To mark the publication of Litmus, Comma's latest science-into-fiction project, Manchester’s Literature and Science Festivals present a unique event inspired by the life and work of one of Britain's greatest scientists, Alan Turing. Having laid the foundations for modern computers, cracked the German Enigma codes, and performed seminal work on artificial intelligence, Turing worked until his death on the mysteries of life – on morphogenesis. Jane Rogers reads her specially commissioned short story for Litmus, discusses the influences on Turing's life, and considers the wider relationship between science and literature with consultant scientist Martyn Amos. Jane Rogers has written eight novels including Mr Wroe's Virgins, Island, The Voyage Home and most recently The Testament of Jessie Lamb (longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize), as well as original and adapted work for television and radio drama. Dr Martyn Amos leads the Novel Computation group at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research interests lie at the intersection of computer science and the life sciences, and include synthetic biology, nature-inspired algorithms and crowd dynamics.