New Scientist Live: A mind-blowing science festival of ideas and experiences is coming to Manchester Central

The multi-award-winning New Scientist Live event makes its Manchester debut in March, taking over Manchester Central for three days of mind-blowing discoveries about the universe we live in.

The festival, which runs from March 12-14, brings brilliant brains and fascinating stage events together to ruminate some of science’s biggest questions and concepts – from climate change to supermassive black holes, the secrets at the bottom of our oceans, and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.

In all, 40 speakers and 30+ exhibitors will take over the halls at Manchester Central, and curious minds can go along in person or register to watch the talks streamed live online. The annual event has long been commended for how well it engages with all ages, making it an ideal full-family occasion.

Four themes dominate the talks, interactive performances, workshops and hands-on activities in 2022: brain and body, the universe, the Earth, and technology and engineering. And as organisers point out, Manchester’s own scientific and technological heritage make it the absolutely “perfect location for the world’s greatest science festival”.

Talks are spread across a number of themes. ‘Brain and Body’ will see Professor Daniel Davis from the University of Manchester discuss how advances in our understanding of the human body could support bespoke cancer predictions, while Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Uni. Surrey) explores how thinking like a scientist could help us navigate the challenges of modern life.

Dr Suzie Imber and presenter Dallas Campbell talk space technologies, missions and travel, while Dr Leigh Fletcher (Uni. Leicester) also takes on the mysteries of the solar system in a talk about its ice giants: Neptune and Uranus. Back down on Earth, archaeologist Professor Penny Spikins (Uni. York) examines what we know about surviving ecological catastrophes, and Professor Radha Boya (Uni. Manchester) leads a wondrous walk through the amazing worlds of one-atom-thin graphene and two-dimensional voids.