# Magazine
**Source**: https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/magazine
**Parent**: https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/?ucam-ref=global-quick-links
## Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 106 – Michaelmas 2025
[FlashBand: turn up, plug in and find your musical soulmate.](https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/magazine/issue-106/flashband)
[Why plaster casts are the invisible string between the old and the new.](https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/magazine/issue-106/cast-offs)
[Indigenous genius: inventive ways to ensure your voice is heard.](https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/magazine/issue-106/dream-state)
[Download PDF version](https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/files/documents/04_cam_106_pages_lo_res.pdf)
## Features
[Features /
### Alumni Awards 2026
Cambridge alumni are, quite simply, extraordinary. Whether your focus is local or global, independent or part of a larger group, your positive impact on the world is remarkable.](/magazine/issue-106/alumni-awards-2026)
[Features /
### Dream State
Imagine your family are completely autonomous. How you live, where you go, who you live with and what you value are entirely your call. But over time, food becomes scarce and movement difficult. You’re no longer able to live the way your people have lived for centuries.](/magazine/issue-106/dream-state)
[Features /
### Cast Offs
They are not marble or bronze. They are mostly not terribly old. Many are not valuable. Meet the Museum of Classical Archaeology (MoCA)’s extensive collection of plaster casts – busts, sculptures.](/magazine/issue-106/cast-offs)
[Features /
### Flashband
Drummer needed, Dancers req for music video, Sax wanted! Read on to find more about... Flashband.](/magazine/issue-106/flashband)
[Features /
### Behind the curtain: why it’s time for a closer look at American history
Mia Bay is halfway through her initial year as the new Paul Mellon Professor of American History.](/magazine/issue-106/behind-the-curtain-why-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-a-closer-look-at-american-history)
## Regulars
[Crossword /
### Down with the Cryptic Kids by Nimrod
CAM 106's crossword solvers must find ways to connect four groups of three (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.](/magazine/issue-106/down-with-the-cryptic-kids-by-nimrod)
[Soundtrack /
### Everyone was holding hands and swaying to the music – there was a tear in my eye
Lord Smith of Finsbury (Pembroke 1969) arrived at College as a young man with a passion for English – and politics.](/magazine/issue-106/everyone-was-holding-hands-and-swaying-to-the-music-%E2%80%93-there-was-a-tear-in-my-eye)
[This idea must die /
### This idea must die: 'Female bodies are too complicated for science'
The outdated notion that female bodies are ‘too complicated’ for science, due to their hormonal variability, has long influenced biomedical research.](/magazine/issue-106/this-idea-must-die-female-bodies-are-too-complicated-for-science)
[Museo /
### Creating a stink
Don’t let its dreadful smell put you off – the Botanic Garden’s star attraction is part of an international effort to conserve rare and important plants.](/magazine/issue-106/creating-a-stink)
[My room, your room /
### My room, your room
A ground-floor room at Downing? It’s a blessing and a curse, agree music phenomenon James Partridge (Downing 2009) and current resident Aryan Parekh.](/magazine/issue-106/my-room-your-room)
[News /
### Michaelmas edition- Campendium
CAM's summary of what's been happening across the University.](/magazine/issue-106/michaelmas-edition-campendium)
[Inbox /
### Editor's letter and inbox- Michaelmas
Welcome to the Michaelmas edition of CAM.](/magazine/issue-106/editors-letter-and-inbox-michaelmas)
[Student life /
### Society
The anarchic Antipodean footie team held together by a strong community.](/magazine/issue-106/society)