Tag: University of Cambridge

SPICE project – weather modification for global temperature control

07:50 Thursday 8th January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: All this week on the Breakfast Show we have been casting our minds back to 1989 and ‘Back to the Future 2’, which showed us a fictional 2015, the very year that we have arrived at now. In that year in the film you might remember the American weather service actually controlled and scheduled the weather. We’ve not quite reached that point in 2015 in the real world, just like many of the other inventions anticipated in the film. But could it one day be achieved? Well there is a research project called SPICE, which stands for Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering. It’s investigating whether releasing micro-particles into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays could reduce the earth’s temperature and rewind global warming. Dr Hugh Hunt is the Lecturer in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University who is working on the SPICE project. Hugh, this sounds quite high-tech. Explain how it actually works.
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John Daugman on Stephen Hawking’s warning

17:48 Tuesday 2nd December 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking says that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. Best known of course for his A Brief History of Time, the iconic scientist is almost completely paralysed, due to a motor neurone-type condition. His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of a technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.
(TAPE)
STEPHEN HAWKING: The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superceded.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: Professor Stephen Hawking there. He was talking to the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. So let’s get some reaction. Professor John Daugman is from the Artificial Intelligence Group at the University of Cambridge. What does he think of Professor Hawking’s warning?
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Cambridge Summer Music Festival Appeal

17:36 Tuesday 14th October 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: One of the county’s oldest and best known music festivals is in danger of closing. The Cambridge Summer Music Festival is in its 35th year, but its Chairman Tim Brown, former Head of Music at Clare College Cambridge has now written to all supporters, asking for donations to keep it going. He says they need £35,000 by Christmas, or the Festival must end. He joined me a little earlier for an exclusive interview to explain why it’s come to this.
(TAPE)
TIM BROWN: We believe we have a wonderful festival, which has been going for 35 years. But we’ve hit hard times over the last few years, financially, and we decided that we should no longer go on starting every Festival with a deficit. And we decided that if we wanted to go on next year, we wanted to clear our books and start with a clean slate.
CHRIS MANN: How desperate are things? Is this actually a warning that you would have to close otherwise?
TIM BROWN: Yes. The Trustees met and decided that enough was enough, and that we would close unless we could raise the necessary money to clear our books and start with a clean slate.
CHRIS MANN: That’s a tough decision to make, given the heritage of this, and how much pleasure it brings to people. I know you all love being involved in this of course.
TIM BROWN: Yes. Absolutely. It was a very tough decision, and we put it off in a sense for a couple of years, thinking that we might be able to have a festival that would actually win us enough money to clear our deficit. But actually it never works that way, and we decided that enough was enough. (LAUGHS)
CHRIS MANN: So how are you going to raise that money? You’ve written I know to people who are connected to friends of the society. You are about to do a big media launch. This is your first interview about it all. What are you going to do?
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The English regions post-referendum

07:19 Wednesday 24th September 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The dust may have settled on the Scottish referendum, but the fallout is only just beginning. Alex Salmond returned to Holyrood for the first time since the big vote yesterday. His message was clear. It’s now time for Team Westminster to deliver their promise of fairer funding and more power for Scotland. So if Scotland is given what it wants, could Cambridgeshire benefit as well, or will English power be remaining in London? Here to debate and speculate what the future holds post-referendum is Professor Kenneth Armstrong. He’s an expert in European law at Cambridge University. Good morning Kenneth. Thank you for joining me.
KENNETH ARMSTRONG: Good morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So Team Westminster as Alex Salmond has dubbed them were making a lot of promises before the referendum. Do you think that is something they are now slightly regretting?
KENNETH ARMSTRONG: I think there are two different sides to it. One is the Scottish side of it, and then the other side is the rest of the UK. On the Scottish side of it there were very clear promises made, and there’s now a fairly clear timetable and process that has been set out for the devolution to Scotland. And on that it’s very hard to unpick, and there seems to be a very strong momentum and commitment to that. The English side however is more open, because there are more options on the table really in terms of what might be done.
DOTTY MCLEOD: There is the whole West Lothian question of whether if Scottish MPs get to have their say on Scottish-only issues, well English MPs should be the only ones who vote on English-only issues. Can you see that becoming more of an issue, in the run up to the General Election next year?
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Watching Bardarbunga

08:21 Thursday 28th August 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: A Cambridgeshire scientist is preparing to head out to Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano, which it’s thought could be on the point of erupting. If it does, the resulting ash cloud would disrupt air traffic in a similar way to what happened after the last big Icelandic eruption in 2010. People were stranded all over Europe because they couldn’t catch their flights. Professor Simon Redfern from the Department of Earth Science at the University of Cambridge is part of a team monitoring the situation after several earthquakes in the past few days, and he joins me now. Is it going to blow, Simon?
SIMON REDFERN: Well, the trouble with earthquakes is we don’t really know.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Right. (LAUGHS)
SIMON REDFERN: It’s showing all the signs.
DOTTY MCLEOD: What are the signs?
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Lewis Herbert on the Challenges Facing Labour on Cambridge City Council

10:18 Thursday 17th July 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[A]NDIE HARPER: How long have you been in the city? I’ve been here twenty seven years, and I have seen dramatic changes over that time as you might expect of a period of that long. But what about you?
LEWIS HERBERT: Twenty four years. I came to Cambridge out of choice. It was on a shortlist of three or four places I wanted to live in. I’d been living in New Zealand. I’d been a councillor in London, and I was an expert on recycling, so I took on the job of going from nothing to about 40% recycling at the County Council, working closely with the city. And one of the things I did then was actually to work with the different councils to create the partnerships, and actually make sure that we were all doing it together. So twenty four years. It is a special city. It looked truly magical on the day of the Tour de France, and it does have major challenges. But I think at heart what I’m hearing from people is we’ve got something so precious and so special that we build on what we’ve got.
ANDIE HARPER: Now at the time that you were elected you described Cambridge as a tale of two cities, and that part of your master plan really was to close the gap between the rich and the poor. And John in a way, he’s texted this morning, and he’s really hit the nail on the head, because he says “Question for the Labour Leader. Chesterton is often overlooked, as things done in the city centre get all the money and all the headlines. For instance, we have on-pavement parking plus bikes. We walk in fear. What will they do and no flannel.” Now he mentions specific issues there, but it does encapsulate really I think the point you were making. It is undoubtedly a tale of two cities.
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Cambridge Public Wi-Fi Launched

08:06 Monday 23rd June 2014
BBC Radio Cambridge

[P]AUL STAINTON: Free wi-fi launching across central Cambridge today, ahead of the Tour de France arrival on July 7th. It’s been in place in Peterborough city centre for just under a year. Business and locals alike have said a lot of good things about it. Earlier we spoke to Neil Darwin, who’s the Director of Enterprise and Skills at the local enterprise partnership.
(TAPE)
NEIL DARWIN: It’s about having a complete package for a city, which obviously is the line Cambridge is taking. We’re in such a connected world these days, and quite simply it’s something we need to have to be able to compete.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Let’s find out more now about the year-long pilot in Cambridge, and plans to extend it, should it prove a success. I’m joined in the studio by John Holgate, Head of Network at the University of Cambridge, and Noelle Godfrey, who’s Connecting Cambridgeshire Programme Director. Morning.
BOTH: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: A lot of titles to contend with this morning, it has to be said. That’s a mouthful. Connecting Cambridgeshire Programme Director. It’s a big title. It’s a big title. John first of all, explain to those who are unclear about what exactly wi-fi is, and how are they going to benefit from this. Continue reading “Cambridge Public Wi-Fi Launched”

Cambridgeshire County Council Plans To Build Homes

07:08 Tuesday 28th January 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: They’ve got the land. They need to make money to balance the books. So should Cambridgeshire County Council set up its own property development company? It’s an idea that will be discussed by councillors today, and the Council say it would generate income, at the same time as helping meet the urgent need for new homes. Well let’s hear now from Ashley Walsh, who’s the Labour Party’s spokesperson for Resources on Cambridgeshire County Council. Morning Ashley. Good idea or bad idea?
ASHLEY WALSH: I think it’s a good idea. I have families in my division in Cambridge who can’t afford to live and help their children live in the city they grew up in. There’s a massive housing crisis in Cambridge, and we need to build social housing. You said earlier that why did we ever stop building social housing. Well I’m glad to see the County Council and Tories on the County Council accepting the need to build more social housing.
PAUL STAINTON: Why did we stop building social housing? I grew up in a council house, pit houses in Yorkshire. That was de rigeur. Remind us why we stopped.
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