Archive for the ‘Read’ Category

Interview with Professor Caroline Jay

Posted on: February 27th, 2023 by mlpEditor

Q: You work at the intersection of Psychology and Computer Science. Why is it important to consider the relationship between human behaviour and machines?

A: If we want technology to work for us, we have to study how we use it. Theories of how we think, feel and behave in general terms can be useful in informing the design process. But they only go so far. This is because using technology itself changes our behaviour. It’s essential to study these things empirically.

“We need to continually reflect on whether technology is working as it should and whether it is having a positive or negative impact on society.”

Q: What can the structure of the machines we build tell us about ourselves as individuals and as a society?

A: We think of machines as objective, but we forget that they are designed by humans. They map very closely to our thought patterns and behaviours. Inadvertently, Artificial intelligence has been great at reflecting back to us some of society’s deep-rooted inequalities.

An example of this is facial recognition technology, which works better for White people than for Black. This is because of the assumptions made by the engineers who created it. It is important to learn from these situations. We need to use their teachings to design better technology and, more importantly, a fairer society.

 

Q: You’ve been studying Psychology and Computer Science for two decades. Have there been any standout, pivotal moments for both your personal research and that of your peers during this time?

A: For many years, Artificial Intelligence has relied on large amounts of data and significant computational power. It is very energy intensive. This is not environmentally sustainable, so we really need to change our approach.

My thinking around this has been influenced by Cynthia Rudin at Duke University, and my close collaborator Alaa Alahmadi. Our work has shown that using human expertise and cognition to inform the design of AI can vastly reduce the amount of data and computation it requires to make decisions. The way in which this kind of AI works is also much more transparent and easier for humans to understand. This goes against the current rhetoric that says ‘the computer knows better than us – give it the data and it will be more efficient and effective’.

Of course, current AI can do some things more effectively than humans, but it is seriously limited in other ways.

“I think in the future hybrid approaches to AI, where humans and machines work together, will become much more widespread.”

Q: What do you think our relationship with technology will look like in 50 years’ time? For example, will the use of technology be more democratised?

A: I’d like to think technology use will become more democratised but, at the moment, it’s becoming more polarised. People who don’t have access to technology for social or economic reasons are becoming excluded from important aspects of society, like banking and education.

As we develop new technologies, we must make sure everyone’s voices are heard, and that people are able to consider how it would affect their lives.

“I’d like to see much greater use of responsible research and innovation practices.”

These ought to evaluate the benefits and harms that new technologies might pose for everyone in society. They should be used earlier on in the design process, so they are not just an add-on, but can truly direct development.

Heady days of post-war happenings: the Lit & Phil at 36 George Street

Posted on: February 27th, 2023 by mlpEditor

My late husband, Tom and I became members of the Lit & Phil in 1955. We had been recruited by a Miss Blackledge, who joined in 1953. We had made her acquaintance through our involvement with the Manchester Area Youth Film Council and her Presidential role with the Girls and Lads Club Association.

The registered address at that time was the Portico Library because the Society’s original Georgian house at 36 George Street had been blown up. It was then completely demolished by the Fire Brigade to provide a much-needed fire-break during one of the air raids in the Manchester Blitz.

Lit & Phil Council meetings were held there and the occasional lecture. The first Lit & Phil event we attended was in the Reading Room at the Portico. Although the audience was necessarily small, some of us had to sit on piles of dusty tomes as the Portico itself had not fully recovered from the effects of the Blitz.

Celebrated sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe was a Lit & Phil member

The talk on ‘Abstract Impressionism’ was given by two members – Marcus and Mitzi Cunliffe. Marcus taught American Studies at the University and Mitzi was a sculptor whose best-known work is the golden BAFTA mask, which is still in use at award ceremonies. It was the first Tom and I had heard about Jackson Pollock et al. We were fascinated and decided there and then that joining the Society was a good move and promised an interesting and intriguing future.

There were about 350 members when we joined…Lectures were mostly held in the Reynolds Hall at the Manchester College of Technology (later to become UMIST), at the Whitworth Gallery, and at various venues at Manchester University.

A new home for the Lit & Phil at 36 George Street…

During this time, plans were being made for the construction of a new home on the site of the demolished building in George Street. This was officially opened in September 1960. Tom and I were present at the inaugural address given by the President of the Royal Society, Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, its title being ‘The Arts and the Sciences’, a topic much discussed in intellectual circles at that time. I have a faded photograph of much younger versions of the two of us seated on the second row, on either side of our guest, Jim Whittaker.

During the planning stage, discussions were also held about the best location for the Society’s visual aid equipment – an epidiascope and a slide projector. It just so happened that the Manchester & Salford Film Society, of which Tom was the Chairman, was desperately seeking a new home to continue in its attempts to bring art house and world cinema to the people of Manchester.

…and a new home for the Manchester & Salford Film Society

The Lit & Phil Council’s agreement was obtained for the construction of a proper projection box at the rear of the new building’s lecture theatre, which would accommodate the Film Society’s two 16mm projectors. This would kill two birds with one stone; the Film Society would have somewhere to hold its performances and the Lit & Phil would be able to offer film projection facilities to any organisation hiring the theatre for its meetings. Film Society committee members would act as projectionists when needed…

Experiments with microwaves alongside Empson’s literary criticism

Of the hundreds of lectures I must have attended at George Street, only a few are still vivid in my mind: Henry Lipson’s lecture about microwaves where he made a cake in a crude prototype oven of his own devising. He passed bits of cake to the members present; it was not very nice. Then there was Sir William Empson sporting a beard that looked like Spanish Moss telling us about ‘Seven Kinds of Ambiguity’. I am afraid it was as incomprehensible to many of us as the most erudite and obscure offerings of the Science and Technology Section.

Dreams of bringing contemporary art to the masses

The opening of the new house had a surprising and totally unexpected galvanising effect on a group of the more forward-looking members. I particularly remember Leonard Cohen who owned Henry’s department store on Market Street. His aim in life was to bring art to the masses. He exhibited Epstein’s Adam in the basement of his store and donated a fountain to Piccadilly Gardens.

The new house so inspired him, he conceived the notion that George Street could become the epicentre of artistic activity in Manchester. He actually envisaged a new Opera House could be built between 36 George Street and the Art Gallery. His idea to have an extra storey built on the flat roof of No.36 to house an Arts Workshop accessible from the car park was, as it turned out, a structural impossibility.

As a preliminary step toward achieving some of these ambitions, a group of members including Leonard in their own time and on their own initiative set up the Manchester Institute of Contemporary Art, MICA. They were not to be outdone by London where the Institute of Contemporary Art had just been opened. Most of MICA’s events took place at the Lit & Phil house. Tom was the film officer and I was a committee member. We played to packed houses when films of an experimental and avant-garde nature were screened.

Some of the Lit & Phil members involved in all this activity were, as I hazily recall, Maurice Pariser – who unfortunately died before these dreams could be fulfilled, and Robert Sheldon and Edmund Dell who departed to become Labour Members of Parliament.

But the heady days of post-war optimism didn’t last…

We had the young Seamus Heaney reading his poetry on two occasions, a whole host of North West poets and many up-and-coming artists of the day. These were heady days expressing the general air of post-war optimism that seemed to promise a life more exciting and interesting than heretofore. It was undoubtedly the presence of the new, modern and accommodating building in the centre of Manchester that triggered these ambitious but finally impossible dreams…

Unfortunately, it eventually became apparent that something was radically wrong with the fabric of the building. Cracks began to appear in the walls and the flat roof leaked. The fault lay in the use of high alumina cement in its construction. This was a wonder innovation of the 50’s lauded for its quick-drying properties. The firms involved in the building of the house had gone into liquidation and there was no alternative but to sell the site and become peripatetic until new permanent premises could be found…

 

…Tom died in 2007 at the age of 85 but if he could see us now, he would be greatly gratified to see the (Manchester) Literary & Philosophical Society, of which he was very fond, flourishing and growing in spite of its past vicissitudes. I cannot believe that I have achieved doyenneship of the Society in my 94th year and can still remember listening to Marcus and Mitzi in 1955.

 

This is an extract of an article originally published in 2014 in vol. 152 of the Manchester Memoirs. Huge thanks to Marjorie Ainsworth for her incredible support of the Manchester Lit & Phil since 1955.

Interview with Dr Anders Sandberg

Posted on: January 30th, 2023 by mlpEditor

Q: Do you believe that climate change is the greatest threat to humanity’s long-term survival? If not, what is?

A: Climate change on its own is not the end of the world… but it makes the world worse. It amplifies other risks, and it might make it harder for us to solve the problems we need to solve for our survival. Nuclear war, bioweapons, uncontrolled AI and the fragility of the global supply chains keeping us alive are more direct risks.

“We need a peaceful, prosperous world with less distractions to handle the risks.”

Q: Out of the “low probability, high risk” existential threats that you’ve studied, is there one that you think we’re not talking about enough? Conversely, is there one whose danger we are exaggerating?

A: We used to not talk enough about nuclear war. When I grew up in the 1980s, it was an ever present, ominous threat. As we later found out, there were some extremely close calls where things truly hung in the balance. Then 1990 came. The Eastern Bloc disintegrated, and people seemed to forget about the missiles in their silos. This is despite the many accidents and close calls. For more than 20 years the threat was ignored. Now it’s back in our minds again.

“The moral of this story is that, collectively, we often quickly forget about very important threats.”

One threat that people have conveniently forgotten about today is that of pandemics. We are so tired of Covid. Yet, the important lessons on how to handle the next pandemic (which could be worse) need to be learned.

 

Q: As a Fellow at the University of Oxford Philosophy Faculty, what role can philosophy play in helping us confront such existential risks?

One function of philosophy is to help us figure out the moral value at stake: how bad are these risks compared to others? How do we balance our current needs against those of future generations? How does fairness come in to play? Another function of it is helping us reason under uncertainty: how do we think well about future, unprecedented events? When we know we are uncertain about important things, how should we act? Is it better to be safe than sorry or is it better to wait and see?

“Philosophy is great at working with problems for which we do not yet have a great theoretical understanding. As we figure it out, it often moves into some other specialised department. But thinking wide and abstract about problems is a good start.”

Q: Considering how our over-reliance on technology is one of the primary causes of man-made global warming, how do you think that technology can help us mitigate its risk?

A: Not having technology can also be dangerous. Our ancestors often died from starvation, exposure and disease: they were very vulnerable. Similarly, old-fashioned industry and agriculture tends to be more polluting. It requires more land (hence leading to a shrinking global biodiversity). The solution to climate change involves using low-carbon energy sources. Making agriculture efficient enough so that less land is needed, telework, carbon capture and so on. It is not just about technology, of course, but if going green is cheaper, more luxurious and more convenient than the current practice, it will happen.

Interview with Yewande Akinola MBE

Posted on: November 23rd, 2022 by mlpEditor

Q: Engineering is such a broad field of study. It requires artistic creativity, rational problem-solving, wild imagination, and a desire to improve the world. As a young student, what drew you to get involved in engineering? 

A: As a child, like most kids, I was drawn to the physical aspect of engineering: form, shape, colour. I didn’t know it as engineering. For a long time, I only knew it as architecture. I was very interested in how I could design better buildings for my family. I was very much drawn to the idea of using creativity to build nicer spaces to be in. 

Q: Can you recall the first time you were inspired by a particular architect, a specific building or structure? 

A: I used to spend a lot of time in the home of an incredible architect called Demas Nwoko. My mum would drop us off there when she was at work. He’s one of Africa’s finest architects. He ensures that his architecture speaks the language of the people of the land. Every aspect of his structures speaks to the history and the culture of the community.  

I loved the fact that the chairs were all hand carved. The tiles in the bathrooms had all been carefully hand-produced. They each told a very deep story. He built the house from materials that surrounded it. He produced the clay using a soil that was very much associated with the area. 

“These days, everybody’s trying to ensure that their architecture speaks to its environment. That it doesn’t take away from the context but adds to it. It tells the story or the history of wherever you are or where you’re situating the building.”

There’s a self-reflective element to the architecture that I experienced as a child. I appreciate that even more now because I can see that many people are trying to get back to that. 

Q: What does it mean for you to be a ‘Global Citizen’ and why should we strive to be one? 

A: I’ve had the incredible opportunity of experiencing many different countries and cultures. Engineering, which is such a beautiful, universal language, has opened the world to me. It’s allowed me to speak the language of lots of different countries by being able to design for them.

I’m on a bit of a mission because we’ve got so many similar challenges all over the world. Yet, we lose so much time and efficiency in our attempts to find local solutions to local problems.

“When one country has a problem, it starts trying to find a solution to a problem that another has already solved. I’ll show the audience how they can use very basic but interesting, creative tools to solve global issues.”

Engineering requires us to rise to the task of solving these problems. We must be courageous and intentional in doing so. 

Q: You’ve mentioned that you don’t consider what you do as ‘a living’ but as ‘your purpose’. Do you have an over-arching mission that you wish to achieve? If so, what is it?

A: To empower a generation of people to solve problems through engineering. By giving them access to education, we can help them understand exactly how they can use their skills to do so. 

Q: What advice do you have for those who seek to find their calling in life and their own way to contribute to society? 

A: For me, the first point is about looking at one’s journey so far, taking stock and being so grateful for it. You already have what you need to take the next step. If you’ve got experience or an interest, think about how you can use that to get yourself there. 

The other thing I would say is that you need to be curious. You need to be willing to ask questions, to Google search to find out who you need to talk to. 

“Purpose is an ongoing thing… You don’t wake up one day knowing all that you’re supposed to be about. It reveals itself through action, the process of trying things.”

By doing, you start to connect the dots.  There’s something beautiful about that. You don’t know where it will lead you but you know what you need to be doing right now, using what you currently have. 

Q: Your career has allowed you to work in many different capacities. Public speaker, TV presenter and engineer. What’s next for Yewande Akinola?  

A: I’m involved in the academic industry. I work as an engineer. I speak at events. I am currently working on a YouTube series intended to inspire young people. This means that I’m now exploring how to write scripts and direct videos.  

If a young person is thinking of becoming an engineer, I want to ensure that they have the resources to do so.

Thank you to Yewande for taking the time to answer our questions.

‘Global Citizen: reporting for duty’ takes place at the National Football Museum on the 29th of November 2022.

A gathering to discuss one of the oldest questions

Posted on: November 21st, 2022 by mlpEditor

By Liam MacGregor-Hastie

They say that “all energy used for brain metabolism is finally transformed into heat”. If so, this cold November night was no match for the neural activity that took place at the Friend’s Meeting House. 

Here, many budding philosophers gathered to carry on a discussion as old as time itself. One that has spanned over 3,000 years and which has gifted us many of our most cherished intellects. From Anselm to Avicenna, from Descartes to Leibniz, from Spinoza to Hume and onwards. Many great philosophers have found fame in their attempts to answer this question:  

“Does God exist?”

We have long been familiar with the ideas that God could either exist or not exist at all. But life isn’t black or white, the Philosophy Forum attendees know this very well. We gathered to discuss the potential alternatives to this dichotomy.

The previous month’s debate, between Philip Goff and Jack Symes, set the tone for this discussion. At Bridge 5 Mill, Manchester, they unpicked different ways of making sense of God.

Finding a rational explanation for God’s existence is no walk in the park. In doing so, we follow in the footsteps of the Enlightenment thinkers.

Those revolutionary thinkers risked their lives in the name of reason itself. Because of them, many years later, we can enjoy such civil and open-minded discussions as we did at the Forum. Here people from all walks of life, atheist and religious, young and old, gladly had their beliefs challenged. 

Between Theism and Atheism stands a chasm of possibility. Could a solution come from ‘depersonalising’ God? By not thinking about ‘it’ as having a human form, can we begin to make sense of God rationally? Can we think of it as a natural process or as a substance that pervades all things?

The aim is not to reach a conclusion but to question our beliefs. ‘Absolute knowledge’ is the antithesis of Philosophy. As one attendee put it: 

…knowledge can only be relative, not absolute. Wisdom comes from accepting this.

All in attendance left the event in good spirits, a little wiser and a little more agnostic than they walked in. 

For a more detailed understanding of what we discussed, click here to read the Focus Paper ‘Is belief beyond the natural beyond belief?’, written by Christopher Burke.

Our next Philosophy Forum meeting will take place on the 12th of December 2022. We will be discussing Utilitarianism, the belief that we should make decisions based on how much pleasure they will give us. Is ‘happiness’ a valid metric for decision making, especially on a large scale?

Interview with Michael Wood

Posted on: August 15th, 2022 by mlpEditor

Q: Where did your interest in Shakespeare begin? Was there a particular line, play, or sonnet that hooked you?

A: At Manchester Grammar School – the school dramatic society was very active and we did the Tempest in my first year, aged 11. I played assorted goddesses, dogs and demons!  I was completely hooked.  Around the same time we saw the Olivier films – especially Hamlet with Jean Simmons.

The ghost scene with William Walton’s music was just mind-blowing. To someone brought up in Wythenshawe, it was the gripping stories and the other-worldly power of the language. I’ll always be grateful to our wonderful and inspiring teachers Bert Parnaby and Brian Phythian, who directed us in plays, took us on trips to Stratford to see Shakespeare, and generally were the spirit guides to our younger selves.

“To someone brought up in Wythenshawe, it was the gripping stories and the other-worldly power of the language. I’ll always be grateful to our wonderful and inspiring teachers…”

Q: What do you believe was the single biggest influence on a young Shakespeare? How does it manifest itself in his work? 

A: That’s a long story and there’s no one answer. That’s what I’ll be talking about in my lecture!

First: Family: As with anyone family is really important – his mother and father, his father’s rise to become mayor of Stratford only to be ruined financially;

Second: Religion – he’s born at a crucial point in the Protestant Reformation. In the twenty years, or so, before he was born there had been four official changes of religion: His parents obviously were born and brought up Catholic. He was born on the cusp of the new world and had a foot in both. The way forward wasn’t really resolved till the 1590s, so his generation are part of the change; the target generation.

The third is politics, national and local. Warwickshire was a battleground for the struggle between the old Catholic community of the shire and the new Elizabethan powers that be; especially Elizabeth’s favourite, the Protestant enforcer Robert Dudley. This struggle touched William’s family.

Fourth is school, through which he discovered poetry. He had probably decided he wanted to be a poet before he left Stratford at some point in the 1580s.

Q: How has our understanding of Shakespeare changed over the past few decades?  Have older models of literary analysis — New Criticism, Textual, maybe even Biographical — been eclipsed? How do you personally prefer to contextualize his work? 

A: Older models have not been superseded. I think they’ve all given something to the mix which these days is very rich indeed. Some terrific biographies have come out over the last twenty years.

And the documentary discoveries continue. I’ll be mentioning twenty new documents concerning his father’s various crises. They are not published in full yet but a summary came out in a new book this year. In terms of personal preference, I’m a historian so my approach is historical.  He’s made by his times and cannot be understood except through history – and that of course includes the twenty years or so before he was born. He’s a late Elizabethan.

“He’s made by his times and cannot be understood except through history – and that of course includes the twenty years or so before he was born.”

Q: As the English literary canon is constantly morphing, what case would you put forward that Shakespeare should continue to be taught throughout educational institutions? 

A: A big question!

It is after all an extraordinary thing that where, say, the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible have been modernised, his plays remain as 16th-century texts in the forefront of public culture.  Things are gradually being cut back now, even in university English courses (e.g. Old and Middle English, Langland and Chaucer, etc.) but he’s so important to our literary culture that I think he will stay at the centre of it for some time yet. His ‘difficulty’ (language, ideas etc.) after all is part of what makes him fascinating to study.

And in today’s world of Me Too, BLM, LGBT, his texts are still capable of endless reinvention, although they are 16th-17th texts. I saw a production of Measure for Measure at the Donmar the week Brett Kavanaugh was being vetted for the Supreme Court and the scene with Angelo and Isabella said it all in the space of a few minutes.

Q: Are you currently working on any new projects? What have you got planned for 2022? 

A: I’ve been working in China since 2013 where we have made a dozen films. My last Shakespeare contributions were more recent: a chapter on his mother for Shakespeare’s Circle (Cambridge 2015) and an introduction to Finding Shakespeare’s New Place (2016).

Our last film was on the Chinese poet most compared with Shakespeare – Du Fu (China’s Greatest Poet, BBC 2020 with Sir Ian McKellen doing the readings). And I am currently writing a little travelogue with lovely photos and maps, following Du Fu’s life journey – especially the last fifteen years when he was constantly on the move with his family as a refugee in time of war.

The journey describes a great arc from the Yellow River Plain up to Xi’an and Qinzhou, over the mountains south to Chengdu. Then all the way down the Yangze through the Gorges to Changsha and Pingjiang where he died. A labour of love I guess you could call it. Needless to say, distant as he is in time and place, there will be comparisons with Shakespeare!

Everything for me comes back to Shakespeare!

Thank you to Michael for taking the time to answer our questions.

Interview with Keir Giles

Posted on: August 15th, 2022 by mlpEditor

*This online event took place in January 2021, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Q: You have devoted a large amount of your professional career to studying Russia. When did your interest begin?

A: I started learning Russian at school, and then in France, Finland, and eventually Moscow shortly before the end of the USSR. Since then, yes, I’ve spent 30 years working with or on Russia in one way or another.

Q: Naturally, people will always compare the current political tensions* to the Cold War. Is this a fair comparison, or is it outdated?

A: It’s true that there are some features of what is happening today that remind us of the Cold War. But that risks being a misleading comparison because there are key differences.

Toward the very end of the Cold War, relations between Moscow and the West were at least relatively stable and predictable – but we should also think of the decades before that, full of proxy wars and dangerous confrontations.

Russia’s idea of how it needs to deal with the rest of the world, with hostility and aggression in any domain where it thinks it will bring an advantage, is once again a major challenge to peace and stability not only in Europe but wherever Moscow feels an ambition to expand its power and reach.

“Russia’s idea of how it needs to deal with the rest of the world, with hostility and aggression in any domain where it thinks it will bring an advantage, is once again a major challenge to peace and stability…”

Q: If the West views Russia as unpredictable and irrational, how does the Kremlin view the White House?

A: Watching the Russian attitude toward Donald Trump has given a case study in how Russia understands, or often misunderstands, politics in Western democracies.

“Watching the Russian attitude toward Donald Trump has given a case study in how Russia understands, or often misunderstands, politics in Western democracies.”

Trump’s image swung between being Moscow’s puppet in the White House, to a figure of fun. But underlying it all was the persistent Russian belief that Western leaders have more power than they really do – that as in Russia, they can disregard democratic processes and order change or new policies.

The success of the US government at maintaining rule of law and frustrating some of Trump’s more extreme and dangerous initiatives confirmed not only his own suspicions about the “deep state”, but also deepened Moscow’s conviction that the West is fundamentally untrustworthy.

Q: Can you recommend any reading material—either by yourself or someone else—for anyone with an interest on the topic?

A: One of the most striking things I found when researching my own book, Moscow Rules: What drives Russia to confront the West, was how consistently past descriptions of Russia still ring true today. Again and again I found diagnoses of the Russia problem from past centuries that could be repeated word for word today.

One of the best explanations of Russia comes from the 1970s: Tibor Szamuely’s The Russian Tradition. There is also anything by Edward Crankshaw, including Russia and the Russians.

Among the many, many present-day authors covering the topic I’d recommend Angela Stent.

Thank you to Keir for taking the time to answer our questions.

Interview with Emma Marigliano

Posted on: August 15th, 2022 by mlpEditor

Q: When did your interest in Dante and the Divine Comedy begin?

A: I wanted to do a postgraduate degree many years ago and, as I wanted it to be on book illustration, a colleague suggested Dante – with me being Italian.

I looked for something original and decided to work on two completely different artists who had completed all 3 canticles of the Divine Comedy since the 18th century. John Flaxman and Gustave Doré were the only ones. They couldn’t be more different from each other! Researching them, though, took me to many more interesting Dante illustrators and the rest is history, as they say.

As a result of that tangent I think I may have one of the best – maybe even the best – post 18th century collections of illustrated Dante.

Q: Which illustrated version of Dante is your personal favourite? Is there a particular edition in your collection that you find yourself returning to more than others? And what makes it so special?

A: Each has something that I really like or really don’t like. I discover something new and love it (or not), but each design or style fits a moment or mood. I like being able to pluck a Dante book off the shelf because something has reminded me of it and I look again through the illustrations. I don’t always think that the artist gets it but I might like the style.

There’s so much out there and there are ones I’d really love but my budget doesn’t allow. When I was Librarian at The Portico Library I would get asked which was my favourite book – and I couldn’t answer that either. Those I loved had different qualities but they were invariably illustrated and that’s what drew me to them.

Q: At the time of writing The Divine Comedy, was Dante responding to the political climate within Florence? Is there a clear ideological motivation behind the poem, or do you encourage a different reading?

A: I do think that Dante responded to the political and religious climate around him, particularly as it resulted in his permanent exile. He was part of a continually warring faction within a faction, so one wonders if we only know about his exile because of successive fame with the Divine Comedy.

“I do think that Dante responded to the political and religious climate around him, particularly as it resulted in his permanent exile. He was part of a continually warring faction within a faction…”

But I think he also wrote it for other reasons – showing off his intellect (I suspect he was quite vain), to take his revenge the best way he could on those who harmed him, angered or hurt him. And, of course, to feed his obsession with a woman that we know so amazingly little of – if she ever existed as anything other than the woman who filled Dante’s head. This isn’t to say that he didn’t feel that he had reached a juncture of self-questioning, one that required him to go on a spiritual journey through his writing.

Q: James Joyce said that: “I love my Dante as much as the Bible,” adding: “He [Dante] is my spiritual food, the rest is ballast.” What was it about Dante that caught the glances of Modernist writers?

A:  Joyce did speak of “the Divine Comic Denti Alligator” in his Finnegans Wake and both that and Ulysses is based on the Divine Comedy, however loosely. Joyce also said that Dante inspired him to invent a new language. Dante didn’t invent a new language, though. He simply wrote in the language he and those around him commonly spoke – his Tuscan dialect. Which, to the rest of Italy at that time, I suppose, was like a new language.

Dante inspired T S Eliot’s poetry. Lines from his poems are borrowed from Inferno and Purgatory, for instance. The Italian novelist, Curzio Malaparte, was fond of projecting Dantescapes from Inferno into his films.

Even though I don’t know that much modernist writing I do think that Modernist writing would have tried to address questions of existentialism. Dante’s journey and the questions he poses to us in the 20th and 21st centuries would have touched cords. He goes deep into souls and this is why he doesn’t stop being relevant to pretty much anyone who meets him.

“He goes deep into souls and this is why he doesn’t stop being relevant to pretty much anyone who meets him.”

Q: Your talk focuses on Dante’s influence on popular culture. Do you continue to be surprised by his impact? Where is the unlikeliest place where Dante’s influence has appeared?

A: No, I’m not surprised by his influence, although some of the places he appears make me laugh!

I will show this in the talk, but a Dante body painting competition is one that struck me as slightly unlikely – it’s how relevant it keeps to Dante though that’s the thing…

Q: What are you currently working on? Are there any other projects that you would like to tell us about?

A: There are aspects of Dante illustration that have not been explored – not even by the academics, who are often more concerned by the textual analysis. And I intend to see what I can do about that – without giving anything more away. Just a question of watch this space…

Thank you to Emma for taking the time to answer our questions.

Interview with Professor Alice Larkin

Posted on: August 15th, 2022 by mlpEditor

Q: To begin, could you briefly describe your motivations behind entering climate science?

A: I was a keen star gazer as a child, and enjoyed maths, so ended up studying physics with astrophysics. I always also had a great passion for the outdoors. So, when thinking about future careers, I was keen to apply my skills to focus on this planet, rather than the ones I would star gaze as a child. I chose to do a PhD in climate modelling, which linked up my two interests, as the study was about the sun’s natural variability – how the solar cycles influenced the composition and circulation of the atmosphere.

Q: Starting at home, what do you believe are the day-to-day changes people can make to help combat the climate crisis?

A: Firstly, having a think about the kinds of things you typically do. We are all different. Some people will spend more time travelling either at home or abroad than others. Some may find they like their home to be a very warm environment, others cooler. Others may be fans of shopping, always wanting the latest gizmo. Different people’s lives will have different amounts of greenhouse gases associated with them – so using one of the available online carbon calculators to firstly understand which elements of your life might be making the biggest contribution, is a useful start. It is also the case that on average, the more disposable income you have, the higher your emissions will be. For example, most people don’t fly much, but some fly a lot. Flying is the most carbon intensive thing most of us do as individuals, so if this is you, then the quickest way to make a big dint in your emissions is to reduce the number of times you fly, and/or the distance you travel.

“Flying is the most carbon intensive thing most of us do as individuals, so… the quickest way to make a big dint in your emissions is to reduce the number of times you fly.”

But it isn’t all about individual action. We all live and work in communities and wider society. We influence each other’s choices and decisions. This might be through inviting someone to a hen party overseas, or simply having a chat about how you travel to work. It might also be that you have influence in your job – so teachers can influence pupils, I can influence students and staff etc. If you are in a position that has influence within an organisation, you may also be able to develop or support policies that cut emissions. This can be very powerful – not just thinking of ourselves as individuals is key to radically cutting emissions on a large scale.

Q: Do you feel enough is being done to combat the damaging effects that flying has on the climate? Is the industry evolving – or is it the responsibility of the consumer?

A: No, not enough is being done. We are practically still in the position we were in when I started researching this in 2003. Technologies to cut CO2 in aviation are few and far between, and with aircraft lasting 20-30 years, progress and change will always be slow. Consumer pressure is very important. Not just in relation to reducing our own flying activities, but also influencing policymakers to make difficult decisions, such as stopping the expansion of our airports, or bringing in prices such that the pollution that is produced by aircraft is taxed more fairly. At the moment there are exemptions on fuel used for international flights.

“Consumer pressure is very important. Not just in relation to reducing our own flying activities, but also influencing policymakers to make difficult decisions, such as stopping the expansion of our airports.”

Writing to your local MP shouldn’t be underestimated. Matters that voters contact MPs about do have traction, and it doesn’t take many letters on the same topic to prompt further discussion in parliament.

Q: What are some of the more shocking statistics that you think people should be aware of in terms of the damaging effect that flying has on the environment?

A: Travelling on a long-haul first-class flight can be over 130 times worse in terms of CO2 emissions than travelling by international rail. Most people compare sources of emissions in terms of CO2, but aircraft cause more warming than other modes due to other emissions released at altitude. Estimates vary on how much more damaging this is, but estimates are that 3 times more warming has been caused by aircraft than would have happened if the only emission was CO2.

Q: The damage flying has on the climate is widely publicised – whereas the effects of shipping perhaps less so. How do the two industries differ in relation to negative impact on the environment, and which industry is making greater progress in terms of safeguarding our future?

A: This is a difficult question – I could write a long essay here!

They both have quite a similar impact globally in terms of CO2. But one is principally used for leisure and by a small proportion of the population. Whereas the other is principally used for freight, and serves people all over the world with food, energy, manufactured goods and raw materials. In terms of options to cut emissions, shipping has many more options available, including slowing down – which may sound odd, but actually with just modest speed reductions, CO2 emissions drop significantly. Shipping now has a target to cut CO2 by 50% by 2050. This isn’t sufficient to align the sector with the Paris Climate Agreement but is more ambitious that the aviation sector, which continues to rely on offsetting schemes and action by industry but without a sector-wide agreed target.

Q: What are you currently researching and working on? Are there any exciting projects you’d like to alert us to?

I’m current focused on shipping more than aviation.  We are quantifying some of the impacts of fuel changes on ship patterns, as well as further work on how to decarbonise ships using wind propulsion with route optimisation. Another project I’m involved with is trying to see what role ammonia or hydrogen might have as a shipping fuel, and whether or not connections between fuel supply chains for aviation and shipping might influence each other.  I’d like to be working on more projects but unfortunately, most of my job is focused on more managerial tasks as the moment – as Head of the Engineering School. As such, I rely heavily on a great team of researchers in the Tyndall Centre in Manchester to keep me up to date.

Thank you to Alice for taking the time to answer our questions.

Interview with Professor Eleanor Stride

Posted on: August 15th, 2022 by mlpEditor

Q: Your CV is littered with qualifications and awards — a Philip Leverhulme Prize, The Royal Society Interface Award, an Engineering Medal at the Parliamentary Science, Engineering & Technology for Britain awards — but which part of your success are you the proudest of?

A: For me it’s the work that we’ve been doing that we’re now translating into the clinic – specifically for the treatment of pancreatic cancer and chronic infection.  The first time we saw a beneficial effect in human volunteer was incredibly exciting!

Q: How long have we been studying the use of microbubbles in cancer treatment? Have we realised the potential of this technology yet — or have we only scratched the surface?

A: We’ve definitely only scratched the surface!  The first paper published on using ultrasound to enhance drug delivery was published in 1981 and it’s only in the last 5 years that this method has started being tested clinically.

There’s still a huge amount that we need to understand better in terms of fundamental science and that’s vital to make sure we’re using bubbles as safely and effectively as possible. The range of potential applications though is absolutely huge, encompassing neurological diseases, stroke and bacterial infections.

“There’s still a huge amount that we need to understand better in terms of fundamental science and that’s vital to make sure we’re using bubbles as safely and effectively as possible.”

Q: What are the advantages of using microbubbles for targeted drug delivery? And does the process have any drawbacks? 

A: Microbubbles enable us to be much more precise in how we control when and where a drug is delivered because we can destroy them using focused ultrasound at a target site in the body. This greatly reduces the risk of side effects. We can image them non-invasively to check that they’re in the right place. And the movement of the bubbles when we hit them with ultrasound helps to increase the depth to which the drug penetrates, which means we can use much lower doses. There is also increasing evidence that bubbles may stimulate the immune system which could be extremely important in a range of different applications.

The drawbacks of microbubbles are that they are quite fragile so we don’t have very long to complete the treatment. Also, because we have to use ultrasound, the procedure is more complicated than standard chemotherapy and that makes it more expensive.

Q: In 2016, you were recognised as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering. Is the engineering industry now more diverse, or is there still work to be done? If so, what should be done to increase accessibility for women who want to work in engineering?

A: There have definitely been improvements in some areas, certainly the number of female students applying to do Engineering. But it’s far from 50:50 and we still have significant problems both in terms of attracting new engineers and losing them after they complete their first degree or even a PhD.

I think there are several things that need to happen. The first is looking at how science is taught in schools and making sure we do a better job of explaining what engineering actually is.

A lot of people still think it’s something do with engines and “for boys.” There are lots of really fantastic initiatives out there, but we need to keep up the momentum. The problem of retaining talented engineers really worries me. A lot of my students (male and female) look at the work/life balance, salary and working conditions offered by jobs in Engineering and turn away. I find that really surprising given the incredible job satisfaction that Engineering has to offer and the very high pressures that, for example, lawyers or bankers have to work under. But there’s clearly a big problem and we need to fix it.

Engineers are going to become more and more important as we tackle global issues such as climate change and we need to make it something that talented young people want to do.

“Engineers are going to become more and more important as we tackle global issues such as climate change and we need to make it something that talented young people want to do.”

Q: What do you have planned for the future? What are you currently researching?

A: We’re very much hoping to run several clinical trials in the next couple of years. We’ve been badly set back by COVID but hopefully we’ll be back on track soon. We’ve also recently started a major new program on developing new antimicrobial therapies.

Thank you to Eleanor for taking the time to answer our questions.