Inspiring Young Minds in Manchester & Beyond

Posted on: December 19th, 2025 by Alan Wareham

How can we spark curiosity, creativity, and confidence in young learners through science? In this thought‑provoking lecture, Professor Lynne Bianchi will draw on her extensive research and experience to explore what makes science education truly meaningful for children aged 5 to 14.

Working in close partnership with teachers across the UK, Professor Bianchi has seen first‑hand how science and engineering can become powerful platforms for wonder, imagination, and lifelong learning. She will discuss the evolving educational landscape, highlighting both the opportunities and the challenges that shape teachers’ confidence and curriculum development. Central to this is her influential framework, the Trajectory of Professional Development, which has guided many educators in rethinking their approach to science teaching.

As the government’s curriculum review looms, Professor Bianchi will share her vision for the “next‑step” science curriculum, one that equips children not only with knowledge, but also with the confidence to ask questions, explore possibilities, and connect science to the world around them.

The lecture will spotlight the decade of impactful work she has led in the Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub, at The University of Manchester. This will include raising awareness of the Manchester-born global campaign – Great Science Share for Schools. Attendees will be invited to reflect on their own perspectives: what is science learning for, and how can we ensure it inspires every child?

Join us for an evening of insight, reflection, and inspiration as we consider how to shape the future of science education for the next generation.

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session.

Booking is essential. Lit&Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Truth in the Age of Algorithms

Posted on: December 18th, 2025 by Alan Wareham

In this talk, Dr Jennifer Cearns explores predictive AI as something surprisingly familiar: a modern form of divination.

Like older techniques for reading the future, today’s algorithms promise to help us navigate risk, uncertainty, and the desire to know what comes next. Dr Jennifer Cearns considers the cultural ideas built into AI, especially our long, messy history of defining “intelligence”, and how these assumptions shape what we treat as knowledge or truth.

Drawing on ethnographic research in the US and the UK, Dr Jennifer Cearns asks what kinds of truths AI seems to produce, and how these connect to much older ways of knowing that have shaped Western culture since the Enlightenment.

By viewing AI not just as a technical tool but as a cultural product, Dr Jennifer Cearns shows how predictive systems both challenge and reinforce existing assumptions about knowledge, revealing how our ideas of truth are becoming increasingly networked, iterative, optimised, and future oriented.

Who Should Attend

Anyone curious about how AI shapes decisions and our ideas of truth.

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session.

Booking is essential. Lit&Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Rewilding the Lowlands: Lessons from Knepp and Beyond

Posted on: December 9th, 2025 by Alan Wareham

How can rewilding take root in a landscape as densely populated, fragmented, and historically cultivated as lowland Britain? In this talk, Charlie Burrell will explore that question through the remarkable story of the Knepp Wildland Project in West Sussex – a pioneering experiment in letting nature lead.

Knepp began over twenty years ago as a bold gamble: to step back from intensive agriculture and allow natural processes to shape the land. The result has been a flourishing mosaic of habitats – scrub, wood pasture, wetland and meadow – alive with returning species from turtle doves to purple emperors and nightingales. But Knepp is also part of a wider movement. Across Britain and Europe, rewilding is challenging assumptions about conservation, land use, and the relationship between people and nature.

Charlie will use Knepp as a model to examine the spectrum of rewilding – from large-scale wilderness restoration to smaller, community-led and agricultural projects. Drawing on historical land use, he will discuss how the landscapes of the past can inform the ecological and social choices of the future.

The talk will also explore the powerful forces now driving the rewilding movement – from climate change and biodiversity loss to a growing recognition that nature recovery can deliver real economic and social benefits. Charlie will highlight the emerging role of philanthropy, particularly through the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, which is helping to finance major restoration projects across Europe.

Finally, he will turn to one of the most exciting frontiers in this field: how Nature-Based Solutions can be valued and monetised to create sustainable funding streams for nature. Using Nattergal, a company he chairs, as a case study, Charlie will show how private capital and ecological ambition can align to restore degraded landscapes, capture carbon, and revive biodiversity.

This promises to be an inspiring evening charting the next chapter in Britain’s evolving relationship with the wild.

Practical Information

The presentation will include time for questions and discussion. Booking is strongly advised.

Access

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

 

The Space Elevator

Posted on: October 25th, 2025 by Alan Wareham

Graphene was first isolated in 2004 and the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded in 2010 to the two researchers who performed the work at the University of Manchester, UK.

Since then, graphene has been steadily developing and a whole landscape of two-dimensional (2D) materials has been discovered. Graphene has been found to be the strongest, lightest material known. It is now being manufactured on an industrial scale.

This new material will transform many industries. In this talk Rob and Adrian, from the Graphene Engineering and Innovations Centre on Sackville Street, will explain what graphene is, its latest applications, and how it will enable the ultimate civil engineering project: The Space Elevator.

The talk is structured as follows:

• What is graphene and the other 2D materials

• How graphene is already finding more uses than you might realise

• How rockets work and their limitations

• What is a space elevator and how it overcomes these limitations

• The state of the art in tethered lift manufacturing

• Could a space elevator really be built?

Adrian and Rob delight in explaining commercial activity and complex science in plain language, so you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy this talk. Bring your questions and they will answer as many as they can.

Adrian is a member of the board of directors of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC). He is also the founding editor of the Nixene Journal, a monthly publication that tracks the academic and commercial activity of graphene and 2D materials worldwide.

Rob is the CEO of Nixene Publishing, he contributed to the commercialisation module for PhD students at the Graphene NOWNANO Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) and shared an international panel with Nobel Prizewinner Prof Sir Kostya Novoselov, “A series of varied perspectives on our 2D futures”.

They are based at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), on the University of Manchester campus in the UK.

Rob & Adrian regularly present the science in plain English to audiences ranging from the general public, to universities, NASA and the USA government.

Who Should Attend?

  • Curious minds fascinated by how cutting-edge science advances from discovery to real-world application.
  • Students and educators in physics, materials science, engineering, or technology seeking inspiration from real research success stories.
  • Professionals in manufacturing, construction, aerospace, or energy sectors interested in how graphene and other 2D materials may disrupt their industries.
  • Entrepreneurs and innovators exploring emerging technologies and future business opportunities enabled by advanced materials.
  • Space enthusiasts intrigued by the concept of a space elevator and the future of human space access.
  • Members of the general public who enjoy learning how novel materials can reshape society, economy, and imagination.

Questions to Reflect On

  • How can a material just one atom thick profoundly influence engineering, transportation, and even space exploration?
  • What are the main challenges in producing and applying graphene and other 2D materials at industrial scale?
  • Could graphene-based technology enable humanity to rethink the limits of physics and infrastructure, even beyond Earth?
  • What would a space elevator mean for the future of space travel, global logistics, and sustainability?
  • How does fundamental research, like that done in Manchester, lead to commercial and societal transformation?
  • What lessons can we learn from the collaboration between scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs in bringing revolutionary ideas to life?

Practical Information

The presentation will include time for questions and discussion. Booking is strongly advised.

Access

Access to the event is via the Altrincham Street entrance.

Accessibility Information

Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

How can we keep our city and our homes cool and green in a heating world?

Posted on: May 2nd, 2025 by mlpEditor

This webinar will explore the theme of Urban Heat Islands – how and why our urban spaces are becoming hotter than the countryside that surrounds them. What can we do to make our homes, workplaces and communities more resilient to hot weather, and at the same time more pleasant places to dwell?

Heatwaves are increasing, even in Manchester: the results can be overheated and sleep-deprived people, stretched NHS and electricity grids struggling to cope with the demands of air conditioning. Night-time is perhaps the worst, especially for the very old and very young: those least able to regulate their body temperature and for whom heatwaves can be deadly. A 2024 UK parliamentary report has described summer heat as “the silent killer”. Heat stresses us physically and emotionally.

A seemingly easy solution to a hot home or work space might seem to be air con – but this has an energy cost and is part of a vicious circle as we warm the outside space making our neighbours even hotter.

In this webinar we will have input from:

Geoff Levermore, Emeritus Professor of the Built Environment at Manchester University, who has been conducting a study over several years into temperatures in our city – thanks to continuous readings from data logging at points in Central Manchester. Geoff has a fascinating story to tell about the impacts of lockdown, of traffic and of trees.

Thomas Ashfield is a façade meteorologist and climate consultant for a facade engineering consultancy, he is a passionate advocate of care for climate, providing advice for how the external surfaces of buildings can help to provide climate resilience, especially in the face of heating, and reduce energy demands. He will translate some of his experience into advice that can be applied to homes generally.

Meteorology was one of the subjects close to the heart of the early members of the Lit and Phil: John Dalton, polymath, chemist and long-time president of the Lit and Phil, recorded the temperatures outside his central Manchester home three times a day for over twenty years. We have ever more reason to care about those temperatures now!

3D Printing in Medicine: From Science Fiction to Reality

Posted on: April 15th, 2025 by mlpEditor

From Fiction to Possibility

In Mary Shelley’s iconic novel, Victor Frankenstein harnessed electricity to breathe life into inanimate matter. Fast forward to recent times, and we find films like “Moon” (2009) and “Mickey 17” (2025) exploring the ethical complexities of human cloning. These narratives spark a fascinating question: Could we someday print fully-functional human beings, much like Star Trek’s replicator materialized objects on demand?

 

Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact

What once seemed confined to the realm of science fiction is increasingly crossing into scientific reality. The journey from imagination to implementation has always been medicine’s most exciting narrative. Consider organ transplantation—first conceptualized in fiction in 1925, before becoming reality with the first successful kidney transplant in 1954.

 

Manchester’s Pioneering Role

The field of bioprinting stands at a similar frontier today. Two decades ago, Manchester proudly hosted the first International Workshop on Bioprinting, establishing our city as an early pioneer in this revolutionary technology. Since then, Manchester’s scientists and clinicians have remained at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field, pushing boundaries and transforming possibilities.

 

Current Breakthroughs and Future Horizons

Join us as we explore the remarkable progress in bioprinting both locally and globally. We’ll journey through current capabilities—from printing simple tissues to the complex challenges of vascularized organs. We’ll examine the latest breakthroughs in biomaterials, cell sourcing, and fabrication techniques that are bringing us closer to printing functional human tissues and organs.

 

Ethical Considerations and Practical Applications

Our discussion will bridge the gap between what was once purely imaginative and what is now scientifically achievable. We’ll consider not just the technical aspects, but also the ethical implications and regulatory frameworks that must evolve alongside these innovations.

 

About the Speaker

Professor Brian Derby is a pioneer in bioprinting who coined the term itself and has led ground-breaking research at the University of Manchester for over 20 years, collaborating with medical scientists and local hospitals to develop 3D printing applications for medicine.

 

Who Should Attend

Whether you’re a healthcare professional, a technology enthusiast, or simply curious about how science fiction continues to inspire medical advancement, this talk offers a fascinating glimpse into a future where bioprinting may revolutionize personalized medicine and potentially solve the global organ shortage crisis.

 

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session and light refreshments can be purchased from the venue’s bar.

Booking is essential. Lit & Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Sharston Materials Recovery Facility Tour

Posted on: March 20th, 2025 by mlpEditor

Experience first-hand where recycling happens! The Sharston Materials Recovery Facility processes recycling from nine Greater Manchester boroughs, expertly sorting materials like glass, steel, aluminium, and various plastics.

Our two-hour visit includes a comprehensive tour of the facility guided by the passionate Education Team. You’ll witness the story of the first stages of the recycling journey – from mixed to sorted – and on its way to becoming something else. Enjoy discussion time to ask questions about proper recycling practices and learn what truly happens to items after they leave your bin.

 

Important Information:

  • The tour involves walking and stairs
  • Casual clothing recommended (jeans and trainers ideal)
  • Safety equipment (including hard hats) will be provided
  • Please inform us in advance if you have pacemakers, insulin pumps, cochlear implants, or mobility needs, as we’ll customize the tour to avoid strong electromagnets used in processing
  • This educational experience is completely free of charge

 

Getting there

  • The site is at Longley Lane, Sharston M22 4RQ.
  • It is an 18-minute walk from Gatley railway station.
  • There is a visitor car park on site.

How They Built the Atom Bomb: The Manchester Connection

Posted on: March 19th, 2025 by mlpEditor

Manchester’s Atomic Legacy

What connections does our city have to one of humanity’s most transformative scientific developments? Manchester’s scientific legacy holds surprising links to the development of atomic energy and ultimately, the atomic bomb.

 

The Birth of Atomic Theory (1803)

The story begins on October 21, 1803, at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on George Street in what is now Chinatown. That evening, John Dalton, a Manchester-based scientist, presented his groundbreaking atomic theory to the Lit & Phil, proposing that atoms were the fundamental building blocks of all matter. This revolutionary idea would forever change our understanding of the physical world.

 

Splitting the Atom (1917)

Just over a century later, in September 1917, Ernest Rutherford achieved another milestone at Manchester University when he split the atom, transforming nitrogen into oxygen. Neither Dalton nor Rutherford could have fully envisioned how their discoveries would ultimately lead to harnessing the atom’s tremendous energy.

 

The path to the Manhattan Project

As we approach the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2025, join Ed Glinert—Manchester historian, author, and tour guide—for an exploration of this remarkable scientific journey. From Dalton’s early theories to Rutherford’s experiments, from the scientists who first recognized the potential of nuclear chain reactions to the Manhattan Project, we’ll examine this complex legacy.

 

Questions to Explore

We’ll also consider fascinating questions:

  • How did Manchester become the world’s first nuclear-free zone in 1980?
  • What factors led to the Allies developing the bomb before Nazi Germany?
  • How do we reconcile the scientific achievement with its devastating human impact?

 

This thought-provoking discussion invites us to reflect on Manchester’s pivotal role in a scientific advancement that continues to shape our world.

 

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session and light refreshments can be purchased from the venue’s bar.

Booking is essential. Lit & Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

 

Green Hydrogen: Unlocking a Clean Energy Future

Posted on: March 5th, 2025 by mlpEditor

Curious about how we can power our world sustainably? While solar and wind power are making great strides, some industries need additional solutions to eliminate their carbon emissions. That’s where green hydrogen comes in.

 

What You’ll Learn

Join us to discover how this promising technology works and why it matters. We’ll explore:

– How green hydrogen can help decarbonize industries that can’t run on electricity alone, like steel manufacturing and long-distance shipping

– Why current green hydrogen costs more than traditional hydrogen, and the innovative solutions being developed to make it more affordable

– What needs to happen with infrastructure and policy to help green hydrogen reach its full potential

 

About the speaker

Dr Caroline Hargrove is Chief Technology Officer at Ceres Power, a leading developer of green hydrogen technology.

 

Who Should Attend

Through real-world examples and the latest developments, we’ll show how collaboration between industries and governments is helping overcome these challenges. Whether you’re new to the topic or already familiar with hydrogen technology, you’ll gain fresh insights into how green hydrogen could transform our energy landscape.

 

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session and light refreshments can be purchased from the venue’s bar.

Booking is essential. Lit & Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Interview with Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu

Posted on: March 5th, 2025 by mlpEditor

Q: What part of your career would have most impressed your teenage self? 

A: The fact that I designed a medicine component from scratch that has now been tested in humans and has the potential to make a difference to healthcare.

 

Q: What has been the most surprising breakthrough in which you have been involved? 

A: The fact that a small chemical change to a protein in our body, changes the way that protein interacts with cells – allowing it to act as a specific drug transporter into cancer cells. This was a surprising finding.

 

Q: What branches of medicine do you think will be most impacted by your team’s work on nanomedicine?

 A: Our focus is now on ophthalmology and so we are hoping to be able to make an impact on eyecare.

 

Q: How hopeful are you that the work of your team will be able to impact global healthcare rather than the healthcare of the most wealthy? 

A: This is something that we are always concerned about and we would hope that our medicines would not be too expensive and thus have an impact on a variety of populations.

 

Q: Your profile shows that you are frequently involved in encouraging diversity in academic study and STEM in particular.  What advice would you have for bright young people who enjoy science but think that academic research might not be for “people like them”?

A: It is always difficult to give advice as an older woman.  I doubt that I would have taken advice from an older academic when I was comparatively young.  Here is the advice I wish I had been given and actually taken: There are no barriers that you cannot break and it would be foolish to assume that barriers do not exist, but we all have one goal – to go out and smash those barriers down by demonstrating our excellence in everything that we do.

 

Thank you to Dame Ijeoma for taking the time to answer our questions.

Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu will be giving her talk – Small Particles, Big Impact: Revolutionising Drug Delivery – at the Renold Building, Manchester, on Thursday 20 March.

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