The Birmingham and Midland Institute

Sometimes we take for granted all the wonderful events and people we have through the doors here at the BMI. However sometimes we get reminded.
Like tonight. Finding this from 9year old Eva who was singing with .
We couldn't agree more.

As the count down to launch for Artemis II continues, this is from Br. Piran-María, BMI Philosopher-in-Residence -

Artemis II marks another extension of human reach—where technology carries us beyond the ordinary limits of experience, and into a perspective few have known.

Astronauts describe the “overview effect”: a cognitive shift in which Earth appears as a single, fragile whole. Borders vanish. Conflicts seem small. Unity feels less like an ideal and more like a fact. If this is an objective truth, then it is one mediated—paradoxically—by some of the most complex technologies we have ever built.

This raises a philosophical tension. Do we need ever more powerful machines to see clearly what has always been true? Has technology become not just a tool for exploration, but a condition for understanding?

And what, then, are we really proving? Are these missions demonstrations of national power, or acts of self-interrogation—attempts to confront our place in the cosmos through engineering rather than introspection?

If a handful of astronauts can return with a renewed sense of compassion for all life, having seen Earth as it is, what follows for the rest of us—who rely on screens, simulations, and second-hand visions?

Perhaps the real challenge is not reaching the Moon, or even going beyond it, but learning how to translate technologically mediated insight into lived ethical change.

To go further into space is difficult. To become worthy of that journey may be harder still.

The Lench's Trust finished their 500 year anniversary celebrations at the BMI today. They had invited Dr Carl Chinn to investigate their past for a pamphlet, he ended up writing a whole book about it. Books were donated to our Library.

For World Poetry Day; Geoff Barnbrook, one of our wonderful members, wrote this poem recently about books and our love of them. Poetry can be cathartic and soothing.

No wonder books are so oppressive
Look how many pages hide
Behind their spines and deep inside
Their pages thin and flat, excessive,
Squeezing words in - so impressive
Thousands of them side by side
And up and down, a teeming tide
Of all there is, or more or less, we've
Learnt so much from all our reading
Books throw thoughts across the gap
Between our lives and those preceding.
Nourishing, or sometimes pap.
They are the seeds of time, they give
Life to the dead, they speak, they live.

Our Spring newsletter is out now. Please click on the link below to see all the marvellous things we are doing.

Spring Newsletter Spring is coming and the BMI is busy with a number of activities and events, as you will see below, and there is plenty going on behind the scenes too. The Governors were pleased to welcome members at our AGM on March 7th, where they shared an update on the activities of the year 2024-5, along with....

Our new volunteer, Jayne, spent her first day arranging the books on Ireland donated to the Library recently by Sam Radcliffe. Just in time for St Patrick's Day!

Massive good luck to all the semi finalists competing at today's . It was a pleasure to have you with us for the last 2 days.

This year sees the 75th anniversary of the world’s longest running drama, The Archers, recorded in The Mailbox in Birmingham, and rooted in the countryside outside the city, in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, the basis for mythical Borsetshire. Ambridge itself is thought to be modelled on various villages like Cutnall Green, Inkberrow and Hansbury, South of Birmingham. The drama, launched in 1951, was originally intended to educate farmers in the best farming methods at a time of austerity and shortages – just after the War. It soon became a huge success with listening figures exceeding 20 million a day. By the late 1970s its appeal was waning with a mere 3 million listeners, but a decision to introduce women writers and editors to tackle contemporary issues rescued the show; Ambridge thereafter witnessed story lines exploring drug addiction, marital r**e and emotional abuse in marriage, civil partnership and environmental pollution. Consequently, a whole new listenership emerged; now over 5 million people tune in to the show and over I million access it via The Archers podcast. Farming issues still loom large for the central families – the Archers, Grundys, Carters, Aldridges – but the drama’s popularity speaks to its relevance as its tackles contemporary issues from Covid to inheritance tax on farmers. It has come far from its origins as an educational vehicle to being a much-cherished institution in British broadcasting.

The BMI AGM took place on Saturday, 7th March. Our Vice-Presidents and Honorary Treasurer took us through the year 2024-25, highlighting the work that has been undertaken by the Board of Governors.
The Annual Report was well received by the members who attended.

Today is the birthday of our President, Sir Paul Nurse.

Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, born on 25th January 1949, is an English geneticist who also serves as President of the Royal Society and previously held the roles of Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt in recognition of their discoveries identifying protein molecules that regulate cell division within the cell cycle.

Sir Paul was elected 169th President of the Institute in 2024.

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul.

We are all ready for our first 'Meet The Books' event, showcasing the English Civil War accounts we hold in the Library.
Tickets are still available for Saturday's Meet The Books event.