Tests that can identify early changes in cells would give doctors more time to offer treatment, say Cambridge researchers Scientists at a recently opened cancer institute at Cambridge University have begun work that is pinpointing changes in cells many years before they develop into tumours. The research should help design radically new ways to treat cancer, they say. The Early Cancer Institute – which has just received £11m from an anonymous donor – is focused on finding ways to tackle tumours before they produce symptoms. The research will exploit recent discoveries which have shown that man ..read more

£150,000 abstract sculpture described as worst ever submitted was erected without planning permission A faceless sculpture of Prince Philip, once described by a council planner as “possibly the poorest quality work” ever submitted, will be taken down years after it was erected without planning permission. Standing outside a Cambridge office block, the 4-metre bronze statue depicted the late queen’s husband in academic robes with an abstract face resembling a twisted owl mask ..read more

Open letter backed by Rowan Williams and Aled Jones says decision is backward step ‘for arts provision for women in the UK’ A decision to axe a mixed choir at St John’s College, Cambridge, in an attempt to make room for a “broader” range of music has been condemned as “fundamentally regressive” by the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Sarah Connolly and Aled Jones. The decision to cancel funding for St John’s Voices – which has male and female singers and has been running since 2013 – will “diminish” choral music at the college and has left its members “dev ..read more

The community-owned car pools have been hailed as a greener alternative to full-time ownership, but insurers say driver risk is hard to measure Up to 40 community car clubs across the UK could be forced to close after the last insurance firm covering such groups announced it was pulling out of the sector. For several years, the clubs – often groups of like-minded neighbours – have been sharing cars as a way to cut their carbon footprint ..read more

Proponents of ‘bathing waters’ designation say it would force action on sewage but others worry about impact of more visitors The waters of the River Cam are an unsettling lurid green on a dull day. The river that flows through Cambridge and has been enjoyed by swimmers including Lord Byron, Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf and Roger Deakin is increasingly polluted from sewage discharges and phosphates and nitrates from farmland. Now swimmers hope that the government designating a short stretch of the river at Sheep’s Green as “bathing waters” will provide the impetus to clean it up ..read more

My grandfather, John Barratt, who has died aged 89, was a local government leader who served as chief executive of Cambridgeshire county council. When he took on that newly created role in 1973, he was the youngest council chief executive in Britain at 40. He served until 1986, including a secondment to Zimbabwe in 1980 to oversee local elections following the end of white minority rule in what was then Rhodesia. After his retirement from the council, he led numerous public inquiries, notably into the Bradford riots of 1995 and the Barratt inquiry of 1996, which found that the London borough o ..read more

Thousands of hectares of rooftops could be converted to help country achieve climate goals Roofs occupy an enormous amount of surface area in our cities and yet only a small fraction of this space is used for solar panels – and even less for green roofs, despite the obvious benefits. When designed primarily to shelter buildings from the rain, wind and sun, roofs may not always be easy to adapt for greener uses – but many can ..read more

Blade Silvano, who had two-year relationship with victim, given 10-year sentence at Cambridge crown court A woman has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for sexual assault after pretending to be a man to dupe a woman into sex using a blindfold, a sex toy and a “wholly fake persona”. Blade Silvano, 41, met the victim on the online dating site Plenty of Fish in November 2016 and they got engaged as man and woman, Cambridge crown court heard ..read more

My grandmother Anne Corden, who has died aged 106, grew up in Cambridge and London but spent a fair chunk of her adult life abroad, where she supported her husband George’s work as a commander of RAF bases, not only bringing up her own family but taking on the pastoral role of providing support to service people. Born during the first world war in Hoo, Kent, Anne was the eldest of the four children of Kathleen (nee Wilson), a housewife, and her husband, Hamilton Hartridge, a lecturer in physiology at King’s College, Cambridge. After attending Queen’s College school in London, her first job was ..read more

Mr Justice Grey laments problems as abuser fails to come to Cambridge crown court for sentencing A judge has apologised to a victim of sexual assault who was “greatly let down by the failures of the system” after her abuser failed to come to court to be sentenced due to problems finding wheelchair-accessible prison transport. The woman, who cannot be named, was sexually assaulted by a woman pretending to be a man in 2016 and 2017, whom she had met on a dating site ..read more