The Cambridge Science Festival
Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge

Meera -   This week saw the start of the Cambridge Science Festival.  So I've come along to one of the main event days which is Science on Saturday.  I've kicked things off today by visiting the plant sciences department and with me to tell me more is Jim Haseloff from the plant sciences department here at the University of Cambridge.

Jim -   The theme of this year’s science festival is diverse science, looking at diversity in development, diversity in physiology, diversity in properties of plants.  Within the tent, we’ve got quite a range of activities and diverse plants, there’s a supply of seed and flowers, synthetic biology and application to engineering of plants both now and the future.  Essentially, thinking of how living systems work and how you might tweak or adjust them in the same way you might adjust a plant to produce more drug for drug production or to improve production for bio-energy or for food production for example.

Meera -   The point of the festival is to make things a bit hands-on and interactive.  So, what are the key hands-on activities that you've got here today because I've seen children looking in microscopes and handling mushrooms..?

Jim -   They range from just the observation of biological systems or looking at fungi and plants and algae through to a giant flower that children can crawl into and that giant flower is full of nectar in the form of sweets, and they have pollen then full of glitter, and the kids dress up in bee suits and crawl into the flower and do the job a bee does essentially.

Meera -   Actually that’s just behind us now I think and it’s quite popular.

Jim - It’s extremely popular. And we’ve got building your own fantasy seeds, which you can use to build various motifs you see in seeds.  We’ve got interactive reprogramming of floral structures...

Meera -   So lots going on?

Jim -   Yeah, yes.  It’s all fun.

From: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1296/

KAUST-Cambridge Academic Exchange Alliance

A $25M Academic Excellence Alliance has been established between the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the University of Cambridge. In 2008 and 2009, as part of an Academic Excellence Alliance agreement between KAUST and the University of Cambridge, the initial stages of the KAUST faculty search will be conducted by the University of Cambridge. A committee will select top applicants and nominate them for starting faculty positions at KAUST. Plant and microbial genomics and synthetic biology form the basis of what we hope will be a long term interaction with this exciting new elite scientific institution in the Middle East.

Faculty positions are available - see more details at www.kaust-aea.cam.ac.uk 

Visitor's guide to Cambridge

Visit Cambridge: Online guide to Cambridge compiled by the Cambridge City Council, with lots of useful information such as maps, accomodation guides, details of walks and tours, events, pubs and restaurants. (http://www.visitcambridge.org)

News from the Cambridge Network

Information from the Cambridge Network with the latest science and technology development news about from Cambridge - including news about biotechnology ventures. 

Graduate Studies at Cambridge

The University of Cambridge has attracted many of the very best minds since 1209, when a group of scholars left Oxford to set up a new institution in Cambridge. Today the University has grown to around 17,500 students (7,000 of whom are graduate students), and 3,000 teaching and administrative staff. Of the graduate students, 50 per cent come from overseas, and well over a third are women. The University and its Colleges are now spread throughout the city.

At Cambridge, graduate courses are tough: we offer a lot and we expect a lot. But if you have the commitment, the ability and the motivation, you can expect great rewards - exhilarating intellectual satisfaction and a capability much sought after by employers in industry and academia. The full text of the Graduate Studies Prospectus is available online
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/gsprospectus2008/

Computational Biology at Microsoft Research in Cambridge

Research centre for the application and development of computational methods and tools for modeling and analyzing complex biological systems. "Computational modelling of biological systems is becoming increasingly common as we try to understand biological phenomena in their full complexity. In order to meet this challenge we need to establish the methodologies and techniques that will enable us to gain a system-level understanding of biological processes. The goal of the Computational Biology Division is to enhance biological comprehension by using methods and tools designed in Computer Science to model and analyze biological systems."

Within the Computational Biology Division, Andrew Phillips' lab is developing programming languages and tools for simulating and analysing complex models of biological systems. One of his aims is to develop a language in which large models of biological systems can be programmed from simple components in a modular fashion. The ultimate goal is to be able to program and test a biological system on a computer, before implementing the final design inside a living organism. Andrew is collaborating with Jim Haseloff (Plant Sciences, Cambridge) and Jim Ajioka (Pathology, Cambridge) to develop these tools for use in Synthetic Biology. 

Plant Visions

100 years of plant imaging in Cambridge

An exhibition of images to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the Plant Sciences laboratories in 1904.

Curated by Beverley Glover and Jim Haseloff