University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge is a university that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
2023 was the hottest summer in 2,000 years, study finds
Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 2,000 years, almost 4°C warmer than the coldest summer during the same period. Although 2023 has been reported as the hottest year on record, the instrumental evidence only reaches back as far as 1850 at best, and most records […]
Ice shelves fracture under weight of meltwater lakes, study shows
When air temperatures in Antarctica rise and glacier ice melts, water can pool on the surface of floating ice shelves, weighing them down and causing the ice to bend. Now, for the first time in the field, researchers have shown that ice shelves don't just buckle under the weight of meltwater lakes—they fracture. As the […]
Sun-powered hydrogen: Research’s breakthrough in low-cost semiconductor development
Researchers have found a way to super-charge the ‘engine’ of sustainable fuel generation – by giving the materials a little twist.
Novel method for tracking freshwater pollution sources and effects prediction
The source of pollutants in rivers and freshwater lakes can now be identified using a comprehensive new water quality analysis, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge and Trent University, Canada. Microparticles from car tires, pesticides from farmers' fields, and toxins from harmful algal blooms are just some of the organic chemicals that can be detected using the new […]
Water molecule discovery contradicts textbook models
Textbook models will need to be re-drawn after a team of researchers found that water molecules at the surface of salt water are organized differently than previously thought. Many important reactions related to climate and environmental processes take place where water molecules interface with air. For example, the evaporation of ocean water plays an important role in […]
Solar-powered device produces clean water and clean fuel at the same time
A floating, solar-powered device that can turn contaminated water or seawater into clean hydrogen fuel and purified water, anywhere in the world, has been developed by researchers. The device, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, could be useful in resource-limited or off-grid environments, since it works with any open water source and does […]
Shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane
As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published today in Nature Geoscience.
New form of ice is like a snapshot of liquid water
A collaboration between scientists at Cambridge and UCL has led to the discovery of a new form of ice that more closely resembles liquid water than any other and may hold the key to understanding this most famous of liquids. The new form of ice is amorphous. Unlike ordinary crystalline ice where the molecules arrange […]
Drought encouraged Attila’s Huns to attack the Roman empire, tree rings suggest
Hunnic peoples migrated westward across Eurasia, switched between farming and herding, and became violent raiders in response to severe drought in the Danube frontier provinces of the Roman empire, a new study argues. Hungary has just experienced its driest summer since meteorological measurements began, devastating the country's usually productive farmland. Archaeologists now suggest that similar […]