Sip of Science

For decades, volcanoes were thought to be fed by large, molten magma chambers beneath the surface. However, advances in petrology, geochemistry, and geophysics have revealed a more complex picture. Evidence from crystal records shows that minerals can reside beneath volcanoes for thousands to millions of years, far longer than molten magma can realistically remain stored. At the same time, seismic imaging rarely detects large liquid bodies, instead indicating regions that are only partially molten. Together, these observations suggest that magma is not stored as a large liquid reservoir, but within a crystal-rich framework known as a “crystal mush.” In this talk, I will explore how Earth scientists have combined multiple lines of evidence to uncover this new understanding of volcanic systems. By approaching volcanoes as a scientific puzzle, we can see how different techniques come together to reveal what truly lies beneath the surface.

Evolution is the world's most genius and creative engineer and it's been for nearly four billion years. The result? Structures so clever, efficient, and bizarre that we're still trying to figure out how they work. I'm one of the people who study these . Using 3D printing, we can recreate the intricate geometry of bones, shells, corals and leaves at a level of detail that would have been impossible a decade ago and then push them further than nature has hopefully done till now . In this talk, I'll walk you through how a walk in the woods (or a deep dive into a microscope) became the starting point for structures that could change how we build, heal, and design. Nature figured it out first. We're just making it printable.

What happens when a massive star dies? It doesn’t always go out quietly. Sometimes it leaves behind a pulsar, a city-sized ball of material so dense that a single teaspoon of it would weigh as much as a mountain. These objects act like cosmic lighthouses, spinning rapidly and beaming "blips" of radio waves across the universe. They act as precise atomic clocks and can be used to study interesting physics. But there is a problem, they are incredibly faint, and our modern world is very, very noisy. To a radio telescope, any smartphone, FM radio, and even a passing satellite sound like an explosion that masks out the faint blip-blip-blip of the stars. I’m a PhD student at the University of Manchester, and I develop ways to sweep, wash, and scrub our data to filter out such noise, helping us find these hidden clocks.

We’re familiar with how light behaves: it reflects, bends, and passes through materials. But if you shine light on certain materials with enough intensity, something more interesting can happen. The material can change the energy of the photons, producing entirely new colours. These effects are part of what’s known as nonlinear optics (NLO).

In this short presentation, I’ll show how NLO works and what conditions are needed to see it. In my research, I study a few such materials, including colourful ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals (FNLCs) and ultra-thin materials just a few atoms thick (2D materials), where these effects can be surprisingly strong.

Nonlinear optical phenomena underpin technologies used in lasers, telecommunications, and emerging quantum systems. I’ll also give a glimpse into what it’s like to chase these tiny flashes of new light in the lab, and why learning to control them could shape future photonic and quantum technologies.

Dr Breanna Dixon is a postdoctoral research associate in the Barran Group, where her research focuses on identifying biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease.
In this talk, she will explore how skin oil could transform the way we detect and understand disease. Parkinson’s disease is typically diagnosed once symptoms such as tremor and stiffness appear, but changes in the body can begin many years earlier. What if we could detect those changes sooner using something as simple as skin oil?
She will introduce sebum (the oily substance naturally produced by our skin) and explain how it may hold important clues about Parkinson’s disease. Using analytical techniques, researchers can “read” the chemical makeup of sebum and identify patterns that differ between people with and without the condition. This work is helping pave the way for a quick, painless, and non-invasive test for Parkinson’s disease.

The issue of student debt has recently come into sharp focus. For home undergraduates in England and Wales on Plan 2 loans, the repayment threshold is now frozen at £29,385 for three years. For international students, fees remain uncapped. This talk draws on social science methods to explain how this model was introduced and normalised, arguing that the discourses sustaining the policy are as crucial as the policy itself. The market-based approach to higher education is situated within a series of rhetorical moves: students are positioned as empowered consumers; university managers as entrepreneurial executives; and competition as a mechanism to enhance quality. These framings were actively constructed through policy documents, institutional language and media narratives that made marketisation appear both inevitable and rational. A provocative conclusion is reached: the student funding system is not broken; rather, it effectively protects inherited advantage while shifting risk onto those with the least (Rolley, 2026).

What if you could see the invisible? Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) lets us do just
that, it can map hundreds to thousands of molecules directly onto plants, fingerprints,
and tissue samples. In plants, MSI can be used to reveal the invisible movement of
pesticides inside the plant. In forensics, it uncovers hidden details in fingerprints,
from everyday chemicals to the identity of culprits. In medicine, MSI can spot
molecular patterns linked to disease, offering new insights for diagnostics and
precise cancer surgery! One tool, many applications. MSI turns chemistry into
images, letting us explore the hidden layers of life in ways no microscope alone can.
This talk will take you on a journey through these applications, showing how MSI
combines versatility, discovery, and mass spectrometry magic all while helping us
see what was once invisible.

Mauro is a researcher at the University of Manchester who engineers the cells that make our medicines. His work uses synthetic biology to reprogram how cells behave. Think of it as rewriting the software that runs living systems. The goal is making complex biological medicines faster and cheaper to produce, so more patients can actually access them.

"Too much of a good thing" is a fundamental challenge for plants.
Light is essential for photosynthesis, and therefore for growth, survival, and the food on our plates, but in excess, it causes serious damage. This is especially precarious during greening: as a plant encounters light for the first time, it must rapidly build its photosynthetic machinery whilst simultaneously protecting itself from the very light driving that process.
Plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) may be a key part of the solution. By diverting excess electrons away from harmful reactions, it is theorised to act as a molecular safety valve.
As barley seedlings develop, their photosynthetic systems mature and change, and so does their capacity to handle light stress. Understanding this offers a clearer picture of the role of PTOX in plant survival through photoprotection when our plants are at their most vulnerable.

Some disorders are often thought to occur due to an interplay between genetics and the environment; nature or nurture. But what about what happens to you during pregnancy, when the brain first starts to develop? In my research, I look at how stressors experienced prenatally can lead to the onset of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring, such as autism or schizophrenia. These pathways that 'program' the onset of adult disease are not fully understood, and learning more about them can help us to find better treatments.