The Faculty of Science and Engineering’s 2025 news highlights: a year of breakthroughs, collaborations, and notable recognition. Below is a comprehensive, easy-to-follow overview of the most influential stories that shaped the year across the faculty.
January
Dawn of surprising discoveries set the pace: research indicated that everyday soap could illuminate how complex bodily systems work, including lung function, and potentially lead to better therapies for respiratory distress syndrome. In materials science, scientists crafted a molecular trap aimed at removing pharmaceutical and hygiene-maper pollutants from rivers and lakes. By month’s end, analysis of samples from asteroid Bennu offered intriguing clues about the origins of life and the early solar system.
February
Engineers revealed that the microarchitecture of fossil pterosaur bones could inform the development of lighter, stronger materials for future aircraft. A new atmospheric monitoring station at Jodrell Bank Observatory was established to refine the UK’s greenhouse gas emission estimates. The National Graphene Institute reached a major milestone in quantum electronics.
March
Researchers developed a hydrogen sensor that could accelerate the shift to clean hydrogen energy. A report from The University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research outlined a Roadmap to a Super Low Carbon live music event, demonstrating how such events can be organized with dramatically reduced carbon footprints. Separately, Dr. Pablo Ouro launched a national-scale assessment of wind-farm interactions to guide policy and industry toward net-zero goals.
April
Earth scientists suggested CO2 emission estimates from volcanoes may have been substantially underestimated, while studies of turbidity currents revealed how deep-sea underwater avalanches drive vast quantities of microplastics into the deep ocean. Physicists achieved a landmark result by providing clear evidence that certain matter particles (baryons) behave differently from their antimatter counterparts. Members of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider collaborations were honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
May
Manchester Institute of Biotechnology researchers demonstrated that enzymes engineered to respond to visible light can drive highly selective chemical reactions. A new project was launched to explore how microbes in deep underground storage sites could affect the success of carbon capture and storage efforts.
June
The month was festive. Dr. Panagiotis Papadopoulos became a finalist for a £100,000 seed fund in the Manchester Prize competition. Four colleagues earned prestigious prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry for their exceptional contributions to chemical sciences. Students built a 30,500-piece Lego model of the Lovell Telescope to mark the observatory’s 80th anniversary. Highlights in new research included astronomers’ first look from the world’s largest digital camera and chemists’ creation of a molecular magnet that could boost data storage by up to 100 times.
July
A “nose-to-diagnose” study showed promising progress in non-invasively detecting early signs of Parkinson’s disease—up to seven years before motor symptoms appear—by analyzing skin chemistry. Scientists also uncovered hundreds of giant sand bodies beneath the North Sea that challenge established geological notions, and provided new insights into the hidden forces driving Alpine debris flows, offering hope for better protection against future disasters.
August
A major grant was awarded to lead a programme transforming the nuclear graphite lifecycle, with potential implications for energy security. Researchers identified a hidden pattern in birdsong that mirrors a core rule of human language, and astronomers captured the slow, century-scale evolution of a dying star. The James Webb Space Telescope revealed extraordinary new details at the heart of the Butterfly Nebula.
September
The faculty highlighted science workshops for refugee children in Greater Manchester. Two professors—Zara Hodgson and Jovica Milanović—were elected Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Tyndall Centre marked its 25th anniversary and issued a report warning that the UK must intensify its climate ambitions, noting energy demand projections were lower than many had anticipated two decades ago.
October
A near-complete skeleton from the UK’s Jurassic Coast was identified as a new ichthyosaur species. Engineers launched a project to harness wind in railway tunnels, turning tunnels into renewable-energy generators.
November
Researchers uncovered a surprising link between a koala and the Ice Age marsupial lion. A joint effort involving academics, government, and the public suggested reducing the UK’s energy demand could be the most cost-effective path to net zero, accelerating progress by leveraging demand-side strategies. A collaboration with Marketing Manchester showed Greater Manchester tourism contributed around 2.5 million tonnes of CO₂e in 2023, largely from travel to and from the region, with implications for carbon-neutral planning.
December
The year closed with major breakthroughs. Scientists ruled out a fourth neutrino as a sterile neutrino with 95% certainty. The world’s most precise nuclear clock moved closer to reality. Astronomers captured the most detailed time-stamped images yet of a jet from a newborn star. Policy-wise, current housing and climate strategies were found to be falling short in addressing rising temperatures and energy costs. Finally, a Manchester astronomer set out to build the most accurate map of the radio sky ever constructed.
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