Topic description and stories

Research is tackling the need to reduce energy demand, maintain energy supply, increase the efficiency of energy-requiring processes, and develop policy and pricing strategies. To find out more about our research in energy, visit the Energy Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) website. 

Power plant

Global learning is needed to save carbon capture and storage from being abandoned

11 Jan 2016

Governments should not be abandoning carbon capture and storage, argues a Cambridge researcher, as it is the only realistic way of dramatically...

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The Prime Minister holds a bilateral with the Indian PM

Opinion: Six deals to look out for as Indian PM Modi visits Britain

11 Nov 2015

Jaideep Prabhu (Cambridge Judge Business School) discusses the business deals we can expect to be struck as a result of Narendra Modi's visit to the...

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Some of the products and prototypes on display at Cambridge Graphene Technology Day.

Graphene means business – two-dimensional material moves from the lab to the UK factory floor

06 Nov 2015

A major showcase of companies developing new technologies from graphene and other two-dimensional materials took place this week at the Cambridge...

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Venus transits the rising Sun

Mirage maker

30 Oct 2015

Aditya Sadhanala wanders over to the wall, turns a pulley, and a wooden box about a metre squared swings up and away. Below it gleams an array of...

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False-colour microscopic view of a reduced graphene oxide electrode (black, centre), which hosts the large (on the order of 20 micrometers) lithium hydroxide particles (pink) that form when a lithium-oxygen battery discharges.

New design points a path to the ‘ultimate’ battery

29 Oct 2015

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how several of the problems impeding the practical development of the so-called ‘ultimate’ battery could...

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Pentacene molecules convert a single photon into two molecular excitations via the quantum mechanics of singlet fission

Entanglement at heart of 'two-for-one' fission in next-generation solar cells

26 Oct 2015

The mechanism behind a process known as singlet fission, which could drive the development of highly efficient solar cells, has been directly...

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Global chlorophyll

Bacteria in the world’s oceans produce millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons each year

05 Oct 2015

Scientists have calculated that millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons are produced annually by photosynthetic bacteria in the world’s oceans.

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Mid-19th-century map with a line linking Britain to India

Cambridge and India

05 Oct 2015

Cambridge’s engagement with India has evolved from scholars working on India to scholars working with , and increasingly, in India – on shared...

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almost empty

New glass manufacturing technique could enable design of hybrid glasses and revolutionise gas storage

28 Aug 2015

A new method of manufacturing glass could lead to the production of ‘designer glasses’ with applications in advanced photonics, whilst also...

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A jet engine turbine blade.

From atoms to jet engines – extreme materials on display at summer exhibition

30 Jun 2015

At any one time over half a million people are flying far above our heads in modern aircraft. Their lives depend on the performance of the special...

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Supercapacitors store charge by adsorbing ions on a porous carbon surface

New technique for ‘seeing’ ions at work in a supercapacitor

22 Jun 2015

A new technique which enables researchers to visualise the activity of individual ions inside battery-like devices called supercapacitors, could...

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Flying snowy owl

Silent flights: How owls could help make wind turbines and planes quieter

22 Jun 2015

A newly-designed material, which mimics the wing structure of owls, could help make wind turbines, computer fans and even planes much quieter. Early...

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