HRESOEARRCH IZONS In this issue SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN plus news and views from across the University

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

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 EDITORIAL T T H R E O

Welcome to the S P Y I C N A

summer issue of D L I

C B S I O Research Horizons, in O L O F

G which we join the C A Y

M A S celebrations* of B S R O I D C G

Charles Darwin’s birth I A E T

U I O

200 years ago and N N I V E

the publication of his R S I T work On the Origin of Species 150 years Y

L I B ago. R A R Cambridge is home to a treasure- Y trove of Darwin’s artefacts and documents. The world’s largest collections of his plant, animal and geological specimens, his correspondence and manuscripts, Mr Darwin’s postbag Cambridge Conservation notes and experiment books can be Initiative found in our libraries and museums. As a result, the University has become a focal point for research on the pioneering Victorian naturalist. His Contents theories of evolution, natural selection and the origin of species lie at the heart Research News 3–7 of many research areas today – whether Recent stories from across the University it’s the pattern of butterfly wings, biological complexity, human origins, Spotlight On Darwin 8–19 viral evolution or optimising Mr Darwin’s postbag 8 engineering design. This issue brings On the wings of a butterfly 10 you a flavour of this research at In Darwin’s footsteps: the geology of the Galapagos 12 Cambridge: the remarkable stories Displaying the foundations of evolutionary thinking 13 surrounding Darwin’s artefacts, and the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies 14 new dimension Darwin’s theories have Design optimisation by evolution 15 brought to understanding the world we live in. What Darwin didn’t know: viruses and evolution 16 Research Horizons has its own new Stirring tails of evolution 18 dimension this issue in the shape of knowledge transfer (KT). At the core of Preview 20–21 this catch-all term is the mutually Rethinking eccentricity beneficial exchange of knowledge between academia, business and the Knowledge Transfer 22 public sector. A great many examples What is knowledge transfer? of KT activities happen across the University and we’ll be covering these in Features 23–31 subsequent issues; we set the scene this Glaucoma: the silent thief of sight 23 time with an article that draws together Cambridge Conservation Initiative: transforming international 24 the different forms KT can take, and how these are supported in Cambridge. biodiversity conservation The life-sized bronze statue featured Drying without dying 26 on our front cover was unveiled at From beyond the grave 28 Christ’s College on the bicentenary of Tales of Vikings and Irish, clerics and kings 29 Darwin’s birth by Chancellor of the Unclouding uncertainty in climate modelling 30 University HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Sculpted by Anthony Smith, In Focus: Cancer Research UK 32 –33 who (like Darwin) was a student at Christ’s, the statue captures Darwin, Inside Out: Professor David MacKay 34 aged 22, in the final year of his undergraduate study in Cambridge, six Forthcoming Events 35 months before embarking on the HMS Beagle voyage that set him on the path to the theory of evolution. The Back Page 36 Your way into Cambridge

Dr Louise Walsh, Editor Cover photograph of Christ’s College’s bronze sculpture of Charles Darwin, created by Anthony [email protected] Smith (Photographer: Anthony Smith). Edited by Louise Walsh. Designed by Cambridge Design Studio (www.cambridgedesignstudio.org). *See page 35 for the Darwin 2009 Printed by Falcon Printing Services Ltd (www.falcon-printing.co.uk). Festival and other Darwin-related events. ©2009 University of Cambridge and Contributors as identified. All rights reserved.

2 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 RESEARCH NEWS

Supercharged rice: the answer to Cambridge famine? confirmed as An ambitious project that aims to increase rice yields could provide the solution to future food shortages. global leader in R A Y M

O health science N D

P

A A partnership that includes N A L I G the University and its three A N / I N principal NHS Trust Partners T E R N

A has been named a top-flight T I O

N Academic Health Science A L

R I C Centre. E

R E S

E The UK’s Department of Health has A R C

H designated Cambridge University

I N S

T Health Partners as one of five Academic I T U

T Health Science Centres (AHSCs) from E among the leading university medical centres in the country. AHSC status recognises partnerships between world-class universities and leading NHS organisations that have the potential to compete globally and to speed up the process of taking research breakthroughs into NHS patient care. The organisations that make up Cambridge University Health Partners are the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation A worldwide consortium of experts that three-carbon compound, can produce Trust. includes Dr Julian Hibberd in Cambridge higher yields. The goal of the Consortium In forming a formal alliance, the four University’s Department of Plant is to convert rice from a C 3 to a C 4 pathway. organisations will be brought closer Sciences has been brought together to Cambridge’s contribution is to together in pursuit of outstanding re-engineer rice in efforts to avoid future unpick and rebuild the C 4 apparatus at excellence in clinical care, clinical shortages of a cereal consumed by about the molecular level. Dozens of genes are education and health research. The half of the world’s population. This major known to be involved, and alterations will partnership will also work to accelerate scientific endeavour is under the be required in the biochemistry of innovation and generate wider leadership of the International Rice photosynthesis, leaf anatomy and cell economic and social benefits in the Research Institute in the Philippines, and biology. The collective expertise of the Greater Cambridge area as well as is funded by an $11 million grant from Consortium will be required to construct nationally. the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. and test the prototypes of a C 4 rice plant. ‘About a billion people worldwide If the basic science is successful, the first Cambridge University Health currently live on less than a dollar a day, varieties will be available 10–15 years later. Partners will be managed by a board and 850 million live in hunger,’ explained ‘There is biological precedent for that includes representatives of all four organisations; Professor Patrick Sissons, Dr Hibberd. ‘By 2050, the demands of changing from a C 3 to a C 4 pathway in increasing population growth and plants, since it’s known to have evolved the Head of the School of Clinical urbanisation are predicted to result in independently many times,’ said Dr Medicine and Regius Professor of mass malnutrition. One way to alleviate Hibberd. ‘The challenge is how to repeat Physic, will be Director of the AHSC. this problem is to develop higher-yielding the process in rice in the necessary time ‘I am delighted that we have been rice.’ frame to avoid potential food shortages judged worthy of this designation by In an innovative approach, the C 4 Rice in the future.’ a very distinguished panel of our Consortium plans to reconfigure the international peers and by the photosynthetic pathway used by rice. For more information, please Department of Health,’ said Professor Some plants are capable of converting contact Dr Julian Hibberd Sissons. ‘This designation is an the energy from sunlight into chemical ([email protected]). important recognition of the excellence energy more efficiently than others. This Dr Hibberd was recently identified of all four of our organisations and the mechanism, known as C 4 photosynthesis by Nature magazine as one of five great value we can bring collectively to because the carbon is fixed into four- ‘crop researchers who could change research, education and patient care.’ carbon sugars rather than the usual the world’.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 3 RESEARCH NEWS

Equipping A history of drink and drugs A large interdisciplinary network is aiming to shed light on the nanoscientists practices, rituals and attitudes surrounding intoxication. © V I C

of the future T O R I A

Cambridge’s new Doctoral A N D

A

Training Centre (DTC) in L B E R T

NanoScience will train a M U S E

new generation of U M ,

L

nanoscience entrepreneurs. O N D O

In a matter of months, the first cohort N of 10 students will begin their four-year training in nanotechniques, innovation and business practice. In total, over 50 PhD students during the next five years will be trained in the skills and experience needed to become nanoscience entrepreneurs, thanks to a new Doctoral Training Centre in Cambridge funded by £6.8 million from Painting by Shiva Lal, commissioned by the East India Company in the 1850s, showing the transport of opium the Engineering and Physical Sciences Dr Phil Withington from the Faculty of History Parliamentary Health Committee considering Research Council (EPSRC). has been funded by the Economic and Social the problem of alcohol. Directed by Professor Jeremy Research Council (ESRC) to explore the Dr Withington convenes the network Baumberg with co-director Professor Mark historical and cultural perspectives of with Dr Angela McShane at the Victoria and Blamire, the DTC draws together a team intoxication and intoxicants. ‘Intoxication is a Albert Museum (V&A). Network participants from the Departments of Physics, subject that attracts significant contemporary will share perspectives through a series of Materials Science, Engineering and public attention – whether it’s debates over workshops at the V&A, a conference in Chemistry. The training includes a first licensing and ‘binge drinking’, or the Cambridge and an edited volume of essays. year of taught courses, rotating around categorisation and policing of addictive ‘Intoxicants and intoxication is a topic that the four departments, followed by an substances,’ said Dr Withington. ‘Because the is proving increasingly important both as a interdisciplinary PhD placement in one of problem of intoxication is trans-historical and subject in its own right and as a means of the nanoscience research groups around trans-cultural, we can arrive at a better thinking about wider social identities, the University. An important element of appreciation of this preoccupation through practices and processes in a range of the programme is exposure to innovation historical and anthropological comparison.’ historical and cultural contexts,’ said and business courses through the One strand of his research has been the Dr Withington. ‘My own research, for instance, University’s Judge Business School. formation of an interdisciplinary network to looks at the notion that the expansion in the ‘This is a wonderful investment in consider questions relating to the market for intoxicants was a defining feature young researchers, complementing the consumption of intoxicants of all kinds. of early modernity. As such, intoxicants can strong nano-fabrication infrastructure Currently numbering over 50 individuals from be understood as one of the key drivers of and world-class interdisciplinary groups 27 different institutions, the network includes social change in modern history.’ across the University of Cambridge,’ Cambridge researchers Dr Victoria Harris, commented Professor Baumberg. ‘The DTC Dr Sarah Howard and Dr Craig Muldrew in the If you are interested in joining the will provide postgraduates with a broader Faculty of History, and Dr Rebecca Flemming Intoxicants and Intoxication in Historical experience than currently possible in in the Faculty of Classics. Five members of the and Cultural Perspective Network, please either graduate research or technological network, including Dr Withington, were contact Dr Phil Withington innovation and will help them to forge recently asked to submit reports to a ([email protected]). lasting links with industry.’ The DTC is part of a £250 million initiative to create 44 training centres Innovator of the Year across the UK and train over 2000 PhD students. Minister of State for Science and Professor Stephen Jackson has been honoured for his innovative Innovation, Lord Drayson, explained the research on DNA repair. importance of this move: ‘Britain faces The award, organised by the Biotechnology cancer cells, leaving normal cells many challenges in the 21st century and and Biological Sciences Research Council unaffected. His work developing cancer needs scientists and engineers with the (BBSRC), honours the UK bioscientist who has therapies is now saving the lives of right skills to find answers to these been best at turning world-class research into numerous patients. challenges, build a strong economy and a product, company, service or advice that ‘It’s a tremendous honour to receive keep us globally competitive. EPSRC’s has had an impact on our lives. Professor this prestigious award,’ Professor Jackson Doctoral Training Centres will provide a Jackson was named Innovator of the Year at commented. ‘It really reflects that science, new wave of engineers and scientists to the inaugural ceremony in March. like that funded by BBSRC and Cancer do the job.’ Professor Jackson's research into DNA Research UK in my group over the years, can For more information, please contact damage and repair led to the formation of yield both exciting science and commercial Professor Jeremy Baumberg KuDOS Pharmaceuticals in 1997, following his and social applications.’ Professor Jackson is ([email protected]) or visit discovery that it was possible, in principle, to the Frederick James Quick Professor of http://np.phy.cam.ac.uk/NanoDTC1.htm develop drugs that specifically prevented Biology at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer certain DNA repair proteins from working in Research UK Gurdon Institute.

4 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 RESEARCH NEWS

Harnessing materials for energy Cambridge has received £1.4 million funding to progress innovative energy solutions. Research Councils UK (RCUK) has such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and methods for organic film deposition, and announced funding of £12 million to be solar cells. will develop novel ultralight materials based shared among ten UK institutions to Professor Humphreys’ research on on polymers, metals and composites for use support collaborations between British gallium nitride (GaN)-based LEDs recently in transportation. universities and institutions in China, India reached a landmark with the development ‘This exciting project using world- and the USA. The £1.4 million Science of a new technique to grow GaN on large leading science from Cambridge and UCSB Bridges Award to the University of silicon wafers, reducing the cost of the LED should result in new types of lighting, solar Cambridge will help to take existing chip tenfold compared with previous cells and materials for transport,’ explained research through to prototype products in approaches. The RCUK funding will continue Professor Humphreys. ‘This award will the field of energy-related materials. this work, as well as build innovative multi- translate research into prototype devices Cambridge’s team is led by Professor layer solar cells, and LEDs coated with novel that will save energy, reduce carbon Colin Humphreys in the Department of phosphors to improve colour rendering for emissions, and be not only cheaper but also Materials Science and Metallurgy, with lighting in the home. Professor Cheetham, better quality than existing devices.’ Professor Tony Cheetham in the same who leads the phosphor research, recently Lord Drayson, Minister of State for department, Professor Sir Richard Friend in joined Cambridge from UCSB. Science and Innovation, added: ‘The RCUK the Department of Physics, and Professor New approaches will be developed to Science Bridges Awards are an excellent Ian White and Dr Vikram Deshpande in the make the harnessing of solar energy more example of how the UK is encouraging Department of Engineering. It will build viable. Cambridge-based researchers will research which has both strong upon existing collaborations with the focus on developing low-cost, moderate- international collaborations and close links University of California at Santa Barbara efficiency, organic solar cells; whereas UCSB- with business.’ (UCSB). based researchers will concentrate on Five key themes are to be tackled with developing more-efficient cells. Cambridge For more information, please contact the principal aim of reducing the cost and will also address low-cost manufacturing Professor Colin Humphreys increasing the efficiency of energy materials through the development of printing ([email protected]).

A tool for monitoring neurological intensive care Clinical researchers have developed software for interpreting the enormous quantities of data generated by bedside monitors. Dr Peter Smielewski (left) and Dr Marek Czosnyka Over the past decade, Dr Peter Smielewski and easily comprehensible to medical Enterprise, to configure the software for and Dr Marek Czosnyka in the staff. specific needs and to provide advice to Neurosurgery Unit of the Department of At first, the software focused on data first-time users of the software. The Clinical Neurosciences have been generated by monitoring patients with majority of royalties received through developing software as an aid to head injuries and hydrocephalus. But, the licence agreements are returned to monitoring patients in neurological the software is now increasingly being the academics and the Department to intensive care. The intensive care applied to conditions such as severe provide much-needed funding for multimodality monitoring system, or stroke, subarachnoid haemorrhage, further research into finding solutions for ICM+, has now been successfully licensed cerebral infection and liver failure. helping patients in neurological by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd as a research ‘Because the software has been licensed intensive care. tool to medical researchers in over 30 as a research tool, it provides a unified centres worldwide. platform for collaborative studies with For more information, please visit The challenge addressed by ICM+ other medical centres, which feeds www.neurosurg.cam.ac.uk/icmplus/ was to collate the huge array of further development of the software,’ about.html or contact Cambridge complex, constantly changing data explained Dr Smielewski. Enterprise (Tel: +44 (0)1223 760339; generated by bedside monitors, and to The team also undertakes email: [email protected]; present them in a way that is quickly consultancy work through Cambridge www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk).

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 5 RESEARCH NEWS N G I A F T T I

O O N F A

Endless Forms T L H

G E

A M L O

Science meets art at a L E R R R Y I S

O

ground-breaking exhibition A F N

A D R

G revealing the interchange T , W

W E A N S D

between Charles Darwin’s H O I N L G Y N T

revolutionary theories and O

C N A ,

F D R

art of the late 19th century. C I T ;

Z

F O U

‘Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, natural N D A

science and the visual arts’ presents a new T I O perspective that explores both Darwin’s N interest in the visual arts and the vast range of artistic responses to his ideas. Developed by The Fitzwilliam Museum in association with the Yale Center for British Art, the exhibition is supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Philecology Foundation. ‘Today, when science and art are generally considered as separate domains of intellectual and creative achievement, the Martin Johnson Heade, Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds, 1871, oil on panel Rory Finnin notion that Darwin’s ideas might have influenced the arts is perhaps surprising at Endless Forms draws together these exhibition juxtaposes paintings, drawings, sculptures and early photographs with first,’ said Jane Munro, co-curator of Endless wide-ranging artistic responses; from natural history specimens, maps of Forms and Senior Assistant Keeper of imaginings of prehistoric Earth, to troubled geological stratification, botanical teaching Paintings, Drawings and Prints at The evocations of a life dominated by the diagrams and vivid ornithological Fitzwilliam. ‘Yet the implications of his ‘struggle for existence’; from fantastic visions specimens, as well as rarely exhibited revolutionary ideas of evolution by natural of life-forms in perpetual evolution, to material from the Darwin Archive at selection had a profound effect on society at images of colour and pattern in nature Cambridge University Library. large, putting in question man’s relationship influenced by Darwin’s own response to the to the natural world and challenging the beauties of the natural world. Endless Forms will be on display at understanding of what it meant to be With nearly 200 exhibits from over 100 The Fitzwilliam Museum from 16 June human. As this exhibition sets out to show, institutions worldwide – many on public to 4 October 2009 artists were in no sense immune from this.’ display in the UK for the first time – the (www.darwinendlessforms.org). Unravelling the secrets of Salmonella infection Two new studies have uncovered important clues about how a prolific pathogen causes disease. Salmonella bacteria are infamous intestinal Understanding these events at a led by Dr Andrew Grant, Dr Pietro Mastroeni pathogens that infect humans and animals, molecular level has been helped by findings and Professor Duncan Maskell developed causing about 1.3 billion cases of human published by Dr Daniel Humphreys and Dr molecular tags to mark populations of food-borne diarrhoea and systemic typhoid Peter Hume in a team led by Professor Vassilis otherwise identical bacteria; in combination fever each year throughout the world. Koronakis in the Department of Pathology. with multicolour fluorescence microscopy, Following infection, the bacteria deliver a The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, these tagged bacteria could then be tracked cocktail of virulence proteins that take has uncovered features of an unexpected during an infection. By constructing control of the cell’s cytoskeleton and pathway by which Salmonella manipulates mathematical models, the team have networks of signalling pathways, growing the host cell to promote its own growth. managed to tease out the sequence of inside infected cells in membrane-bound Salmonella was engineered to deliver a events, providing a more sophisticated Salmonella -containing vacuoles (SCVs). mutant protein that stalled activity of the picture of how an infectious disease is driven P R

O than previously possible. Thanks to recently

F protein it binds to in the infected cell, thereby E

S awarded funding from the Medical Research S

O capturing it. Using protein biochemistry and R

Council (MRC), they are now ready to exploit V

A fluorescence microscopy, it was shown that S

S these systems to understand the impact of I

L the Salmonella protein subverts the assembly I S

key host and bacterial factors on the K

O of protein complexes required for membrane R pathogenesis of Salmonella at the level of O

N fusion and formation of intracellular A individual bacterial subpopulations. In the K I

S organelles, ensuring a safe, rich, intracellular long term, this technique will provide a basis replicative niche for itself. Not only does this for targeting individual bacterial components study suggest potential new targets to in vivo with novel drugs and vaccines that are counteract disease but it also uncovers new directed specifically to the sites of infection. aspects of mammalian cell biology. Meanwhile, scientists at the Department For more information, please contact of Veterinary Medicine have pioneered a Professor Vassilis Koronakis Salmonella (red) in the process of establishing its technique to track the pattern and spread of ([email protected]) and Dr Andrew Grant vacuolar niche (green) in a human cell (cytoskeleton stained in blue) bacterial infection within the body. The team ([email protected]).

6 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 RESEARCH NEWS T O P K A

Greek Grammar to fill the gap P I

S A R A

A new Grammar will be the first comprehensive description of Y

M U the medieval and early modern Greek language. S E U M ,

I

For the past five years, a team led by syntactic features that are characteristic of S T A

Professor David Holton in the Modern Greek Greek today. N B U

Section of the Faculty of Modern and Fortuitously, 1100–1700 is also a period L Medieval Languages has been gathering, in which texts in the vernacular are available analysing and organising linguistic data for in sufficient quantities for researchers to a new Greek Grammar. Co-directed by observe trends and identify the factors that Professor Geoff Horrocks (Faculty of influence variation. ‘But, despite the Classics), the project is staffed by two full- increasing availability of this material, there time research associates, Dr Notis Toufexis has been no systematic and detailed and Ms Marjolijne Janssen, and two account of the development of the Greek honorary consultants, Dr Io Manolessou language during this crucial period,’ said and Dr Tina Lendari, and is funded by the Professor Holton. ‘The Grammar aims to fill a Arts and Humanities Research Council serious gap in the history of Greek. This (AHRC). standard reference work will underpin a Greek is one of the world’s oldest growing interest in medieval and early recorded languages, with a documented modern Greek literature and its historical, history spanning 34 centuries. Although social and cultural context.’ scholars have analysed and described the The Grammar spans a geographical area

Greek of the Classical, Hellenistic and from southern Italy to the Black Sea, Sources for the Grammar include texts like this Roman periods in detail, the linguistic encompassing written texts of all kinds, and manuscript, Serailiensis graecus 35 (folio no. 34, situation is much less studied after the end giving a full account of linguistic recto) of Antiquity. At around 1100 AD the developments within this period. It is a beginnings of the modern vernacular first high-tech project, using electronic For more information, please became evident, and over the next 600 databases and digitised corpora to store contact Professor David Holton years the language underwent significant and sort a mass of information. Once ([email protected]) or see changes, with the medieval vernacular completed, the Grammar will be published www.mml.cam.ac.uk/greek/ gradually acquiring the morphological and by Cambridge University Press. grammarofmedievalgreek

More stories published Solar-powered racing heats up online… Construction of the latest solar-powered racing car from the Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) team is under Secret of night vision starter’s orders. uncovered

L Cambridge physicists have discovered O V E

G that the ability of nocturnal animals to R O

V see in the dark lies in the unusual way E

S

T that DNA is packaged in retinal U D I

O photoreceptor cells.

Endowment for Ancient Greek culture An outstanding gift has endowed a new Professorship and will Cambridge University Eco Racing’s underpin research and teaching new solar racing car focused on the cultural achievements of the Ancient The car, code-named ‘Bethany’, will compete extraordinary performance, CUER’s Greeks. in the World Solar Challenge in Australia in engineering team has systematically October 2009. Designed by an independent reduced energy usage for each part of the student team, and sponsored by Cambridge car. Bold leaders inspire Precision and Hewlett-Packard, the vehicle ‘At a time when the automotive industry faithful followers showcases cutting-edge environmentally is being forced to look at a low-carbon New research from the Department friendly technology that is applicable to the future,’ said CUER’s Team Manager, Anthony of Zoology has shown that it’s not Law, ‘our vehicle demonstrates the next generation of electric vehicles. just personality that counts in fish enormous potential of electric vehicle By taking an uncompromising approach leadership, it’s how other fish technologies.’ The hope is that ‘Bethany’ will to efficiency and performance, CUER has respond to it. provide the UK’s best-ever performance in developed a vehicle capable of cruising at the 3000 km endurance race across the 60 mph using the same power as a Outback. To view these stories and much hairdryer. The car will weigh just 160 kg and more, please visit sports 6 m 2 of the world’s highest efficiency For more information, please visit www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk silicon solar cells. To achieve the car’s www.cuer.co.uk

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 7 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN

Mr Darwin’s postbag Through the Two centuries after his birth, Charles Darwin Today, the world’s largest archive of Darwin is probably one of the most famous Darwin’s correspondence, together with scientists who ever lived, and certainly the his notes, manuscripts and annotated Correspondence most controversial. Yet, far from being the books and periodicals, is housed in Project, a rich isolated genius of legend, Darwin was a Cambridge University Library. The collection of letters prolific correspondent, who used letters richness of this resource has made the very much as we use email. They were the Library an international centre for studies held at Cambridge lifeblood of his research. His correspondence of Darwin and 19th-century science. University Library is provides us with a remarkable record of Scholars from all over the world regularly both transforming intellectual development, from his voyage visit the manuscripts room and around the world on HMS Beagle , to the communicate with its expert staff. They our understanding decades formulating and honing his also depend on the Library’s collection of one of the theories. They also provide a window onto of 19th-century books and scientific greatest scientists of his extraordinary global network of periodicals, unrivalled in its accessibility informants – the Victorian men and women and extent. the 19th century and who provided him with observations on the These remarkable resources have providing a fauna, flora and peoples of the world: from led to an ambitious project, now in its panoramic vision gardeners, nurserymen, geologists and 35th year and planned to continue until naturalists, to diplomats, army officers, 2025: to publish a comprehensive of the era in which novelists and suffragettes. They offer a chronological edition of all known he lived. remarkable picture of civil discussion and letters, both to and from Charles Darwin, reasoned debate, from which we would do wherever they might be in the well to learn. world.

8 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN R E

P controversies about science and religion, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, British R Building and interpreting O

D the nature of evolution, and issues in Ecological Society, Isaac Newton Trust, U

C an archive E

D ecological science. In this way, the John Templeton Foundation, National

B The bulk of the collection was given to the Y Endowment for the Humanities, and meticulous research required to annotate P

E Library by the Darwin family and the Pilgrim R

M the letters becomes the starting point for National Science Foundation. Funding is I S Trust in 1942, and since then materials have S currently being sought for the next phase I further understanding. O

N continued to be added. Work on publication

of work. O All the letters are being published in F

of the letters began in 1974, with a team led T

H chronological order in the complete edition E

by an American scholar, Frederick Burkhardt, S

Y of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin by N

D with the aid of Sydney Smith, a zoologist in I

C Cambridge University Press, of which the S

the University of Cambridge. The first O 17th of a planned total of 30 volumes will F

C 10 years were occupied solely by searching A be published this summer. The letter M

B worldwide for any letters the team could R transcripts and notes are also made freely I D

G find and putting them into initial

E available in a searchable online database

U chronological order – less than half of the N

I five years after printed publication V

E known letters have a date written on them. R

S (www.darwinproject.ac.uk). As new letters I T

Y A total of almost 15,000 letters

L come to light, or as new information on I B exchanged by Darwin with nearly 2000 R

A their contents or dating becomes available, R

Y correspondents, spanning the period from the database is revised. The aim is to 1821 until his death in 1882, have now been provide a unique, comprehensive and located, some in libraries and some in reliable source of information on his private collections. One letter even turned correspondence, as well as major topics in up on a recent broadcast of the BBC’s Darwin’s life and work. Professor Jim Secord and Antiques Roadshow. About 8000 are in Cambridge, including important materials Dr Alison Pearn on deposit from the Down House Trust. Funding – past and future Each letter requires painstaking A project on this scale requires commitment transcription, retaining all original spellings from funding partners who understand the (and mis-spellings!), followed by annotation. importance of supporting accessible, For more information, please contact Crucial bits of information are gradually innovative research carried out to the Professor Jim Secord, Director fitted together, each informing and being highest standard over many years. ([email protected]), and Dr Alison informed by another. The result gives not Contributions from private donors have Pearn, Assistant Director just a new perspective on the 19th century, been essential for the research to progress, ([email protected]), of the Darwin but fundamental insights into our own as well as long-term support provided by Correspondence Project (www.darwinproject.ac.uk).

Darwin after On the Origin of Species Darwin on locust dung

The Darwin Correspondence Project is entering a new phase: the letters to and from What would you do if someone sent you Darwin as he formulated his thoughts on the descent of man. locust dung in a letter? For Charles Publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 is often presented as the climax of Darwin, this became a welcome Darwin’s career. In fact, it was only a beginning. Darwin knew that once he had gone contribution to solving one of the many public with his theory of evolution by natural selection, much more would be demanded fascinating puzzles opened by the of him. Twenty-three years of astonishing scientific productivity ensued, and in that time epoch-making On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s correspondence grew phenomenally. The little packet of dung, along with a One of the topics barely touched on in Origin was the evolution of man. Darwin had host of other information, was sent to always planned to include a chapter on humans, but left it out lest it led to unnecessary Down House by James Philip Mansel controversy. During the later years of the 1860s, accused of concealing his opinions, Weale, a naturalist and farmer in Cape Darwin began to gear up for a full-scale assault on the citadel. Where did humans come Colony in southern Africa. d d from? Why are there different sexes? Why do races differ from one another? Are there ‘When I rec the locust-dung I c not characteristics – language, music, morals, rational thought – that decisively separate imagine what it was,’ Darwin replied, ‘& I humans from the rest of the animal kingdom? might have gone on guessing till The Correspondence Project has now reached the moment when these fascinating doomsday.’ Once he read Weale’s letter, questions come to the fore. Tackling human origins with the same tools that had proved he knew what to do. Dissecting the dung so successful in understanding the rest of nature, Darwin extended his global network of under his microscope, Darwin found correspondents, making enquiries among missionaries, soldiers, merchants, diplomats seeds of plant species that he and travellers. The result, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, appeared in subsequently germinated in his two volumes in 1871, and a closely related work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man greenhouse at Down House. Samples and Animals , was published in the following year. were sent to his close friend, the botanist In producing the volumes of letters dealing with Descent and Expression , the Project Joseph Hooker, who identified some of has plans for an extensive programme of supporting research, focused on the issues of them as carrot-seed grass, a noxious race, gender and human nature. Work on this phase will be carried out through a new weed that was adversely affecting the association between the Correspondence Project and the History of Science Department quality of the wool produced in the Cape. at Harvard University, where the work will be led by Professor Janet Browne, author of an Because Darwin knew that locusts could award-winning two-volume biography of Darwin. This exciting transatlantic initiative be blown far out to sea, he recognised aims to open up new perspectives on what is, by any standard, among the most that the seeds in their dung could assist in significant episodes in modern history. the distribution of species, an important fact for a new edition of Origin.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 9 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN On the wings of a butterfly

Since Darwin’s time, Amazonian butterflies have fascinated evolutionary biologists as examples of evolution in action.

On reading Henry Walter Bates’ 1862 account models with different patterns, the of his travels in the Amazon, Charles Darwin researchers have shown that the butterflies was captivated not only by Bates’ description choose to mate with individuals that look the of the stunning diversity of butterfly species same as themselves; because of this, over and wing patterns found in the Amazonian time, different patterns are likely to split into jungle, but also by the impressive mimicry new species. In addition, hybrids between between unrelated species. Darwin wrote: ‘It populations with different patterns have is hardly an exaggeration to say, that whilst intermediate patterns that are not recognised reading and reflecting on the various facts by predators as harmful and therefore suffer given in this Memoir, we feel to be as near disproportionately from attacks, reinforcing witnesses, as we can ever hope to be, of the the split into new species. creation of a new species on this earth.’ 1 This dual role of wing patterns in Bates hypothesised that mimicry evolved signalling both to predators and to potential to confuse predators. Edible butterflies, for mates makes pattern a ‘key trait’ for instance, copied the wing patterns of toxic speciation. As Bates suggested, shifts in wing species so that predators would avoid eating patterns do indeed lead to the evolution of them . He also described what looked like new species. evolution in action: he observed a continuum, from variable species, in which Selection signatures different wing patterns were found together One of the current hot topics in evolutionary in the same locality, through to related biology is to what extent we can predict the species with different wing patterns. Now, genetic path of evolution. One particular 150 years later, modern science has taken this Heliconius species ( Heliconius melpomene ) is to another level, with new research that aims an ideal system in which to address this to study the predictability of evolution by question because it has many geographic revealing the genetic basis of wing pattern populations with very different colour mimicry. patterns. A major The importance of pattern new We now recognise that not only do edible project species mimic nasty ones (today called focusing on Batesian mimicry), but that several nasty the genetic species can also benefit from mimicking one basis of wing another (Müllerian mimicry) – bees and patterns has wasps being a familiar example. Many of the commenced in Heliconius , or passion Amazonian butterflies described by Bates are the Jiggins vine butterflies in fact Müllerian mimics, and the best-studied lab with group are the genus Heliconius , the passion funding from vine butterflies. Work by Dr Chris Jiggins’ the Biotechnology group in the Department of Zoology has and Biological Sciences focused on Heliconius butterflies as a case Research Council (BBSRC), study in evolutionary biology. Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust By testing the role of Heliconius wing and Natural Environment Research Council patterns in the wild, Dr Jiggins (NERC). and others have Over the past decade, the researchers confirmed have been collecting different forms of Bates’ H. melpomene from around South America, hunch: carrying out genetic crosses at a field station changes in Panama. These crosses have shown that in wing dramatic differences in colour pattern are pattern play controlled by just a handful of genes and that a big role in these genes are clustered together on four determining how out of the 21 Heliconius chromosomes. The successful the butterflies are genes act as wing pattern ‘switches’, turning in both mating and avoiding on and off the presence of major pattern being eaten. Using flapping elements, such as a large red forewing band.

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The challenge is to find out precisely what shared genetic system. these genes are and how they work. While predation against D

In collaboration with the Wellcome Trust abnormal wing patterns R

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Sanger Institute, regions of the butterfly drives the evolution of T H I E genome are being sequenced to identify mimicry through Darwinian U

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the specific nature of the pattern switches. natural selection, a shared R O The expectation was that the switches developmental system may bias the N would correspond to well-known genes, raw materials in favour of certain kinds perhaps controlling wing development or of patterns. colour pigments. In fact, the two genomic Of course, the link between wing regions studied so far each contains around pattern adaptation and speciation requires 20 genes, none changes in behaviour. The mating of which is preferences of divergent populations need known for its to evolve in order to match their wing involvement in patterns. Remarkably, these processes. crossing This is in itself experiments exciting as it implies currently that novel being carried mechanisms of out in Panama pattern determination show that the genes are operating; current underlying these changes research is focused on determining in behaviour are closely which, of all these genes, are having associated with colour pattern an effect in the butterfly. genes. It seems that there are ‘hot spots’ in the genome for evolutionary change, Genetics of mimicry influencing traits as diverse as wing patterns What attracted Darwin and others to and mating preference. mimicry as a case study in evolution is its repeatability – the same patterns An enduring example evolve in distantly It is an exciting time to be studying butterfly related species. A mimicry. The combination of population key question for genetic, developmental and behavioural an evolutionary approaches is starting to answer the issues geneticist is Darwin and Bates themselves debated – therefore whether questions that were posed at the very dawn the patterns are of evolutionary biology. Throughout the generated by the same intervening decades, Heliconius butterflies genetic mechanisms, or have persisted as an example of evolution in different ones. Again, Heliconius action. With the imminent sequencing of butterflies are a good system to the Heliconius melpomene genome, they will study this. no doubt continue to be so for some time Heliconius melpomene co-mimics yet. Charles Darwin would surely have another species, Heliconius erato , all over the approved. neotropics – in any location you care to look you will find that the two species have 1[Darwin, C.R.] 1863. [Review of] Dr Chris Jiggins evolved identical patterns. Recently, in Contributions to an insect fauna of the collaboration with research groups in the Amazon Valley. By Henry Walter Bates, Esq. USA, it has been shown that pattern Transact. Linnean Soc. Vol. XXIII. 1862, p. 495. switches in the two species are controlled Natural History Review 3, 219–224. by the same regions of DNA, such that genes at identical locations in the genome code for either a red forewing band or a For more information, please contact the yellow hindwing bar. This implies that author Dr Chris Jiggins evolution of the same mimicry patterns in ([email protected]) at the the two species has been made easier by a Department of Zoology.

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In Darwin’s footsteps: the geology of the Galapagos David Norman explains how a fragment of lava set in motion a journey to the Galapagos 170 years after Darwin’s epic voyage.

Buccaneer Cove (with the flanks of Cerro Cowan in the background), Isla Santiago, Galapagos, where Darwin landed in 1835, as photographed by the Cambridge expedition retracing Darwin’s footsteps

A dispute over the provenance of some of Charles Darwin’s rock beneath the oceanic plate upon which the Galapagos sit has an collection, now housed at Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth unusual shape and dynamic relationship with the islands above. Sciences, led to an expedition to the Galapagos two years ago that in turn has resulted in an entirely new analysis of the geology of the And the piece of lava? Archipelago. The specimens are part of a collection of some 2500 Almost as we have come to expect, Darwin’s notes were correct (and rocks, minerals and fossils collected by Darwin on his 1831–1836 the Museum curators had not slipped up either!). The rock type that voyage aboard HMS Beagle . Darwin identified as a ‘trachyte’ was found again (despite proving somewhat elusive) on the flanks of Cerro Pelado, a near-perfect small Journey to the Galapagos volcanic crater close to the summit of the island. And indeed all the The germ of an idea to re-visit the Galapagos took hold when major locations visited by Darwin yielded rock types that reflected his Dr Sandra Herbert, a visiting scholar from the University of Baltimore, original collection held in Cambridge. noted a longstanding dispute concerning the provenance of lava This information will also enrich the lines of investigation pursued rocks labelled by Darwin as ‘trachyte’ collected on James Island (now by Dr Lyall Anderson, Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow at the known as Isla Santiago). According to established understanding of Department of Earth Sciences. Dr Anderson is taking a fresh look at the island’s geology, the rocks could not have come from the island; the collection in the context of Darwin’s early thoughts on geology, by implication, either Darwin had mixed them up or the Sedgwick using Darwin’s copious geological field notebooks housed at the University Library. Museum had inadvertently mislabelled the specimens during Clearly, as has proved so often to be the case, Charles Darwin curation. Perhaps by re-visiting the island, establishing Darwin’s route chose to land on, and sample from, a particularly interesting place and collection sites, the matter could be cleared up once and for all? both scenically and biologically, …and geologically. In 2007, an expedition led by Dr David Norman, from the Department of Earth Sciences and Director of the Sedgwick Museum, arrived at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Archipelago; members of the expedition included Dr Sally Gibson and Andrew Miles from Earth Sciences, Dr Herbert and Dr Dennis Geist (University of Idaho). This would be only the second time the geology of Isla Santiago had been investigated since the 26-year-old Charles Darwin set foot there in 1835. With funding from the US National Science Foundation, Christ’s College and Trinity College, the team integrated historical research with the collection of new rock samples from individual lava flows that have occurred at intervals across Isla Santiago. Fresh samples of rock were collected, with special permission from the Parque Nacional Galapagos, yielding an entirely new collection of volcanic rocks that Dr David Norman reflect different phases of eruptive activity across the island. For more information, please contact the author Dr David The geological history of the island itself is now the subject of Norman ([email protected]). Dr Norman is Director of the further investigation in the laboratory using the new samples. It is Sedgwick Museum and a palaeontologist in the Department already clear from this ongoing research that the island has an of Earth Sciences. ‘Darwin the Geologist’, a major exhibition unusual history, with volcanic activity still evident in the recent at the Sedgwick Museum, opens on 7 July 2009 historic past; this alone indicates that the hot mantle ‘plume’ that lies (www.sedgwickmuseum.org).

12 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN U N I Collaboration between the University V E R S I T

Herbarium and Microsoft Research Ltd will Y

H E R make a unique botanical collection available B A R I U

to a world-wide audience. M ,

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Displaying the foundations N T

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of evolutionary thinking N T

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The Department of Plant Sciences at Cambridge houses over a N C E million pressed, mounted and named plant specimens. Amassed S over three centuries, the collection includes about 2700 plants collected by Charles Darwin on his HMS Beagle trip and the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of British plants. In offering a rare and unparalleled insight to the diversity of plants, the Herbarium has become increasingly precious given today’s growing urgency to catalogue biodiversity. But, like many museum collections of this scale and fragility, its holdings are only available, in a controlled manner, to academic visitors to Cambridge. To increase its accessibility to a global audience, while preserving the integrity of this historical treasure, a project began three years ago to put specimens from the Herbarium on the web. With funding and technological support from Microsoft Research Ltd, Professor John Parker, Curator, and Gina Murrell, Assistant Curator, have been developing a coherent, logical and imaginative web portal to be made available for academic research and teaching, and for the enjoyment of everyone.

Henslow’s vision and Darwin’s gift The Herbarium was the creation of John Stevens Henslow, Professor of Botany and founder of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. Henslow’s research on the nature of species was at its peak in the 1820s when Darwin attended his lectures and field trips, and it was Henslow who recommended Darwin for the Beagle voyage. When Darwin visited the Galapagos, he collected and dried all plants in Four specimens of a grass ( Vulpia ), showing extreme size variation in a flower, sending them back to Henslow to be mounted. Henslow had population at Bahia Blanca, Patagonia, collected by Darwin but mounted by informed him that oceanic islands such as the Galapagos were rich Henslow in Cambridge while Darwin was still on the Beagle in endemic species, a fact that helped crystallise Darwin’s theory of the origin of species. An auspicious date Henslow’s Herbarium has increased in size enormously over the The aim of the five-year digitisation project is to place about 50,000 200 years since then, particularly in 1866 when 55,000 specimens of specimens on the web by 2011. The Henslow and Darwin collections the Lindley Herbarium were added; the Lindley collection provides a are the priority, with a launch date of 24 November 2009, the 150th remarkable history of 19th-century plant-hunting explorations of anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species . Each North America and Australia. The plants of the whole world, and Herbarium sheet is being digitally photographed, an appropriate particularly of Great Britain and mainland Europe, have enriched the database has been developed and data have been input, and a robust collection through gifts, exchanges, benefactions and purchases. infrastructure to deliver fast, interactive responses in real-time to search queries is currently being built. Promoting research The major research project in the Herbarium is the preparation of the most definitive account of the British and Irish flora ever undertaken, based around this superb collection. Peter Sell has worked in the Herbarium for over 60 years and, in collaboration with Gina Murrell, has for 20 years been compiling the taxonomy, ecology and distribution of every species to create a botanical snapshot of the millennium. Volume 3 of this five-volume set has just been published by Cambridge University Press. As well as a fundamental botanical research purpose, there is also an important historical perspective to the Herbarium. Darwin’s plants give a fascinating glimpse into the origins of Darwin’s thoughts, showing how Henslow gave Darwin concepts of populations, variation and the nature of species. Henslow intentionally organised his Herbarium collections to serve as an Professor John Parker experimental tool for an inquiry into species and their limits. But whereas Henslow held a creationist’s viewpoint, Darwin’s own views For more information, please contact the author Professor changed as his theories of evolution by natural selection gradually John Parker ([email protected]) at the University Herbarium, took shape. Department of Plant Sciences.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 13 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN

Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies Cambridge anthropologists are increasingly looking at human evolution not just as a path through the remote past, but also as a way to explore humanity today.

Cambridge has a long tradition of research anthropologists and psychologists, in the Philippines with evolutionary into human evolution. Alfred Haddon, the studying people today, can make theoreticians who are unravelling the founder of the Faculty of Archaeology and inferences about evolutionary history and biology of size and demography. Anthropology, was one of the first processes, and ultimately about human Geneticists are searching for the generation of Darwinists who explored nature. LCHES was designed to bring all of underlying genetics of size and shape, the human world through the lens of these together. while anthropologists are searching the evolution; Louis Leakey, who opened museums of the world for skeletons that up the African search for human origins Understanding humans is a can track this in the past. And predicted by Charles Darwin, is one of question of evolution understanding how humans became the most notable of Cambridge A multidisciplinary institution has to be dependent upon culture has led to anthropologists. In recent years, that more than the sum of its subjects. At the archaeologists working with living apes to tradition has been turned from the heart of LCHES is the simple idea that see how they use and exploit technology. contributions of scattered individuals to research should be question-driven. Evolution naturally makes one think of a full institutional commitment. The Different questions require different the past, but that evolutionary past lives Leverhulme Centre for Human techniques and methods and, in particular, on in us today. Understanding how we Evolutionary Studies (LCHES) was founded combinations of approaches. For example, survived in the past may be a step towards in 2001 by Dr Marta Mirazón Lahr and we can ask where and when modern future survival. Professor Robert Foley to be at the humans evolved, and evolutionary forefront of international research; it genetics can indicate Eastern Africa as the reflects both the growing power of most probable location. But it is only by evolutionary science and the endless integrating these predictions with the fascination with the origins and nature exploration for fossils and archaeology in of our own species. places such as northern Kenya that research can both give substance to the Fossils, tools, apes and genes genetics and provide an understanding of When we think of human evolution and why we evolved there. how it is researched, a number of images The aim of the Centre is to act as the come to mind. One might be some African means by which researchers from a wide desert, yielding rare fossils of our ancestors. breadth of disciplines – anthropology, Professor Robert Foley and Another might be an archaeologist, archaeology, linguistics, genetics, Dr Marta Mirazón Lahr digging up the earliest evidence for psychology, zoology and evolutionary For more information, please contact complex tools. In another direction lies the aspects of geography – can formulate and the authors Professor Robert Foley study of living apes, whose behaviour can develop joint research programmes. This ([email protected]) and provide clues about ancestral forms. More has led, for instance, to an exploration in Dr Marta Mirazón Lahr (m.mirazon- recently, the use of genetics has become India, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon [email protected]) at the more visible, with patterns of Islands of how genetic diversity can be Leverhulme Centre for Human contemporary genetic diversity throwing shaped by language barriers and thus Evolutionary Studies (www.human- light on evolutionary patterns in the past. influence evolutionary history. Finding evol.cam.ac.uk). External funding for Genes are now even being extracted from out how humans have come to vary so the Centre has come from the fossils, to add to the evidence. And, finally, much in size has brought together Leverhulme Trust, the Wellcome Trust we can even think of the ways in which anthropologists studying hunter-gatherers and Cambridge in America.

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Several performance measures must be considered when designing the combustor for an aeroengine Design optimisation by evolution

By adopting the principles of natural selection, engineers are using survival of the fittest to breed better design solutions.

An important legacy of Charles Darwin’s designer wants to improve several rules of the game can change too: for theories, unimaginable 150 years ago, has objectives, or attributes, of the design instance, the group has found that, in been the development of a thriving field of simultaneously. Inevitably these objectives multi-objective optimisation problems, computational science based around the are often in conflict as it’s frequently not genetic diversity is often naturally ideas of evolution by natural selection. possible to improve one objective for an maintained in the population as it Evolutionary computation, as it is known, optimised design without making another spreads out across the trade-off surface encompasses a variety of methods, the worse. Evolutionary computation methods and therefore highly selective breeding most well known being evolution strategies, can readily be adapted to tackle multi- schemes in which only the best solutions genetic algorithms and genetic objective problems. In so doing, they are allowed to reproduce can be very programming. All seek to solve challenging identify the trade-off surface – the set of effective. optimisation problems (the problem of solutions for which it is impossible to By adapting the principles of finding the best solution from all feasible improve one objective without another Darwinian evolution, we can develop solutions) in a vast range of application deteriorating – allowing the designer to methods that enable engineers to design areas. make a fully informed choice of final design. better submarine propulsion systems or Although the methods differ in the There is widespread interest in applying nuclear reactor reload cores or… in fact, detail of their implementation, they all these types of optimisation technique to the potential applications are about as follow the same basic blueprint: ‘parents’ real-world engineering design problems. diverse as the natural world itself. are selected from a current population of Researchers in the Computational Design available solutions, with better (fitter) Group are using evolutionary computation solutions being selected more often; to tackle a diverse range of design ‘offspring’ are bred by combining portions optimisation problems: from improving of the parents’ ‘chromosomes’ (the set of hybrid electric vehicle drive systems; to parameters that define the solution); and trading off reduction in pollutants and noise finally, small random ‘mutations’ are made to in aeroengines; to designing cheaper, more the offspring’s chromosomes, analogous to compact space satellites. the copying errors that occur in real-world biological reproduction. The end result – the Selective breeding algorithm – can often succeed in solving Developing evolutionary algorithms that problems where other methods fail. perform well on particular applications can pose challenges. It is not always Engineering design straightforward to find a suitable way to Dr Geoff Parks The Computational Design Group, led by encode designs ‘genetically’ such that when Dr Geoff Parks within the Cambridge two good solutions are combined there is a Engineering Design Centre, aims to improve reasonable chance that the characteristics For more information, please contact the design process and designed products that made them good are preserved in their the author Dr Geoff Parks by developing methods that effectively offspring. Interesting research questions ([email protected]) in the Engineering exploit the potential of computational under investigation by the group also Design Centre at the Department of optimisation to enhance the creativity and surround the issues of how parents are Engineering. Much of the group’s decision-making of engineering designers. selected. In a virtual world, one can try research is supported by the The optimisation of an engineering schemes that would be physically or Engineering and Physical Sciences design is usually a multi-objective task: the ethically impossible in the real one. The Research Council (EPSRC).

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 15 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN

What Darwin didn’t know: viruses and evolution

Once a retrovirus has infected a cell, its RNA genome is replicated into DNA (depicted here in red), which integrates into the genome of the infected cell

Scientists in the When Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of transmission of viruses that have the Department of Species went to press in 1859, viruses had capacity to cause high morbidity and yet to be discovered – it would be another mortality. But some of the more insidious Veterinary 40 years after publication before the viral infections may have a much greater Medicine are ‘concept of viruses’ was proposed, and a impact on global health because, in the studying viruses as century later before breakthroughs in viral early stages, they cause subclinical research would provide a clear infections, with the disease developing pathogens in host understanding of their genetic make-up, slowly and sometimes going unnoticed for populations, how they replicate and how they cause many years. Human immunodeficiency endeavouring to disease. Perhaps one of the most virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and understand the unexpected findings has been the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are examples that discovery of the degree to which viruses have caused relatively silent epidemics, in implications of our have been an evolutionary force, as some cases infecting hundreds of millions shared witnessed by the accumulating genetic globally. evolutionary and immunological evidence of the Epidemics are not confined to humans. ancient battles between viruses and their Not only have we witnessed animal history. hosts. Scientists in the Laboratory of Viral epidemics (epizootics) that all too recently Zoonotics led by Professor Jonathan have circulated through our domestic Heeney are asking key questions about the livestock (foot and mouth disease, classic evolution of viral pathogens by studying swine fever and bluetongue), but animal the transmission of viruses from animals to viruses can also be transmitted to humans humans. under a variety of conditions. A recent example of this type of zoonotic transfer is Epizootics and zoonotics the bird-to-human transmission of the Human epidemics caused by highly highly pathogenic avian flu virus, which contagious acute infections such as raised global concern regarding a new influenza and severe acute respiratory human flu pandemic. syndrome (SARS) loom foremost in our How do these viruses evolve to enable minds when we think of the large-scale them to cross between species? What

16 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN D R

J complex series of events is required for individuals being highly susceptible to RNA viral infections such as HIV and HCV. O N

the virus to infect humans and sustain infection, while others have increased Working with teams in London and H E R

A infections at sufficient levels in a new resistance. Research in Professor Heeney’s Lausanne, the first early clinical trials have S ,

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Q species to become readily transmissible lab is analysing how different natural recently been completed, and subsequent U I N within a new population? Why are some African primate hosts have developed a trials to optimise immunity and delivery are O X

G individuals protected from developing relative resistance to AIDS-like diseases being planned. New vaccine candidates are R A

P full-blown disease despite being infected? caused by these viruses. The data also in development and the outcome of H I C their use for the containment of rapidly S These are the sorts of question that suggest that the animals have evolved

( W evolving blood-borne pathogens such as W interest scientists in the Laboratory of Viral mechanisms to control immune W

. HIV and HCV is being actively studied. E Zoonotics. This line of research involves activation caused by new viral pathogens. - N

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) Cambridge Infectious zoonotic infections of importance to both factors (cell factors that can block or veterinary and human health. impair a stage of the viral life cycle) in a Disease variety of non-human primates have Fossils of ancient virological influenced the evolution of different SIV Cambridge Infectious Disease (CID) is a viruses. At one stage in this evolutionary Cambridge-wide initiative to bring battles process, a subtype of SIV was transmitted together diverse groups studying Of particular interest to the team is a from chimpanzees to humans, giving rise aspects of infectious diseases, with the family of viruses known as the to the subtype of HIV-1 that has become aim of coordinating the University’s retroviruses, so named because of the the globally distributed human pathogen commitment to tackling global health ‘reverse’ way they reproduce themselves. that causes AIDS. Understanding how challenges imposed by infectious Once a retrovirus has infected a cell, its pathogens have been kept under check diseases of animals and humans. Many RNA genome is replicated, or ‘reverse in certain species, and how these species internationally recognised research transcribed’, into DNA. This becomes have undergone selection and developed groups spread across departments and integrated into the genome of the resistance, will provide important insight disciplines in Cambridge are working in infected cell, so that it is copied every into new treatments for other threatened this area. By building capacity in time the infected cell divides. Such species. infectious disease research and teaching, integration explains why some viral and by attracting new research infections such as HIV (the cause of AIDS) Understanding the good, the partnerships and funding, the goal of or human T-lymphotrophic virus (the CID is to amplify Cambridge’s impact on cause of T-cell leukaemia or bad and the ugly human and animal health worldwide. encephalopathies) are, in essence, Linked to this area, a major effort in the In the spirit of commemorating persistent life-long infections. lab is focused on identifying new types of Darwin, CID has this year chosen the Sequencing of the human genome has virus that have adapted so well to their theme ‘Infectious Diseases and Evolution’ revealed that retroviral integration has in hosts that they have gone unnoticed for a meeting to be held on 22–23 fact been ongoing for millions of years. under normal circumstances in healthy October 2009; further details will be Human genomes, and those of other individuals. These viral infections may posted on the CID website. mammals, are littered with retrovirus-like circulate within the human population elements as remnants of virus integration. without causing overt disease yet, For more information, please Fortunately, most have become defective subclinically, influence our daily health visit the CID website and are no longer replication competent, and wellbeing; moreover, if associated (www.infectiousdisease.cam.ac.uk) and are often considered by others as with other infections, such as those that junk DNA. Professor Heeney considers cause hepatitis, these viruses may them as ‘viral fossils’. accelerate or alter the course of the disease. One project in the lab is Evolution of resistance investigating a highly contagious As a consequence of the thousands of norovirus (a variant of the virus that years of battle between host and virus, causes winter vomiting disease in our bodies have evolved many humans) that is completely asymptomatic mechanisms to block or cripple those in normal healthy mice but only rears its viruses that have the potential to head and causes disease when the threaten the survival of species. mouse genome loses particular genes Understanding these processes and how responsible for natural antiviral responses. hosts have evolved such viral defences It is hoped that studies such as these will may provide new insight into the co- shed light on where disease outbreaks evolution of species and viruses. come from and how they persist. One area of research in Professor Professor Jonathan Heeney Heeney’s lab is the study of the recent Developing vaccines ancestor of HIV, the simian The expectation is that lessons can be immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Of learned from understanding features of For more information, please contact particular interest is the elucidation of the long and intimate evolutionary Professor Jonathan Heeney how SIV evolved from being a virus of history shared by mammals and ([email protected]) at the Department of non-human primates to being a new retroviruses. Much of the knowledge of Veterinary Medicine. Professor Heeney’s pathogen of humans, and how previous protective host responses to viral research is funded by the US National animal hosts developed mechanisms of infection that is being uncovered in Institutes of Health and the Bill & disease resistance. Humans show a Professor Heeney’s group is being Melinda Gates Foundation; a number of spectrum of disease progression translated into the development of students and fellows in his laboratory are following HIV infection, with some vaccines to combat complex persistent supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 17 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN P R O F E S S O R

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Stirring tails of

Volvox : a multicellular alga with thousands of biflagellated cells evolution on its surface; the smaller spheres are daughter colonies

Researchers in One of the truly remarkable recent cilia (also termed flagella), for instance, Cambridge are discoveries in biology is a connection increases fluid flow across the organism, between the swimming of microscopic improving the exchange of nutrients and studying how green algae and the process that waste products with the environment. the generation determines that your heart is on the left. Increasingly, these biological issues are also of fluid flow by The link is provided by cilia, the microscopic being seen as physical ones, involving appendages whose beating propels algae many different disciplines – from fluid organisms may through their fluid environment and which dynamics to mechanics and signal have played a also set up circulating flows in a developing processing. Professor Raymond E. Goldstein’s role in the embryo that establish the left–right research group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical evolution of asymmetry. Cilia play an important role in many aspects of life, from the reproductive Physics combines theoretical and biological system, to the kidneys, eyes and the experimental studies of biological complexity. respiratory tract. complexity to investigate these kinds of The ubiquity of cilia speaks to the issues in evolutionary biology. importance of fluid mechanics in biology, but they may also have a role in one of the The importance of being most fundamental issues in evolutionary spherical biology: the origin of evolutionary Volvox is something of a model organism in transitions from single-cell organisms to evolutionary biology. Only half a millimetre multicellular ones. in diameter, it has thousands of biflagellated A general (but by no means universal) cells on the surface of an extracellular rule of nature is that larger organisms are matrix, and daughter colonies that grow up more complex, when measured by the inside. It is one of the evolutionarily number of distinct types of cell present. This advanced members of a lineage of species undoubtedly reflects the fitness advantage that starts at the most simple end of the conferred by a division of labour among spectrum, with the single-cell organism specialised cells over a situation in which all Chlamydomonas . The cells of the smaller cells are totipotent (able to do all the species are all totipotent, whereas from functions of life). The evolution of beating Volvox onwards nature has decided to

18 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 SPOTLIGHT ON DARWIN specialise into two distinct cell types – An emerging hypothesis is that the flagellated somatic cells on the surface spiralling motion actually enhances the which perform photosynthesis and beat phototactic fidelity. Because these their flagella, and interior non-flagellated multicellular organisms have no central germ cells that are the sole reproductive nervous system, evolution has apparently cells. endowed each somatic cell with just the Volvox ’s specialisation represents one of right ‘program’ of response to light to enable the most basic divisions of labour in biology directed motion. The response is a transient and the question of why nature has chosen one in which cells on the dark side of the the size of Volvox as the scale for colony beat faster than those on the light differentiation is a central one for research in side. This arrangement is possible only if the this area. Because these organisms are response time of the flagella is comparable spherical it is also easier to develop realistic to the rotational period, a kind of ‘fine- mathematical theories. Examining these tuning’ that is well known in biology. species as a function of their size, we Professor Goldstein’s group has recently recognise that their ability to take up developed a novel apparatus to track the nutrients by diffusion increases only with phototactic trajectories of organisms from their radius; whereas, with all their metabolic Chlamydomonas to Volvox as they respond tissue on the surface, their needs will grow to changes in directional light signals and with the surface area. Thus, beyond a critical is using high-speed imaging to study the radius, V olvox cannot live by diffusion alone. flagellar response under those same The research in Professor Goldstein’s group conditions. has suggested that the fluid flows driven by flagella act to enhance nutrient uptake in a Synchronised swimming way that removes this bottleneck. The These questions have led the group back principle is akin to the chilling effect of wind to the simplest of these organisms, on the skin, where airflow past the skin’s Chlamydomonas , to understand how its surface enhances heat transport two flagella synchronise. Using state-of- perpendicularly, from the body to air. the-art high-speed imaging methods, The connection to germ–soma postdoctoral researchers Dr Marco Polin differentiation comes from the ‘flagellation and Dr Idan Tuval and PhD student Knut constraint’, the fact that the protein building Drescher have discovered that the beating blocks of flagella are also used in structures of the two flagella is actually quite that pull chromosomes apart during cell complicated: the cell regulates the flagellar division. For these organisms, nature does beating so that they switch back and forth not allow ‘multi-tasking’ and flagellar between being so close in frequency as to beating ceases during cell division. Hence, become synchronised by the fluid flows sequestering the reproductive processes on they create, to being far enough apart that the interior without compromising the they beat approximately independently. external fluid flow may be nature’s way of Careful study of the statistics of these preserving the metabolic activity of the alternations has been used to determine larger organisms. the strength of the fluid dynamical coupling that drives synchronisation, Steering without a cox providing the first quantitative test of If Volvox relies on fluid flow, a natural emerging theories of this phenomenon. question is how the flagellar movements at Moreover, the alternation between the multicellular level are coordinated. synchrony and asynchrony leads to Lacking any cytoplasmic connections swimming trajectories that are between its thousands of surface somatic combinations of straight paths and cells, Volvox functions ‘like a ship with a sharp turns, producing a ‘random walk’. Professor thousand oarsmen and no cox’. It displays This kind of behaviour is well known in accurate phototaxis (swimming towards the bacteria, which have very different kinds Raymond E. Goldstein light) as each cell is programmed to of flagella, but was not known for these modulate the beating of its flagella in organisms. The full implications are still to response to the signal received by its eye be worked out, but they probably For more information, please contact the spot, a primitive photoreceptor. Because represent a strategy for searching the space author Professor Raymond E. Goldstein each colony spins about a fixed body axis as around them. Indeed, the transition from ([email protected]) at the Department of it swims, each of the thousands of eyespots this erratic search mechanism at the scale of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical is constantly receiving a signal modulated in a single cell to the more stately cruising of a Physics. Professor Goldstein is the time as they face towards and away from Volvox colony provides yet another example Schlumberger Professor of Complex the light; the flagellar beating is of the way in which size is related to Physical Systems and is funded by the correspondingly regulated up and down complexity. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences periodically. It turns out that many simple Understanding the origins of biological Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering (and even advanced) organisms swim in complexity is a goal that involves merging and Physical Sciences Research Council spiralling paths that produce such periodic techniques and concepts from many (EPSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), signals, and therefore a quantitative different disciplines and, just as biology is Leverhulme Trust and European understanding of how accurate homing increasingly incorporating maths, so too Commission Marie Curie Programme. motion works under these constraints has are mathematics and physics rising to the Videos related to this article can be found broad implications. challenges presented by biology. at www.youtube.com/Goldsteinlab

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 19 PREVIEW R E P R O D U C E D

B Y

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O F

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Miranda Gill O F

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traces shifting M B R I 19th-century D G E

U perceptions of N I V E R eccentricity, from S I T Y

L I its association B R A R with the Y intoxicating lure of modernity and fashion to the murky underworld of circus freaks and half-mad visionaries. Rethinking eccentricity Since the 18th century, English culture has I chose 19th-century Paris as the focus of Why were the French so ambivalent been associated (both by the English the study precisely because its culture was towards eccentricity? The French Revolution themselves and by continental observers) significantly different from English culture. in 1789 inaugurated a century of with unusual tolerance towards The modern concept of eccentricity had unprecedented social and political instability, unconventional and peculiar individuals. crystallised in 18th-century England, a culture generating a strong desire in the French elite Even today, eccentricity is often seen as an increasingly interested in poetic and to create social cohesion and order. An obligatory component of the English psychological originality. Pre-Revolutionary orderly society entailed the suppression of national character. The eccentric is typically French culture, by contrast, was markedly any challenges to social norms. At the same portrayed as a harmless and amiable figure, hostile to both originality and individual time, however, the influence of Romanticism someone who provides others with a difference. It asserted that elegance was led to an increasing desire for individual pleasant diversion from the tedium of timeless, upheld rigid ideals of good taste freedom and fulfilment, whilst the everyday life. and decorum, and stressed the need for bourgeoisie had strong faith in social and But how historically representative are social conformism. It was precisely the initial intellectual progress. The latter tendencies these received ideas of eccentricity? This strength of French resistance to the values of inevitably led to many norms and traditions question has formed the basis of my research eccentricity, I suggest, which make its being called into question, and 19th-century and the subject of my recent book, which reception after 1830 so revealing of tensions Parisian culture was at the forefront of seeks to investigate more sceptically the in French cultural identity. attempts to probe the fragile boundaries cultural and ideological functions of between conformism and eccentricity. Three eccentricity. Ambivalent emotions cultural fields in which this is most evident My research starts from two sets of Breaking with convention aroused highly are fashion, bohemia and science. assumptions: first, that eccentricity is neither ambivalent responses in 19th-century timeless nor universal; second, that it is by no Parisian readers, writers and spectators. Followers of fashion means always harmless and absurd. Eccentricity was debated in a wide range of Eccentricity in Paris of the 1830s was linked Eccentricity is, instead, a historically relative sources, including etiquette manuals, fashion to flamboyant new fashions and the and context-dependent term, which must be magazines, newspapers, novels, plays, seductions of commodity culture. The values situated within the broader histories of political pamphlets, and scientific and of fashion, including novelty and bizarreness, individualism and deviance. Eccentricity psychiatric treatises. On the one hand, the were diametrically at odds with the often elicited violent and conflicting scandal of ‘standing out’ evoked the traditional values of French politeness and responses, and was associated with aspirations of the bourgeoisie, namely its etiquette. Eccentric styles epitomised the potentially disturbing figures such as the dreams of freedom, creativity and intoxicating dangers of modernity, and were insane, social marginals, human ‘monsters’ individuality. On the other, it symbolised the championed by a range of unconventional and the tempestuous Romantic genius. deepest anxieties of this class, the threat of figures, including male and female dandies Beliefs about eccentricity varied widely madness, monstrosity and sin. Eccentricity and the aristocratic figure of the lionne or across European national traditions, and were was therefore simultaneously desired and lioness. The lionne rejected the fragility and underpinned by complex assumptions about feared, incorporated into and rejected from hysteria associated with respectable women, gender and class. bourgeois identity. and engaged instead in energetic ‘masculine’

20 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 PREVIEW

Eccentricity in 19th-century France was often linked with flamboyant new fashions, as seen here for the Eccentricity and the Cultural Imagination in central figure of the female ‘lionne’; image from Edmond Texier’s Tableau de Paris , 1852, Vol. 1 (8000.a.30) Nineteenth-Century Paris by Dr Miranda Gill is published by Oxford University Press

pursuits such as horseriding and smoking. But symbolic resistance to a culture which defined increasingly, such eccentricity was linked to normality, virtue and health in increasingly demi-mondaines and courtesans, who, it was restrictive and unimaginative terms. feared, were corrupting the morality and health of the social elite. A contemporary debate In charting the history of eccentricity, one Bohemian culture conclusion I arrived at was that beliefs about After Napoleon III’s coup d’état of 1851, the precisely how much individuals are permitted social position of the writer and artist became to diverge from social norms differ more problematic. Eccentricity was associated considerably between cultures in response to with the artists, social marginals and urban very specific socio-historical factors. Gender poor who inhabited ‘the unknown Paris’. This appears to be central to the imagination of murky underworld fascinated bourgeois deviance in this period since what was deeply observers as much as it horrified them. Writers eccentric for women was often considered and journalists documented their ambivalent quite normal for men, and vice versa. responses to exhibitions of human freaks in Ultimately, the experience of ambivalence is the fairground and to the half-mad visionaries inseparable from European modernity: of bohemian street culture. They were uneasily eccentricity represents one compelling set of aware that they too failed to conform to values (novelty, freedom, individuality) which bourgeois norms and that some eccentrics clashed significantly with other, equally might be unrecognised geniuses. compelling values (stability, order, community). In many ways, this type of clash Scientific theory is central to debates in contemporary moral The popularisation of medical theories of and political philosophy about the plurality of national decline after 1851 led to increasing values and goods. moral panic. Eccentricity was interpreted as a The interdisciplinary focus of the project symptom of insanity and concealed deformity, continues to develop, as it traces the Dr Miranda Gill and eccentrics were often portrayed as a migration of concepts and metaphors dangerous social menace which psychiatrists between literature, popular culture and and legislators struggled to contain. Despite science. Continuing to emphasise the ways in this, many writers, including Gérard de Nerval, which social and psychological categories are For more information, please contact Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly, Charles implicitly shaped by values and norms, my the author Dr Miranda Gill Baudelaire and Jules Vallès, championed research is now focusing on a cultural history ([email protected]) at the ‘pathological’ and ‘monstrous’ forms of of paranoia and suspicion in French Department of French, in the Faculty eccentricity. Their writing constitutes an act of modernity. of Modern and Medieval Languages.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 21 KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER © I S T O C K P H

What is O T O . C O M / L E S

knowledge C U N L I F F transfer? E As we launch a new section in Research Horizons to highlight examples of knowledge transfer at the University, we begin by asking: what is it and how does it happen?

Knowledge transfer (KT) is a term used to way of exchanging knowledge on a shorter Licensing : Licensing the right to use specific encompass a very broad range of activities term basis. One of the longest standing research outputs (IP such as patentable ideas) is to support mutually beneficial schemes is Knowledge Transfer Partnerships an important KT mechanism. Information on IP collaborations between universities, (www.ktponline.org.uk), funded by the that is available for licensing is accessible businesses and the public sector. It’s all Technology Strategy Board and supported by through various websites, but successful about the transfer of tangible and most UK Research Councils. licensing arrangements are long-term intellectual property, expertise, learning Publication and events : Knowledge is relationships often leading to research and skills between academia and the non- transferred through publication of research collaborations and individual contacts. Licensing academic community. It’s also well outputs, and through events and networking. In is a key area of activity for Cambridge Enterprise, recognised by government and funders as Cambridge, events can vary from Horizon with about 50 new commercial agreements an important return on the UK’s investment Seminars (which provide a first look at new closed annually and a portfolio of over 450 in academic research, one that provides a findings and developments at the University active licence agreements. significant driving force for enhancing and are organised by Research Services Division) New businesses : Bringing research outputs to economic growth and societal wellbeing. to the Corporate Gateway (offering a bespoke market through the formation of a new For academics, KT can be a way of gaining programme of customised meetings with business can be particularly appropriate when new perspectives on possible directions leading University researchers and new the application represents a ‘disruption’ to the and approaches for research. This two-way technology companies in Cambridge). current market or sector, or where there isn’t any exchange element of KT is at the heart of Collaborative research : This is a powerful obvious external partner to whom the idea successful and sustainable collaboration. means of creating opportunities for innovative could be licensed. New businesses based on Academics are often asked to consider knowledge exchange. In Cambridge, examples research outputs often build their business the potential audiences, impact and include the Cambridge Integrated Knowledge models around collaboration with larger, applications for their work, and increasingly Centre (CIKC), which brings together University established firms to access expertise, equipment there are opportunities to apply for grants research, industry secondments, business and routes to market. Cambridge has a well- specifically with non-academic acumen and manufacturing expertise to help developed ecosystem for supporting this, collaborative partners. In response, those with exploitable concepts to achieve including student business-plan programmes, Research Councils UK (RCUK) has recently commercial success in photonics and area angel networks and access to capital launched the RCUK Knowledge Transfer electronics; and the Institute for Manufacturing through Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds (see: (IfM), which creates new ideas and approaches Portal as a single point of access for those www.enterprisenetwork.group.cam.ac.uk). to modern industrial practice – from interested in KT schemes and activities understanding markets and technologies, (www.rcuk.ac.uk/innovation/ktportal). through product and process design, to KT is a contact sport operations, distribution and related services. Three key factors seem to underpin successful Making the most of research As a whole, the University typically engages in KT. First, it’s not a ‘zero cost’ activity; it takes effort Discussion around KT often focuses on the 650 research agreements, worth £22 million, and time to make it work. Second, it is a ‘contact formation of spin-out business, or the with industry annually. sport’; it works best when people meet to licensing of intellectual property (IP), based Consultancy : The provision of domain- exchange ideas, sometimes serendipitiously, on the outputs of university science and specific expert advice and training to external and spot new opportunities. Third, it needs technology-related research. Although clients by university staff can be a very effective practical, timely and active support at an these are vitally important areas, KT actually KT mechanism – it can provide a platform for institutional level – within companies and encompasses a much broader range of the exchange of both explicit and more tacit universities – encouraging a culture of open activities and is not limited to the science knowledge, and a window on areas of possible access and open innovation. and technology disciplines. In terms of collaboration. Support for consultancy is one activities, KT can be split into six types: service offered by Cambridge Enterprise Ltd For more information, please contact the People : When students graduate and (www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk). The IfM also author Dr Tim Minshall (thwm100@eng. join the workforce, they bring with them disseminates its research outputs through cam.ac.uk) at the Centre for Technology new knowledge and are effectively helping consultancy services provided by the University- Management in the IfM (www.ifm.eng.cam. to ‘regenerate the gene pool’ of industry. owned company IfM Education and ac.uk). Dr Minshall has extensive experience The temporary placement of students and Consultancy Services Ltd. Together, Cambridge of supporting industry–academic graduates in companies or in the public or Enterprise and IfM provide consultancy support collaboration, technology transfer and open voluntary sectors can be a more directed to more than 200 companies annually. innovation.

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M A R T I N

Glaucoma: the silent thief of sight New treatments for glaucoma are a key priority in Stem cells (shown here in green) transplanted vision research. Advances in stem cell technology in into the eye must negotiate certain barriers to Cambridge are helping to make this dream a reality. survival, migration and integration

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible interest, and Cambridge researchers are To catch a thief blindness worldwide. Dubbed the ‘silent leading the way in this field. Glaucoma Replacing damaged RGCs will be a thief’ because of the insidious manner by involves the progressive death of retinal challenging procedure, involving the which many patients have already suffered ganglion cells (RGCs) – the eye cells that establishment of complex connections with significant visual loss before they are carry visual information from the eye to the the retina and brain, and requiring a much diagnosed, glaucoma affects more than brain via the optic nerve – and it’s hoped better understanding of the inhibitory 60 million people, over 6 million of whom that stem cells can be used to protect environment of the mammalian retina. Not are blind in both eyes. Currently, the only surviving RGCs and to replace those that are only will Dr Martin’s research help to treatment that can slow the progression of too damaged to function. This is the goal of understand the barriers that prevent stem disease is to reduce the eye pressure Dr Keith Martin and colleagues at the Centre cell transplantation, but it will also help to medically or surgically. However, for some for Brain Repair, who have pioneered a new catch the thief in action – by understanding patients, visual deterioration continues technique to study the barriers that reduce the pathogenic sequence of eye pressure unabated even with this intervention. Once the survival, migration and integration of and neurodegenerative events as they vision is lost, it cannot be restored. stem cells transplanted into the retina. occur. Glaucoma has been highlighted as a The model involves the use of a very priority eye disease by the World Health specific set of tissue culture conditions that Organization’s global initiative to eliminate enable tissue from a rat’s eye to be kept alive avoidable blindness by the year 2020. This much longer in culture, remaining healthy, recognises the urgent need to find new maintaining its layered architecture and treatments that can prevent blindness in the retaining the ability to make new proteins. most severely affected patients and to The tissue responds to stem cell restore some useful vision to those blinded transplantation in a similar way to that of by the disease. the eyes of living animals, enabling the researchers to transplant stem cells onto Towards stem cell therapy living tissue in a controlled environment and The potential use of stem cell therapy in the to test treatments to improve integration of treatment of glaucoma has aroused great the transplanted cells.

Prestigious prize for replacing animal use Dr Keith Martin

Dr Keith Martin and PhD student Thomas Johnson were recently awarded a major prize by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) for the UK research that has done most over the preceding two years to replace, refine and reduce animal experiments. Until recently, For more information, please contact injecting cells into the eyes of anaesthetised animals has been the only way to the author Dr Keith Martin understand the barriers that prevent the integration of transplanted stem cells into ([email protected]) at the Centre for the retina. The £10,000 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)-sponsored prize recognises the fact that Brain Repair in the Department of this new retinal culture system allows much of this work to be carried out without the Clinical Neurosciences. This research was need for animal procedures. published recently in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and For more information about NC3Rs, please visit www.nc3rs.org.uk was funded by a GSK Clinical Fellowship to Dr Martin.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 23 FEATURES

Cambridge Conservation Initiative: transforming international biodiversity conservation

‘Conserving global biodiversity presents us with a major challenge in the 21st century, requiring interdisciplinary collaboration across research, policy, practice and education. By creating CCI, the Cambridge conservation community has taken a unique step towards tackling this challenge in a most exciting and innovative way.’ Professor Alison Richard, Vice-Chancellor

The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) management has appeared over the past economic consequences of losing what is is a new and pioneering partnership formed 25 years, at local, national and international left of wild nature; the conclusion – by the University of Cambridge and leading scales. Public understanding of nature, its that converting remaining habitat patches conservation organisations. Its aim is to beauty, value and rapid demise, has grown typically results in a net economic loss to create an international centre of enormously. Such public interest and society as a whole – was presented by interdisciplinary collaboration and outreach concern has resulted in an increasing RSPB and BirdLife International at the that will transform conservation research, number of organisations that carry out a World Summit on Sustainable Development policy and practice for the benefit of wide range of practical conservation as well as to the UK Prime Minister. Professor biodiversity and humanity. programmes. Yet, despite such progress, Bill Sutherland, also in Zoology, has been extinctions continue and habitat loss remains bringing together a diverse array of policy Scale of the challenge a major threat to life on earth and human makers to identify new problems facing Biological diversity – the myriad of genes, wellbeing. If progress is to be sustained, there biodiversity and key unanswered questions; species and ecosystems – underpins the life- needs to be a new approach that will bridge in parallel, he has been working with support systems for our planet and for the the gulf between research, policy, practice conservation practitioners across the world survival of life on earth. Clean air, pure water, and training in biodiversity conservation. to document evidence-based solutions. foods, medicines and natural materials are all This challenge is at the heart of CCI. Although CCI is still in its infancy, produced or maintained by the plants, some innovative integrated approaches animals and microbes that make up Pioneering change have already been created. In a Shared biodiversity and the ‘ecosystem services’ CCI will carry out innovative research across Challenges Programme between CCI they provide. disciplines and forge entrepreneurial members, collaborative projects have However, an increasing body of research, collaborations that generate cross-cutting started on, for example: assessing the including significant contributions from policy analysis and evidence-based practical value of biodiversity in climate change Cambridge, shows that humans are advice, drawing on and integrating adaptation; identifying the impacts of destroying species, habitats and ecosystems biological, social, economic and political biofuel production on biodiversity; using more rapidly and more extensively than ever science. Through its members (see panel), remote sensing to measure and evaluate before. Extinction rates of species are CCI will harness a unique and diverse biodiversity; and developing mechanisms estimated to be more than 1000 times international network across business, for biodiversity offsetting (similar to carbon higher than would occur through natural government and intergovernmental offsetting). evolution and, if climate change continues at agencies, civil society and academia. Thanks to the generous support of current levels, a third of all living species are Research has already benefitted from Arcadia, the charitable foundation of likely to be committed to extinction by 2050. the types of collaborations it is anticipated Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, CCI has In a global assessment of ecosystem services that CCI will foster on a larger scale. For just appointed its first Executive Director, it was recently concluded that 60% are being example, Professor Bill Adams in the Dr Mike Rands. The Executive Director’s seriously depleted or used unsustainably. It Department of Geography has been role is to accelerate activities, foster new has become clear that such widespread working with the International Union for collaborations and partnerships, and drive impacts on biodiversity have profound Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a wide forward plans for a purpose-built negative implications for human welfare. international network on a project to environmentally sound centre for Set against this gloomy picture for global develop the next generation of thinking biodiversity. Created around a new biodiversity is some more encouraging news. about sustainable development, recently University of Cambridge Institute for Our detailed knowledge of the status and published by IUCN as a book entitled Biodiversity Conservation, the centre will distribution of species and ecosystems, and Transition to Sustainability: Towards a also host founder partners and other of the threats they face, is growing rapidly. Humane and Diverse World . Professor organisations, providing a vibrant An impressive range of government Andrew Balmford and colleagues in the intellectual environment and organisational legislation and policy for biodiversity Department of Zoology have worked with hub with operational economies of scale conservation and wider environmental RSPB to coordinate a major review of the and shared facilities.

24 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 FEATURES

Founder members of CCI

BirdLife International is a strategic global partnership of conservation organisations in over 100 countries, working to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, and to promote sustainability in the use of natural L ( T E resources (www.birdlife.org). B F A T

) T ;

O J A

R M I G

I British Trust for Ornithology is an E H

G T : R independent scientific research trust, T U R N O D

P investigating the populations, movements Y I C / T A B

L and ecology of wild birds in the British Isles A

B ) ; I

O M (www.bto.org). L N O S G / Y B

I A R D S Cambridge Conservation Forum is a S L O I F C E

I network that links the diverse Cambridge- A T I O based community of conservation practitioners N and researchers working at local, national and international levels (www.cambridgeconservationforum.org.uk).

Fauna & Flora International acts to conserve Cambridge already has the largest threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, cluster of conservation expertise in the delivering global and regional programmes of world but the new centre will deliver a step conservation and community projects change in our ability to attract researchers, (www.fauna-flora.org). engage with the policy sector and the business community, and deliver training International Union for Conservation of and outreach. CCI’s goal is to harness for Nature (IUCN) is the world’s largest professional biodiversity conservation Cambridge’s global conservation network, and supports exceptional power to shape thinking of scientific research, manages field projects and mainstream decision makers and to exert unites conservationists to develop and decisive influence in the global arena. implement policy, laws and best practice (www.iucn.org).

RSPB is the largest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe, and works to secure the conservation of biodiversity – especially wild birds and their habitats – through research, education, habitat management and advocacy (www.rspb.org.uk).

TRAFFIC is a global wildlife trade monitoring network which works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature (www.traffic.org).

Tropical Biology Association works in Professor Bill Adams (back left), partnership with African institutions to build Professor Bill Sutherland expertise in biodiversity conservation and research (www.tropical-biology.org). (back right), Professor Andrew Balmford (left) and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Dr Mike Rands Centre is a branch of the United Nations that undertakes synthesis, analysis and dissemination of global biodiversity knowledge For more information, please contact for conventions, countries, organisations the authors Dr Mike Rands and companies (www.unep-wcmc.org). ([email protected]; CCI Executive Director, Judge Business School), University of Cambridge core Departments Professor Bill Adams ([email protected]; involved in CCI are Zoology, Plant Sciences, Department of Geography); Professor Geography, Land Economy, Judge Business Andrew Balmford ([email protected]; School and the Cambridge Programme for Department of Zoology) and Professor Bill Sustainability Leadership (CPSL; formerly the Sutherland ([email protected]; Cambridge Programme for Industry). Department of Zoology) or visit www.conservation.cam.ac.uk

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 25 FEATURES

Some remarkable organisms are able to withstand almost complete desiccation. How they survive is providing Cambridge researchers with new ideas for biostable therapeutics. Drying without dying

Resurrection might seem an unpromising is completely shut down and only resumes – so that large cultures can be derived topic for scientific research, but there are when water is present once more. from single individuals. This results in a well-characterised organisms, including When dry, anhydrobiotic creatures can population of genetically identical animals some animals and plants, that are able to tolerate an astonishing range of (a clone), and clones of many thousands of enter, and recover from, an apparently environmental stresses, including extremes rotifers can be produced in the laboratory. lifeless state. They can remain in suspended of temperature and pressure: from –270˚C, Other small animals are also able to animation for long periods, perhaps for which is close to absolute zero, to +150˚C, undergo drying without dying, including decades, but then resume their normal lives, well above the boiling point of water; and some species of nematode worms, normally apparently unaffected. from the vacuum of space to a thousand found in soil or on leaf litter, and thus atmospheres in a pressure chamber. After frequently subjected to drought; these Life without water this mistreatment, they can still be revived animals have also been adapted to life in Dr Alan Tunnacliffe, Reader in Biotechnology by rehydration without ill effect. It is the laboratory. at the Department of Chemical Engineering perhaps not surprising that one proposal and Biotechnology, and his research team for how life originated on Earth is that How do they do that? are working on one means by which nature anhydrobiotic organisms were carried The ready availability of large numbers of is able to cheat death. This is called through space from another planet. bdelloid rotifers and nematodes allows anhydrobiosis, derived from the Greek for biochemical and genetic studies to be ‘life without water’, and occurs in organisms Animal magic carried out that should eventually unravel that are able to withstand almost complete One type of animal that can perform the the mystery of anhydrobiosis. Initial work desiccation. anhydrobiosis trick is the bdelloid rotifer, a has focused on simple sugars that are able The ability to survive extreme harmless, normally aquatic, creature that is to protect biological molecules against dehydration is remarkable for a living less than a millimetre in size. Bdelloids are desiccation damage. Many of the plants organism since it is widely accepted that life ubiquitous in freshwater environments that undergo anhydrobiosis, the aptly is water, and usually there is a limit beyond throughout the world, particularly in named resurrection plants, contain large which further loss of water is fatal. Humans temporary pools where the ability to survive quantities of sucrose – the same sugar used are typical in this respect, as water desiccation offers a selective advantage. to sweeten tea or coffee. Researchers have comprises approximately two-thirds of our Dr Tunnacliffe’s group is studying two discovered that another related sugar, body weight, and loss of just 15% of this is different species of rotifer, one collected trehalose, seems to be involved in life threatening if not treated rapidly. from a bird bath in his back garden, and the protecting some animals and Anhydrobiotic organisms, by contrast, are second from a billabong in Australia. They microorganisms from dehydration stress. able to survive loss of most of their body can be grown easily in the laboratory, Both sugars are thought to protect drying water, which is reduced to 10% or less of feeding happily on bacteria or other small organisms by forming organic glasses inside body weight in the dried state. When dry, organic particles. They also reproduce cells and around sensitive molecules, no signs of life can be detected: metabolism asexually – no males have ever been found trapping them in space and time.

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Water-loving (hydrophilic) proteins protect organisms such as this nematode during desiccation by stabilising proteins within their cells (nematode ovary shown: blue, location of DNA; green, location of hydrophilic protein)

Water-loving proteins potency if not kept cool. This limits their shelf life; rehydration could be performed Other similar molecular magic tricks are sure effectiveness in many developing countries, just prior to use. Although this scenario to be discovered since bdelloid rotifers are where refrigeration is not always available. currently sounds like science fiction, the now known from the group’s research to be The difficulty in maintaining a ‘cold chain’ humble, harmless rotifer is teaching us that it might not be too far away. unable to produce trehalose. One class of from point of manufacture of a medicine to molecules that offers an alternative to the its point of use has been highlighted by the ‘sugar solution’ to the anhydrobiosis World Health Organization as a major hurdle problem is that of water-loving (hydrophilic) in bringing some treatments, regarded as routine in the developed world, to less- proteins. Recent research in the Tunnacliffe developed regions. A technology that lab has discovered such proteins in bdelloid allows medicines to be dried, conferring on rotifers and indeed many other desiccation- them the remarkable biostability of tolerant organisms, including plants and anhydrobiosis, could be of enormous microorganisms. benefit, and this approach is already being A major problem for proteins in a drying used by some vaccine manufacturers. cell is loss of three-dimensional (3D) Dr Tunnacliffe has recently received structure, resulting in the proteins clumping funding from the European Research together to form aggregates, which can be Council (ERC) to take this idea a step further. toxic to the cell. Hydrophilic proteins are Understanding how a rotifer or nematode unusual in that they lack a defined 3D survives drying should allow the application structure and seem able to protect other of what has been learned in these proteins around them, either in the test organisms to a mammalian cell. Such tube or a living cell, from aggregation. driable-but-viable cells could have Further work has shown that hydrophilic applications in tissue engineering where proteins might also offer protection to cell Dr Alan Tunnacliffe new cell-based therapeutics are envisaged. membranes during desiccation, and help to At the moment, for example, producing an prevent cells becoming leaky under stress. artificial pancreas capable of secreting insulin in response to high blood sugar Biostable medicines levels as a treatment for diabetics requires An understanding of the drying-without- the handling of fragile live cells. If these cells For more information, please dying trick is not only of scientific interest could be dried in a viable form, the contact the author Dr Alan but could also have important medical accompanying biostability should make Tunnacliffe ([email protected]) applications. For example, many drugs and such artificial organs more like off-the-shelf at the Department of Chemical vaccines are fragile molecules that lose their medicines, easy to store and with a long Engineering and Biotechnology.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 27 FEATURES D R

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W A T K I N S / A L L

S A I N T S

C H

Tracing popular U R C H ,

beliefs from N O R T medieval to early H

S T ,

Y

modern times is O R highlighting the K durability of debates about the dead. From beyond the grave

‘Death personified’; detail from a late-medieval window in All Saints Church, North St, York, depicting signs from the Book of Revelation of the end of the world

It has become something of a newspaper this spiritual ‘middling sort’ was solved by the learned observers can be as telling as the commonplace that men and women of medieval church when it gave purgatory tales they set down. Although usually the modern West share an unusual sharp definition as the place where traces of sceptical and detached, they sometimes slip aversion to death. Where once it was sin might be cleansed in fire before the soul in autobiographical comment on their own subject to intimate ritual among entered paradise. hopes and fears about death and the dead, neighbours, and kin gathered around the Although, in the mid-16th century, and sometimes betray how stories in which domestic deathbed, it is now hidden, Protestant reformers abolished purgatory as they are immersed then infiltrated and hospitalised and a ‘modern taboo’. Even unscriptural, niggling questions remained shaped their own beliefs. less has been said about the dead about the fate of the majority. Could they What this research is beginning to themselves and their changing place in really be consigned to hell’s fires? Still queasy suggest is that many beliefs about the the imagination. Yet, as medieval historian about this, some Victorian churchmen dead and debates about their fate were Dr Carl Watkins is finding, an exploration reinvented the concept: worried by a loving perennial ones, transcending some of the of cultural change in attitudes to death God who still sent some into eternal fires, great cultural and religious changes wrought over a long span provides a fascinating they ‘emptied’ hell entirely by arguing that in the medieval and early modern worlds. means of understanding how ordinary universal salvation was possible. This even led people relate to the dead and conceive of the former Prime Minister William Gladstone their fate. to fear an epidemic of social disorder if the Dr Watkins’ research requires deterrent of hell was, in effect, abolished. consideration of obvious otherworldly But did the saved not become places – heaven, hell, the cleansing fires complacent about their blissful condition? of purgatory, the idea of judgement at From indications in the New Testament that the end of time – but also the less the saved and damned might see each travelled byways. How have people other’s fate, an idea was spun out in lurid related to their ancestors? How have they medieval visions in which the elect were imagined the ancient dead whose traces briefly shown hell to redouble their own joys. (from saints’ bones to megalithic Even as late as the 19th century, preachers monuments) lie in their midst? Through were still drawing on the same idea, although tracing attitudes from the middle ages to modified for refined Victorian sensibilities: the dawn of modernity, recorded in smoke from hell’s fires would waft discreetly parish records and church archives, the through heaven to remind its inhabitants of research is showing that debates about their blessed estate. the dead and patterns of thinking about Dr Carl Watkins their place have proved durable down Back from the dead the centuries. Popular beliefs about ghosts are perhaps the most tenacious aspects of ‘death culture’. Of Defining purgatory course, deciphering these beliefs entails One recurring theme is the fate of those taking folklore seriously as a historical source. For more information, please deemed too sin-stained for immediate Folk stories were lovingly accumulated by contact the author Dr Carl Watkins transit to heaven but not wicked enough collectors from the second half of the 17th ([email protected]) at the Faculty for hell. The perennial problem posed by century onwards, and the reactions of these of History.

28 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 FEATURES Tales of Vikings and Irish, clerics and kings Máire Ní Mhaonaigh is unravelling legends within gems of literature surviving from medieval Ireland.

Nestling in the westernmost corner of augmented tale, Western Europe (‘next stop America’), Ireland depicting him as is often seen as part of a Celtic fringe. Yet, in conqueror of medieval times, it formed a major intellectual irrepressible Vikings, a hub, and the wealth of documents that have veritable saviour of his survived from the period in vellum own people. It was in manuscripts cast light not just on Ireland’s his descendants’ own sophisticated civilisation but on interest to peddle this developments in Europe as well. positive image; having Unlike clerical counterparts in other a glorious ancestor places, Irish monks wrote in Latin but also meant that they too composed copiously in their own language might be deemed from the 6th and 7th centuries AD onwards, great. In the 12th making Old Irish the first vernacular to have century, Brian’s achieved literary status. Among their various great-grandson, works are secular narratives dealing with Muirchertach, who themes as diverse as kingship and kinship, proudly bore his heroism and love. These serve as the most forefather’s name insightful of social commentary, illuminating Ua Briain how society functioned and depicting (‘descendant of people’s most pressing concerns. Brian’) as a surname, Medieval spin doctors commissioned Literature is not history, of course, and a literary unravelling the layers of complex texts is biography of his often a forensic affair. With recent funding family hero. from the Alexander von Humboldt Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh Foundation, Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh’s (The Viking–Irish War) served as a reminder Opening page of the research is concerned with disentangling to potential opponents of what text Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh from the Book R

of Leinster (Trinity College Dublin, MS 1339, p. 309a) E earlier texts copied over centuries and Uí Briain (O’Briens) were made. P R O

surviving in manuscripts of the 12th century D U C and later. The reproduction of texts provided Church and ‘State’ E D

B

ample opportunity for enterprising scribes – Muirchertach was a powerful patron of Y

P E the spin doctors of their own time – to put church reform and his clerical companions R M I S their own subjective slant on events, bolstered his political ambition by producing S I O N

producing skilful propaganda glorifying their useful documents like Cogadh in return. O F own masters and putting their own issues Such constructive cooperation had for T H E centre stage. Discerning these biases enables centuries ensured that various facets of the B O A us to evaluate their writing and use it to life of Ireland’s ruling elite were recorded R D

O

understand the machinations of life in the either as ‘facts’ or in literary form, providing F

T R I authors’ own day. an unrivalled picture of the upper echelons N I T Y

of a society which constituted part of the C O L

Mythologising history European norm. L E G

In the case of stories concerning real figures, This fruitful fusion was not to continue, E

D

Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh U historical sources can provide a measuring and the large 12th-century codex, the Book B L I stick to determine the degree of of Leinster , in which the Cogadh is preserved, N mythologisation that has taken place. One may have been one of the last such For more information, please contact particularly powerful ruler, Brian Boru, who compilations to have been produced in an the author Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh died at a ripe old age in battle in 1014, ecclesiastical embrace. Nonetheless, the ([email protected]) at the Department emerges as a wily politician and skilful 600 years or more of intense intellectual of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. military campaigner from a reading of involvement between clerics and royalty Dr Ní Mhaonaigh’s book Brian Boru: contemporary chronicles. Literary works in in Ireland offers an unparalleled glimpse of Ireland’s Greatest King ? was published Irish and in Norse tell a different, much this remarkable time. by Tempus in 2007.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 29 FEATURES

New understanding of the physics of clouds is helping to model both climate change and the impact of volcanic eruptions and wild fires. Unclouding uncertainty in climate modelling

Our climate is the net result of many from a few hundred metres to a few weather situation (that is, at a specific time complex processes that transfer and kilometres in scale. and in a specific grid cell of the model). The redistribute the Sun’s energy through the Clouds are extremely important for system is based on the solution of a set of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land and realistic model simulations since they are the Lotka–Volterra-type differential equations, ecosystems. Because these processes are ultimate drivers of the global atmospheric also known as predator–prey equations from basically nonlinear, their interaction circulation. Water vapour carrying latent heat their use for describing biological systems: unavoidably leads to chaotic variability of is transported upwards by convection or in the clouds (the ‘predators’) have a limited climate and weather on various time scales, large weather systems (fronts), where it cools ‘food’ supply of convective available and we rely on climate models to achieve and eventually forms clouds; precipitation as potential energy (the ‘prey’, this being the some sense of the dynamics of weather and rain then releases the latent heat. This amount of energy available for convection), to predict future climate. Currently, one of convection is strongest in the tropics, where for which clouds of different characteristics the greatest sources of uncertainty in the vapour-laden trade winds from both (size, depth) are competing. climate modelling is posed by clouds, which hemispheres converge, forming deep, rain- By capturing the variations of cloud are not resolved individually but instead are producing convective clouds. It is here that spectra in a statistical sense, cloud averaged. Professor Hans-F. Graf’s group, the atmosphere receives the energy that microphysics can be treated explicitly and it based in the Department of Geography and drives the whole global circulation. is now possible to determine in-cloud part of the Centre for Atmospheric Science Clouds are also highly relevant to vertical velocities, interactions with aerosols, (see panel), is developing a new technique changes in climate that result from human convective transport, rainfall intensity and for global and regional climate modelling activities. Changes in land use affect radiation effects. that moves beyond treating clouds as ‘one- reflectivity and evaporation from soil and size-fits-all’. vegetation, and hence the transfer of energy Forest fires and volcanic ash to the atmosphere; fossil fuel burning and The team has been focusing on a variety of Cloudy issues industrial processes increase aerosols that different types of cloud – most notably the Climate models consist of a set of coupled reflect sunlight or absorb solar and terrestrial effects of smoke on clouds and precipitation differential equations based on first radiation. Both land use change and aerosols over Amazonia and Indonesia. Initially principles of physics that are solved have an effect on cloudiness and funded by the European Union, the project numerically by dividing the planet into a precipitation at both the local and the is now contributing to the Danum-OP3 three-dimensional grid. Available computer micro scale. consortium that spans eight UK institutions power dictates that each grid is typically and is funded by the Natural Environment 100–300 km in size. Unfortunately, any Predator–prey Research Council (NERC) to investigate the processes that are smaller cannot be The innovative approach adopted by effects of the replacement of pristine rain explicitly resolved and have to be Professor Graf’s group has been to simulate forest by oil palm plantations in northern ‘parameterised’ as an average. Among these the behaviour and microphysics of Borneo. Recently published data show how are clouds: the standard approach has been convective clouds using a concept more the smoke from the extreme peat fires that to create an average cloud that has to mimic familiar within population dynamics: they plagued Indonesia and surrounding all the effects of the cloud spectrum of treat clouds as individuals that compete for countries for months during 1997 –8 different-sized convective clouds. Of course, food. reduced the amounts of rainfall in the area. in nature, the cloud spectrum is highly This technique allows the separation of The reduced rainfall, in turn, increased the variable depending on the actual weather individual clouds from a larger set of clouds residence time of the smoke particles in the situation and location, and clouds can range that can potentially evolve under a given atmosphere, thus aggravating the situation.

30 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 FEATURES P R O F E S S O R

H A N S - F .

G R A F

ATHAM can be used to predict whether ice is formed within a volcanic plume; here, rainwater (dark blue), cloud water (light blue) and ice (grey) are modelled in the images to the left; and particles of ash (large, dark brown; coarse, light brown; fine, grey) are modelled in the images to the right

A second focus has been the ‘In many climate models... development and application of the Active Centre for Atmospheric cloud feedbacks remain the Tracer High-resolution Atmospheric Model Science (ATHAM). The development of this high- largest source of uncertainty.’ resolving model started immediately after Report by the The Centre for Atmospheric Science is the eruption of the Mount Pinatubo volcano Intergovernmental Panel one of the premier groups in the UK for on the Philippines in the early 1990s, when on Climate Change, 2007 atmospheric studies. It encompasses Professor Graf was at the Max Planck research in three departments: Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. The model simulates convective plumes at resolutions down to a few tens of metres • Department of Chemistry: and was initially used to understand the Numerical modelling of dynamic, microphysical and chemical tropospheric and stratospheric processes within volcanic eruption plumes. chemistry/climate (Professor John An important question was whether these Pyle), instruments and vigorous convective systems could measurements (Professor Rod effectively transport magmatic halogen Jones), measurements of gas compounds into the stratosphere, where kinetics (Dr Tony Cox) and studies they could harm the ozone layer. The model of atmospheric aerosols (Dr Markus has also been used successfully to simulate Kalberer). big fire storms induced by wild fires, and the • Department of Applied results have proved that pollutants from Mathematics and Theoretical these fires are introduced into the lower Physics: Investigation of stratosphere. fundamental aspects of Further applications of ATHAM are under atmospheric dynamics and current investigation by Dr Michael Herzog physical processes (Professors Peter in Professor Graf’s group, particularly in Haynes and Michael McIntyre). relation to aviation safety. Fine silicate ash • Department of Geography: from volcanic eruptions poses a severe risk Research on convection, modelling for aeroplanes. Although ash clouds can be plumes and stratospheric dynamics detected by satellite monitoring, they are (Professor Hans-F. Graf and Dr often obscured by ice particles residing Michael Herzog). above the ash, and ATHAM can be used to predict whether ice is formed within a The Centre is co-directed by Professor volcanic plume. Further plans with ATHAM John Pyle and Professor Peter Haynes. are ongoing with support from a joint Professor Hans-F. Graf Chinese–German research project that will For more information, please study the effects on weather and climate in For more information, please contact contact Professor Peter Haynes Southeast Asia resulting from the dramatic the author Professor Hans-F. Graf ([email protected]) changes of land use and ecology on the ([email protected]) at the or visit www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk Tibetan plateau during the past 60 years. Department of Geography.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 31 IN FOCUS

Cancer Research UK is the Linking the laboratory world’s leading independent charity dedicated to cancer to the cancer clinic research, spending around The Cambridge Research £300 million a year on world- Institute (CRI) is driving the class research to beat cancer. development of new In November 2008, the approaches for the early charity launched a five-year detection, prevention and plan to focus research on treatment of cancer. core areas of science that will The CRI is the most recent of five have the greatest impact on comprehensive research institutes core reducing cancer deaths, with funded by Cancer Research UK. Housed in the an emphasis on cancers that magnificent, custom-built, £50 million Li Ka Shing Centre, the Institute is located have poor survival rates. on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. With more than 250 scientists in 19 research groups, it is one of the largest cancer research facilities in Europe. Officially opened in early 2007, the Institute is already internationally acclaimed for the high calibre of its research. ‘We’ve been able to hit the ground running,’ said Director Professor Sir Bruce Ponder, ‘and this is largely because the funding we receive from Cancer Research UK means that we can guarantee salary, staff, laboratory space and core facilities, Formed in 2002 by the amalgamation of the two largest UK cancer charities – so the individuals we recruit have minimal the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund – Cancer interruption to research as they set up their Research UK continues a century-long history of funding cancer research. Its annual laboratories.’ research budget funds the work of over 4500 scientists, doctors and nurses across Group leaders have been carefully chosen the UK, including research at a number of specialised institutes and centres. The most with complementary research interests in recent of the core-funded institutes, the Cambridge Research Institute (CRI; see mind – roughly half are engaged in the study panel), is a flagship research enterprise located on the Cambridge Biomedical of fundamental aspects of cancer cell biology Campus. and half in technology-based or clinical-based In 2007 –8, Cancer Research UK spent just over £31.5 million on laboratory research research; over a third are clinically qualified. and clinical trials in Cambridge; around £17.5 million of this annual research spend Many of the group leaders hold joint provided core funding for the CRI. appointments with the Hospital, the University Funding by Cancer Research UK covers all aspects of cancer research, from (seven within the Department of Oncology) or understanding fundamental cancer cell biology to large epidemiology studies across research institutes on the Cambridge entire populations of people, as well as training the next generation of research Biomedical Campus. CRI’s location on the scientists. Some examples in Cambridge include: Campus offers outstanding opportunities for • Several programme grants and a significant element of core funding to the such interaction because of its proximity to the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute , where research is Foundation Trust (Addenbrooke’s), the helping to uncover what goes wrong when a cell becomes cancerous, by University School of Clinical Medicine and its investigating the processes that ensure that cells function correctly during normal associated institutes, and the Medical Research development. Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology • Funding the two UK arms of the largest study of diet and health ever undertaken – and four MRC Units. the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) – All of these interactions are crucial to the a long-term study of more than half a million people in 10 European countries. success of the Institute, as Professor Ponder The University of Cambridge manages the Norfolk arm of EPIC, which has recruited (who is also Head of the Department of more than 30,000 people. Oncology) explained: ‘It’s no good creating a • Scientists at the Strangeways Research Laboratory and Department of freestanding institute that’s got a ‘moat’ Oncology , who are searching for genes that increase cancer risk and investigating around it – we work hard to be fully how the effects of the genes combine with lifestyle factors to cause cancer. connected with Cambridge’s research • Cancer Research UK PhD Training Programme in Medicinal Chemistry environment and the Hospital, both to expand (see panel), a collaborative initiative that brings together research groups with our intellectual base and to ensure that expertise in synthesis chemistry, pharmacology, biochemistry and cancer biology laboratory advances are translated into to train synthesis chemists to PhD level. benefits to cancer patients as quickly as possible. The joint appointments really make For more information, please visit www.cancerresearchuk.org these interactions work, and is another reason we’ve been able to get off the ground so quickly.’

32 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 K E I T H

IN FOCUS H E P P E L L Training chemists to identify cancer targets Rigorous interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of a graduate programme to train the next generation of synthetic chemists. The Cancer Research UK PhD Training Programme in Medicinal Chemistry has been in operation in Cambridge since 2006. To date, 12 PhD students have embarked on training that exposes them to over 30 world-class research groups from 11 departments with facilities in synthesis chemistry, pharmacology, biochemistry and cancer biology. A further eight will join the Programme over the next two years. In the first nine months of the Programme, first-year students are brought up to speed in cancer-focused research by a combination of PhD-level laboratory rotations, taught courses and hot topics. As they move into their second year, students settle into their chosen three-year PhD project with a primary chemistry supervisor and other supervisors from the biology sectors. Dr Rebecca Myers, who coordinates the Programme from the Department of Chemistry, described how it broadens the mind: ‘The new students are incredibly enthusiastic about the Recent research highlights include the primed,’ said Professor Ponder, who chairs the lab rotations and the challenges they present. discovery of precisely why some women CCC Steering Committee. ‘We’re now moving They often arrive with well-defined ideas on develop resistance to the breast cancer drug into a new phase with the CCC in which what aspect of cancer-related medicinal tamoxifen. Dr Jason Carroll, who leads the we’re identifying collaborative research chemistry they would ultimately like to research. Nuclear Receptor Transcription Laboratory, themes and developing the organisational Yet this typically transforms as the students explained: ‘We knew that women developed structures that will help to drive them come to see the breadth of cancer research resistance to tamoxifen but previously our forward.’ ongoing in the University and how chemistry understanding of why this occurred could be What happens next at the CRI? Research can interface with it.’ compared with trying to fix a broken car at the Institute will bed down and integrated Programme Director Professor Shankar without knowing how the engine worked. programmes will continue to develop. The Balasubramanian (Herchel Smith Professor of Now we understand how all the engine parts top floor of the Institute is being kept in Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Clinical operate and we can try to think about ways reserve. ‘In a few years’ time,’ said Professor Medicine and the Department of Chemistry) to make repairs.’ Ponder, ‘the science at the Institute will have explained the importance of this interdisciplinary Professor Kevin Brindle, who leads the matured to the point where we will be able training: ‘Through providing practical and Molecular Imaging Laboratory, has to make intelligent choices about what we intellectual experience of cancer biology to early developed a way of scanning the body using need to add. My colleagues and I believe that career synthetic chemists, the Programme is magnetic resonance imaging to a level of we have something really special at the CRI, putting in place the tools that will help them precision that could be used to detect cancer and I’m delighted to say that the funders and identify appropriate cancer targets for drugs earlier, as well as for the evaluation and local community share our enthusiasm.’ of the future.’ design of novel cancer therapies. Dr David S H

Tuveson has set up a facility in the clinic for A U N treating patients with pancreatic cancer and N E A V

a matching experimental system in the E laboratory to test and refine potential new S treatments. To strengthen cancer research collaborations across Cambridge, a virtual community has arisen with the CRI as its nucleus. The Cambridge Cancer Centre (CCC) forges links between cancer researchers in the biological and physical sciences, clinicians and local biotech companies. Professor Sir Bruce Ponder Symposium day for the current students ‘CCC creates an environment in which basic research can have a practical application, For more information, please visit For more information, please contact collaborative projects can be developed, and www.cambridgecancer.org.uk Dr Rebecca Myers ([email protected]) or visit new interdisciplinary work can be pump- and www.cancer.cam.ac.uk www-medchem.ch.cam.ac.uk

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 33 INSIDE OUT D R

D A V I D

S T E R Professor David MacKay N Internationally known for his work on information theory, machine learning and novel forms of communication, Professor David MacKay has devoted much of his time recently to public teaching about energy. His well-received book Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air was published in December 2008.

Whether he’s developing a means of understand just how big the energy communicating in any language with any challenge is,’ he explained , ‘I hope to muscle, debunking energy myths by promote constructive conversations establishing how the numbers add up, or about energy, instead of the perpetual analysing the fractal Fibonacci spirals of a Punch and Judy show of anti-wind and cauliflower and the internal workings of anti-nuclear. We need a plan that adds up.’ his Psion organiser, David MacKay, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the What would others be surprised to Department of Physics Cavendish learn about you? Laboratory, has an extraordinary diversity I love and cherish my 15-year-old Psion 3A of interests. Personal Digital Assistant. I have at least five For the past decade, one of his of the same model and when they break principal research projects has been down I take them apart and carry out Dasher, a machine-learning system that surgery to fix them. I’ve also twice played in allows individuals to write without a the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships keyboard. The user creates sentences by (we lost) and the temperature of my home is navigating through letters in a continually usually 13˚C in winter, although perhaps unfurling alphabetical display, effectively this isn’t surprising about me, as turning navigating in the library that contains ‘all down your central-heating thermostat is conceivable books’. Navigation can be one of the best energy-saving things you controlled by any muscular movement, can do. even breathing or just gazing, while the software consults an archive of training Have you ever had a Eureka moment? text to predict what the user might write My Eureka moment was realising that you next. Dasher is available as open-source could take an existing data compression software free to anyone wishing to use it. idea called arithmetic coding, turn it on its David MacKay’s research group is also head by visualising it on a computer screen, developing Opengazer, free software that and achieve the goal of helping someone to can use the images from an ordinary communicate using a single muscle. webcam to estimate the direction of your gaze. Funding has recently been granted What’s the best piece of advice you’ve What is your favourite research tool? from the European Union as part of ever been given? It has to be Google. For all my recent work AEGIS, a worldwide consortium led by ‘Friends come and go, enemies only on energy I’ve learned so much useful and Sun Microsystems to build accessibility accumulate.’ I’m not sure how good I’ve authoritative stuff in a fast and efficient way support into the next generation of rich been at following this advice but I’m hoping using this search engine . internet applications and mobile devices. that I’m improving with age. Combined with Dasher, the aim of What will the future look like in Opengazer is literally to allow users to What motivates you to go to work 2050? write with their eyes. each day? One possible future is that we’ll have lots Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot My main motivation is to understand of green, energy-efficient systems. But Air , David MacKay’s contribution to the things. The reason I love this job is I’m free to another possible future is a world of energy debate, was driven, as he work on anything I want to. I can choose energy wars over the diminishing fossil explained, ‘by outrage at inaccurate fun things, often serendipitously. Dasher fuel resources. Realistically, I don’t think statements made about sustainable resulted from a random conversation on a we can rely on inventions still to come; energy, together with embarrassment bus with a colleague who was mocking the the responsible thing is to imagine that that I didn’t know the numbers myself.’ size of the keyboard on my Psion; we today’s technology is what we’ve got to The resulting book provides a straight- brainstormed on how we could come up work with. If we go for strong energy talking, honest look at the figures: Can we with a communication solution that doesn’t efficiency measures and a really big live on renewables? What are the assume writing is about pushing buttons or building programme of green energy reasonable options for producing energy? using a pen. By the end of the bus journey, systems then it will be possible to How can we make a big difference to we’d named Dasher (for its effortless speed) carry on a lifestyle similar to today’s. reducing our demand? ‘By helping people and I’d started writing the first prototype. It’s possible but it’s not going to be easy.

34 | Issue 9 | Summer 2009 FORTHCOMING EVENTS

FORTHCOMING EVENTS: SAVE THE DATES! 5–10 July 2009 The Darwin 2009 Festival Cambridge The Darwin 2009 Festival is an anthology of the science, society, literature, history, philosophy, theology, art and music arising from the writings, life and times of Charles Darwin. Speakers include Richard Dawkins, Steve Jones, Ruth Padel, Ian McEwan and Dame Gillian Beer. As part of the wider Festival, Cambridge's museums, galleries and other venues will be running programmes of music, drama, film and tours, which will explore the past, present and future of the natural world in the light of evolutionary understanding. Please visit www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk for full details of events and to book tickets.

Other Darwin-related exhibitions in Cambridge this year include:

Beetles, Finches and Barnacles University Museum of Zoology A permanent exhibition on how Darwin’s experiences in zoology shaped his ideas on evolution and natural selection, using many of the specimens he collected throughout his life, especially during the Beagle voyage. www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum

Carnivores: plants that bite back and other Darwin discoveries Cambridge University Botanic Garden A permanent display exploring the diversity of trap mechanisms, from the springs of the Venus Fly Trap to the sticky glue of the Sundews, and examining some of Darwin’s breakthrough experiments. www.botanic.cam.ac.uk

Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, natural science and the visual arts The Fitzwilliam Museum, 16 June–4 October 2009 A major exhibition exploring the influence of Darwin’s discoveries on 19th-century artists and their work, featuring nearly 200 exhibits from over 100 institutions worldwide. www.darwinendlessforms.org

Darwin the Geologist Sedgwick Museum, from 7 July 2009 A permanent exhibition telling the story of the rock specimens that Darwin collected on the Beagle voyage and how he analysed and used them in his early scientific work as a geologist. www.sedgwickmuseum.org/exhibits/darwin.html

A Voyage Round the World: Charles Darwin and the Beagle collections in the University of Cambridge Cambridge University Library, 7 July–23 December 2009 An exploration of the Beagle voyage as a pivotal experience in Darwin’s life, using Darwin’s manuscripts and specimens from the University’s collections. www.lib.cam.ac.uk © I S T

O 1 October 2009 C K P H Horizon Seminar ‘Energy & Environment’ O T O . C

O Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge M /

N There is an imperative need for a shift in society’s approach to climate change and I C O

L energy if the risk of serious social, environmental or economic harm is to be limited. A S

L

O This Horizon Seminar will highlight the need for the key infrastructure components of R A

N energy, water, waste and mobility to work together, as well as the importance of moving from short-term decision making to long-term sustainable growth. Horizon Seminars are organised by Research Services Division. Please visit www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/events/horizon/ or email [email protected] for further information.

Issue 9 | Summer 2009 | 35 THE BACK PAGE

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