'Twilight at the Museums' returns for February half term 2025

From Monday 17 to Sunday 23 February 2025, the University of Cambridge Museums will host their annual Twilight at the Museums event series, offering events and after-hours access at museums and galleries across Cambridge.

Families will be able to experience the magic and excitement of exploring their local museums as the night falls, as well as enjoying hands-on activities, crafts, and performances.

David Cahill Roots, Head of Collections’ Programmes and Collaborations

The long-running programme provides families with opportunities to explore local museums through a variety of illuminated and themed activities after regular closing times. 

This year’s events include nighttime nature hunts, torchlit trails, and

Giant 'quantum twisters' may form in liquid light

New mechanism found for generating giant vortices in quantum fluids of light.

Anyone who has drained a bathtub or stirred cream into coffee has seen a vortex, a ubiquitous formation that appears when fluid circulates. But unlike water, fluids governed by the strange rules of quantum mechanics have a special restriction: as was first predicted in 1945 by future Nobel winner Lars Onsager, a vortex in a quantum fluid can only twist by whole-number units.

These rotating structures are predicted to be

Single dose of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine reduces asymptomatic infections and potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission

New data from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge suggests that a single dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can reduce by 75% the number of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. This implies that the vaccine could significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus from people who are asymptomatic, as well as protecting others from getting ill.

This is great news – the Pfizer vaccine not only provides protection against becoming ill from SARS-CoV-2 but also helps prevent infection, reducing the potential for the virus to be passed on to others

Mike Weekes

The study by a team at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and the University of Cambridge analysed results from thousands of COVID-19 tests carried out each week as part its screening programmes on hospital staff who showed no signs of infection.

Vaccination for health care workers on the CUH