The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society | Welcome to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical SocietyDiscussion for lively minds

Intergenerational Learning: why older adults and younger children can help each other

Dr Zoe Wyrko

The programme ‘Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds’ was an experiment in which a group of children carried out their usual nursery activities in a retirement community with a group of older volunteers. The impact of such intergenerational learning often had surprising results...

24th January 2019, 7:00pm

Film Poetry: Humphrey Jennings and British wartime propaganda

Dr Alan Sennett

Lindsay Anderson called Humphrey Jennings “the only true poet of the English cinema”. This lecture asks whether propaganda can be poetic through an exploration of two of Jennings’ GPO and Crown Film Unit productions from 1940 and 1942, London Can Take It and Listen to Britain...

29th January 2019, 7:00pm

Molecular Surgery with CRISPR-Cas9

Professor David Hornby

The field of Genetic Engineering was born out of fundamental research into bacterial defence mechanisms against viral infection (termed restriction and modification). During the 1970s companies such as Genentech (Genetic Engineering Technology) in Silicon Valley and Biogen in Europe began to translate these discoveries into pioneering medical applications.

4th February 2019, 7:00pm

Battery and electrical storage technology: harnessing the grid

Dr Greg Offer

Almost every week a paper is published describing a new battery technology that is going to revolutionise the world and provide a step change in battery performance. Yet, this never appears to happen...but why? And can we expect the rate of improvement to change significantly?

14th February 2019, 7:00pm

Polio - the Rocky Road to Zero

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson

Many people think that polio is gone from the world. Only those now over 70 years old can remember the devastating paralysis it caused in childhood. The tragic sight of rows of iron lungs keeping alive those who could no longer breathe for themselves is not even a distant memory for most people. The introduction of a vaccine was transformative and swept the disease out of most affluent countries of the world very quickly. Over time, the battle against the disease was won in low- and middle-income countries too. In the 1980s, a goal was set to eliminate polio entirely.

19th February 2019, 7:00pm