First look at Cambridge Festival 2023

Promising to be an engaging, insightful and hopeful discussion is the panel discussion that launches a new book, THE ERA OF GLOBAL RISK, which tackles the multiple overlapping challenges facing humanity. Four of the contributing authors discuss their work on volcanoes, biotech, artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear weapons, and governing science and technology. Dr SJ Beard chairs the event and Professor Lord Martin Rees provides introductory remarks.

Moving closer to home, two events reveal some fascinating and unsettling insights into modern Britain. In UNTIED KINGDOM: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF THE END OF BRITAIN, historian Stuart Ward discusses his new book, due out next month, which tells the panoramic history of the end of Britain, tracing the ways in which Britishness was imagined, experienced, disputed and discarded across the globe since the end of the Second World War.

In BRITAIN: A CRISIS OF IDENTITY? a panel of leading thinkers discuss Britain’s place in the world amid great upheaval and shifting global geopolitics. The panellists include Professor Michael Kenny, who discusses his forthcoming book, Governing a Troubled Union; Dr Chandrika Kaul; Professor Saul Dubow; and Zoë Billingham, director of the IPPR North think tank. The event Chair is Peter Geoghegan, editor-in-chief at the news website openDemocracy.

Moving onto health, one of the most interesting events is sure to be HOW TO MAKE A HEART VALVE PROSTHESIS for diseased heart valves that need to be repaired or replaced. Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Cambridge detail the current prosthetic heart valve options and present possible future solutions, such as polymeric heart valves.

In another event from the same Department, researchers reveal how they are using METAL–ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS FOR RARE CANCER THERAPY. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a type of sponge-like nanoparticle. The researchers show how they can use MOFs as tiny delivery vehicles for chemotherapy drugs to carry the drug into cells in the body. They also show how they can tailor-make the MOF particles with different properties to make sure they get drugs to where they are needed for optimum effect.

Technology plays a big part in many of these and other advances; in particular, artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers from the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Cambridge demonstrate their work, which looks for new ways to induce AI agents – such as robots, machines and driverless cars – to achieve common goals while working in shared spaces like warehouses and roads. In A VIRTUAL FOOTBALL GAME WITH AI FOOTBALLERS, they demonstrate a virtual football game involving a team of AI footballers. The researchers show how the AI footballers learn to play with each other and explain how the simulator is helping in AI research.

Moving away from the talks and debates, the Festival also presents several outstanding performance-based events, such as 12 LAST SONGS. This is an extraordinary 12-hour performance about work and how we spend our time. There are no actors. From midday to midnight, workers perform paid shifts. A builder might build a wall, a hairdresser might cut someone’s hair. Somewhere between a live exhibition and an epic performance, 12 Last Songs constructs a fleeting portrait of society. Directed by Richard Gregory, it’s the latest work by ensemble Quarantine.

And finally, there is a great deal on offer for the entire family during the Festival, including what promises to be a lively, all-ages presentation by marine biologist Dr Helen Scales, who brings to life her new book, Scientists in the wild: Galápagos (March 2023), about a team of scientists who are tasked with studying and protecting the islands’ amazing wildlife. The two Festival weekends are also dominated by hundreds of events for people of all ages, whether two or 100-year’s old. The plan is for a city centre takeover with a festival extravaganza of talks, exhibitions, hands-on activities, workshops, escape rooms, games, and more.