Manchester Science Festival is an annual
science festival
A science festival is a festival that showcases science and technology with the same freshness and flair that would be expected from an arts or music festival and primarily targets the general public. These public engagement events can be varied ...
held in October in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England, and produced by the
Museum of Science and Industry. It runs for eleven days, incorporating over 100 events across Greater Manchester for families and adults. Siemens has been the Festival’s headline sponsor since 2014, as part of its Curiosity Project.
Introduction
The festival launched at the Museum of Science and Industry in 2007. With over 100,000 visits to the festival in 2015, Manchester Science Festival is England's largest science festival. The
Manchester Evening News
The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...
describe the festival as “one of the most fun things to happen to the region in recent years, taking practical science into places you never imagined possible all over the city”.
Manchester Science Festival Programme
Each year, the programme features hands-on activities, immersive experiences, exhibitions, talks and tours. Events reflect the festival ethos of ‘part laboratory, part playground’, and aim to bring science to audiences at the Museum and at venues across Greater Manchester.
The programme for Manchester Science Festival is created and produced collaboratively with partners across the North West. Over the years, this has included
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...
,
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...
,
University of Salford
, caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford
, mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things"
, established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...
,
Chester Zoo
Chester Zoo is a zoo at Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire, England. Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It is one of the UK's largest zoos at . The zoo has a total land holding of approximately .
Chester Zoo is ope ...
,
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...
, HackManchester,
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre,
Manchester Cathedral,
John Rylands Library
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...
and
Manchester Central Library
Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the building ...
.
The programme encourages audiences to actively participate in science. This includes science busking activities and since 2014 has included the Museum of Science and Industry’s Platform for Investigation (Pi). The Pi is sponsored by Siemens and is part of the museum’s monthly live event programme. Pi gives audiences the opportunity to meet scientists and hear about their research whilst getting involved with experiments and activities.
Exhibitions
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...
are a feature of the festival programme, including contemporary science exhibitions at the Museum of Science and Industry. Since 2014,
Cape Farewell, UK have partnered with the festival to commission an exhibition inspired by
James Lovelock’s
Gaia Theory
The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps ...
. Notable exhibitions include Marcus Coates’ ''The Sounds of Others'' and Tania Kovats’ ''Evaporation''.
Manchester Science Festival 2015
The ninth annual science festival highlights included an adult only ball pool, artist Tania Kovats premiering ''Evaporation'',
Brian Cox,
Robin Ince and
Jon Culshaw recording ''
The Infinite Monkey Cage
''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' is a BBC Radio 4 comedy and popular science series. Hosted by physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince, ''The Independent'' described it as a "witty and irreverent look at the world according to science". The sh ...
'', exhibition ''Kinetic Flux'' by Paul Miller and Griet Beyart and a two-day drone expo with the
University of Salford
, caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford
, mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things"
, established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...
’s
Andy Miah.
Manchester Evening News
The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...
wrote that “The Manchester Science Festival – supported by Siemens – gives people the chance to get up close and hands-on with all things loud, lively, explosive and experimental”. The ball pool won Manchester Evening News’ City Life Awards Special Events Category 2015.
Festival Director: Marieke Navin
Manchester Science Festival 2014
The eighth Manchester Science Festival showcased
Marcus Coates
Marcus Coates is a contemporary artist and ornithologist living in London. His works, including performances and installations that have been recorded as video art, employ shamanistic rituals in communication with "the lower world", and contrast ...
’ exhibition ''The Sounds of Others'', a 3D printing exhibition, a debate over the future of fracking with
Bez from
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up was Shaun Ryder (vocals), his brother Paul Ryder (bass), Gary Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joine ...
, and the building of a
Mega Menger. The website Creative Tourist wrote about Manchester Science Festival’s programme, saying that, “The delight in such a diversity of diversions is being able to wander according to one’s own fancy; being cartographer to your own map. The book of Manchester is open: choose your own adventure”.
Festival Director: Marieke Navin
Manchester Science Festival 2013
In its seventh year, Manchester Science Festival brought the exhibition ''Brains: the Mind as Matter'' and a supporting events programme, launched its second citizen science project, Hooked On Music and built a giant
Rube Goldberg Machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these mach ...
. The Festival also won the Manchester Tourism Award for Large Tourism Event of the Year.
Festival Director: Marieke Navin
Citizen Science Projects
Manchester Science Festival has been involved with two citizen science projects since 2007. The first was ''Turing's Sunflowers'' in 2012 and #HookedOnMusic, part of the festival programme since 2013.
Turing's Sunflowers
The experiment was conceived by Jonathan Swinton and led by Erinma Ochu at the
Museum of Science and Industry, who said that "we hope to provide the missing evidence to test Turing's little-known theories about
Fibonacci numbers
In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted , form a sequence, the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. The sequence commonly starts from 0 and 1, although some authors start the sequence from ...
in
sunflowers
''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to N ...
. It would be a fitting celebration of the work of Alan Turing".
Citizen scientists from seven countries participated, growing over 500 sunflowers, over 450 of which conformed to the Fibonacci sequence, thereby proving Alan Turing's theory.
HookedOnMusic
Launched at the 2013 Manchester Science Festival with Ashley Burgoyne from the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
, audiences were encouraged to play a free, online game that produced results for scientific research. Researchers were looking for the
hooks in music to help future research on
Alzheimer's disease. By using catchy music, researchers hope to find ways to trigger therapeutic benefits for patients.
Results presented at the 2014 Manchester Science Festival revealed the UK's top ten catchiest tunes, looking at just how memorable parts of songs can be.
The number one catchiest song was the
Spice Girls' '
Wannabe
"Wannabe" is the debut single by English girl group the Spice Girls. Written and composed by the group members in collaboration with Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produ ...
'.
Sponsorship
Since 2014,
Siemens has been the headline sponsor for the festival. Other major sponsors include the
University of Salford
, caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford
, mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things"
, established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...
,
Electricity North West
Electricity North West is a British electricity distribution network operator, responsible for the administration and maintenance of the network, that distributes electricity to the North West of England excluding Merseyside and parts of Cheshi ...
and the
Waters Corporation
Waters Corporation is a publicly traded Analytical Laboratory instrument and software company headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts. The company employs more than 7,800 people, with manufacturing facilities located in Milford, Taunton, Massach ...
.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official websiteMuseum of Science and Industry websiteFacebook pageTwitter accountHookedOnMusicTuring’s Sunflowers
Science festivals
Science events in the United Kingdom
Annual events in England
Events in Manchester
October events