kymata’s map in a thousand Department of Psychology into account the latest understanding years, with modern medicine all the [email protected] of the brain and can run to hundreds or while reaping the benefits of a growing thousands of lines. mathematical model of the mind.” kymata.org 10 Feature

see what might help them in the future,” he says. Rapport with participants was key. He says: “In effect, they interviewed me to “THERE’S ensure that I wouldn’t reinforce a ‘one- dimensional’ view of them as Muslims.” As one interviewee remarked: “There’s more to life than the little bits that you read in the paper.” The interviewee had MORE TO LIFE observed other people taking an interest in Muslims in prison: “They’re all asking the same questions” about discrimination and radicalisation, and “[I’m] just standing THAN THE there thinking, like, ‘is that all you want to know?”’ Through his interviews, Williams came to learn how difficult it is for people to put their finger on inequality LITTLE BITS and discrimination. It was often indirect, found in everyday examples like (says one interviewee) being refused a toilet roll by a member of staff but seeing a white prisoner acquire one with ease. For white THAT YOU READ Muslim converts, there was a sense that being a Muslim was incompatible with being British – they were seen as ‘traitors’ to their country, reinforcing the view that IN THE PAPER” Islam is a ‘foreign’ religion. For one interviewee, the rise of Islamophobia was both tragic and Williams is based at Cambridge’s laughable. He observed: “It’s really sad. Muslims leaving Centre of Islamic Studies. An interest in People are scared of Muslims now and it Islam and society took him into a domain makes me laugh because I think to myself, prison talk about usually studied by criminologists. His ‘Hang on a minute, what are you scared interviews explored the journeys, values of?’” He also pointed out: “Everybody knows the layers of and struggles of people caught up in the a Muslim. You probably work with one. You CJS. They took place in prisons (including might live next door to one. Your neighbour’s their lives segregation units), probation offices, cool. Your work colleague’s cool.” cafés, mosques and ‘chicken shops’. Since 9/11, and more so in the wake of Words In 2017, an independent review by the recent attacks in London, the term Muslim has Alex Buxton Rt Hon David Lammy put race equality become linked with negative associations. in the spotlight by highlighting a rise in “‘Muslim’ is a badge applied to offenders he Lammy Review in 2017 drew the proportion of BAME (black, Asian in a way that masks other aspects of their attention to inequalities among and minority ethnic) young offenders identity – for example their roles as sons, T black, Asian and minority in custody: from 25% in 2006 to 41% brothers and fathers. For much of the ethnic people in the criminal justice in 2016. Lammy stated that his “review popular media, it’s a blunt term that hints system. It also flagged the over- clearly shows BAME individuals still face heavily at terrorism,” says Williams. representation of Muslims in prisons. bias – including overt discrimination – Through guided conversations, Research by Dr Ryan Williams explores in parts of the justice system”. Williams encouraged his interviewees to the sensitivities around this topic. The same review drew attention to talk about the things that meant most to the over-representation of Muslims in them, sharing their feelings about family, Dr Ryan Williams has become accustomed the CJS. Between 2002 and 2016, the community and society. He explains: to uncomfortable moments. His research proportion of Muslims in the prison “Broadly speaking, my work is about into the lived experiences of people in the population doubled. people’s lives as a moral journey – one criminal justice system (CJS) has taken “The higher up the CJS you go, marked by mistakes and struggle – and him into high-security prisons to interview the greater the proportion of people how this connects to belonging and people convicted of serious crimes, and to identifying as Muslim,” says Williams. citizenship in an everyday sense.” East London to speak to recently released “More than 40% of the prisoners in the The project was sparked by a prisoners. All his interviewees were Muslim. high-security prison that I was working conversation that Williams had four years He describes this area of study as in were Muslim.” ago with a Muslim offender of Pakistani highly problematic: “I was working with While the over-representation of heritage who’d been brought up in the people who often feel doubly marginalised Muslims in the CJS forms the backdrop to UK. “He said that he felt so discriminated – as individuals with a criminal record and Williams’ research, his work looks not at against that he felt he couldn’t live here seeking to rebuild their lives, and as Muslims the causes of crime but at the experiences any longer. To me, that was shocking,” living in British society and having to fight of offenders as they serve their sentences says Williams. against stereotypes. You run the risk of and reflect on their lives. “By asking “It made me wonder how the CJS bringing genuine harm to people by failing questions around belonging and how might serve to help people feel like to reflect their complex life realities.” people can lead a good life, we begin to citizens and rebuild their lives. What if 11 Research Horizons

we brought the end goal of citizenship Faith is always interpreted and filtered The workshop ‘Supporting Muslim into view, rather than focusing exclusively through our experiences and can help Service Users in Community and on risk to the public? How would this to construe a positive view of what it Probation Contexts’ was funded by change how people see themselves and means to live a life worth living. As one the Arts and Humanities Impact Fund, how others see them?” participant observed: “I want to actually and supported by the School of Arts Williams’ interviews revealed that, do some things now, like goodness, like and Humanities and the School of the for many, learning to be a good Muslim volunteering, helping people out, helping Humanities and Social Sciences. was also tied with being a better citizen, the vulnerable… God loves that.” and each had their own way of going Williams says that as a fellow human Dr Ryan Williams about this. “For one person, day-to- being he empathises with this improvised Centre of Islamic Studies, day practices of prayer kept them away desire to find meaning in life by doing good Faculty of Asian and Middle from crime. For another, for whom crime in the world. He says: “The most profound Eastern Studies was less of a struggle, practising zakat thing to emerge from my conversations [email protected] (charity) by providing aid to the Grenfell is that leading a good life is hard – and Tower survivors enabled him to fulfil a harder for some than for others.” need to contribute to society,” he says. In April 2018, Williams organised a He interviewed 44 Muslim men, workshop ‘Supporting Muslim Service sometimes interviewing them more than Users in Community and Probation once, and triangulated his data with Contexts’ for frontline staff and volunteers. conversations with prison and probation staff. Probation officer Mohammed Mansour “My approach was experiential-based Nassirudeen, who attended the workshop, – qualitative rather than quantitative. said: “We need Ryan and researchers I didn’t have a set of boxes to fill in with like him to give us the bigger picture. I numbers. I used one standard survey believe this would help bring about desired tool from research on desistance from outcomes for service users from BAME crime, but I found it removed richness backgrounds, which is long overdue.” and detail from people’s complex stories. Adds Williams: “My contribution is Participants welcomed the chance to simply to get people to think about the reflect more deeply on their lives.” issues in a different way, to facilitate An individual’s faith journey, argues discussion drawing on people’s own Williams, cannot be separated from the strengths and expertise, and then see complex reality they find themselves in. where it takes us.” Credit: ©AndyAitchison.uk Credit: 12 Feature

besity is often characterised as nothing O more than greed and lack of willpower. The truth is far more complex: our DNA, our brains and our environment conspire faults in their DNA to encourage us to overindulge, has led to an understanding say Cambridge researchers. of the importance of the hormone leptin in regulating appetite In August 2017, the Daily Mail carried (and hence body weight). a typically strident opinion piece from In fact, attitudes such as those whatever columnist Amanda Platell, entitled voiced by Platell may come down to what they like but ‘Obesity a sickness? No, it’s just psychologists refer to as the ‘fundamental never gain weight. What plain greed’. attribution error’ – the assumption that is it about their DNA and their Platell made it clear who she behaviour is directed entirely by what bodies that stops them piling on thought was to blame for our obesity goes on in our head. the pounds? epidemic. “It’s greed that makes you “There’s a general notion that the “We think there are genes, but also fat. Not ignorance about the dangers of brain is a puppet master which controls hormones, that might protect some junk food,” she wrote. “Fatties lack the everything and that, as a consequence of people from gaining too much weight,” willpower to stop eating. Reduce the rational, balanced, processes that go on she says. One way to test this is to bring burger size and the Billy Bunters after in the brain, we make our decisions and healthy thin people into the facility and instant gratification will just order two, we carry out our actions,” says Professor feed them a high-fat diet to see what with extra chips.” happens. “You need a facility where Professor Sadaf Farooqi disagrees you can keep people in a comfortable with both Platell’s line of argument and environment for ten days, and where her approach. “Blaming people for their “Blaming people you can control everything about that obesity is never helpful,” she says. “It is environment so that you can make really a complex problem. It is not simply just for their obesity is precise measurements.” about people choosing to eat too much or And when she says “control to not do enough exercise.” never helpful” everything about that environment” that Farooqi is one of the principal is exactly what she means. “What we investigators at the Wellcome-Medical eat, when we eat, how many calories we Research Council Institute of Metabolic Paul Fletcher from the Department of burn – it’s all controlled by many things Sciences (IMS), which sits at one end Psychiatry. “But the reality is the brain is in our environment. In our facility, we of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, at the heart a slave to the environment and to what’s can control light, the temperature of the of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. going on in the body. It’s this three- rooms, what time people eat, the kinds of The Institute, jointly led by Professors way interaction, between the body, food they’re given…” Sir Steve O’Rahilly and Nick Wareham, the brain and the world, that’s shaping The testing areas are also built to is dedicated to understanding what our behaviour.” support people who are severely obese, drives us to overeat and the impact that The IMS’s new Translational Research so that they can have a comfortable overconsumption has on our bodies. Facility, recently opened with funding environment. “It’s quite noticeable now A glance at the Institute’s website is from Wellcome, will be uniquely placed that when we bring people in they’re enough to demonstrate the complexity to better understand how these three immediately at ease because they’re not to which Farooqi refers: its scientists elements influence our diet. Fletcher is having to worry how they’ll manage,” study everything from how our gut tells one of the collaborators in the Facility, she says. our brain that we’re full and to stop which is led by Farooqi. The facility includes an Eating eating, to how we’re preprogrammed in “The new facility allows us to do more Behaviour Unit, which has a modern, the womb to overeat, through to how the research in a state-of-the-art environment stylish lounge and dining room that environment around us – the size of and to open our minds – to do the kinds would not look out of place in an Ikea our crockery, the number of fast food of research that we couldn’t do before,” catalogue. It’s here, says Farooqi, that outlets in our neighbourhood, and so she says. some of the most interesting work will on – conspires to make us overeat. One of the first studies that will take take place. Study participants may take Farooqi’s own research has focused place here, interestingly, is not one of part in conventional, computer-based on the genetics of obesity. Her work with obese people, but rather of healthy tests of cognition, for example, but when children who are severely obese due to thin people who seem to be able to eat the study is ‘over’ they are invited to help 13 Research Horizons

themselves to an all-you-can-eat buffet; in fact, this buffet is itself part of the study, allowing the researchers to observe how people behave and why they make particular food choices, for example. In 2016, Farooqi published research eliminating larger- that demonstrated how complex and sized portions from our unconscious these choices can be. diets could reduce the number of Participants were allowed to help calories consumed by up to 16% among themselves to an all-you-can-eat buffet of UK adults or 29% among US adults. the UK’s favourite curry, chicken korma. Marteau describes the work that There were three options, manipulated she will be carrying out at the Facility as to look and taste the same, but in which “virgin territory”. The idea is to do real- the fat content varied from 20% to 60% world studies – in bars, cafeterias and of the total number calories. Participants supermarkets – and then return to the with a particular genetic defect ate twice Eating Behaviour Unit to analyse what as much of the high-fat korma compared they find and optimise interventions, and Professor Sadaf Farooqi with their lean counterparts. then test them back in the outside world. Wellcome-Medical Research More often, though, it is external “The answer at one level is simple: Council Institute of Metabolic factors that influence our food choices. change our environment and you change Sciences “We are sensitive to very many cues our behaviour. But then there’s a question [email protected] in our environment, often without of how much evidence is needed to give awareness, which lead us to eat more certainty to the policymaker and for the Professor Paul Fletcher than we think we have eaten,” explains courts to do battle with the industries that Department of Psychiatry Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, stand to lose by changing these cues in [email protected] one of Farooqi’s collaborators at the our environment.” Translational Research Facility. Platell at the Daily Mail believes Professor Dame Theresa Marteau Several of Marteau’s studies have she knows the solution to the obesity Behaviour and Health Research focused on size: the size of our portions, problem: all it will require is “common Unit, Institute of Public Health plates, wine glasses, and so on. Her sense and strength of character”. The [email protected] team led a Cochrane Review – the ‘gold overwhelming evidence from Cambridge’s standard’ of meta-analyses, which review researchers suggests that this is very Words all the available evidence – and found that unlikely to be the case. Craig Brierley 14 Feature GALAXY QUEST

ambridge researchers are of our galaxy. Gaia will also detect new astronomers can directly estimate at the forefront of a pan- asteroids in our solar system, discover distances to individual stars. C European project that is planets around other stars, and provide The comprehensive dataset includes building the biggest, most detailed new and improved tests of Einstein’s brightness information of all surveyed map of our galaxy ever created. theory of general relativity. stars and colour measurements of The first data release from Gaia, nearly all, plus information April 25th 2018 was a big day for based on just over one year of on how the astronomers, astrophysicists and observations, was published in 2016; backyard stargazers. A torrent of data, it contained distances and motions containing information about more of two million stars. The new than one billion stars in the Milky Way, data release, which was made freely available to anyone, covers the 22 anywhere with an internet connection. months The data were sent from a high- precision imaging satellite orbiting the Earth at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres, and contained information about the stars that blaze above our heads: how far away, how old, how bright, how fast, how big. When the data release arrived, amateur and professional astronomers worldwide immediately began combing through it to find the treasures within. The satellite, called Gaia, has been surveying the sky since it was launched in 2013, and will observe each of more than one billion stars – roughly 1% of the total stellar content of our galaxy – about a hundred times during its planned five- year mission, and during its likely five-year extension. Gaia’s mission, funded by the European Space Agency and involving researchers and industrial partners from across Europe, is to build the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our galaxy ever created. The map will be a crucial tool for the study of the origin between and evolution of the Milky Way. July 2014 and Every celestial object preserves May 2016, pins something of the era in which it was born. down the positions of So, as well as mapping the sky as we see nearly 1.7 billion stars, and it today, the Gaia mission allows us to with much greater precision. For look back billions of years into the past – some of the brightest stars in the survey, making possible what some have called the level of precision equates to Earth- brightness a ‘time-lapse video’ of the birth and life bound observers being able to spot and colour of half a million a Euro coin lying on the surface of stars change over time. It also contains the Moon. the velocities along the line of sight of With these accurate measurements a subset of seven million stars, the “Today is a it is possible to separate the parallax surface temperatures of about 100 of stars – an apparent shift on the sky million and the effect of interstellar magnificent caused by Earth’s yearly orbit around dust on 87 million. the Sun – from their true movements Gaia also observes objects in our harvest, but through the galaxy. The new catalogue solar system: the second data release lists the parallax and velocity across the contains the positions of more than cornucopia awaits” sky for more than 1.3 billion stars. From 14,000 known asteroids, which allows these accurate parallax measurements precise determination of their orbits. 15 Research Horizons

Image In addition to the work taking place also checks the daily photometric data Gaia’s all-sky view of the at Cambridge, teams from Edinburgh, for unexpected large outliers. These lead interstellar dust that fills the Mullard Space Science Laboratory to the regular publication of photometric the Milky Way (MSSL) at University College London, science alerts ready for immediate follow- Leicester, Bristol and the Science and up observations from the ground. Technology Facilities Council (STFC) “The combination of all these

This unique mission is reliant on Rutherford Appleton Laboratory are all unprecedented measures provides the Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC the work of Cambridge researchers contributing to the processing of the information for astronomers to take the who collect the vast quantities of vast amounts of data from Gaia, in next big steps in mapping the formation data transmitted by Gaia to a data- collaboration with industrial and academic history and evolution of stars and our processing centre at the University, partners from across Europe. Milky Way galaxy,” says Gilmore. overseen by a team at the Hundreds of research teams from all “The global community will advance Institute over the world anxiously awaited the data our understanding of what we see, release, and the first scientific discoveries where it came from, what it is made of were announced within hours of and how it is changing. All this is made the data being made freely available to everyone, based on the available. “What’s dedicated efforts of hundreds of people. really special There are so many exciting things to do about Gaia better with the exquisite Gaia data that we anticipate new publications appearing every day after this release.” More data releases will be issued in future years, and the final Gaia catalogue is due to be published in the 2020s. This will be the definitive stellar catalogue for the foreseeable future, playing a central role in a wide range of fields in astronomy. “This vast step into a new window on the universe is a revolution in our knowledge of the contents, motions and properties of our local universe,” adds Gilmore. “We look forward to the international astronomical community building on this European project, with its major UK contributions, to interpret these data. Today is a magnificent harvest, but cornucopia awaits.”

The Gaia data-processing teams in the UK are supported by the UK Space Agency and the STFC, which helped set up the is that data applications centre and is supporting it’s not a the UK exploitation of Gaia’s scientific private project,” data. Industrial partners include Airbus, says Gilmore. “It’s the MSSL and e2v Technologies. the first big space mission in which all the data are made freely available to anyone, anywhere.” of With the additional information Astronomy. The tidal contained in the 2018 data release, wave of Gaia data will keep astronomers Gaia’s galactic map has come into busy for decades. sharper focus. “By measuring the “There is hardly a branch of astrophysics properties of stars, it tells you almost which will not be revolutionised by Gaia everything about how stars evolve, data,” says Professor Gerry Gilmore, who and how the Milky Way evolves as well,” leads the Cambridge team and is the says Gilmore. Professor Gerry Gilmore UK’s principal investigator for Gaia. “For The team in Cambridge is led by Dr Institute of Astronomy the first time, we’ve got measurements Floor van Leeuwen, Dr Dafydd Wyn Evans [email protected] on more than a billion stars, which is a and Dr Francesca De Angeli. In addition thousand times more than we’ve ever to processing the information contained Words had before. It’s a spectacular step.” within the major data releases, the team Sarah Collins 16 Feature

rom their base halfway across the globe in Singapore, Cambridge F researchers are working with colleagues from around the world to reduce carbon emissions in industry.

For a chemical engineer, Jurong Island is a kind of paradise. The artificial island, built upon seven smaller islands off the Singapore mainland in the 1980s and 1990s, is now home to nearly 100 global petroleum, petrochemical and speciality chemical companies, indicating Singapore’s status as a global crossroads. All those plants and factories produce a lot of carbon emissions – in fact more than half of global emissions come from industries like those based on the Island. students to professors, has enabled With so many companies in such a small CARES, which was established in 2013, space, Jurong is an ideal laboratory for to be involved in several research and looking at ways to reduce emissions and industry collaborations. The most improve sustainability. Little wonder that recent, with fellow CREATE partners, it has become the centre of Singapore’s the University of California, Berkeley, the efforts to cut its emissions intensity by National University of Singapore and the 36% (compared with 2005 levels) by 2030. Nanyang Technological University, will “Because Singapore is a city-state, develop new ways to transform industrial

you’re never too far from the people CO2 emissions into compounds that who have the power to enact policy are useful in the chemical industry change,” says Professor Markus Kraft. supply chain. “In Singapore, it’s easier to see the The overall goal of the researchers impact that certain changes can have on based at CARES is to reduce industrial the carbon footprint of the whole country carbon emissions and improve – it’s an ideal test bed for researchers. sustainability through the development We can then use our results from of cleaner fuels, carbon capture Singapore as an example to roll out to and efficiency improvements in other cities and other countries.” industrial processes. Kraft is Director of the Cambridge Research to assess and reduce the Centre for Advanced Research and carbon footprint of an eco-industrial park Education in Singapore (CARES), a wholly like Jurong Island is happening under owned subsidiary of the University based CARES’ first research programme (the at Singapore’s Campus for Research Cambridge Centre for Carbon Reduction Excellence and Technological Enterprise in Chemical Technology). The work has (CREATE), which was established in 2007 been split into complementary areas with funding from Singapore’s National that include making chemical processes Research Foundation to encourage and reactions more efficient, creating collaboration between universities cleaner fuel blends and reducing energy and industry. consumption within electrical and The team in Singapore is made up chemical supply systems. of researchers from Cambridge, local Their flagship project is the J-Park universities and other institutions. Its Simulator, an AI-driven engine that unique setting, combined with a diverse combines mathematical modelling with the membership that ranges from PhD ‘Internet of Things’ to help reduce carbon 17 Research Horizons

“We’ve estimated that this could save approximately 0.8 million tonnes per year of CO2 for Singapore”

policy to implement,” says Kraft. “To reach an optimum symbiotic relationship among industries and other networks, all resources need to be taken into account simultaneously.” In its first phase, the CARES team investigated technologies with the potential to save more than eight million

emissions, as Kraft describes: “In the tonnes of CO2 emissions per year from future, we may be able to access whole Singapore – approximately 18% of networks of machines, and the machines Singapore’s 2012 emissions. In its will talk to each other. second phase, the team want to take “There are models behind industrial its ideas forward and closer to real-world processes, but to build them you need a application. semantic representation of everything you “One of the ideas we developed in might find in an industrial plant. You also Phase One was to blend biodiesel with need mathematical models that contain diesel fuel for road transport,” says Kraft. knowledge about any given physical entity. “We’ve estimated that this could save These entities can broadcast data into the approximately 0.8 million tonnes per year

model – it’s a bit like the nerves in your of CO2 for Singapore. What we plan to hand sending a signal to your brain. The look at in Phase Two is whether we can do J-Park Simulator is essentially that brain.” something similar for marine shipping traffic. The J-Park Simulator aims to provide We have estimated that this has the potential a virtual representation of multiple to save approximately an additional 0.5

domains in real time. It could have the million tonnes per year of CO2 in Singapore, ability to represent every plant on Jurong but it also has the potential to be adopted Island, and every piece of equipment in worldwide. This could have a much broader each of those plants from data that is global impact, far beyond just shipping constantly fed into it. in the Singapore Strait.” “Each piece of data is like a single In CARES’ second phase, the J-Park brick – when you have enough bricks, Simulator will be extended and expanded, you can start to build walls and houses; and the team is exploring the possibility the idea of the Simulator is to allow you of connecting it to a real-world smart to design plants in ways that you couldn’t grid. Kraft and his team are also busy before because now we can make better building relationships with government use of mathematical optimisation,” says and policymakers in Singapore to Kraft, who is a Fellow of Churchill College. implement their research and help reduce The Simulator attempts to represent Singapore’s carbon footprint. the highly interconnected nature of Jurong “I’m grateful that we can work in Island, and could be a powerful tool to Singapore with so many colleagues demonstrate the effects of certain policies. from around the world,” says Kraft. For example, if a single power plant was “Our work here has also had a positive able to reduce its carbon emissions by impact in Cambridge – not just because 10% through optimising its processes, the of the funding, but also because of the J-Park Simulator could show the effect of international exchange of ideas and talent. that reduction across multiple domains – it It’s an ideal platform for collaboration.” could allow the impact of different ‘what-if’ scenarios to be modelled in real time. Professor Markus Kraft “We are developing the Simulator Department of Chemical with the aim of helping us to understand Engineering and Biotechnology, Words cross-domain connectivity and to create and CARES, Singapore Sarah Collins alternative scenarios for us to study which [email protected] 18 Things

Things “Natural history museums can save the world”

he Museum of Zoology has reopened after a £4.1 million T redevelopment that involved moving more than two million specimens – from ladybirds the size of pinheads to a 70-foot-long fin whale.

A unique opportunity to ‘reimagine’ collections that span 400 million years, the Museum’s redesign was also a chance to re-evaluate its role in championing conservation and igniting a passion for biodiversity in the next generation of zoologists. “We want to encourage dialogue with the wider public about the need to preserve and increase biodiversity,” explains Heather Lane, the Museum’s Project Manager. “So we’ve redisplayed our collections to tell these stories of conservation, habitats, ecology and biodiversity.” Housed in the David Attenborough Building along with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, the Museum is also contributing to biodiversity research worldwide. The specimens have been carefully organised and conserved ready to be used by the global research community, and a computerised tomography scanner – one of only a handful in the UK – is available to create three-dimensional reconstructions of the inside of any animal. “I truly believe that natural history museums can save the world,” says Dr Jason Head, Lecturer and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology. “The collections are providing new data that will inform research on future conservation strategies in the face of climate change. And we have the primary data – the specimens – which will be needed for working out how to maximise biodiversity in the future.”

Redevelopment of the Museum received funding from National Lottery players via Words the Heritage Lottery Fund. Charis Goodyear www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk 19 Research Horizons Credit: All images, Nick Ballon 20 Spotlight: Work

from 2009–13), and the gap with other OECD countries has increased again Mend despite employment rates remaining relatively strong, leading to the so-called productivity puzzle. The three-year ESRC project is the gap divided into distinct themes, and Abreu is leading on researching how the skills of the UK labour force, developed from preschool to life-long adult learning, Solving the UK’s go hand in hand with the rise (or fall) of productivity – and how place is a crucial, productivity determining factor in all of this. Figures from the Office for National puzzle Statistics showed that labour productivity in 2016 was significantly above the UK average in London (+33%) and the South East (+6%), but below average in all other regions and nations, and particularly low in the North East (-11%), the West Midlands (-13%), Yorkshire (-15%), and Wales and Northern Ireland (-17%). “My group is looking at education and teaching standards, and what might Words Put simply, productivity fires the be causing the regional disparities,” says Stuart Roberts engine of our economy – and we all Abreu. “We are also looking at graduate need to mind the gap. migration because we have some excellent The UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’ is northern universities, but those regions what concerns Dr Maria Abreu from lose a lot of people after graduation. the Department of Land Economy. She’s “London and its surrounding areas are working with colleagues from universities very successful in attracting graduates around the UK as part of the Productivity hen it comes to the output, Insights Network funded by the Economic education and wellbeing of and Social Research Council (ESRC) and W the Great British workforce, led by the University of Sheffield. The group our towns, cities and regions exist of economists, geographers, management on a dramatically unequal footing. A experts and other scientists are taking a new, wide-ranging research network place-based approach to a problem HM hopes to find answers to a decades-old government is desperate to solve. problem – the UK’s productivity gap. Last year, the government published a 256-page Industrial Strategy that placed The UK is the world’s sixth largest the productivity gap at its centre and is economy. But would it surprise you to looking to the Network to provide policy learn that outside of London, the South recommendations, explains Abreu. East and a handful of major cities, “There’s a narrative that the UK is many areas of the UK are just as poor a very rich country, but many regions as swathes of Eastern Europe? of the UK outside the capital are poor,” The disparity between different she says. “We have a few of the richest regions of the UK is stark, and not only in regions in Europe and some of the terms of living standards and educational poorest. It’s a delusion to say we’re rich. attainment – but, crucially, also in the “All the growth in the economy is productivity of its workforce. centred on London, the South East and The productivity gap is one of the a few other cities. But growth is low or most serious and vexing economic negative in the rest of the UK, and overall problems facing the government of the that means there is nearly no growth day, and Brexit is adding uncertainty whatsoever. We are standing still.” to the mix (see box). Compared with other OECD countries, Close the productivity gap between the the UK has had low productivity most and least successful regions of the performance since the 1970s. UK, and the GDP of UK PLC will invariably The gap with other countries rise. Allow it to remain at current, stagnant closed significantly during the Labour levels – or, even worse, let the gap widen governments of the late 1990s and 2000s: – and it’s not only our place in the world GDP per hour worked grew at an average rankings that suffers, but also the UK’s rate of 2.1% until 2007 when the global economy, infrastructure, educational financial crisis began. standards and health, as well as other Since then, however, productivity indicators of social cohesion, such as growth has been negative (-1.1% per year child poverty and rising crime rates. for 2007–9) or very low (0.4% per year 21 Research Horizons

close its productivity gap. She also argues for proper development strategies Migrant workers and domestic labour Many areas of the for all regions of the UK – as well as investment in education. UK are just as The extent to which parents are A study by the Department for engaged with their children’s schooling Business, Innovation and Skills in 2015 poor as swathes of also displays strong regional variations. found that migrant workers brought Areas that are better off attract better benefits to UK employers that led to Eastern Europe teachers. The benefits and drawbacks productivity boosts. What happens of this regionalism become self- after Brexit? perpetuating and that affects everyone. and highly skilled workers from around “These disparities in productivity, Professor Catherine Barnard from the UK, as well as migrant workers education and living standards affect us the Faculty of Law believes that too from abroad. all,” says Abreu. “It matters if you have much of the Brexit debate has been “The capital’s productivity is enormous, one region that far outpaces everywhere taken up with the discussion of trade – but this means it is decoupling from the else. Regions get left behind, become manufacturing amounts to only 15% of rest of the economy. We can link this very socially and politically unstable, and the economy – rather than the impact of directly to globalisation in the 1980s and low productivity translates into low wages the migrant workforce. the offshoring of certain industries. Most of and deprivation. Families do badly at “We know there are sectors that the new jobs have been in hi-tech industries school and this entrenches poverty and are highly dependent on EU labour such concentrated in only a few places.” poor social mobility, which impacts the as agriculture, which is often low-paid, Abreu suggests the dismantling of rest of the country.” seasonal work where the incentive to the Regional Development Agencies and UK workers is not that great,” says the move to LEPs (Learning Enterprise Barnard. “We also know that 10% of Zones) from 2010 has come at a huge Dr Maria Abreu the NHS, especially in London, is cost to large areas of the UK that are Department of Land Economy made up of migrant workers. At no longer covered by a consistent [email protected] Cambridge University, it’s 27% at development strategy. postdoctoral level.” She passionately believes that Professor Catherine Barnard Barnard, working with Dr Amy increasing education standards across Faculty of Law Ludlow and Sarah Fraser-Butlin, has the country is vital if the UK is ever to [email protected] been looking at the issue of immigration and the labour force, funded by the ESRC. They have focused on the East of England, visiting schools in Spalding as well as attending town hall meetings in Holt and Sheringham. Barnard says: “You get a very different view of the world. When I have given evidence to parliament, I can talk about these towns and their experiences of Eastern European migration – which are very different to the experiences of a town like Cambridge. “The reason people can’t get a hospital appointment or a school place is partly to do with migration, but it’s also because of the underfunding of public services. Local councils have lost 40% of their funding from central government since 2010.” Barnard’s research has also looked at the perception that EU migrants were undercutting British workers or acting as ‘benefits tourists’. Through interviews and focus groups, her team built an evidential base for migrants’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, Britain’s employment and social security systems. “There is actually very little evidence of the widespread abuse of the benefit system by migrants to this country,” she says. “So the question going forward is what will our migration policy look like to sustain areas of the labour force currently filled by migrants? That’s a question the government doesn’t seem able to answer at the moment.” Credit: T-Rex & Flower 22 Spotlight: Work

Words Louise Walsh

lmost half of young people in from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education. and that, for most graduates, higher the UK now go to university. “It indicates an assumption that is built education leads to much better earnings A Who gets in – and what and into our society that everybody should try than those earned by non-graduates,” where they study – affects a person’s to go to university. If this is the case then it says Vignoles. “Tony Blair pledged in place in society and their future becomes absolutely vital that prospective 2001 as Prime Minister to increase the earnings, as well as the skills available students understand what this means in proportion of young people progressing to the job market. Can big data help terms of their future employability.” to university to 50%. It’s clear that the ‘fifty percenters’ make one of the Education plus the jobs it leads to are the UK is now well on its way to this most important decisions of their major factors in improving social mobility milestone and to achieving the ambition lives – and advance the success and the growth of an economy. And while of becoming a graduate economy.” of the UK’s graduate economy? Vignoles doesn’t claim to have answers But when the team looked in detail at how to how this works best, what she and graduate earnings vary by institution, degree At the start of the 1970s there were her colleagues do have is access to the subject and parental income, they were 600,000 university students. Now there largest UK education dataset ever to link struck by the sheer scale of the variation. are 2.5 million. In 2017, the participation education with earnings – and a set of For instance, their initial study, of young people in higher education complex questions to ask of it. published in 2016, showed that more reached 49% – the highest level since The data has been collected as part of than 10% of male graduates from the the introduction of tuition fees. the Department of Education’s Longitudinal London School of Economics, Oxford University offers the promise of life- Education Outcomes (LEO). It’s actually two and Cambridge were earning in excess changing opportunities and teaching that datasets: the educational performance of of £100,000 a year ten years after develops knowledge and skills. Individuals, three million primary-school-aged children graduation, whereas the median earnings society and the economy are all winners in per year, followed through their secondary of graduates from some institutions were the game of higher education. and further education to university, less than the median earnings of non- On the other hand, students will face an including the subject and university they graduates ten years on. average debt of £50,000, a rising drop-out choose; and their subsequent tax records Medical students were the highest rate in some institutions and an uncertain data up to ten years after graduating. earners ten years after graduating, future job market. Vignoles and colleagues in Cambridge followed by economics graduates. Arguably it is the best of times and and the Institute of Fiscal Studies are the Those studying the creative arts had the worst of times to be a student. first to be given access to such types of the lowest earnings, but there were And now experts are predicting that data, which they’ve been working on since major differences depending on the 300,000 new university places will be 2013. Some of their results have been institution attended. needed by 2030 to keep up with demand. published, and many more are to follow. Some of these earnings differences “Needed is an interesting word in this “The top-line result is that graduate- are attributable to differences in context,” reflects Professor Anna Vignoles level skill is valued in the labour market entry requirements and levels of prior 23 Research Horizons

achievement at A-level. The point that success in the labour market and that of Meanwhile, the government Vignoles makes is that it’s important their advantaged peers – if education is underwrites student loans; graduates pay for young people to be aware of these the route to social mobility then they’ve 9% of their earnings above an income differences when they make their choices. done their bit.” threshold of £25,000. “For around three “Of course factors beyond graduate In fact they found that students from quarters of graduates, it’s unlikely they earnings, such as the student’s interest richer backgrounds still did better in the will have paid off the loan by the end of in a subject, will and should drive student labour market than other students. “Even their working lives,” says Vignoles. choice, and we should value subjects students who studied the same subject at “This income contingency is crucially irrespective of whether they have high the same university earn on average 10% important – we can’t give students earnings,” says Vignoles. “However, it less than more affluent peers if they come mortgage-sized debts and ask them is also important that we don’t hide this from poorer backgrounds,” she says. to take the risk of not being able to information from students in the hope “Why is there this second socio- repay them. The state has to subsidise that they won’t notice the lack of jobs or economic gap? Is it around ‘social students. But, as a consequence, the earning power when they leave.” capital’ networks that they don’t have? state will be subsidising some subjects The team’s analysis of LEO doesn’t Or types of postgraduate study they can’t that attract lower earnings more than just give a full picture of what our afford? It’s really important for us to know others. And subsidy for higher education education system is doing as a whole what we’re dealing with so that we can may mean less resource for further but also what it’s doing for those from get to the root causes.” education or apprenticeships. We need disadvantaged backgrounds. The team’s findings are also relevant to a public debate on this. “It’s partly through analysis of these discussions around the demand for skills “We might argue the government data that we show that a massive socio- that will advance the success of the UK’s should be investing more in education economic gap in achievement at the point economy and the level at which the state across the piece because we want a of entry into the school system actually subsidises higher education. “How these highly skilled future, but some hard worsens through primary and early relate to higher education are controversial choices need to be made about where to secondary school. It is these early gaps in issues,” says Vignoles, “It’s important that invest. That’s where big data approaches achievement that are largely responsible the intrinsic value of going to university is can inform a wider debate – helping us for fewer young people from poorer not lost in discussions that focus on the to dig deep below the surface of these households going to university.” economics of human capital investment.” complex issues.” But the inequality doesn’t end Yet, according to the 2017 CBI/ there. “What you really want to know is Pearson Education and Skills Survey, what about the students from poorer 61% of businesses said that they fear a backgrounds who have managed to shortage of people with the necessary Professor Anna Vignoles achieve in the system? We shouldn’t skills to fill their predicted increase in Faculty of Education expect any difference between their high-skilled roles over the coming years. [email protected]

“Education… some hard choices need to be made about where to invest” 24 Spotlight: Work

Words Fred Lewsey

hile self-employment may employment have the potential to decades. In the EU, rates have been not be the labour market significantly reduce youth unemployment,” hovering around 10–15% of the workforce W remedy some want to believe, says Burchell, who has conducted in most countries in the past couple new research is revealing its global research on everything from gender pay of decades. But, in some of the least prevalence and intergenerational roots. gaps to zero-hours contracts. developed nations, up to 70% of the “However, while we’ve got quite labour market consists of self-employed There is a recurring political reverie good at turning unemployed people people. In many rural areas, “pretty much familiar to many nations: that the right into employees, schemes to encourage everyone” is self-employed says Burchell. policies can conjure an entrepreneurial self-employment – often couched in “Self-employment in the developing class of the self-employed who will pull glamorous language of entrepreneurship world isn’t the bold decision it’s framed the economy up by the bootstraps of and fronted by self-made millionaires – as in Western economies – for many their start-ups. rarely seem to actually work.” people there simply isn’t any other When he was UK Prime Minister, Burchell points out that self- choice. Formal sector jobs are scarce David Cameron described admiring the employment is often politically and almost all are located in cities, so “bravery of those who turn their back on convenient: it shifts the onus from everyone else sells tasks or finite stock the security of a regular wage” more than governments to individuals, and can as individuals, with limited success. almost anything else. This was swiftly help with the ‘statistical impression’ of “These are not scalable businesses followed by the obligatory reference to unemployment. Plus, there are always a that will, for example, help get Africa on creating the “next Google or Facebook”. tiny number of stellar success stories. the digital economy bandwagon. But many Of course, the overwhelming majority “Media and politicians cherry-pick governments continue to take cues from the of self-employed people do not “wind up aspirational accounts of self-employed West, and push the idea of self-employment a billionaire” as Cameron put it. They are people building businesses and making as a route to economic success.” the window cleaners and web designers. fortunes. Yet the available evidence from Big data approaches to analysing self- The hairdressers and home-school tutors. a number of economic contexts suggests employment can be problematic, says And in the UK their number has grown in that, particularly for young people, self- Burchell. Wages are irregular and not always recent years to almost five million people employment is often a highly vulnerable declared, and many individuals flit between – over 15% of the workforce. labour market status in terms of the levels the reported and ‘shadow’ economies in Dr Brendan Burchell, an expert on of pay and job security it offers.” both high- and low-income countries. work and wellbeing from the University’s In 2015, Burchell was commissioned by He describes the project as having Department of Sociology, and a Fellow of the International Labour Organization (ILO) “the advantages but also frustrations of Magdalene College, talks of a disjunction to conduct research into patterns of self- someone else’s datasets”, and a lot of between the perceived desirability of employment in young people. time spent staring at spreadsheets. “I self-employment and the lived reality Together with his Cambridge began itching to get out there and do my for millions. colleague Dr Adam Coutts, own, more ethnographic, data collection “There’s long been Burchell dug into huge datasets – to get people’s stories about their own this idea that policy on the labour market experiences of businesses. So I began travelling around mechanisms 15–24-year-olds the world over – from Asia asking questions.” promoting to developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa. As well as interviewing and observing self- They found that rates of self- in the UK, Burchell has spent time in employment ebb and flow over the South Africa, the US state of Nevada, and 21 Research Horizons

“They are the window cleaners and web designers. The hairdressers and home-school tutors”

has just come back Africa – particularly for self-employed a micromanaging boss, comes up when from Ghana, where his women. The sisters who operate a hair- talking to self-employed people. Also, former PhD student is braiding business with help from their while often working longer hours than now researching informal mother. Or Joy, who runs a childcare employees, many self-employed people employment and work–life centre developed by her aunt in value the flexibility they feel their work balance. premises built by her affords them.” One of the more father, a self-employed Burchell argues that, up until relatively intriguing patterns he has construction worker. recently in the broad sweep of history, begun to notice in both the Sometimes family people were rewarded per task, instead observational research and the members support each of an allotted amount of hours now big data analyses is that self- other’s businesses, such as familiar through nine-to-five work. “There employment often tends to be a Patience and her mother, is a pride that comes with the interaction, family affair. who work separately as task completion and immediate feedback While the traditional approach self-employed seamstresses that is inherent in many classic forms of of passing a small business but have pitches three metres self-employed work. between generations (“Smith and apart and swap offcuts. “The “Taxi drivers like chatting to son butchers, etc.”) may be in decline, more I look, the more I think family is passengers and dropping them off safely. Burchell is finding that self-employment fundamental to understanding why some Hairdressers like making customers feel still has a significant yet underreported people are successfully self-employed,” better than they did when they walked dynastic dimension. says Burchell. in. Maintaining a sense of achievement is “The majority of self-employed people For many of those lucky enough to vital for people’s wellbeing.” have parents or siblings who are also have the choice, the insecurities of self- Burchell is now embarking on a large self-employed – they are rooted in families employment are the stuff of nightmares. research project to explore how labour where self-employment is the default, People tend to crave stability when markets might change if machine learning and getting a qualification to become making big life decisions such as having and robots take over many of the jobs a professional worker is quite a children, says Burchell. being done by people. foreign notion. Other benefits to being an employee “As automation starts taking effect, “People from such families are include access to training and we need to make sure that human labour perhaps more likely to grow up around apprenticeships, meaning that – for all is valued for the benefits it provides each discussion of profit margins and self- the entrepreneurial talk – the risks of of us in terms of structure and goals. reliance, and feel more confident with stagnating are perhaps even greater for What is the minimum amount of work these ideas as a result,” suggests the self-employed. people need to feel valued? We may see Burchell. Nevertheless, the ILO data and a wider return to the more task-oriented “For those with a family background in Burchell’s own interviews show that self- work currently familiar to many self- it, self-employment does appear to be less employed people are either as satisfied or, employed people.” risky. In fact, many self-employed people in many parts of the world (including the describe receiving regular help, both on UK), even more satisfied with working life and off the books, from family members.” than their formally employed counterparts. Dr Brendan Burchell Burchell found many examples of “The perception of autonomy, Department of Sociology this during recent research trips to South perhaps of freedom from the tyranny of [email protected] 2226 Spotlight: Work Credit: Pete Wright on Unsplash

LEGISLATING LABOUR IN THE LONG RUN

esearchers have built the single forces were unleashed, and regulation may again be changing. Issues of largest dataset of employment came to be viewed as a ‘market distortion’ inequality and migrant labour are R laws – spanning more than 100 that stifled productivity. By the start of the destabilising politics, while all-conquering countries across much of post-war 1990s, deregulation was a cornerstone of technology companies are driving new history – to look at how worker rights the emergent ‘Washington Consensus’, and more flexible – as well as precarious affect economies over decades. and worker protection and unions were in – ways of working. steep decline. Legal reforms to ‘free up’ Last year, for the first time in a There’s a familiar story that goes the labour market were declared a route to generation, both major UK parties went something like this: the post-war prosperity by international bodies such into an election with manifestos that consensus was one of heavy regulation, as the OECD and World Bank. argued free market forces alone were not dominant trade unions and the same job Now, a decade on from a global sufficient to achieve the desired levels of for life; then, in the 1980s, free market economic crash, and the mood music productivity and social cohesion. 27 Research Horizons

From time limits on working to protective legislation and beneficial social became entangled in the Eurozone’s minimum wages, from dismissal rights and economic outcomes. This was seen in austerity drive, particularly in “debtor for workers to legal support for strikes, overall levels of employment, in increased nations” such as Greece and Portugal. the extent to which labour regulations labour productivity and in the amount of “A reactionary resurgence of engender flourishing or sclerotic national income going to workforce wages Washington-Consensus-style thinking economies is a major policy question that rather than to capital profit. post-crash resulted in minor rolling back is now firmly back on the table. Some of these positives may be the of employment protections in Europe, but Helpfully, a research project compiling result of a “virtuous circle” in the long run, this approach is short-termist and I doubt the largest ever dataset of employment argues Deakin. Employment regulations there’s any real economic evidence for its regulations from countries representing can create short-term shocks: labour effectiveness,” he says. over 95% of world GDP (117 nations) costs go up, leading to recruitment While liberalising legislation is often tracked across a 44-year period (from freezes or even lay-offs. combined with new worker protections, 1970 to 2013) is now beginning to publish In the medium term, however, firms as seen in Italy’s Jobs Act of 2014 or findings. The team has made the data invest in new technologies and in training Germany’s controversial Hartz IV in the open access for other researchers to use. workers to use them. This improves morale, mid-2000s, reforms such as these loosened Ten years (with various intermissions) in job security and productivity, while workers rules around ‘nonstandard’ employment: the making, the project involved around 20 and their employers co-invest in learning fixed-term and temporary work. legal, economic and statistical researchers and sharing knowledge – it’s called a The rise of this type of work – along – from senior academics to PhD students “capital deepening” effect. “Innovation with new notions of self-employment and postdocs – pulling together numerous is connected to the way we regulate the through digital platforms – make up data sources before refining the analysis labour market,” Deakin suggests. the so-called gig economy of often- with sophisticated regression models He offers some important caveats. piecemeal and insecure employment. based on equations created by Cambridge The positive coefficients seen in the data How labour relations in this economy economists in the 1990s. are small, conclusions can’t be drawn are regulated may prove to be a crucible One constant, however, has been about any single nation and empirically for policymaking in many countries in the Simon Deakin, Director of the Centre for it’s not straightforward to infer causation future. Deakin sees potential similarities Business Research, Professor of Law from correlation. “This is the first time within the dataset and beyond. at the Faculty of Law and Co-Chair of anyone’s done this for so many countries “The gig economy is an issue that’s the University’s Public Policy Strategic exploded in recent years, but our data Research Initiative. show similar debates around labour “What we’ve ended up with is a vast law when part-time and agency work dynamic dataset – a concrete product “Labour rights are dramatically expanded 30 years ago and with implications for big policy debates, people needed better protection. not least whether legislating to strengthen fighting a constant “You could even argue similarities worker rights helps or hinders different to the late 18th century with factory types of economies,” says Deakin. headwind across expansion. At various points in history, “Complex data of this nature may labour law comes under pressure from well prove helpful when exploring crucial the decades” technological innovation, an oversupply issues for the future of society, such of labour or a loss of collective power. as how to combine social justice with Traditional forms of regulation start to economic growth. It’s really a question of over such a long period; much more look worn. the kind of global society we want.” work is needed to extend the analysis, “But the law evolves. We’re starting The datasets tell a story that contrasts including studies of individual countries.” to see this with the designation of Uber to some extent with the familiar political In addition, the bigger picture remains drivers as ‘limb b’ workers: dependent story that most of us recognise. one of widening inequality and shrinking to some extent on an employer, with It goes something like this: labour share – as illustrated by another accompanying rights.” There are parallels despite the massive deregulation that time-series dataset the researchers between ‘limb b’ and the introduction accompanied economic liberalisation have been working on: the shifting legal of part-time and temporary work in the in the 1980s – spreading through protections of shareholders. 1980s, argues Deakin – “but the law former Soviet territories as well as into “Labour rights are fighting a constant caught up then and will do so again”. the global South during the 1990s – headwind across the decades,” says “The law, society and technology employment protection laws became Deakin. “Worker protections gradually often evolve out of sync. Sometimes the gradually stronger over time pretty get a bit stronger over time, while law actually triggers advancement, such much everywhere. shareholder rights start to rocket from as the commercialisation of intellectual “Even during the Thatcher years – the early 1990s – across the West but property rights contributing to innovation while trade union laws were certainly also in China and Russia. in IT and pharmaceuticals. You need dismantled – we don’t see significant “When you put these datasets to take a broad historical perspective weakening in individual protection laws together you can see labour weakening to gauge these interactions, which is governing areas such as termination of significantly compared with capital. exactly what our research allows.” employment, for example,” says Deakin. However, we can say that the labour Moreover, after controlling for all other share would have gone down even Professor Simon Deakin effects, the data suggest that this increase further were it not for the strengthening Centre for Business Research, in employment protection that most in employment protection law.” Cambridge Judge Business countries and regions experienced during The only dip of real note in the School, and Faculty of Law much of post-war history appeared to have otherwise steady uptick of global [email protected] no negative impact on their economies. employment regulation is found in In fact, the team found small but Europe following the 2008 crash. The Words positive correlations between stronger data show that labour protection laws Fred Lewsey 28 Spotlight: Work , for wo ter rse et : b r o F

rk life wo ur h o o e w p e ha motions s

ochen Menges, an expert understand that emotions matter. in organisational behaviour, But what they typically do – offering J thinks that emotions matter benefits like chill-out zones, free food, profoundly for employee performance yoga classes – is rather blunt and and behaviour. His studies bring does not account for the complexity nuance to our understanding of how of people’s emotional life.” employees wish to feel at work. Working with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Faas Happiness at work sounds like it can Foundation, Menges is diving deeper only be a good thing, but add the word into our understanding of emotions at like to feel,” Menges explains. “Now compulsory in front and it becomes a work. The ‘Emotion Revolution in the the challenge is to find ways to close rather chilling concept. Workplace’ project has asked over 10,000 that gap.” It is important for people to feel employees from a mix of occupations, Although the analyses of this new happy rather than miserable in their levels, ages, genders and ethnicities in dataset are still ongoing, Menges’ previous work – research shows that contented the USA not just how they feel, but also work gives some hints. He suggests that employees deliver better results after all. how they wish to feel at work. happiness may not primarily be about But some businesses regard The results show that while some perks. “The work itself, colleagues and happiness initiatives as a ‘salve’ that report feeling happy, many say they are supervisors, and the organisational can be applied across an organisation stressed, tired and frustrated at work. structure and culture play major roles in to increase employee wellbeing, as When it comes to how people wish to whether or not employees are happy.” Dr Jochen Menges from Cambridge feel, the study finds that most want to be In one study, Menges found that Judge Business School explains. appreciated, excited and happy. “There people experience more positive “The very fact that many organisations is a considerable gap between how emotions in organisations that are in now ‘invest in happiness’ means they people feel at work and how they would close touch with customers. 29 Research Horizons

‘I want to be happy at work’, speed of activities, raised performance what we actually mean by goals, shortened innovation cycles. ‘happy’ can differ greatly.” They were trying to get more done Menges tries to with fewer people at a faster pace.” understand how people But when performance went up, too differ in the feelings often companies tried to make this pace they look for at work, the new normal. The result was that and whether those employees’ energy began to drain. differences affect These companies were in the people’s choice ‘Acceleration Trap’ – a term he and a of employer and colleague coined in an article published engagement at work. in The Harvard Business Review. A For example, sobering 60% of surveyed employees in someone wanting to companies that were in this trap said that feel safe is likely to look they lacked sufficient resources to get for a stable, predictable their work done, compared with 2% in job, whereas someone companies that were not trapped. looking for excitement “Managers in accelerated companies might not care much about realised that something was amiss, job security as long as the but they took the wrong cure. Rather li job provides a stimulating than giving employees some relief, they ork fe environment. increased pressure. Ironically, their w The problem, according to calls for high performance led to lower r Menges, is that most of us are not that performance,” Menges says. u specific when it comes to how we want to “The Acceleration Trap is still a h feel. “We lack the emotional vocabulary common problem. Any uncertainty, such as o “These organisations tend to be to pinpoint our desired emotions, so we Brexit, can generate the conditions where more decentralised – decisions can just use ‘happy’. If we had better search companies overload and under-resource o e be taken at lower levels – and they terms, perhaps the search for happiness employees, and where organisational w p pay more attention to employees’ fatigue and burnout can result.” emotional abilities in recruiting and The good news is that it is possible to a promotion processes. Those two escape the trap. Menges looked at how e h factors in turn are linked to how “A bit of emotion, a leaders recognised the trap and moved m s positive the employees across an their company in different directions – otions organisation feel.” bit of up and down such as halting less-important work, It’s not all about being being clear about strategy and changing positive, however. – that’s what makes the culture. Although most research “When it comes to how people feel suggests that any pleasant work meaningful” in a business, many point to the leader. emotion has beneficial effects And it is right that leaders play a key on performance, creativity and role in setting the mood of a place,” commitment, Menges and his would not be that fuzzy and difficult.” Menges explains. In particular, leaders colleagues found in a recent study He suggests that organisations have with emotional intelligence – the ability to that some positive emotions – pride, a considerable influence on employees’ recognise emotions in oneself and others, for example – can be a problem. emotions and that employees within and to regulate emotions in ways that “If employees do not identify with an organisation tend to feel alike. help reach rather than hinder goals – are their organisation, then pride increases “Emotions are a very intimate and in a good position to steer their team’s their intention to leave. They think ‘I am personal experience, and yet how we and organisation’s collective emotions in better than this place,’ and look for new feel often depends largely on how people the right direction. opportunities.” By contrast, if employees around us feel. “But I think we need to also look identified with their organisation and “In some places, people are at how the organisation as a system is experienced events that made them enthusiastic, excited and inspired for set up,” he says. Menges believes that feel angry, they were less likely to quit. a better future; in others, they are some places are organised in a more “They want to stick it out and improve satisfied, calm, relaxed, easy-going. emotionally effective way than others. the situation.” Both are positive but have very different “If companies figure out how they can So any emotions can be a good energy levels, and that is linked to institutionalise emotionally intelligent thing, Menges suggests, even if they different outcomes.” systems, they would be much better off are unpleasant. “If managers suppress “In other places, there is aggression, than investing in ‘happiness initiatives’.” employees’ emotions, they over time create stress and anxiety – or frustration, an environment of indifference. Employees resignation and apathy. Again, both Dr Jochen Menges just get on with work, but they are not as negative, but with different energy levels Cambridge Judge Business committed and invested anymore. A bit of and outcomes.” School, and WHU–Otto Beisheim emotion, a bit of up and down – that’s what Places with high positive energy are School of Management, makes work meaningful.” at risk of losing it. Menges saw this at Düsseldorf Menges also challenges the idea that first hand when he studied the impact [email protected] employees should pursue ‘happiness’. “I of the economic crisis of 2008–2009. think people differ in how they wish to feel “Companies were working at a frenetic Words at work. Although many of us simply say pace – they increased the number and Louise Walsh 30 Spotlight: Work THE STRESSES AND STRAINS OF WORK AND UNEMPLOYMENT

stressful workplace can the context of today’s Britain, and how Coutts has been conducting an damage your health. But so policy can intervene to help. ethnographic study across five areas of A too can being out of work. He is studying an intervention that England since the trial started in January Cambridge researchers are trying aims to get people back to work and 2017 to complement a large-scale to understand why both situations to support their mental health needs. randomised control trial evaluation. He can be detrimental to our health and The programme is adapted from one has what he describes as “a ringside wellbeing – and help employers and developed by the Institute of Social seat” of the policy process and has government provide solutions. Research at the University of Michigan seen how the intervention has been and now being trialled by the DWP. designed, implemented and evaluated: When I ask Dr Adam Coutts what we know Participants take part in a voluntary a privileged point of access for any about the impact of unemployment on five-day course, during which they academic researcher. He observes health, his response is blunt and to the receive help with CV writing, social course participants and facilitators, and point: “It’s very bad.” support, interview techniques and how staff at job centres – “everyone from the There’s a pause before he goes on to search for a job, including how to unemployed to senior civil servants” – to to say that we’ve known for more than see the process from the viewpoint of see how these policies actually work on half a century that unemployment is bad an employer. the ground. for mental health and wellbeing, and “We know these types of interventions that this has a knock-on effect on our have an effect on job search behaviours physical health. Where there is debate, and a person’s health, but we don’t really though, is over why it is so bad. know why and who is most responsive. Studies suggest that work I’m trying to tell a story of what provides what he describes it’s like to go through these as “psychological vitamins programmes, be unemployed or functions”, such as and cope with mental health structure, routine, a issues in Britain today.” sense of identity and If the evidence from the opportunity to LO previous trials in the meet people and P YM USA is anything to go socialise. “It’s by, then the benefits not all about a M from such an wage,” he says. E intervention would Coutts E reach beyond the has been individual: as well N on research as helping people

placement N get back to work,

T

from the improving their Department U mental health

of Sociology and wellbeing

to the UK could save money

government’s for the NHS, as

Department 1 a result of less for Work and 0 reliance on GP G 0 Pensions (DWP) K or mental health and the Department services. of Health and Social But mental Care (DHSC) Work and health issues are not Health Unit since June just associated with 2016. There, he has been unemployment. There is a looking to better understand growing recognition of the link the link between unemployment between employment and our and mental health, particularly in health and wellbeing, too. A recent 31 Research Horizons

report for government, entitled ‘Thriving “A lot of these corporations say that at Work’, included some startling a combination of integrated and statistics for the UK: 15% of targeted approaches are really workers have a mental health important,” she says. condition and 300,000 An integrated approach people with long-term might consist of providing mental health problems access to a gym. lose their jobs each Targeted interventions year. Mental health ORK might include a costs employers W willingness to over £33 billion make ‘reasonable per year, the state adjustments’ such over £24 billion as moving an and the whole employee to less economy over strenuous work £73 billion. or allowing “Employers them to work need to part time.

understand While Van that stress and Bortel believes

anxiety, and employers should

mental ill health, 1 take responsibility is a large problem 0 for ensuring the G 0 in terms of people K health and wellbeing not being at work, of their employees, or being at work and she is a passionate not performing well,” believer that government says Professor Dame can – and should – think Carol Black, Principal of about our mental health. Newnham College, and author “I firmly believe that of several influential reports for government should ensure our government about work and health. workplaces are healthy and that Black believes that training at we’re not being confronted with some line management level to identify and of the stressful, unjust and – quite support workers with mental health issues frankly – inhumane situations that we’re is essential to tackling this problem; currently seeing. without this, measures to create healthier “Think about zero-hours contracts, workplaces will amount to little more than “Employers need or people having to work three jobs to papering over the cracks, Black says. make ends meet, or wage discrepancies However, she has seen enough to understand that and other structural inequalities. This examples of good practice in companies puts a lot of stress on persons, families such as BT, Unilever and Anglian Water stress and anxiety, and ultimately society, and can reflect to be optimistic that we can tackle this on work and productivity. More can and problem. “What you see are pockets and mental ill health, should be done. After all, healthy and of good practice, but I think we need a all-inclusive workforces make excellent campaign to really get it out there and is a large problem business sense.” say we know this is what we all should be doing – it isn’t that difficult to do.” in terms of people Business leaders are beginning to pay attention. In an article earlier this not being at work, year following the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Clifton Leaf, or being at work and Editor-in-Chief at the influential business Professor Dame Carol Black magazine Fortune, chose as number one not performing well” Newnham College of ‘7 Takeaways From Davos’: ‘The mental [email protected] health disorder time bomb is upon us’. One of the problems, however, is the build this evidence base. In fact, she Dr Adam Coutts lack of concrete evidence about what was namechecked in Leaf’s article after Department of Sociology and works. “People often ask ‘where’s the he attended a mental health event at Bennett Institute for Public Policy Cochrane-type evidence?’” says Black, Davos that she co-presented with the [email protected] referring to the ‘gold standard’ of evidence international care consortium Kaiser reviews in research. “It’s not easy to Permanente. Dr Tine Van Bortel collect data in the workplace, but we As part of her mandate with the World Cambridge Institute would only have better evidence if more Economic Forum Global Agenda Council of Public Health organisations collected data and were on Mental Health, Van Bortel has been [email protected] willing to share it.” leading a study looking at policies used by Dr Tine Van Bortel from the Cambridge major corporations aimed at improving the Words Institute of Public Health is helping to health and wellbeing of their workforce. Craig Brierley 32 Spotlight: Work

regulated people’s access to labour markets. The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using their skills, as in Juliana’s case, but also held 9000 back even the simplest of industrial innovations. What makes this detail of Juliana’s life so interesting is that it is one among a vast number of observations in a huge lists database on the lives of southwest German villagers between 1600 and 1900. Built by a team led by Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie in the Faculty of Economics, the database includes court records, 300 guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and – the most recent addition – 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries. years Ogilvie, who discovered the inventories in the archives of two German communities 30 years ago, believes they may hold How do education the answer to a conundrum that has long puzzled economists: the lack of evidence and economic for a causal link between education and a country’s growth and development. growth add up? “It might sound as if this is a no- brainer,” explains Ogilvie. “Education helps us to work more productively, invent better technology, earn more, have fewer children and invest more in them – surely it must be critical for economic growth? But, if you look back through history, there’s no evidence that having a high literacy rate made a country industrialise earlier.” She explains that between 1600 and 1900, England had only mediocre literacy rates by European standards, yet its economy grew fast and it was the first Words country to industrialise. Germany and Louise Walsh Scandinavia had excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they he handwritten inventories industrialised late. related objects like pens and slates had lain largely untouched for “Modern cross-country analyses suggested how people learned. T centuries. Sand used to dry have also struggled to find evidence that In addition, tax lists recorded the the ink still lay between the pages. education causes economic growth, even value of farms, workshops, assets Written neatly inside were thousands though there is plenty of evidence that and debts; signatures and people’s of lists that might hold the key to an growth increases education,” she adds. estimates of their age indicated literacy enduring puzzle in economics – does The inventories Ogilvie is analysing and numeracy levels; and court records education fuel economic growth? listed the belongings of women and men revealed obstacles that stifled industry, at marriage, remarriage and death. like Juliana and her wool-combing. In 1752, Juliana Schweickherdt, a From badger skins to Bibles, dung “Previous studies usually had just one 50-year-old spinster living in the small barrows to dried apple slices, sewing proxy for linking education with economic Black Forest community of Wildberg, was machines to scarlet bodices – the growth – the presence of schools and reprimanded by the local weavers’ guild villagers’ entire worldly goods were listed. printing presses, perhaps, or school for “weaving cloth and combing wool, Inventories of agricultural equipment and enrolment, or the ability to sign names. counter to the guild ordinance”. craft tools revealed economic activities; This database gives us multiple indicators When Juliana continued taking jobs ownership of books and education- for the same individuals,” she explains. “I reserved for male guild members she began to realise that, for the first time ever, was summoned before the guild court it was possible to link literacy, numeracy, and fined the equivalent of one third of wealth, industriousness, innovative a maidservant’s annual wages. The “It might sound behaviour and participation in the cash entire affair was then recorded neatly economy and credit markets – for individual in a ledger. as if this is a women and men, rich and poor, over the It was a small act of defiance by very long term.” today’s standards, but it reflects a time no-brainer” Since 2009, Ogilvie and her team when laws in Germany, and elsewhere, have been building the vast database 33 Research Horizons

The team will also ask whether more highly educated women had fewer children – enabling them to invest more in those they had – as well as what aspect of education helped people engage more with productive and innovative activities. Was it, for instance, literacy, numeracy, book ownership, years of schooling? Was there a threshold level – a tipping point – that needed to be reached to affect economic performance? Ogilvie hopes to start finding answers to these questions over the next two years. One thing is already clear, she says: the relationship between education and economic growth is far from straightforward. “German-speaking central Europe is an excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,” she explains. “We know that literacy rates and book ownership were high and yet the region remained poor. We also know that local guilds and merchant associations were powerful and resisted changes that threatened their monopolies. Entrenched village oligarchies opposed disruptive innovations and blocked labour migration. “Early findings suggest that the potential benefits of education for the economy can be held back by other barriers, and this has implications for today,” she says. “Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries but this spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people – especially women and the poor – from using their education in economically productive ways. If economic institutions are poorly set up, for instance,

education can’t lead to growth.” Credit: Original and reproduction, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart. HStAS A573 Bü. 4923, death inventory for Michael Planckh of Wildberg, 30 Oct. 1676 Ogilvie also hopes to dig deeper into which aspects of education matter. “We feel intuitively that the answer to the famous question posed by Tolstoy – of material possessions on top of Image ‘Can there be two opinions on the their full demographic reconstruction One of the lists that is being advantage of education?’ – is the one that of the people who lived in these two used to reconstruct 300 years Tolstoy gives: ‘If it’s a good thing for you, communities. “We can follow the same of economic history it’s a good thing for everyone’. people – and their descendants – across “But while some types of schooling 300 years of educational and economic It would be easy to focus on these just benefit the providers or the change,” she says. stories – the aspirations and tragedies, authorities, other types make kids Individual lives have unfolded before the societal norms and individual happier, increase their productivity, their eyes. Stories like that of the man who rebellions, the possessions precious maximise impact on people’s wellbeing wanted to grow a new crop – turnips – and prosaic – but, says Ogilvie, now and benefit the wider society.” but was forbidden by the village council that the data-gathering phase of the Ogilvie believes the data will contain because it meant driving his cart to the project is complete, “it’s time to ask answers, and says: “I look at what we’ve fields at a different time, threatening others’ the big questions”. amassed and I realise that I’m going to be crops in the communal rotation system. One way to look at whether education working on these inventories for the rest of Or the young weaver’s wife causes economic growth is to “hold my life… I can think of much worse fates.” Magdalena Schöttlin fined 11 days’ wealth constant” and follow the lives of wages for wearing an “excessively large people of a certain level, rich or poor, she Research funded by the British Academy, neckerchief ... above her station”. Or the explains. “Do we find education positively the Wolfson Foundation, the Economic 24-year-olds Ana Regina and Magdalena linked to the cultivation of new crops, or and Social Research Council and the Riethmüllerin who were chastised in 1707 to the adoption of industrial innovations Leverhulme Trust. for reading books instead of listening to like knitting frames or sewing machines? the pastor’s sermon. “This tells us that Or to the acquisition of ‘contemporary’ they were continuing to develop their goods such as cottons or coffee cups? Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie reading skills at least a decade after Or to female labour force participation or Faculty of Economics leaving school,” explains Ogilvie. involvement in the credit market?” [email protected] 34 Spotlight: Work Ma king the numbers count

esearchers call for gender call this the doom and gloom narrative Words equality and career support – it’s about the barriers that women face Eleanor Dodd R for women in the workplace, and why women fail. Let’s change the and an end to “the doom and gloom conversation about gender equality to narrative” over their limited numbers. focus on the factors that help women to succeed.” Glass ceilings, glass cliffs, glass Nadkarni is the lead academic on a escalators… much has been written about major global research project that reported the metaphorical glass barrier that stands in the European Business Review last year invisibly yet solidly between women and on the factors that help women to succeed high-level success across the economy. in corporate environments. The project It’s a description that exasperates gathered data from 1,071 companies in Professor Sucheta Nadkarni from 42 countries, covering 56 industries. The Cambridge Judge Business School. information spanned a ten-year period, “The challenges faced by women during which the average percentage of in business are well documented and women on executive teams in sampled fiercely debated, and there’s a tendency firms rose from 7.6% to just 11.7%. for most of this talk to be negative. I The study highlighted the many benefits that women in senior roles bring to companies. “It’s not just that hiring more women into senior positions is the right thing to do for gender equality, it’s also the smart thing to do from a business perspective,” says Nadkarni.

“We found that bringing more women to top roles can make a business function better, attract new customers and improve the bottom line. Women bring in diverse capabilities, diverse knowledge and new ways of thinking, which organisations need.” With revelations about the gender pay gap making current headlines – three quarters of the 10,000 firms that have provided information pay men more than women – the inequality problems women continue to face in the labour market are gaining increasing attention. However, Nadkarni is keen to focus on the future. “The question we need to ask now is: what can we do about this situation of unequal pay and unequal 35 Research Horizons

says Nadkarni. “They can also create next, taking critical mass failures into a hostile environment, by conveying a particular account. Organisations would sense of ‘preferential treatment’ rather then be required to analyse and explain than recognition of hard work, skills their continued segregation patterns and capabilities.” against their published goals. This might The research also uncovered some include analysing the different career of the loopholes that companies exploit profiles that various intersectional groups to meet quota requirements. For example, tend to have and the impact of dependant- in countries where family businesses are related responsibilities, reassessing common, quotas are sometimes fulfilled by the benchmark criteria for promotion, appointing female relatives to the board. and comparing those who have worked In one case, an 86-year-old, the daughter within the organisation for long periods to of the founder of a company in Turkey, newcomers with very different workloads. had been on the board since 1964. “The Critical Mass Marker approach Dr Jude Browne, the Jessica and is not going to solve all the segregation representation, and how can we create Peter Frankopan Director of the University problems that organisations tend to have,” a more optimistic, promising picture for of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, she adds. “But it puts a greater onus on our students and for the women who are has constructed a different approach to them to ensure those equipped with the just starting to rise up?” addressing gender equality that focuses relevant talents are able to move up and Her study considered the economic, on encouraging diversity at all levels of across institutional structures in a more political, legislative and cultural forces an organisation rather than simply quota effective and proportionate way than that determine the number of women requirements for senior roles. blanket quotas aimed solely at the top in the boardroom in different countries. Browne suggests that “each layers of management where we often The findings showed that the strongest organisation with significant pay gaps only see the same few women.” drivers are ‘female economic power’ and other segregation patterns needs Nadkarni is also keen to see more and a requirement for gender diversity to begin by building a detailed picture of women supported at every level, and in a country’s corporate governance what it thinks its data ought to look like would like to see action to increase the code. Maternity provisions and female and, crucially, publish its goals. number of women in executive teams, politicians providing a championing voice “Too many organisations simply not just on corporate boards. for women are also important factors. collect data, compile aggregate figures “Corporate boards are important, Female economic power was that don’t tell us that much and then look but they only play an indirect role in measured by the expected years of to other organisations to see how they influencing company strategies and schooling for women, and the percentage compare. Given that a great many are performance, because they mainly have of women in the labour force. The results failing to pick up real pace in addressing an advisory capacity,” she says. “The suggest that as women become more these patterns, the ‘comparison with decisions are made by the executive team. highly educated, and gain increasing levels competitors approach’ tends to generate So, if we want companies to benefit, if we of employment, they play a greater role a complacent comfort zone around what want women to really make an impact, in the marketplace. This then provides a ought to be, in many cases, unacceptable.” then it’s the executive teams that matter. powerful incentive for companies to hire As Browne set out at the European “In this context, a quote that comes more women onto the board, to reflect the Commission recently, the ‘Critical Mass to mind is it’s not about ‘counting the market they cater for. Marker’ approach focuses on skilled numbers’, it’s about ‘making the numbers Corporate governance codes are a women who are not advancing to the next count’. In other words, it’s not merely set of best practice recommendations, level as quickly as one might expect – that the quantity of women in top positions including gender diversity requirements. is, where critical mass is not having the that matters, but also whether policies In the past decade, codes have been desired flow effect. are in place at various levels – company, created in 64 countries. Among countries The approach requires an organisation government and corporate governance sampled in Nadkarni’s study, Colombia to undertake a detailed analysis of its codes – to ensure that women can make had the highest percentage of women workforce and mark out goals that a true impact in such roles. in executive teams, at 28.5%, and Japan proportionately relate each level to the “Hopefully in the future we will watch ranked bottom with 0.57%. the doom and gloom ebb away as the true These codes, says Nadkarni, are benefits of gender equality become crystal one example of a ‘soft’ measure that has clear to everyone.” been shown to be effective in helping “Hiring more women women to gain top roles in executive teams or on management boards. In into senior positions comparison, ‘hard’ targets – such as the mandatory quotas enforced on is the right thing companies by several countries to give a percentage of seats on the board to to do for gender women – do little to support gender diversity, and can also have a negative equality, it’s also Dr Jude Browne effect on company cohesion. University of Cambridge “Although quotas can help to improve the smart thing to Centre for Gender Studies the representation of women on corporate [email protected] boards, they do little to help women stay do from a business in senior positions long enough to make Professor Sucheta Nadkarni a real impact, and can have both positive perspective” Cambridge Judge Business School and negative effects on turnover rates,” [email protected] 36 Spotlight: Work

Will automation, AI and robotics mean a Humans jobless future, or will their productivity need not free us to innovate and explore? Is apply the impact of new technologies to be feared, or a chance to rethink the structure of our working lives and Words Louise Walsh ensure a fairer future for all?

human farme

automated picker self-driving tractor drone sprayer

n googling ‘will a robot take about the focus of many of today’s artificial intelligence (AI) – is one aspect my job?’ I find myself on a BBC conversations around the future of work. of the disruptive effects of technology O webpage that invites me to Many of the discussions are driven by on the labour market. ‘Disembodied discover the likelihood that my work stark numbers. According to a scenario AI’, like the algorithms running in our will be automated in the next 20 years. suggested recently by consultancy smartphones, is another. I type in ‘editor’. “It’s quite unlikely, McKinsey, 75–375 million workers Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge 8%” comes back. Quite reassuring (3–14% of the global workforce) will need Judge Business School believes that – but, coming from a farming family, to switch occupational categories by some of the most fundamental changes it’s a sobering moment when I type 2030, and all workers will need to adapt in work are happening as a result in ‘farmer’: “It’s fairly likely, 76%”. “as their occupations evolve alongside of ‘algorithmication’ of jobs that are increasingly capable machines”. dependent on information rather The results may well be out of date – Just recently, online retailer Shop Direct than production – the so-called such is the swiftness of change in labour announced the closure of warehouses and knowledge economy. market predictions – but the fact that the a move to automation, putting nearly 2,000 Algorithms are capable of learning from webpage even exists says something jobs at risk. Automation – or ‘embodied’ data to undertake tasks that previously 37 Research Horizons

needed human judgement, such as reading In the meantime, says Pachidi, in of unemployment. “History is clear that legal contracts, analysing medical scans our race to reap the undoubted benefits change can mean redundancies – after and gathering market intelligence. of new technology, it’s important to World War II, 42% of UK jobs were “In many cases, they can outperform avoid taking a laissez-faire approach to redundant, but social policy maintained full humans,” says Pachidi. “Organisations are algorithmication: “We need to make sure employment. Yes, technology can displace attracted to using algorithms because they we fully understand the dilemmas that people. But social policies can tackle this want to make choices based on what they this new world raises regarding expertise, through retraining and redeployment.” consider is ‘perfect information’, as well as occupational boundaries and control.” He adds: “The big problem to reduce costs and enhance productivity.” While Pachidi sees changes ahead in won’t be unemployment it will be But these enhancements are not the nature of work, economist Professor underemployment – people who want without consequences, says Pachidi, who Hamish Low believes that the future of to work but can’t because they have has recently started to look at the impact work will involve major transitions across zero-hours contracts. If there is going to of AI on the legal profession. the whole life course for everyone: “The be change to jobs as a result of AI and “If routine cognitive tasks are traditional trajectory of full-time education robotics then I’d like to see governments taken over by AI, how do professions followed by full-time work followed by a seizing the opportunity to improve policy develop their future experts?” she asks. pensioned retirement is a thing of the past.” to enforce good job security. We can “Expertise and the authority it gives “Disruptive technologies, the rise ‘reprogramme’ the law to prepare for a you is distributed in the workplace. One of the ad hoc ‘gig economy’, living fairer future of work and leisure.” way of learning about a job is ‘legitimate longer and the fragile economics of This might mean revitalising fiscal and peripheral participation’ – a novice stands pension provision will mean a multistage monetary policies such as a universal social next to experts and learns by observation. employment life: one where retraining security and taxing the owners of robots. If this isn’t happening, then you need to happens across the life course, and McGaughey’s findings are a call find new ways to learn.” where multiple jobs and no job happen to arms to leaders of organisations, Another issue is the extent to which by choice at different stages.” governments and banks to pre-empt the the technology influences or even His research examines the role of risk coming changes with bold new policies controls the workforce. For over two and the welfare system in relation to work that ensure full employment, fair incomes years, Pachidi was embedded in a and a thriving economic democracy. telecommunications company. There she “The promises of these new observed “small battles” playing out that technologies are astounding. They deliver could have vast consequences for the “If routine cognitive humankind the capacity to live in a way future of the company. that nobody could have once imagined,” “The way telecoms salespeople tasks are taken he adds. “Just as the industrial revolution work is through personal and frequent brought people past subsistence contact with clients, using the benefit over by AI, how agriculture, and the corporate revolution of experience to assess a situation enabled mass production, a third and reach a decision. However, the do professions revolution has been pronounced. company had started using a data But it will not only be one of technology. analytics algorithm that defined when develop their The next revolution will be social.” account managers should contact certain customers about which kinds of future experts?” campaigns and what to offer them.” The algorithm – usually built by external designers – often becomes the at these various life stages. “When we curator of knowledge, she explains. “In are talking about the future of work,” he cases like this, a myopic view begins to says, “we should have in mind these new creep into working practices whereby frameworks for what people’s lives will workers learn through the ‘algorithm’s look like, and prepare new generations for eyes’ and become dependent on its a different perspective on employment.” instructions. Alternative explorations – the On the subject of future job loss, he so-called technology of foolishness where believes the rhetoric is based on a fallacy: innovation comes out of experimentation “It assumes that the number of jobs is and intuition – is effectively discouraged.” fixed. If in 30 years, half of 100 jobs are Pachidi and colleagues have even being carried out by robots that doesn’t observed the development of strategies mean we are left with just 50 jobs for to ‘game’ the algorithm. “Decisions humans. The number of jobs will increase: made by algorithms can structure and we would expect there to be 150 jobs.” Professor Hamish Low control the work of employees. We are Dr Ewan McGaughey, at Cambridge’s Faculty of Economics seeing cases where workers feed the Centre for Business Research and [email protected] algorithm with false data to reach King’s College London, agrees that their targets.” “apocalyptic” views about the future Dr Ewan McGaughey It’s scenarios like these that many of work are misguided. “It’s the laws Centre for Business Research, researchers in Cambridge and beyond that restrict the supply of capital to Cambridge Judge Business School, are working to avoid by increasing the the job market, not the advent of new and King’s College London trustworthiness and transparency of AI technologies that causes unemployment.” [email protected] technologies (see issue 35 of Research His recently published research Horizons), so that organisations and answers the question of whether Dr Stella Pachidi individuals understand how AI decisions automation, AI and robotics will mean a Cambridge Judge Business School are made. ‘jobless future’ by looking at the causes [email protected] 38 This Cambridge Life The ‘King of Scuttle Flies’ who continues to discover new species

“Scuttle flies are fiendishly clever” Credit: Nick Saffell Nick Credit:

enry Disney admits that I’m sometimes asked: “what’s the That same year I had another big blow. the task of classifying point of studying flies?” My answer is I’d lost much of the sight in my left eye H hundreds of species of that they tell us a huge amount about over 30 years earlier. In December 2012, scuttle fly has sometimes seemed evolution, specialisation and the world we I developed a serious problem in my other like a crazy undertaking, especially live in. As a result of globalisation – the eye. It happened in the space of a single with his deteriorating eyesight. movement of people and goods across day. I was at a memorial service in a the world – insects are flourishing in Cambridge church when a kind of horizon The insect specimens I work new habitats. Several species breed in appeared in my good eye. on are tiny. Because of my poor corpses, including the infamous coffin fly. vision, I rely on a whole range of Over the years, I’ve worked with forensic The experts think the problem devices to magnify things. scientists to pinpoint the probable time of arose from a sarcoidosis. I’m on a death of the victim by using the life cycles combination of medications including I think I’m the only person willing to look of phorid flies as a guide. steroids. Usually with steroids you put at any phorids, or scuttle flies, from on weight but I haven’t. That’s probably anywhere in the world. At the moment I studied Natural Sciences at because I walk about 20 miles a week, I’ve got a queue of specimens waiting Cambridge. I went on to work at Flatford from home to my lab. I carry a hazel stick for me to identify them my lab at the Mill Field Centre in Suffolk, and as a that I cut from the hedge at the bottom Zoology Department. Identification relies medical entomologist in British Honduras of my garden and painted white. Like me, on fine details including making a series of (now Belize) and Cameroon. For 14 years, it’s a bit wonky. accurate measurements. I’m told that I’m I ran the Field Centre at Malham Tarn known as the ‘King of Scuttle Flies’. in Yorkshire. In 1984, I came back to The badge I wear around my neck Cambridge to concentrate on research makes my life much easier. It warns Estimates suggest that 80% of species into Phoridae. people that I can’t see well and saves all have yet to be described. Of around sorts of confusion in shops, for example. 250 genera of scuttle flies, more than half When my wife died in 2012, I was On the reverse is a message that explains the species belong to the giant genus faced with a choice. I’d never expected that I’m blind in one eye and purblind in Megaselia, which has been called the to outlive her and I considered that I’d the other but people kept asking me most challenging genus in the animal already had nine lives, almost dying twice what purblind meant. kingdom. At times, the task of classifying from cerebral malaria. I thought that I them has seemed a crazy undertaking. could either stay at home and mope or Friends and colleagues help me It can be a question of looking at tiny carry on with the work I loved. I opted keep abreast of imaging technology. variations in male genitalia. for the latter. A combination of hardware and software 39 Research Horizons

enables me to keep working in my lab. Cambridge University’s Disability Resource Centre has been very helpful. My grandchildren too are brilliant at teaching me how to use the latest gadgets.

I was born just before the Second World War. My father was based in Sudan where he was an administrator. In 1942, my mother went with him to help GENDER with a relocation and was stranded there. I didn’t see my parents until four years later when I was almost seven.

In our parents’ absence our Aunt EQUALITY Sheila was officially our guardian. We spent holidays with her at Burnham Overy Staithe in north Norfolk, where she Cambridge University Press aims to share the excellent had rooms above a boathouse. One of her rules was that we should bring back knowledge and research of our authors around this free fuel and food every day. This meant incredibly important topic. As one of the world's searching the marsh and creeks for sea coal and whelks. leading and most respected University Presses, we have a signifi cant part to play in helping women in I’ve always loved field work. I met my wife when we were both working at Academia have a voice and in championing their work. Flatford Mill Field Centre. During my time at Malham Tarn Field Centre, I started 9781107477414 Garcia-Matos & Torner CVR C M Y K Garcí

and, with my colleague Dr Sarah Corbet, Grossman. 9781107133365 PPC. C Bioethics and Law

Nine to Five provides a lively and accessible introduction to the G a rossman - Marta garcía-Matos is a physicist, mathematician, discover the spectacular power of light with this visually Ma laws“ andThe policiesWonders regulating of Light provides sex, sexuality, a fantastic and genderpanorama identity in

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s & Torner the Institute of Photonic sciences. role light technologies will play in the development of NINe light-based technologies are shaping our society. the breadth and persistence of sexism and gender stereotyping. future society. the authors are internationally renowned Through a series of essays organized around sex discrimination, Lluís torner is the Founding director of IcFo – the experts in science and science communication, and the series as practical guidebooks for others sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and pay equity, Institute of Photonic sciences. He is a Fellow of the book is written in a way that is scientifically accurate at to european Physical society, the european optical Be inspired by state-of-the-art science the bookthe same highlights time as legal being rules accessible and doctrines to a broad that audience. privilege men society, and the optical society of america. this is really a one-of-a-kind publication that is sure to sixteen beautiful, straightforward chapters demonstrate the over women and masculinityProperty over femininity. in In understanding the Body have an enduring impact with a very wide appeal. The Wonders of LIG

working in the field. science behind the fascinating and surprising ways in which light M

the law – what it forbids, what it allows, and to what it turns a N Its publication in 2015Feminist is timed Perspectives perfectly with the

can be harnessed and used, from displays, solar cells, and the Y

K blindInternational eye – we see Year why of it Light.” is far too soon to declare the triumph internet to advanced quantum technologies. IN e FIve of working women’s equality. Despite significant gains for John dudley, Chairman of the IYL 2015 Steering Donna Dickenson Be dazzled by brilliant color women,Committee gender continues to define the work experience in both How Gender, Sex, and dramatic design and radiant color illustrations bring cutting-edge predictable and surprising ways. A witty and engaging guide science and ground-breaking innovations to life, clearly explaining to the legal terrain, Nine to Five also proposes solutions to the Sexuality Continue to Define

Scuttle flies are fiendishly clever. Many the fundamental principles behind them. SECOND EDITION

many obstacles that remain on the path to equality. to “If you are looking for a book about science that, like a the American Workplace favorite piece of music, poem, or artwork, makes your Be part of something bigger h

T Joannaskin tingle, L. Grossmanthis is it. a wonderful, is the multifacetedSidney and cascadeWalter Siben

are parasitoids. They enter the host’s rear F Featuring a foreword by nobel Laureate and former us secretary of color, fascination, and art that, with perfect timing, of energy, steven chu, this book has been published in association Distinguished Professor of Family Law at the Maurice A. elegantly introduces the astonishing things that I Joanna L. Grossman with IcFo – the Institute of Photonic sciences to celebrate the Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. An expert in scientists and engineers are doing with light.” ve end and move forward 2015consuming International Year of Light. It will enthrall anyonethe interested The sex discrimination law, she has coauthored numerous books, in the developments of science, technology and human civilization Philip russell, President of The Optical Society (OSA) including Inside the Castle: Law and the Family in 20th Century that have been made possible by light. and Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science non-vital organs before entering the ant’s Americaof Light, winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Wonders Legal History, and Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women’s head capsule where they pupate. of Light Equal Citizenship.

Marta García-Matos Cover image: Courtesy of © Photocase / flammenhannes Cover design by Holly Johnson My 600th paper is currently in press. and LLuís torner One is co-authored with a Danish schoolmaster. We’ve identified Macpherson Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson

14 new species of phorids. The Cambridge Introduction to Roth “Sarah Roth’s Gender and Race in ENDER Antebellum Popular Culture presents a G THE LOGICS OF Margaret Atwood grand – and bold – narrative about Afri- can American citizenship and the causes Sarah N. Roth is Associate Professor of History LOGICS OF THE In the decades leading to the Civil War, popular heidi slettedahl macpherson, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK of Civil War that put elite women at the and Chair of the History Department at Widener conceptions of African American men shifted The Cambridge The center of the story. She presents a compel- AND RACE GENDER JUSTICE Margaret Atwood offers an immenselyUniversity. influential voice in contemporary literature. ling case that abolitionist white women dramatically. The savage slave featured in 1830s’ For years, friends and colleaguesHer novels have been translated into over twenty-two languages and are widely studied, remade the image of enslaved men, from novels and stories gave way by the 1850s to the A that of savages to citizens as they debated G taught and enjoyed. Her style is defined by her comic wit and willingness to experiment. less threateningState humble black Action martyr. This radi-on Women’s Rights and outmaneuvered proslavery southern-

Her work has ranged across several genres, from poetry to literary and cultural criticism, NTEBELLUM ENDER IN ANTEBELLUM cal reshaping of black masculinity in American novels, short stories and art. ers. In this process the elite women set in culture occurred at the same Aroundtime that the reading the World told me I should write about myThis Introduction life. summarizes Atwood’s canon, from her earliest poetry and her first motion the impulses that led to war and novel, The Edible Woman, through The Handmaid’s Tale to The Year of the Flood. It features ultimately freedom for enslaved people. and writing of popular narratives were emerg- to Introduction chapters on her life and career, her literary, Canadian and feminist contexts, and how The book, based on an extraordinary range POPULAR CULTURE ing as largely feminine enterprises. In a society

of sources, challenges key ideas about the

her work has been received and debated over the course of her career. With a guide to AND where women wielded little offi cial power, white I resisted because I felt that autobiographyfurther reading and a clear, well-organized structure, this book presents an engaging agency of black men, white women, and female authors exalted white femininity, using overview for students and readers. proslavery Southerners. It poses a bold “Filled with surprises and discoveries, challenge to the dominant ideas about narrative forms such as autobiographies, novels, R

P Sarah N. Roth Sarah Roth’s book shows us antebellum how much women, slaves, and proslavery GENDER short stories, visual images, and plays, by stress- This book covers: ACE

thinkers infl uenced the nation’s actions OPULAR was often more fictitious than fiction. I American literature in a new light. ing differences that made white women appear • Life • Contexts Exploring the intricate dance between from 1830 to 1870. Roth promises to ignite superior to male slaves. This book argues that • Works • Reception Atwood Margaret representations of white women and black debate over how cultural ideas about Afri-

men, Roth shows novels struggling to make can Americans arose, how they changed, IN white women, as creators and consumers of sense of American society as it lurched and how those ideas and images changed popular culture media, played a pivotal role in

eventually caved in and Regaining Life’s our country.” from one decade, and crisis, to another.” the demasculinization of black men during the Cambridge Introductions to Literature – Edward Ayers, President and – Alfred L. Brophy, Judge John J. C

antebellum period and consequently had a vital

Professor of History, University Parker Distinguished Professor JUSTICE Winding Trail was published in 2017.This series is designed to introduce students to key topics and authors. of Richmond of Law, University of North ULTURE impact on the political landscape of antebellum Carolina School of Law Accessible and lively, these introductions will also appeal to readers The Cambridge Introduction to and Civil War–era America through their powerful who want to broaden their understanding of the books and authors infl uence on popular culture. “Brimming with astute and wonderfully suggestive insights about the changing images of they enjoy. black men and white women in antebellum fi ction about slavery, Sarah Roth’s fascinating • Ideal for students, teachers and lecturers new book is a most welcome addition to the literature on antebellum America.” • Concise, yet packed with essential information – Michael Holt, Williams Professor of American MargaretHistory Emeritus, University Atwood of Virginia People make Cambridge University• Key suggestions for further reading Front jacket image: Henr y Louis Stephens, “He Died for Me!” Source: Album Varieties No. 3, The Slave in 1863, Philadelphia, 1863. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Cover image: The Reader, 1933 (w/c onPrints paper) and by Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-28495. unique. Cooks, gardeners, students,Henry A. (Harry) Payne (1868-1940) © Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museums, Gloucestershire,Back jacket UK / image: A section taken from “Horrid Massacre The Bridgeman Art Library. in Virginia,” 1831. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, JWJ Zan T856 831Cb. MALA HTUN and S. LAUREL WELDON archivists, professors: all have a story Jacket designed by Alice Soloway Printed in the United States of America to share. Read over 60 stories now published in our series ‘This Cambridge Life’ https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life www.cambridge.org/iwd2018

Interview Alex Buxton

Dr Henry Disney Department of Zoology [email protected]

37992.indd 1 23/04/2018 10:21 T +44 (0)1223 765 443 Contact E [email protected] Research Horizons W cam.ac.uk/research University of Cambridge f facebook.com/cambridge.university Office of External Affairs and twitter.com/cambridge_uni Communications youtube.com/cambridgeuniversity The Old Schools instagram.com/cambridgeuniversity Trinity Lane Cambridge CB2 1TN

The productivity gap is one of the most serious and vexing economic problems facing the government of the day Credit: T-Rex & Flower Correction: the cover image of issue 35 was a photograph of a (p. 20) sculpture by Rona Pondick