Research Impact

Professor Sir Richard Evans’s work as a historian of Nazi Germany and specifically its appropriation of Jewish-owned art led to his appointment to the Spoliation Advisory Panel of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which resolves claims for cultural objects lost during the Nazi era. As the only historian on the Panel, Professor Evans has used his research to provide expert advice that has played a significant role in shaping the five reports and recommendations published by the Panel since 2008. This has resulted in the resolution of a number of disputes and played a role in the ongoing process of reconciliation following the Second World War.

Professor Sir Colin Humphreys and his team in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy have developed a way of growing a remarkable man-made material – gallium nitride (GaN) – which is being used by British manufacturer Plessey Semiconductors to make light-emitting diodes for home lighting. LED bulbs have much longer working lives than any other forms of artificial lighting – LED light bulbs in the home would probably have to be changed only once in a person’s lifetime – and they use less energy than other forms of lighting. Meanwhile, the researchers are continuing their work with what Humphreys describes as a “truly remarkable” material. A new £1 million growth facility funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has been installed in Cambridge, where the researchers are adjusting minute aspects of the growth process to improve the efficiency of light emission. The benefits of increased efficiency could go far beyond home light

Technology developed in Cambridge at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology lies at the heart of a commercial process that can turn toothpaste tubes and drinks pouches into both aluminium and fuel in just three minutes. The process recycles a form of packaging – plastic-aluminium laminates – whose only fate was landfill or incineration. Now, in a commercial-scale plant, built and operated by Cambridge spin-out Enval Limited, up to 2,000 tonnes of packaging are recycled a year – roughly the amount handled by regional waste handlers – and it generates enough energy to run itself. The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

A new generation of pollution monitors developed by the University of Cambridge, together with academic and industrial partners, could help gather the evidence essential to tackle poor air quality. Air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk, causing one in every eight deaths according to figures released in 2014 by the World Health Organization. The new sensors are small enough to carry, stable enough to be installed as static detectors long-term around a city, and sensitive enough to detect small changes in air quality on a street-by-street basis. Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, European Union and Medical Research Council; film funded by the NERC Impact Acceleration Account

Atomic-level engineering is at the forefront of modern, greener jet engine design. The increasing demand for more people to fly while reducing carbon emissions is one of the greatest aeronautical engineering challenges. Efficiency requires engines to run hotter and faster, but the best materials are already running close to their limits. At the Cambridge Rolls-Royce UTC, we design metal alloys that are able to withstand the extreme conditions inside the gas turbine engine. The jet engine is a tough engineering environment. The hot gas stream exceeds 1800⁰C, and the forces on the rotating turbine blades are equivalent to hanging 15 hatchback cars from each one. But to reach the full potential of the engine we must develop new materials to withstand even higher temperatures and stresses. We study how atomic arrangements in metals influence their properties and performance. By engineering the position, size and type of atoms in metal alloys, we can radically change their capabilities. Thi

The variant hunters are helping us to understand how and why the COVID-19 virus is spreading, allowing us to fight back against the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear from some of the scientists behind the UK’s nationwide sequencing effort to track SARS-CoV-2. Sir Patrick Vallance (the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser) also describes how the expertise that came together during the pandemic is now recognised across the world – and why it’s crucially important to continue to sequence to be ready for future pandemics. This pioneering work is being carried out by the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, which comprises numerous academic institutions, four public health agencies and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and is administered by the University of Cambridge. “Incredibly impressive, incredibly high quality and incredibly focused on the mission to make sure that as many people benefited from the science as possible,” Sir Patrick Vallance Read more: Explore other COVID-19 research at Camb

The last few decades of human prosperity have taken a devastating ecological toll. This is in part because nature is absent from the accounting systems that dictate national economies. In February 2021, the Cambridge economist Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta published a ground-breaking report on the economics of biodiversity. Watch Sir Partha outline the radical thinking required to reshape global economies in a sustainable way. Find out more: Discover the latest research taking place at Cambridge and sign up to stay up to date with our films, podcasts, news and features. Thumbnail credit: John Duncan

Sander van der Linden has a nickname: Cambridge’s professor of “defence against the dark arts”. His team works with governments and organisations such as Google to find ways to fight against misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories. Watch Sander explain his radical idea: that people can be “inoculated” against falling for fake news. Want to be involved in the research? Play the games here: Find out how Cambridge researchers are helping transform the world around us. #ittakesimagination

Read more about this research here: An artificial pancreas developed by a team of Cambridge researchers is helping protect very young children with type 1 diabetes at a particularly vulnerable time of their lives. A study published today found that it is both safe to use and more effective at managing their blood sugar levels than current technology. #KidsAP02

To survive, plants need pollinators like bees to come to them. One evolutionary advantage plants like hibiscus can have is a bigger bullseye petal pattern around their pollen. Read more about the findings from the Sainsbury Laboratory here: