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.