News

New class of habitable exoplanets 'a big step forward' in search for life

22 September 2023

In the search for life elsewhere, astronomers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth. However, astronomers from the University of Cambridge believe there are more promising possibilities out there. To read the full article.

New MPhil in Planetary Sciences and Life in the Universe Launched

22 September 2023

The new programme will be jointly taught and led by astronomers, chemists, zoologists, plant biologists, and earth scientists. Applications for the course are now open . The MPhil is a 10-month cross-departmental programme designed to deliver outstanding postgraduate level training in the search for life’s origins on Earth...

New LCLU Centre and Project Manager

21 September 2023

Selen Etingü joined us on 1st September as our new LCLU Centre and Project Manager. She moved over from the Office of External Affairs and Communications, where she was the Public Engagement and Impact Manager responsible for the Schools; Arts & Humanities, Humanities & Social Sciences. She holds a PhD in Art and...

Philosophical Perspectives on Origins of Life Research

1 June 2023

A Day Workshop at the University of Cambridge b etween the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe, University of Cambridge and the Exploring Uncertainty and Risk in Contemporary Astrobiology (EURiCA) Project, University of Durham Tuesday 13 June 2023 Faculty of Divinity, West Road Workshop Programme The two longer...

Humanity’s quest to discover the origins of life in the universe

6 March 2023

For thousands of years, humanity and science have contemplated the origins of life in the Universe. While today’s scientists are well-equipped with innovative technologies, humanity has a long way to go before we fully understand the fundamental aspects of what life is and how it forms. “We are living in an extraordinary...

Astronomers use ‘little hurricanes’ to weigh and date planets around young stars

9 January 2023

Little ‘hurricanes’ that form in the discs of gas and dust around young stars can be used to study certain aspects of planet formation, even for smaller planets which orbit their star at large distances and are out of reach for most telescopes. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Institute for Advanced...

Learning about the first animals on Earth from life at the poles

12 October 2022

The amazing survival strategies of polar marine creatures might help to explain how the first animals on Earth could have evolved earlier than the oldest fossils suggest according to new research published in Global Change Biology . These first, simple and now extinct, animals might have lived through some of the most...

Seawater could have provided phosphorous required for emerging life

22 September 2022

The problem of how phosphorus became a universal ingredient for life on Earth may have been solved by a group of Cambridge scientists, who have recreated primordial seawater containing the element in the lab. Their results, published in the journal Nature Communications , show that seawater might be the missing source of...

Launch of he Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe

8 August 2022

The Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe (LCLU) was officially launched on 27 June 2022 at Clare College, Cambridge. The Centre seeks to harness simultaneous breakthroughs in astrophysics, planetology, organic chemistry, biology and cognate disciplines to develop a deeper understanding of life, its emergence, and its...

No signs (yet) of life on Venus

15 June 2022

The unusual behaviour of sulphur in Venus’ atmosphere cannot be explained by an ‘aerial’ form of extra-terrestrial life, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Cambridge used a combination of biochemistry and atmospheric chemistry to test the ‘life in the clouds’ hypothesis, which astronomers have...

New class of habitable exoplanets 'a big step forward' in search for life

New MPhil in Planetary Sciences and Life in the Universe Launched

New LCLU Centre and Project Manager

Philosophical Perspectives on Origins of Life Research

Humanity’s quest to discover the origins of life in the universe

Astronomers use ‘little hurricanes’ to weigh and date planets around young stars

Learning about the first animals on Earth from life at the poles

Seawater could have provided phosphorous required for emerging life

Launch of he Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe

No signs (yet) of life on Venus

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