Scientists at the Dark Energy Survey have published their most detailed explanation yet of how the universe has expanded over the last six billion years, thanks to an unprecedented combination of cosmic measurements. The international group of researchers, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, is led by the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Cambridge and the other five UK universities are supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Combining multiple, independent measurements of the cosmos, the research doubles the precision of previous Dark Energy Survey (DES) studies, while remaining broadly consistent with the standard model of cosmology, the most widely accepted theory of the universe. The findings combine results from 18 separate studies and, for the first time, bring together four major techniques for studying dark energy within a single experiment, a milestone envisioned when DES was conceived 25 years ago. The combination of these techniques - weak gravitational lensing (distortions in galaxy shapes), galaxy clustering, supernovae and galaxy clusters – enabled scientists to cross-check their measurements and gain a more robust understanding of how the universe behaves. Around 100 years ago, scientists discovered that distant galaxies appeared to be moving away from Earth. They found that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it recedes, providing the first key evidence that the universe is expanding. Researchers initially expected that this expansion would slow down over time due to gravity. However, in 1998, observations of distant supernovae revealed that the universe’s expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down. To explain this result, scientists proposed the idea of dark energy, which is now thought to drive the universe’s accelerated expansion. Astrophysicists believe dark energy makes up about 70% of the mass-energy content of the universe, yet we still know very little about it. The Dark Energy Survey is an international collaboration of more than 400 astrophysicists, astronomers and cosmologists from over 35 institutions, including several from the UK. It is led by the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The other UK universities involved in the collaboration are University College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, University of Portsmouth and University of Sussex. Through STFC, the UK is also supporting research programmes that will advance the work of the DES collaboration in the next generation of astronomical surveys, including Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile. “This research shows the power of long-term international collaboration and UK investment in world-leading science,” said Professor Michele Dougherty, Executive Chair, STFC. “Dark energy remains one of the great unanswered questions in science. Studies like this demonstrate how bringing together different approaches can give us a clearer picture of our universe and where future discoveries may lie.” To study dark energy, the DES collaboration carried out a deep, wide-area survey of the sky between 2013 and 2019, using a specially constructed 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera mounted on a telescope at the US National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. “This release squeezes an enormous amount of information out of subtle distortions in galaxy images, turning tiny signals into a powerful test of how the Universe works,” said DES team member Calvin Preston, from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “My role focused on baryonic feedback—understanding and modelling how processes like star formation and energy from supermassive black holes redistribute matter and subtly reshape the large-scale structure we measure. The results are so exciting as we’ve been able to learn so much about the universe and about galaxies themselves.” Over six years, scientists collected images and data from hundreds of millions of distant galaxies, billions of light-years from Earth, mapping about one-eighth of the sky. For the latest results, scientists refined how they use subtle distortions in galaxy shapes, known as weak gravitational lensing, to reconstruct the distribution of matter in the universe over six billion years. They did this by measuring both how galaxies cluster together and how similarly their shapes are distorted by gravity. By reconstructing the universe’s matter distribution across six billion years, these measurements reveal how dark energy and dark matter have influenced the universe’s evolution. The team compared their observations with two main theories, one in which dark energy remains constant over time (the standard model of cosmology), and another in which dark energy changes as the universe evolves. DES found that although the data mostly align with the standard model, broadly agreeing with the most widely accepted theory of the universe, there remains a long-standing discrepancy in how matter clusters in the universe, and this has become more pronounced with the inclusion of the full dataset. Looking ahead, DES will combine these latest findings with results from other dark energy experiments to explore and test alternative ideas about gravity and dark energy. The work also helps prepare the ground for future breakthroughs at the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile for similar work with its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Calvin Preston is a Member of Robinson College, Cambridge. Adapted from an STFC media release. The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

A new initiative will harness the latest advances in artificial intelligence for weather prediction, with a goal of improving climate resilience and food security in West Africa. Project Cumulus, funded by the Gates Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, will see researchers from the Alan Turing Institute, the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds link up with universities and meteorological agencies in Ghana and Senegal to co-design more accurate forecasting systems which could help farmers improve crop yields and reduce economic losses. These systems will be affordable and adaptable, enabling West African partners to produce their own forecasts, build expertise and drive local innovation. Weather forecasting in West Africa currently presents a unique set of challenges. As a region increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, unpredictable weather patterns have a direct impact on food security and economic stability. Farmers often lack access to adequate weather forecasts, forcing them to make critical decisions on planting or harvesting crops without the information they need. “Forecasting and agricultural production are deeply interlinked; from planning, crop management and harvesting through to storage, transportation and marketing,” said Professor Leonard K Amekudzi, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. There is an urgent need for weather prediction tools that perform better under African conditions. Global forecasting systems such as the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) have achieved remarkable advances in overall accuracy, however in sub-Saharan Africa, where weather systems behave differently and local observations are limited, forecasts can still be less reliable. “Forecasting rainfall in the tropics is a unique challenge, further complicated by climate change and a historical lack of localised data,” said Dr Scott Hosking from the Alan Turing Institute. “To protect lives and livelihoods in these regions, we cannot rely on off-the-shelf AI solutions.” The way the Earth rotates, and solar heating drives the atmosphere, means that weather in Africa behaves differently from the mid-latitudes such as Europe and the USA, where most forecasting methods were designed. This means that we need new models which are optimised for African conditions. Challenges are compounded by the reduced availability in West Africa of in-situ measurements (such as weather stations) used to inform and build forecasts. Because traditional physics-based forecasting approaches used in the Global North are less effective in sub-Saharan Africa, the Cumulus initiative will draw on the Cumulus project team’s work on emerging technologies like Aardvark Weather and the Aurora Earth System Foundation Model, to develop new AI-based forecasting methods tailored to African conditions which therefore deliver more accurate and locally relevant insights. “AI is both revolutionising and democratising weather prediction,” said Professor Richard Turner from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Tasks that once required a supercomputer can now run on a laptop, producing accurate forecasts in a fraction of the time and cost. It’s exciting to combine West African and international expertise and put new advanced forecasting tools directly in the hands of local experts, enabling them to fine-tune models for their own local conditions for the first time.” These technologies show great promise to inform this project as unlike well-established physics-based weather prediction systems Aardvark is fully driven by AI, combining satellite imagery, ground observations and existing forecast data to create a clearer picture of the atmosphere. It can draw on both remote-sensing and local measurements, learning from data-rich regions to improve predictions where data is more scarce such as in sub-Saharan Africa. The Aurora Earth System Foundation model has showed how a single AI model could be adapted for a wide range of forecasting tasks. The agility of models like Aardvark and Aurora will allow the Cumulus project to create systems tuned to local weather patterns as well as extending forecasts to sub-seasonal timescales most useful for farmers and planners. “The emerging science of AI weather prediction, paired with local insights into the physics and statistics of the region’s climate, is poised to amplify the benefits we’re already seeing in our universities and weather services,” said Professor Amadou Gaye, from University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal. “This international partnership acts as a catalyst for strengthening climate resilience and food security in the region.” The Alan Turing Institute is the lead institution on the Cumulus project and the partner institutions include the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds, with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD) in Senegal, the Senegalese metrological agency ANACIM and the Ghanaian met agency GMet. The project is made possible due to funding from the Gates Foundation and UK International Development from the UK government. Adapted from a piece published on the Alan Turing Institute website. The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

The mpox virus appears to be circulating silently in parts of Nigeria, in many cases without the symptoms typically associated with the disease, according to new research led by scientists from the University of Cambridge and partners in Nigeria. The findings may have implications for controlling the spread of the disease. This study reminds us that decisions made generations ago - such as ending smallpox vaccination - continue to shape how emerging infections behave Ravindra Gupta In a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers show that exposure to the mpox virus can occur without recognised illness, and that residual immunity from historic smallpox vaccination continues to shape how the virus spreads in human populations. Mpox is a zoonotic virus – that is, one that initially jumped species to spread from animals to humans. It is closely related to smallpox. For decades, smallpox vaccination provided broad protection against related viruses such as mpox. Following the eradication of smallpox, routine vaccination stopped in 1980 and a growing proportion of the population lost this protection. This shift has been accompanied by renewed mpox transmission, culminating in outbreaks seen in multiple countries between 2022 and 2024. While most public health attention has focused on symptomatic mpox cases, little is known about how often people may be exposed to the virus without developing classical disease. To investigate this, the research team analysed archived blood samples from 176 healthy Nigerian adults who had originally been enrolled in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine studies. These included healthcare workers sampled in 2021 and community volunteers sampled in 2023. None of the participants had received mpox or smallpox vaccines in adulthood, and none were known to have been exposed to mpox. Using a high-resolution multiplex antibody assay, the researchers measured responses to six distinct mpox virus antigens, different structural components of the virus that the immune system recognises and responds to, allowing detection of both the strength and breadth of immune responses. At baseline, 24 (14%) of the participants showed antibody profiles consistent with residual immunity from historic smallpox vaccination. These responses were concentrated in people born before 1980, who were more likely to have been vaccinated during childhood. Their antibody responses were broader and stronger, recognising multiple mpox antigens decades after vaccination campaigns ended. However, the study also identified something unexpected. Among 153 participants with follow-up samples collected approximately nine months later, five individuals - around 3% of the cohort - showed clear evidence of new immune boosting consistent with recent mpox exposure. These individuals had no recorded mpox diagnosis and did not report compatible illness, suggesting that exposure may have occurred without recognised disease. Lead author Dr Adam Abdullahi, from the University of Cambridge and Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, said: “What we’re seeing is evidence that mpox exposure doesn’t always look like the textbook description. In some people, particularly in settings with partial population immunity, the virus may circulate quietly, leaving immune footprints that routine clinical surveillance will miss.” The strongest antibody increases were directed against specific viral proteins, particularly B6R, A35R and M1R - antigens known to be important targets of protective immune responses. These findings suggest that certain immune markers could be especially useful for detecting recent exposure in population studies. To place the immunological findings in an epidemiological context, the team also analysed more than 100 mpox virus genomes collected in Nigeria over several years. Genomic reconstruction showed slow epidemic growth, frequent transmission dead-ends, and limited clustering – a pattern consistent with ongoing transmission constrained by partial immunity in the population. Rather than explosive spread, the virus appears to persist through sporadic chains of infection, many of which fail to expand further. Senior author Professor Ravindra Gupta is The Hong Kong Jockey Club Professor of Global Health from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, and Co-Director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute. He said: “Our data tell a consistent story. Mpox is not spreading unchecked in Nigeria and across the region, but neither is it absent. Instead, it appears to circulate at low levels, shaped by the lingering effects of smallpox vaccination in older generations.” Importantly, the study found no major differences in immune responses between healthcare workers and the general population, suggesting that exposure is not confined to clinical settings. This points to broader community-level transmission rather than purely occupational risk. The findings have important implications for public health surveillance. Current mpox monitoring relies heavily on detecting symptomatic cases, yet this approach may underestimate true exposure, particularly where infections are mild or atypical. Professor Alash’le Abimiku, Executive Director of the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, said: “These findings show that mpox exposure can occur without obvious illness. Instead of relying solely on reported cases or symptoms, monitoring populations by testing blood samples for antibodies to reveal exposure to the virus will be important for understanding how it is spready and guiding targeted vaccination in our settings.” “If we only look for obvious disease, we will miss part of the picture,” said Dr Abdullahi. “Monitoring blood samples gives us a way to detect exposure that doesn’t result in clinic visits, especially in regions where health systems are stretched and requires strengthening.” The researchers stress that their findings do not suggest widespread silent epidemics but rather highlight the complexity of mpox transmission in populations with mixed immunity. The detected exposure rate reflects the study cohort and should not be interpreted as population prevalence. The work also reinforces the long-lasting impact of smallpox vaccination. Individuals vaccinated decades ago still show broad immune recognition of mpox virus, which may help limit transmission even today. Professor Gupta added: “This study reminds us that decisions made generations ago - such as ending smallpox vaccination - continue to shape how emerging infections behave. Understanding that legacy is crucial for designing rational vaccination and surveillance strategies now.” The authors note that further work is needed to link antibody patterns to functional protection, to study cellular immune responses, and to assess how conditions such as HIV infection may modify mpox immunity. The research was supported by the Cambridge-Africa program, Wellcome Trust, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute, and partners in Nigeria and Europe. Reference Abdullahi, A et al. Sero-genomic evidence 1 for occult mpox exposure in healthy Nigerian adults. Nat Comms; 20 Jan 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68335-1 The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Researchers have developed a wearable, comfortable and washable device called Revoice that could help people regain the ability to communicate naturally and fluently following a stroke, without the need for invasive brain implants. The device, whose development was led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, uses a combination of ultra-sensitive sensors and artificial intelligence to decode speech signals and emotional cues to allow people with post-stroke speech impairment to communicate naturally. The Revoice device, worn as a soft and flexible choker, captures the wearer’s heart rate and tiny vibrations from throat muscles, and uses those signals to reconstruct intended words and sentences in real time. The signals from the device are processed by two AI agents: one reconstructs words from fragments of silently mouthed speech, while the other interprets emotional state and contextual information, such as the time of day or weather conditions, to expand short phrases into complete, expressive sentences. In a small trial with five patients with dysarthria, a common type of post-stroke speech impairment, the device achieved a word error rate of 4.2% and a sentence error rate of just 2.9%. Unlike existing assistive speech technologies, which often require slow letter-by-letter input, eye tracking or brain implants, the Revoice device provides seamless real-time communication, turning just a few mouthed words into full, fluent sentences. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, could not only have implications for stroke rehabilitation, but could also help support people with conditions such as Parkinson’s and motor neuron disease. The researchers are currently planning a clinical study in Cambridge for native English-speaking dysarthria patients to assess the viability of the system, which they are hoping to launch this year. About half of people develop dysarthria, or dysarthria in combination with aphasia, following a stroke. Dysarthria is a physical condition that causes weakness in the muscles of the face, mouth and vocal cords. It affects people in different ways, but often causes an inability to speak clearly, slurred or slow speech, or speaking in short, disjointed bursts rather than full sentences. “When people have dysarthria following a stroke, it can be extremely frustrating for them, because they know exactly what they want to say, but physically struggle to say it, because the signals between their brain and their throat have been scrambled by the stroke,” said Professor Luigi Occhipinti from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “That frustration can be profound, not just for the patients, but for their caregivers and families as well.” Most stroke patients with dysarthria work with a speech therapist to regain their ability to communicate, primarily through repetitive word drills, where patients repeat words or phrases back to the speech therapist. Typical recovery time varies from a few months to a year or more. “Patients can generally perform the repetitive drills after some practice, but they often struggle with open-ended questions and everyday conversation,” said Occhipinti. “And as many patients do recover most or all of their speech eventually, there is not a need for invasive brain implants, but there is a strong need for speech solutions that are more intuitive and portable.” Occhipinti and his colleagues developed the Revoice device as such a solution. The sensors in the device capture subtle vibrations from the throat to detect speech signals and decodes emotional states from pulse signals – a simplified but effective proxy. The device also uses an embedded lightweight large language model (LLM) to predict full sentences, so only uses minimal power. Working with colleagues in China, the researchers carried out a small trial with five stroke patients with dysarthria, as well as ten healthy controls. In the study, participants wore the device and mouthed short phrases. By nodding twice, they could choose to expand those phrases into sentences using the embedded LLM. In one example, “We go hospital” became “Even though it’s getting a bit late, I’m still feeling uncomfortable. Can we go to the hospital now?” The sensors in the Revoice device inferred that the wearer was feeling frustrated due to their elevated heart rate, and that it was getting late at night. The LLM was able to use this data to expand three mouthed words into a full sentence. Participants in the study reported a 55% increase in satisfaction, showing that the device could be a promising development to help stroke patients regain their ability to communicate. Although extensive clinical trials will be required before the device can be made widely available, the researchers hope that future versions of the device will include multilingual capabilities, a broader range of emotional states and fully self-contained operation for everyday use. “This is about giving people their independence back,” said Occhipinti. “Communication is fundamental to dignity and recovery.” The research was supported in part by the British Council, Haleon, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Reference: Chenyu Tang, Shuo Gao, Cong Li et al. ‘Wearable intelligent throat enables natural speech in stroke patients with dysarthria.’ Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-68228-9 The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

The prestigious awards, supported by Cambridge University, are celebrating their 21st anniversary with judges including Saba Sams, David Almond & Lily Fontaine announced. The National Short Story Awards do so much to encourage and nurture brilliant writing talent and creativity from across the country. Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge The BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) and BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University (YWA) have opened for submissions. Di Speirs, judge of the BBC National Short Story Award since its launch, is this year’s Chair of Judges. Joining her on the panel are 2022 NSSA winner Saba Sams, whose highly acclaimed debut novel Gunk was published last year, two former NSSA shortlistees, Tahmima Anam (2016) and Will Eaves (2017), and Costa Best First Novel Award winner, Andrew Micheal Hurley. Since launching twenty-one years ago, the NSSA has enriched both the careers of writers and the wider literary landscape. Some of Britain’s most renowned writers have won or been shortlisted for the award including Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, William Trevor, Jon McGregor, Deborah Levy, Naomi Alderman, Kamila Shamsie, Tessa Hadley, Mark Haddon, Sarah Hall, Helen Oyeyemi, Lucy Caldwell and Rose Tremain. The NSSA is one of the most prestigious awards for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. The stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and available to listen to on BBC Sounds and additionally published in an anthology by Comma Press. The 2025 winner of the BBC National Short Story Award was Colwill Brown for ‘You Cannot Thead a Moving Needle,’ a compelling and heartbreaking story exploring the long-term effects of trauma told in South Yorkshire dialect. The writers shortlisted for the YWA have their stories narrated by an actor and recorded for BBC Sounds and published in an anthology. Previous winners include Lottie Mills, Tabitha Rubens, Elena Barham, Atlas Weyland Eden and Lulu Frisson, with 17-year-old Rebecca Smith from Sheffield winning the Award in 2025 for her story ‘Scouse’s Run.’ Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of University of Cambridge, said: "We are delighted to continue to support the BBC’s national short story awards, which do so much to encourage and nurture brilliant writing talent and creativity from across the country." Key Award Dates The deadline for receipt of entries for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University is 9am (GMT) Monday 16th March 2026. The deadline for receipt of entries for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University is 9am (GMT) Monday 23rd March 2026. The shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be announced on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row at 7.15pm on Thursday 10th September 2026. The shortlist for the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University will be announced on Radio 1’s Life Hacks from 4pm on Sunday 13th September 2026. The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 14th to Friday 18th September 2026 from 3.30pm to 4pm. The announcement of the winners of the two awards will be broadcast live from the award ceremony at BBC Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from 7.15pm Tuesday 29th September 2026. For more information, including how to enter, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/nssa for the National Short Story Award and www.bbc.co.uk/ywa for the Young Writers' Award. The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.