Hidden Histories of Planet Earth

Most viruses are bad news for crops. But some have been quietly living inside pepper plants for generations — and they might actually be helping. My MPhil research investigates these 'persistent viruses' and asks whether they could protect pepper from devastating pathogens like tobacco mosaic virus and cucumber mosaic virus. The answer could open new approaches to breeding crops with enhanced disease resilience, contributing to sustainable agriculture and food security.

In the late nineteenth century, women came to Cambridge to study geology. This talk focuses on two: Gertrude Elles (1872–1960) and Ethel Wood (1871–1946), who became experts on Palaeozoic invertebrates known as graptolites – vital fossils for correlating the ages of strata. We’ll hear how these women made graptolites newly legible in their Monograph of British Graptolites (1901–1918). In the process of deciphering the shapes of these tiny creatures and wrangling with cutting-edge illustration technologies, Elles and Wood also fashioned new roles for women in science.