From galaxies to groceries: how Sarah Bridle made the switch from cosmology to food

Sarah Bridle spent two decades as a cosmologist mapping dark matter at Cambridge University. Today, as a professor of food, climate and society at York, she applies that same quantitative rigor to food systems—which, per Physics World, account for up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. What surprised her most wasn't that technology offers solutions, but how deeply social and cultural factors shape what we eat and how we produce it. Her latest work includes a web-based calculator and digital model of the UK food system that lets policymakers test interventions—dietary shifts, farming practices, land-use choices—and see their climate trade-offs.

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