Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Hello Bluesky! We're a distant ancestor, launched in 1822 to share knowledge and ideas about science and civilisation. Our founders started the Yorkshire Museum, now part of the York Museums Trust. Today, we host lectures, visits and study tours for people in and around York, UK.

Researchers at the University of York are behind some brilliant work making cancer treatment kinder for children. On Thursday 29 October (7–8pm, on Zoom), Professor Bob Phillips will share the team’s findings and what they plan to do next. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beyond-sur...

There's more about the discovery of Tyrian purple textiles in this blog: seeingthedead.ac.uk/blog/discove...

A fascinating discovery in York! www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2026/05...

YORK CENTRAL: lecture by Rob Auld, Construction Director for McLaren Property 7 pm, Tuesday 14 April, Yorkshire Museum Rob's FREE lecture will cover the development of York Central - a new neighbourhood with 2500 homes, commercial space, parks and even allotments! www.ypsyork.org/events/york-...

Peter O'Toole @yorkbioimaging.bsky.social showing us a 3D printed microscope which can be used wherever and wherever it is needed

"How do we solve the world’s biggest problems? Sometimes, we have to look at the smallest details." So says Professor Peter O’Toole, who'll be speaking about advances in microscopy at the next YPS lecture: Yorkshire Museum, 7pm, Tuesday 24 February www.ypsyork.org/events/seein...

Excited to be invited to talk at the The Yorkshire Philosophical Soc @ypsyork.bsky.social on Tuesday evening. See www.ypsyork.org/events/seein... It will speed through many techniques & end on our most exciting project to date! @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social @bioimaginguk.bsky.social

Mesolithic antler masks feature in a temporary exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, York, along with many other items found at Star Carr in North Yorkshire. Open until 19 April. www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/exhibition/s... #MesolithicMonday

Thanks Alex - we highly recommend YOU too!

What we know about soil: a huge breakthrough which will benefit the whole world. This would be a great topic for a future lecture... www.ypsyork.org

The Press has done a great interview with Richard Hawley ahead of Saturday's gig in Museum Gardens. We're ever so slightly smug that Richard name checked the Yorkshire Philosophical Society! www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/2528418...

When you’ve spent the weekend battling the Viking hordes and you’re ready for your comfy bed.

Hope you enjoy your copy of The Historian this month. Steve has made a contribution to the debate about the old and new poor laws in his beloved St Maurice’s parish in York, known as the Groves now. @uoyborthwick.bsky.social @cecs-york.bsky.social @ypsyork.bsky.social

One of four Roman emperors to have spent time in York, Septimius Severus died here in 211. At that time, of course, the city was called Eboracum. Severus Hill, west of the city centre, is now home to a water tower and electricity sub-station. It's the memorial he would have wanted, for sure.

In fact a few years back we dug out the old Chocolate Apple recipe from our archives and worked with York Cocoa Works to actually make it for the first time in over half a century! More on this here: www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/pr... (Archivists have all the fun.)

Strange carvings at Norwegian grave site reveal what language was like before Vikings www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

7pm, 28 January, Yorkshire Museum: Adam Parker, Curator of Archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum, will talk about Star Carr, the Mesolithic jewel in the crown of Yorkshire’s archaeology. Free entry for YPS members; non-members a mere £5 at the door. www.ypsyork.org/events/displ... (Spot the typo)

Happy New Year! This was the border between England and Scotland yesterday afternoon...

Ladybower Reservoir - a great place for a walk at any time of the year!

An ancient and magical amber bear. Carved some 10,000 years ago, it washed up on a beach at Fanø in Denmark from a submerged Mesolithic settlement under the North Sea. ✨Merry Christmas everyone✨ National Museum of Denmark 📷 by me #Archaeology

Merry Christmas!

This is cool! A lovely new archaeology project from my Alma mater, the University of York Newly uncovered sites reveal true power of great Viking army in Britain www.theguardian.com/science/2024...

Once one of the most powerful Benedictine monasteries in the country St Mary's Abbey, York, was first built in the late 11th century. Following the Dissolution of the monasteries the buildings were converted into a palace for the King. In a significant fall in their

The last episode of #WolfHall aired last night, but did you know we have a copy of the letter Thomas Cromwell sent to King Henry pleading his case? It was carefully copied into the Register of Archbishop Lee of York in 1540 and you can read it below: archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk/browse/regis...

🚨 Reminder 🚨 Tomorrow we've got our last Public Lecture of the year. Do you love all things astronomy? Come and hear about the UK-wide initiatives setting people up for a life-long love of the stars 🔭✨

🧪 #SciAdvent Dec16 🦖🎄🦕🎄🦖 We can know #dinosaurs' colours thanks to fossilised melanosomes! These are soft-tissue organelles containing pigments. At first mistaken as bacteria, they were first identified in fossil squids and then in fossilised feathers...(1/2) (img from doi.org/10.1038/natu...)

A 12-year study of 639 adults by Johns Hopkins found that mild hearing loss doubles #dementia risk, moderate loss triples it, and severe hearing loss increases the risk fivefold. Get your hearing tested and wear hearing aids if you need them. www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/welln... #alzheimers

Would you like to hear a little story about one of York's confectioners? No? Well that's rude. We're going to tell you anyway. Let us introduce Sir Joseph Terry. Here he is during a trip to Harrogate for a clean and some TLC. The painting equivalent of a spa day if you will.

11 December 1823, am, falling tide: #MaryAnning continued to excavate her plesiosaur, probably helped by local quarrymen who worked the foreshore limestone and could ship her fossil to the town in their specially-built stoneboats. More on stoneboats here: www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/lrm/wp-conte...

The South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub is marking its first anniversary by awarding £500,000 to new projects designed to improve disease diagnosis and treatment by using digital data together with NHS data to create novel clinical tools. www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/tacklin...

Free volume online - looks very interesting journals.uio.no/viking/issue...

The Enlightenment or the great ‘Age of Reason’ was a time in the 17th and 18th centuries when a new philosophical movement dominated the world of ideas throughout Europe One of those involved, had an albeit brief, Yorkshire connection - William Herschel. He was born in Germany in 1738 but 1/4

CFP for the 'Sleeping Well' @sleepingwelluom.bsky.social end-of-project conference, 'Bodies and Environments in the Early Modern World'. Taking place 9-10 June 2025 at JRRI, Manchester. Details on our website here: sites.manchester.ac.uk/sleeping-wel... Deadline 3 Feb. Please share widely!

Two hundred years ago, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society was granted land on the site of St Mary's Abbey. We built the Yorkshire Museum there and surrounded it with beautiful botanic gardens. www.yorkmuseumgardens.org.uk/about/st-mar...

This excellent @theguardian.com article describes how scientists have created a sponge from squid bone and cotton that removes 99.9% of microplastics from water. Scalable and reusable, it could revolutionise microplastic cleanup. www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪#Pollution #SciComm

Sir Humphry Davy Abominated gravy. He lived in the odium Of having discovered sodium. An emotional poem by Edmund Clerihew Bentley.

This year up to 26 funded PhD studentships in environmental sciences are available in our YES-DTN across the University of Leeds and the University of York UK yes-dtn.ac.uk. Find out more about projects and the application process via webinars on 13th and 17th December. Details via the link.

"So...it's not science?" "No." "It's not an ancient artefact." "No." "Geology?" "Nope." "Well, I hope you don't mind me asking - why is YPS reposting this?" "Because it's INCREDIBLY CUTE!"

Happy 90th birthday to actress Dame Judi Dench, born on this day 1934 in Heworth, York. Appeared in many Shakespeare plays before starring in films such as A Room With A View, GoldenEye, Mrs Brown, Chocolat, Notes On A Scandal and Philomena.

2 Viking Age ‘hogbacks’ 1 with a tegulated roof with a shield wall carved on one side & zoomorphic interlace on the other. 2 has geometric patterns on top, interlace on the broad sides and entwined animals on the lower sections. The narrow ends show crucifixion scenes. #medievalsky #viking #cumbria

As well as working in archaeology and museum communications and writing and editing academic books, I also create content for and give #tours at the spectacular museum of the @govanstones.bsky.social! Here's Part 1 of a Facebook Live tour of these Viking-Age carved stones I gave a while back 🗣🎙🎬

Thrilled to see the lost map of 1822 York discovered in the Borthwick vaults! This photo shows the wood and iron water pipes layout around St Sampsons Square in red alongside the new Gas pipes in black. Attracted a lot of attention then and now! Fights between rival gas companies ensued.

🌊 Can Plankton Fight Climate Change? A @science.org study shows how enhancing ocean alkalinity - an idea to absorb CO₂ - affects plankton food webs. Could this boost marine productivity while tackling climate change? 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #SciComm #ClimateChange 🧪

The former gold mine at St Bathans, New Zealand. No particular reason for posting it. We just like it.