University of Cambridge – The New Listener

Bronze Age settlement preserved by fire and water

The best preserved Bronze Age settlement ever discovered in Britain.

17:51 Tuesday 12th January 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: It’s been described as the best preserved Bronze Age settlement ever discovered in Britain. An excavation project in the Cambridgeshire Fens has unearthed two prehistoric wooden round houses, thought to be around 3,000 years old. It’s thought several families lived in the settlement at Must Farm near Peterborough, in wooden houses on stilts, above the banks of a river. To tell us more, here’s Barney Sloane from Historic England.
BARNEY SLOANE: Well it was originally discovered in 1969, as long ago as that. There was a hint from some chance discoveries, I think during a drain excavation or something, although we really only got our first decent look at it during quarrying works in 2004. A timber was spotted by an archeologist, and a trial trench in 2006 revealed just a hint of the magnificence of the site. We then tried to preserve the site in situ rather than excavate it, and we monitored it from 2007 through to last year. Thereafter, looking at the monitoring, we thought actually we think there’s a risk here that this magnificent site would be lost for ever. So we made the decision to fund the excavation jointly with Forterra, who are the landowners and the building products makers.
CHRIS MANN: So the best preserved Bronze Age settlement ever discovered in Britain. Describe its magnificence. What is it that’s so exciting for you Barney?
Continue reading “Bronze Age settlement preserved by fire and water”

Julian Huppert in support of research funding

08:20 Thursday 12th November 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The future of scientific research and invention in Cambridgeshire could suffer as a result of the Government funding freeze. This is the warning from former Cambridge Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert, who says companies like microchip designer ARM may have never got off the ground if it wasn’t for research investment in their early days. Government funding for science and research programmes has been frozen at £4.6 billion since 2010. Julian Huppert joins me now,. Morning Julian.
JULIAN HUPPERT: Morning Dotty. How are you?
DOTTY MCLEOD: Yes fine thank you. £4.6 billion does seem like quite a lot of money doesn’t it?
JULIAN HUPPERT: It is in some ways a lot of money. But it’s not as much as is needed if we’re going to make the advances in all areas of science and research, if we’re going to get the benefits we can get in medicine from being able to create new treatments, in physics, in computing. We have lots and lots of evidence that actually the country makes a profit from this investment. We get really good financial returns, as well as the social returns, and the advancement of knowledge for its own sake.
DOTTY MCLEOD: You know what though, we do get some pieces of research, and we talk about them on this programme. You know the other week we had this research into the vocal chords and the testicles of howler monkeys. There’s research out today from the University of Cambridge about the strength of the jaws of a cockroach. And I hear about this and I think well it’s a bit of fun, but what’s the actual point? Is it really worth the money?
Continue reading “Julian Huppert in support of research funding”

George Joffe on the Syrian conflict

08:27 Friday 2nd October 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The United States has accused Russia of carrying out indiscriminate attacks in Syria. This is on the front pages of many of the papers this morning. The front cover of the Guardian, “Putin moves to prop up Assad” is the headline. Also on the front page of the Telegraph this morning as well. Earlier on Moscow said its strikes targeted the Islamic State group and other terrorists. But America and its allies fear the idea is to support Russia’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al Assad, a claim that’s denied by Moscow. Well George Joffe is a lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. Morning George.
GEORGE JOFFE: Good morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: What’s your view then of what’s happening around Syria at the moment?
Continue reading “George Joffe on the Syrian conflict”

Open Cambridge 2015

17:50 Friday 14th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Let’s talk about Open Cambridge. A very special weekend, 11th to 13th September Cambridge opens its doors. Let’s find out more now from the team, because they’re going to be opening the website for bookings on Monday, so we need to arm you in advance. And to tell us all about it from the team at Open Cambridge let’s welcome Ellen Thornton to tell us what it’s all about.
ELLEN THORNTON: Open Cambridge is a three day event celebrating the heritage of Cambridge, looking at places that are usually closed to the public, or perhaps charge admission, or even just places that people wouldn’t consider exploring. It’s a part of the Heritage Open Day scheme, which is a national project aimed to do just that.
CHRIS MANN: And it’s got bigger year after year. It started off as a small idea, it might be nice to let people have a peek at this and that. And it’s just proved hugely popular, hasn’t it?
ELLEN THORNTON: Yes. We’re in our eighth year now, and this year we have over eighty free events. We programmed the events just based on our own curiosity. So walking round the city, looking at things that we think might be intriguing, going on responses that we get year on year from previous participants, what they would quite like to explore. And we’re incredibly fortunate that Cambridge is just full to the brim with places that are interesting and intriguing.
CHRIS MANN: And I think it shows that the University and other places are responding to the idea that they should open their doors. They shouldn’t just be these cloistered places only for the select few. That actually it’s a good thing to let people see, because some of it is quite magnificent.
ELLEN THORNTON: Absolutely. Yes. And as I said there’s eighty events this year, and many of them haven’t featured in previous years. Some of them have, and have had a bit of a break and returned. And the nice thing about the programme is that as you said it looks at the University, but also the city, and it explores the history of both, and shares some of the incredible things that they have behind doors, and also things that are open to the public, but people don’t necessarily know that they can explore usually.
CHRIS MANN: OK. Now in previous years quite often they’ve sold out, or the tickets have gone very quickly. So the reason we’re talking today is that they’re available from ten o’clock on Monday morning.
ELLEN THORNTON: Yes they are.
CHRIS MANN: On the website. But before we give the details of that, let’s just look at some of the highlights. What kind of places are available?
Continue reading “Open Cambridge 2015”

The perils of data sharing within the NHS

07:47 Thursday 19th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The Cambridge Science Festival is continuing this week, closing on Sunday. Today we’re looking at the security of our health records ahead of an event on that final day. And I’m joined by Dr Lydia Drumright who is from the University. Hello there.
LYDIA DRUMRIGHT: Good morning Chris.
CHRIS MANN: A hugely successful Science Festival, lots of variety in it. And indeed this is quite a different subject from the rest. What are your concerns about health data?
Continue reading “The perils of data sharing within the NHS”

Dame Fiona Reynolds on leadership and motherhood

07:48 Friday 13th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A question for you. Would the world be a better place if women ran it? You mean they don’t? That is the subject of a major debate at the Cambridge Science Festival. It’s being chaired by Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College at Cambridge University. She used to run the National Trust. A mother of three she is, and I spoke to her earlier.
(TAPE)
DAME FIONA REYNOLDS: Well women are brilliant as you know at running organisations. I’ve been lucky in my life to run three charities, each one bigger than the other. But actually the thing I learned really early on is it’s all about people. And although you can’t generalise, of course men are brilliant with people as well, but women are particularly good, and I think they do bring a listening, passion for engaging with people, an a sort of sense we’re all in it together. And I think most organisations succeed when there is that really strong sense of collective vision and purpose.
CHRIS MANN: So where does that leave men? What’s their job? What’s their role?
Continue reading “Dame Fiona Reynolds on leadership and motherhood”

Andrew Balmford on the economic value of protected areas

07:18 Wednesday 25th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: When you go out for a walk, maybe to Ferry Meadows, maybe to the Gog Magogs, maybe along the river just outside Ely, you’re probably enjoying the fresh air. You’re probably enjoying the views, probably enjoying spotting the odd bunny rabbit or butterfly. Have you ever stopped to think how much money nature-based tourism brings to the economy, both county-wide and across the world? Well research from Cambridge University out today has for the first time tried to work this out. The study found that globally it’s hundreds of billions of pounds that nature-based tourism brings to the economy. As a result, they’re calling for more investment in conservation. Even small nature reserves like the RSPB’s at Fowlmere in South Cambridgeshire receives 23,000 visits a year. Ferry Meadows in Peterborough gets 1.1 million. .. We can talk now to Andrew Balmford. Andrew is from Cambridge University’s Department of Zoology, and is the lead author of this report that’s out today. Andrew, my mind is boggling at how you even go about measuring the value of nature-based tourism, as it’s been called. How did you do it?
Continue reading “Andrew Balmford on the economic value of protected areas”

Social media preferences reveal personality traits

07:53 Tuesday 13th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Are you on Facebook? Are you on Twitter? Have you ever thought about what your online profile says about you? Researchers at Cambridge University have devised a way to tell your personality, to tell what you’re like, simply by looking at your Facebook likes. And it is surprisingly, slightly terrifyingly accurate. David Stillwell is from the Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge and is one of the authors of a new study. Morning David.
DAVID STILLWELL: Good morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So explain first of all for people who maybe aren’t on Facebook or don’t use it a lot, what is a Facebook ‘like’?
Continue reading “Social media preferences reveal personality traits”