Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Seeing the Unseen: How the latest developments in Microscopy are solving global challenges

Professor Peter O’Toole,  Department of Biology, The University of York.

How do we solve the world’s biggest problems? Sometimes, we have to look at the smallest details. Over the past 25 years, microscopy hasn’t just improved—it has undergone a revolution. These advancements have been so impactful they’ve underpinned and earned multiple Nobel Prizes and transformed the way we understand life itself. Today, York is at the heart of this global movement. From fighting cancer and parasite infections to pioneering new methods for carbon capture, our Technology Facility uses world-leading tools to see the “unseen.” Join us for a fast-paced (but not quite light-speed!) journey into how these incredible technologies work and how they are helping us solve some of the biggest challenges facing our future.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 24 February 2026.

YPS Members and students free, non members £5.

Member’s report:

The ability to observe the ‘invisible’ has fascinated biologists since the days of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke in the late 17th century, when simple single lens microscopes enabled the first observations of bacteria and other microbes. The lecture from Prof. Peter O’Toole, from the University of York, brought us up to date to the present, showcasing how much more microscopic biology we can observe at unprecedented levels of details.

Advances in microscopy present one of the most direct examples of a field where technological breakthroughs have come thick and fast. Even though the technique was first described over 300 years ago, there have already been three separate Nobel Prizes awarded for advances in microscopy in the 21st century. Keeping York scientists at the cutting edge of research techniques is the focus of the York Biology Technology Facility (TF), directed by Prof. O’Toole, which not only has a world-leading imaging laboratory, but also a plethora of other specialised labs, importantly all led by different technical experts, that give York researchers easy access to cutting-edge methodologies. The TF is unique in Yorkshire, perhaps also in the whole of the UK, in placing expert technologists in the heart of the Biology department and is another legacy of Prof. Diana Bowles whose vision led to its creation in 2002.

In the lecture we were progressively introduced to the different types of imaging technique that are currently being used in York and some stunning examples of microscopic biology in action. One time-lapse video showed human brain cells dividing and some moving around the ‘eat’ cell debris and cleaning up the environments that they were in. Others showed the abilities to study plants and microbial cells too with the ability to follow different proteins within the cells using a technique called fluorescence imaging.

As well as running his lab and TF, Peter also is involved in significant training of UK capabilities through popular hands-on courses in York, and he has a huge network. His impact and recognition in the field saw him elected as the President of the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) in 2023. Finally, Peter introduced a global initiative he is involved in helping to democratise research using microscopy on a global scale. This is through the distribution of low-cost 3D oriented microscopes to perform live-cell imaging at a price that is affordable in labs with lower research income, from UK teaching labs through to supporting low- and middle-income countries. This in turn will help deliver research in areas where the disease burden is greatest, whist also fostering much closer collaborations within the scientific community. He also demonstrated a totally 3D printed microscope, which generated a lot of interest after the talk from audience members.

If that were not enough, Peter also runs ‘The Microscopists’ Podcasts, streamed across most platforms and can be viewed on YouTube, which tells the personal stories of microscopists and leading scientists all over the world.

Gavin Thomas