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Conway Morris Joins Past Laureates Freeman Dyson, the Dalai Lama, and Jane Goodall to Receive One of the World’s Largest Individual Lifetime Achievement AwardsProfessor Simon Conway Morris, a groundbreaking paleontologist at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded the 2026 Templeton Prize for his outstanding contributions to the field of evol…

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have studied how the bird skull evolved, helping to piece together how differences in development caused the varied appearances of modern birds. Lead author of the study, Dr Olivia Plateau from Cambridge Earth Sciences, said, “birds are the only surviving lineage of dinosaurs, so understanding how develop…

Congratulations to Nick Butterfield, Professor in Palaeobiology, on being awarded the prestigious Pilkington Prize in recognition of his teaching excellence.Since joining the Department thirty years ago, Nick has made a pivotal contribution to the Earth Science teaching program. He has spent his entire career delivering world-class teaching in the …

Copper. It’s in our mobile phones, the wiring and plumbing in our house and it’s an increasingly important material in green technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines. Our daily lives depend on this critical metal and, as we transition to a sustainable future, demand is set to skyrocket. Almost all copper comes from porphyry co…

A first-of-its-kind Cambridge exhibition will let visitors wrestle with the extraordinary power of rare-earth magnets and discover the amazing rocks from Greenland that contain rare-earth elements (REEs).The presence of significant REE deposits in Greenland is in part why the country has been thrust into the geopolitical and media spotlight in rece…

Geoscientists have shown how atomic-scale crystal flaws can unravel in a domino-sequence that causes rocks to shift from creeping smoothly and slowly to jolting dramatically. It’s the first time that scientists have been able to analyse this so-called ‘mild-to-wild’ transition in rocks from Earth’s mantle, and they say it might contribute to causin…

Researchers have identified a ‘tipping point’ about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the northern hemisphere.Following this transition, Earth’s climate began swinging back and forth between warm interglacial periods and frig…

Welcome to Dr Mir Anamul Haq Jeri (Inam), who joins the Department of Earth Sciences as the NANO Nuclear Teaching and Research Fellow in Nuclear Energy. This new role, funded by Nano Nuclear Energy Inc, a company specialising in advanced nuclear technologies, will focus on training and educating the next generation of nuclear scientists.Nuclear pow…

Not many science experiments require you to first take lessons in sugar‑making at your local bakery. But, for Quentin Kriaa, this was step one in learning how to make fluorescent pink sugar grains to recreate how iron crystals sink within planetary cores.By sprinkling sugar into water tanks and watching the grains tumble, leaving swirling trails of…

In a recent panel discussion, researchers from Cambridge University and the British Antarctic Survey came together to discuss what makes Greenland a vital natural laboratory for scientific research. Greenland sits at the frontline of global change. Its vast ice sheet is melting at an unprecedented rate, with profound consequences for global sea lev…

Carbon capture and storage or ‘CCS’ – capturing CO2 emissions from industrial processes and injecting it deep underground – has been recognised by the IPCC for its potential to help nations meet net-zero targets by 2050. For this reason, interest in CCS is growing, but key questions remain as to its feasibility and costs. One priority for geologist…

In this blog, PhD student Peter Methley describes the role of the oceans in cycling carbon through Earth’s history, and explains his lab experiments to recreate Precambrian seawater and crystallize ancient carbonate minerals in the lab.What makes fizzy drinks fizz? Carbonated drinks, like lemonade, contain dissolved carbon dioxide that bubbles out …

PhD student Matthew Morris gives a round‑up of Cambridge’s critical‑metals research presented at the Mineral Deposits Studies Group Conference.Earlier this month, a group of Cambridge researchers made the journey across a snow-covered Britain to Cardiff for the annual winter conference of the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDSG). Our group was led…

Tectonic activity is constantly reshaping Earth’s surface—ploughing continents together to build lofty mountains or pulling them apart so they may become basins or oceans.Researchpresented at this year’s AGU Annual Meeting explores the rifting process in the Main Ethiopian Rift—part of a major fault system that is pulling East Africa in two to even…

A Cambridge geochemist, who will represent Great Britain at a major Latin dance world championship, had to keep on top of practice during fieldwork expeditions, and even rehearsed her steps on Greenland’s windswept tundra – in between polar bear watches.Dr Carrie Soderman – who is investigating rare earth elements and why they form in particular en…