A list of all SciBar events in reverse chronological order

  • 13th May 2024 – Acoustic Aberrations

    Playing with Physics and Perception Professor Trevor Cox comes to us from the University of Salford department of Acoustic Engineering where his research areas are architectural acoustics, signal processing and audio perception. Trevor is also an author and radio broadcaster… continue reading

  • 8th April 2024 – The Science of Peatbogs

    Simon Caporn, Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Environment, Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University has been teaching and researching plants, soils and their environments for 30 years. Simon offers the following description of his talk: Dark, peaty soils cover… continue reading

  • 11th March 2024 – Heat in Homes

    In March, our speaker will be Mark Thompson. Mark is an energy efficiency expert who is passionate about engaging the public in energy, and “de-mything and de-fearing” it and the changes that decarbonisation will bring. After studying physics and electronics… continue reading

  • 12th February 2024 – Solar Flares: The Most Powerful Explosions in the Solar System

    Philippa Browning is Professor of Astrophysics in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. She specialises in the mathematical modelling of fusion plasmas. Solar flares are dramatic explosions in the outer atmosphere of the Sun –… continue reading

  • 8th January 2024 – Stretched to Breaking Point – When is this a Good Thing for Polymer Materials?

    Our first speaker of the New Year is Dr. Niamh Fox, a lecturer in Polymer Science in the Department of Materials at Manchester University. Her talk ‘Stretched to breaking point – when is this a good thing for polymer materials?’… continue reading

  • 11th December 2023 – Radiation: the good, the bad and the ugly

    Catharine West is Emerita Professor of Radiation Biology at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on trying to predict how cancer patients respond to radiotherapy with a particular interest in measuring radiosensitivity and hypoxia. continue reading

  • 13th November 2023 – Diagnosing the scent of Parkinson’s with Mass Spectrometry and Joy

    The speaker for this meeting will be Professor Monty Silverdale, who is a consultant Neurologist at the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences and a Professor of Neurology at the University of Manchester. This is Professor Silverdale’s summary of his talk:… continue reading

  • 9th October 2023 – The Use and Misuse of Science in the Development Planning Process

    This month’s meeting will be about efforts to protect Danes Moss, an SSSI and nature reserve managed by Cheshire Wildlife Trust, from adjacent building development. The development will adversely affect the peatland, which is a carbon sink. The Moss lies… continue reading

  • 11th September 2023 – Colourful Fungi

    Jeanette Maddy will talk about the ways in which fungi present us with colour, how that colour can be useful to them and to us and about some research directions around fungal pigments. Depending on what fungi are available at… continue reading

  • 10th July 2023: Future Medicines – what have we learned from mRNA vaccines?

    The Covid vaccines are estimated to have saved 20 million lives since the start of the pandemic. Two of these vaccines used a revolutionary biological approach to generating a medicine rapidly and flexibly (mRNA), and a revolutionary innovation in delivering… continue reading

  • 12th June 2023 – The use of embryonic stem cells in clinical treatments

    Sue Kimber is Professor of Stem & Developmental Biology, Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine at the University of Manchester. Her research focusses on how the human embryo develops and the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESc)… continue reading

  • 15th May 2023 – The discovery and development of propofol (“Diprivan”)

    Note this session is on the third Monday of the month, a week later than usual because of the Coronation bank holiday on the second Monday. Propofol (marketed as Diprivan) is now a widely used intravenous anaesthetic.  Iain Glen, its… continue reading