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Manchester Science Festival

The Institute of Physics produced a set of six posters, each featuring a surprising physics fact, as part of the 2007 Manchester Science Festival. The posters were displayed in buses and at bus stops throughout central Manchester during the festival (20 – 28 Oct 2007).

Each of the posters contains an amazing physics fact, such as ‘Frogs levitate in a strong enough magnetic field’, and ‘A bolt of lightning has enough energy to toast 100,000 slices of bread’, You can find out more about the physics behind the facts and how it could have an affect on your life in the future here.

The information behind the facts also highlights research being conducted by physicists today, such as whether there will ever be a real life ‘spiderman’ suit created by mimicking the sticking ability of gecko feet, what technology will be used on space missions to Mars, and even whether we will ever make a human levitate.

Als well as launching these posters, the Institute of Physics wsupported various performances throughout the festival including Cartoon Science - an interactive show about the difference between cartoon science and real science, Stradivarius Secret - a talk with demonstrations to illustrate the physics behind the famous violin, and Physics and Chemistry: More Magic than Harry Potter. To find details of these shows, go to the Manchester Science Festival website.

The Institute of Physics also supported an audio walking tour of sites of scientific interest around Manchester. Manchester Science Places guides you around the city as John Dalton, the founder of modern atomic theory may have seen it. The tour can be downloaded from the Science Places website, and even if you don’t have a chance to visit Manchester this autumn, you can read about the places visited, or view the interactive map.

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