Predicting threats to food security
22 February 2023How mathematical modelling can prevent crop devastation and preserve livelihoods.
Widespread use of control measures such as facemasks is vital to suppress the pandemic as lockdown lifts, say scientists
31 March 2021A new mathematical model suggests that the easing of lockdown must be accompanied by wider and more effective use of control measures such as facemasks, even with vaccination, in order to suppress COVID-19 more quickly and reduce the likelihood of another lockdown.
Widespread facemask use could shrink the ‘R’ number and prevent a second COVID-19 wave – study
10 June 2020Even basic homemade masks can significantly reduce transmission if enough people wear them when in public, according to latest modelling. Researchers call for information campaigns that encourage the making and wearing of facemasks.
Study identifies likely scenarios for global spread of devastating crop disease
25 September 2017New research reveals for the first time the most likely months and routes for the spread of new strains of airborne ‘wheat stem rust’ that may endanger global food security by ravaging wheat production across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the wider world.
California’s sudden oak death epidemic now ‘unstoppable’ and new epidemics must be managed earlier
02 May 2016New research shows the sudden oak death epidemic in California cannot now be stopped, but that its tremendous ecological and economic impacts could have been greatly reduced if control had been started earlier. The research also identifies new strategies to enhance control of future epidemics, including identifying where and how to fell trees, as “there will be a next time”.
Cambridge people named in the Queen's Birthday Honours list
13 June 2015Seven distinguished members of the University have been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announced today.
Experts advocate for stronger measures to protect trees and other plants from pests and pathogens
20 May 2013Ash dieback, caused by the Chalara fungus, prompts re-evaluation of current protocols to protect UK trees and other plants; taskforce recommends threats to plant health be taken as seriously as animal disease
Bioscience boost to battle ash dieback
08 March 2013New computer models will help to monitor and predict the course of the disease.
Modelling the root of crop disease
11 July 2011Mathematical modelling is an important weapon in the armoury against crop disease, as plant epidemiologists demonstrated when they turned their sights on root madness in sugar beet.
The future of food: your chance to ask the experts
04 July 2011How can we feed the world’s expanding population? Should we be using GM technologies more to boost the yield of our crops? How will global warming affect our food resources? If this type of question has ever occurred to you, now is your chance to get some answers, from leading experts in the field.
