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Plastics in the Environment

Claire Barlow will talk about plastics: amazing materials that have transformed our lives, but at a cost. Their durability, one of the properties that makes them so useful, means that large and small pieces of plastic waste find their way into the natural environment, causing many different problems.

We will look at where the plastic waste comes from, and investigate some of the ways in which it affects living organisms. Solutions are not easy, but there are a lot of good initiatives and there is some hope for the future.

• Speaker: Claire Barlow, Senior Lecturer in Manufacturing, IfM
• Thursday 30 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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Plastics in the Environment

Claire Barlow will talk about plastics: amazing materials that have transformed our lives, but at a cost. Their durability, one of the properties that makes them so useful, means that large and small pieces of plastic waste find their way into the natural environment, causing many different problems.

We will look at where the plastic waste comes from, and investigate some of the ways in which it affects living organisms. Solutions are not easy, but there are a lot of good initiatives and there is some hope for the future.

• Speaker: Claire Barlow, Senior Lecturer in Manufacturing, IfM
• Thursday 30 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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Conserving Butterflies: Past, Present and Future

In this talk, final year PhD student Matt Hayes discusses how he combines fieldwork and studying museum specimens to research butterfly populations from the past and present.

Matt’s work is partnered with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire with whom he trials management strategies to see how species can be protected from some of the negative impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.

Matt also studies the UK butterfly specimens held at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge to see how wildlife of the past can inform modern day conservation action.

• Speaker: Matt Hayes, Department of Zoology, Cambridge
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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Conserving Butterflies: Past, Present and Future

In this talk, final year PhD student Matt Hayes discusses how he combines fieldwork and studying museum specimens to research butterfly populations from the past and present.

Matt’s work is partnered with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire with whom he trials management strategies to see how species can be protected from some of the negative impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.

Matt also studies the UK butterfly specimens held at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge to see how wildlife of the past can inform modern day conservation action.

• Speaker: Matt Hayes, Department of Zoology, Cambridge
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Conserving Butterflies: Past, Present and Future

In this talk, final year PhD student Matt Hayes discusses how he combines fieldwork and studying museum specimens to research butterfly populations from the past and present.

Matt’s work is partnered with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire with whom he trials management strategies to see how species can be protected from some of the negative impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.

Matt also studies the UK butterfly specimens held at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge to see how wildlife of the past can inform modern day conservation action.

• Speaker: Matt Hayes, Department of Zoology, Cambridge
• Thursday 23 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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Searching for (and finding) Snow Leopards

Peter Pilbeam will describe the trials and tribulations of searching for snow leopards in the Altai mountains in southern Siberia and in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. And (eventually) finding them in Ladakh in north-eastern India, in China, and in Mongolia.

• Speaker: Peter Pilbeam
• Thursday 16 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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Searching for (and finding) Snow Leopards

Peter Pilbeam will describe the trials and tribulations of searching for snow leopards in the Altai mountains in southern Siberia and in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. And (eventually) finding them in Ladakh in north-eastern India, in China, and in Mongolia.

• Speaker: Peter Pilbeam
• Thursday 16 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Searching for (and finding) Snow Leopards

Peter Pilbeam will describe the trials and tribulations of searching for snow leopards in the Altai mountains in southern Siberia and in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. And (eventually) finding them in Ladakh in north-eastern India, in China, and in Mongolia.

• Speaker: Peter Pilbeam
• Thursday 16 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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The Past and Future of Natural History

Brian Eversham will present a history of naturalists over 3000 years, of trends in wildlife and the study of wildlife, and some personal thoughts on where it’s heading, and where the next generation of field naturalists might come from.

• Speaker: Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
• Thursday 09 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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The Past and Future of Natural History

Brian Eversham will present a history of naturalists over 3000 years, of trends in wildlife and the study of wildlife, and some personal thoughts on where it’s heading, and where the next generation of field naturalists might come from.

• Speaker: Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
• Thursday 09 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

The Past and Future of Natural History

Brian Eversham will present a history of naturalists over 3000 years, of trends in wildlife and the study of wildlife, and some personal thoughts on where it’s heading, and where the next generation of field naturalists might come from.

• Speaker: Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire
• Thursday 09 October 2025, 18:45-20:00
• Venue: Main Seminar Room (First Floor) David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QZ.
• Series: Cambridge Natural History Society; organiser: events.

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The role of the Southern Ocean in the Climate System: risk, dangers and solutions. - Nathan Bindoff

The Southern Ocean and Antarctica are changing rapidly.  New discoveries and understandings are pointing to a growing role of  the Southern Ocean in our changing climate.  The loss of mass by Antarctica, the slowing of the southern hemisphere over-turning circulation and the remarkable loss of winter sea-ice in the last two years will be discussed.  There is an urgent need to understand these changes and track the human contributions to these changes to support policy makers in this critical decade. I will talk to potential solutions for tracking the Southern Ocean.

• Speaker: Nathan Bindoff - University of Tasmania
• Friday 19 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

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The role of the Southern Ocean in the Climate System: risk, dangers and solutions. - Nathan Bindoff

The Southern Ocean and Antarctica are changing rapidly.  New discoveries and understandings are pointing to a growing role of  the Southern Ocean in our changing climate.  The loss of mass by Antarctica, the slowing of the southern hemisphere over-turning circulation and the remarkable loss of winter sea-ice in the last two years will be discussed.  There is an urgent need to understand these changes and track the human contributions to these changes to support policy makers in this critical decade. I will talk to potential solutions for tracking the Southern Ocean.

• Speaker: Nathan Bindoff - University of Tasmania
• Friday 19 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

The role of the Southern Ocean in the Climate System: risk, dangers and solutions. - Nathan Bindoff

The Southern Ocean and Antarctica are changing rapidly.  New discoveries and understandings are pointing to a growing role of  the Southern Ocean in our changing climate.  The loss of mass by Antarctica, the slowing of the southern hemisphere over-turning circulation and the remarkable loss of winter sea-ice in the last two years will be discussed.  There is an urgent need to understand these changes and track the human contributions to these changes to support policy makers in this critical decade. I will talk to potential solutions for tracking the Southern Ocean.

• Speaker: Nathan Bindoff - University of Tasmania
• Friday 19 September 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

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A new paper highlights the importance of assessing social feasibility before reintroductions of predators like pine martens take place to ensure success. Roger Auster, Lecturer in Environmental Social Science, Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste, University of Exeter Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Climate stability and economic health depend on biodiversity. Yet this foundation is hardly mentioned as the federal government seeks to shore up Canada’s economic future. Chris Johnson, Professor of Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, University of Northern British Columbia Justina C. Ray, Adjunct professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Toronto Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The author, an obsessive plant hunter, has created a botanical resource for Britain like no other. Richard Milne, Senior Lecturer in Plant Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A healthy economy relies on healthy natural systems. But at the economic roundtable, this fact was all but absent. Michael Vardon, Associate Professor at the Fenner School, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Advances in imaging, text recognition and machine learning are transforming what can be done with collections of plants and fungi in herbaria and museums globally. Robert Turnbull, Senior Research Data Specialist, The University of Melbourne Joanne Birch, Senior Lecturer in the School of BioSciences, and Herbarium Curator, The University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Iran’s accelerating biodiversity crisis is a warning sign, but it does not exist in isolation. Shooka Bidarian, Media and Journalism Fellow, Sustainability and Climate at United Nations University Institute of Water Health and Environment, United Nations University Mark Maslin, UCL Professor of Earth System Science and UNU Lead for Climate, Health and Security, UCL Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.