News

The Annual Science Day at Robinson College concluded on Friday 21st March after a day of diverse and stimulating presentations by LCLU members from more than ten Cambridge University departments. The LCLU represents an opportunity for researchers speaking different ‘academic languages’ to answer key questions about Life in the Universe; our Annual …

Planetary Science and Life in the Universe MPhil programme is excited to announce fully paid scholarships available to Home-fee status female students through a collaboration between the Parasol Foundation and Murray Edwards College.These awards will provide opportunities to enable more women to pursue higher education at the Institute of Astronomy…

We are happy to announce the four research projects selected for our 2025 round of Joint Collaboration Programme Awards. It is the first year that we are offering the possibility to link different projects to form a Large Programme. We are happy to award two Large projects and two single projects funding this year. Selected Large projectsGeochemica…

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced John Sutherland, Group Leader in the LMB’s PNAC Division, as the 2025 recipient of the Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences – Stanley Miller Medal. The NAS awards the Stanley Miller Medal in recognition of pioneering research on the early, planetary development of Earth. John is recognised for …

Our new Finance Coordinator Grace Wang joined the LCLU administration team on 16 December 2024. Before this role, she gained valuable experience in University as a Finance Assistant in Mott Hub, Physics Department and as a Finance Coordinator at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership(CISL), University of Cambridge. Holding a Master’s deg…

Self-Sustaining Living Habitats in Extraterrestrial EnvironmentsAuthors: R. Wordsworth and C. CockellStandard definitions of habitability assume that life requires the presence of planetary gravity wells to stabilize liquid water and regulate surface temperature. Here, the consequences of relaxing this assumption are evaluated. Temperature, pressur…

Several billion years ago, geological evidence indicates that Mars was warmer and wetter, with flowing rivers and lakes on its surface. This is hard to explain because the Sun was fainter then, and Mars's orbit is more distant than Earth's. The atmosphere of early Mars was probably thicker, but additional greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide are…

A new multi-million fund established by Trinity and the University of Cambridge seeks the brightest minds from across the world to conduct ground-breaking research at the University, creating the next generation of pioneering treatments, technology and services.The Trinity Cambridge Research Studentships (TCRS) have been created to respond to decli…

The second edition of the Origins Federation Conference brought together in Cambridge its diverse and ever more consolidated scientific community. Researchers from the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich share their impressions. News article shared by ETH Zurich, Centre for Origins and Prevalence of Life (issue: September 2024)To…

The NOMIS Foundation ETH Fellowship Programme supports postdoctoral researchers at ETH Zurich within the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life. The programme is intended to foster the development of young interdisciplinary researchers in the field of the origin and prevalence of life who have demonstrated scientific excellence in the early stage…

On Friday 15th March, researchers  from across nine university departments gathered at King’s College for the LCLU’s Annual Science Day. Over half the attendees were students, and represented fields ranging from theoretical physics and astronomy to philosophy and divinity, and everything in between. The event celebrated the multidisciplinary resear…

Image: © Zbynek Burival / Mineralexpert.orgGraphite —- better known as ordinary pencil lead —- likely triggered the onset of the first prebiotic molecules here on earth. But there was nothing simple about it. The creation of enough graphite to push along the needed chemical complexity to vector towards life was arguably due to a series of giant imp…

Cosmic dust fertilization of glacial prebiotic chemistry on early EarthCraig R. Walton, Jessica K. Rigley, Alexander Lipp, Robert Law, Martin D. Suttle, Maria Schönbächler, Mark Wyatt & Oliver Shorttle Image Credit: Dr Jonny Itcovitz (IOA, University of Cambridge)AbstractEarth’s surface is deficient in available forms of many elements considered l…

The Joint Collaborative Programme is aimed at enabling collaboration between research groups within the University of Cambridge and partner institutes on origins of life research.We are happy to announce that this year we awarded funding for seven more projects:A theoretical underpinning of chiral selectivity on magnetic surfacesPI: Alex Thom, Yusu…

The Institute of Astronomy and Queens' College, at the University of Cambridge, are seeking to appoint a University Assistant Professor. The successful applicant will lead research in the area of planetary and exoplanet science, support teaching of the MPhil in "Planetary Science and Life in the Universe" and deliver small group physics teaching an…