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Issue 104

Issue 104

Cambridge Alumni Magazine
Issue 104 – Lent 2025

Meet the rising stars of Cambridge’s literary scene

It’s 2025 – and history is more hotly contested now than ever

Around the world in 365 days: the joys of a year abroad

Cover of issue 104 of the Cambridge Alumni Magazine, CAM.
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Features

student writing- leo

Features /

The write stuff

Poems. Plays. Short stories. Novels, all sorts. Whether published in The Mays, on stage at the ADC or entered for one of the many College prizes, student writing in Cambridge fizzes with energy and experimentation. How could we resist?
Plant Power experiment

Features /

Photosynthesis is a superpower

Take some carbon dioxide and throw in a little water. Add sunlight and chlorophyll. What do you get? Oxygen, sugar… and the key to life on Earth. Photosynthesis is the plant superpower, and this ability to convert light energy – the most abundant energy source on Earth – into chemicals is what keeps us humans alive. But what if we could develop a hack that allows us to siphon off some energy from this process? Are clean energy systems that rewire photosynthesis actually such an improbable idea?
Orpheus Vase History

Features /

A History of History

Everything humans do is in History,” says Regius Professor of History Chris Clark. “It’s like the largest imaginable novel, the richest treasure house of human material you could possibly ask for.” And History as a field of human inquiry is as old as, well, History itself. Its written beginnings lie among Ancient Egyptian records of the pharaohs, the analyses of Herodotus and Thucydides, the lively narratives of China’s ‘Grand Historian’ Sima Qian. In 1724, History became a formal subject of study at Cambridge with the founding by King George I of the University’s Regius Professorship, held by Clark for the past decade. 
Professor Michael Kenny

Features /

And the answer is… a written Constitution?

Back in 1819, one Colonel Fletcher sent the then Home Secretary, Viscount Sidmouth, a cartoon entitled The British Constitution. It depicted the Constitution as the skeleton of John Bull, the personification of England, pierced with the cruel arrows of National Debt, Lost Liberties and Officers of the Crown, among others. Alongside him lie, discarded, Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Habeas Corpus Act – “The Proud Barriers to Ministerial Tyranny overthrown for the convenience and shelter of Villainous Traitors”. An exhortation reads: “Countrymen! Behold with Aching Hearts your once noble fat & jolly Kinsman, Mr Bull!” 
year abroad suitcase

Features /

On the right path

From learning to use temperamental Soviet telex systems while nursing a vodka hangover to sharing recipes with the babushki of Kazakhstan, the year abroad has been opening the eyes of Cambridge modern language students for years. Here are their stories from around the world in 365 days.

Regulars

CAM 104's crossword grid - not yet completed.

Crossword /

A Leisurely Pursuit by Nimrod

CAM 104's Solvers must find ways to connect four groups of three of these (including three nonstandard phrases) from realms – one group each – of history, geography, science/nature and entertainment. Wordplay in each of the normally numbered clues leads to the answer with an extra letter not entered in the grid.
soundtrack image

Soundtrack /

I went to an organ concert at Selwyn and, for the first time, my body felt quiet

Linseigh Green spent much of her Master’s at the Institute of Continuing Education in lockdown, but that was the least of her challenges.
Jack- museo

Museo /

Platypus matters

Surprise discovery reveals a physical link to one of science’s most significant findings – and validates the theory of evolution.
eye on the ball image

Student life /

Eye on the ball

As if juggling wasn’t tricky enough a skill to master, the Cambridge University Jugglers’ Association (CUJA) has found the perfect way to up the ante: combining it with surely the most Cambridge of all pastimes.
Trees

This idea must die /

This Idea Must Die: "Planting trees will solve climate crisis"

Professor Marc Macias-Fauria says tree planting at high latitudes will accelerate, not decelerate, global warming.
Teacher and students in classroom

School of thought /

School of thought

A new study shows teaching empathy has improved conduct, awareness, wellbeing and curiosity.
Phil and George

My room, your room /

My room, your room

Work. Socialising. Hobbies. Lots of hobbies. Comedian and podcaster Phil Wang and economist George Bland discuss the art of balancing your Cambridge life.
Mike and diane

News /

Lent edition- Campendium

CAM's summary of what's been happening across the University.
104 illustration

Inbox /

Editor's letter and inbox

Welcome to the Lent edition of CAM