Royal Institution Lectures

Before the Higgs boson there was a maddening search for another particle that holds the secrets of the universe – the neutrino. First detected in 1956, it teased the answers to still more mysteries. Renowned astrophysicist and award-winning science writer Ray Jayawardhana delivers a thrilling detective story of revolutionary science from the dawn of the quantum age to today’s most inventive labs. This lecture is only available as podcast.

Einstein was at the very centre of the profound revolution in physics caused by quantum theory, discovering many of its key concepts, such as wave-particle duality and uncaused atomic events. So why did he reject quantum theory, calling it ‘only part of the truth’? A. Douglas Stone of Yale University investigates... This lecture is only available as podcast.

Why is mathematics so spectacularly successful at describing the cosmos? In this talk, MIT physics professor Max Tegmark will propose a radical idea: that our physical world is not only described by mathematics, but that it is mathematics. He will show how this theory may provide answers to the nature of reality itself. This lecture is also available as podcast.

The scientific legacy of W.H. and W. L. Bragg, both former Directors of the Ri, is both wide ranging and of crucial significance to modern scientific thought. Judith Howard will discuss the concepts of symmetry, which are not exclusive to crystallography, but are embedded deep in its mathematical foundations and essential to the application of Bragg’s Law in the solution of crystal structures. This lecture is only available as podcast.

Memory is distributed across many brain regions but critical among them is the hippocampus. Eleanor Maguire will draw on evidence from virtual reality, brain imaging and studies of amnesia to show that the consequences of hippocampal damage are even more far-reaching than suspected, robbing us of our past, our imagination and altering our perception of the world.

Professor Alan Davies presents a series of groundbreaking experiments pioneered by the Ancient Greeks. Often called the "birthplace of civilisation", Ancient Greece heralded numerous advances in philosophy, science, engineering and mathematics which have shaped our understanding of the modern world. Assisted by Ri demo technician, Andy Marmery, Professor Davies demonstrates the key discoveries and experiments of many Greek thinkers -- from Thales and Pythagoras to Euclid, Archimedes and Hypatia of Alexandria.

Narcotics have been used by humans since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Sharon Ruston will explore how drugs were developed and used by Sir Humphry Davy at the Ri, and what that says about early 19th Century society. Neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt will discuss his experience advising contemporary government drugs policy, the wealth of new ‘legal highs’ and what he thinks drugs, and society’s view of them, will look like in the future.

Join Professor Chris Bishop (Microsoft Research Ltd, Cambridge) for a spectacular family talk packed with demonstrations of the science that sent people to the moon. See the fiery combustion of energetic propellants, and experience the impressive roar and flame of a hybrid rocket engine fired live in the lecture theatre!

Evolution is powered by variation; the differences in DNA sequences. One hugely important form is copy number variation, where genes are duplicated or deleted from one generation to the next. Aoife McLysaght will explore how copy number variations gave us colour vision, a sense of smell and haemoglobin in our blood, but also the role they play in diseases such as cancer, autism and schizophrenia.

If you were able to make a substance change colour, or turn from a solid to a liquid, would that be magic? From a liquid that boils at room temperature to gases that are heavier than air, join Andrew Szydlo as he explores magical molecules and enchanting elements in this family event full of practical demonstrations of the magic of chemistry.

If you ask people what makes them laugh, they will tell you they laugh at jokes: however if you look at when they laugh a very different pattern emerges, in which laughter can be seen as an extremely important social emotion. Sophie Scott will explore the science of laughter, from laughter in other animals to the acoustics of laughter, and the ways that laughter is processed in our brains.

Maybe an asteroid hit Earth. Perhaps a nuclear war reduced our cities to radioactive rubble. Or an avian flu killed almost everyone on Earth. However it happened, the world as we know it is over and we must start again. So how do we set about rebuilding our world from scratch? How do you grow food and make clothes? Or generate energy and develop medicines? Lewis Dartnell will help us, as the survivors, reconnect with the basic skills and knowledge which our lives and world depend upon. By taking us on a journey of rediscovery, he will transform our understanding of the world.

This very special event will give you the opportunity to hear straight from NASA’s Chief Scientist, Dr Ellen Stofan and Deputy Chief Technologist, Jim Adams. They will provide an overview of NASA’s plans to develop a human exploration pathway to Mars, including plans for a human mission to an asteroid. In the intimate setting of the Royal Institution's Library, you will learn more specifically how science and technology will shape, and be shaped by, these ambitious plans and what opportunities there will be for international cooperation.

The discovery of the Higgs boson was the culmination of the largest scientific experiment ever performed, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. But what really is a Higgs boson and what does it do? How was it found? And how has its discovery changed our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature? Leading CERN physicist Jon Butterworth gives his inside account of the hunt for the Higgs.

Kant argued that our concept of space was not derived from sensations arising from our interaction with the physical world, but instead represented the a priori basis for our perception of the world in the first place. In this talk, John O’Keefe will examine the evidence from neuroscience that brain areas in the temporal lobes are dedicated to this construction of space, independent of experience. This lecture is only available as a podcast.

What would you experience if you jumped into a black hole? Conventionally, physicists have assumed that if the black hole is large enough, the gravitational forces won’t become extreme until you approach the singularity. There, the gravitational pull will be so much stronger on your feet than your head, that you will be ‘spaghettified’. Now, a new theory proposes that instead of spaghettification, you will encounter a massive wall of fire that will incinerate you on the spot, before you get close to turning into vermicelli. Join science writer Jennifer Ouellette and physicist Sean Carroll for this special event, as they explore the black hole firewall paradox, the exotic physics that underlies the new theory and what the paradox tells us about how new scientific theories are proposed, tested and accepted.

Chemical reactions are the backbone of technologies at the heart of modern society, but what is happening at the atomic level? Professor Pratibha Gai will explain how she has developed an atomic resolution-environmental transmission electron microscope (atomic resolution-ETEM) so that, for the first time, the human eye can see and analyse how atoms move and change positions in crystal structures during chemical reactions. She’ll explore the far-reaching applications of being able to watch atoms in action in important chemical reactions involved in anything from medicine production to the creation of new energy sources.

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914 resulted in the first complete study of the region. The three years’ worth of observations gleaned by Sir Douglas Mawson and his men provide a unique dataset against which we can compare the changes in weather and sea ice seen today. Chris Turney will present the initial findings of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014, and show how private funding brought the public and science together.

World War I drove great advances in science and technology, but less well-known is its impact on medicine. Emily Mayhew will tell the story of the stretcher bearers of WW1 who were at the heart of this medical revolution. Then, Louis and Marc-Antoine Crocq will explore the evolution of the diagnostics and treatment of ’war neurosis’.

Two years ago, the Higgs Boson was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. But how precisely does it fill its role as the last missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics? The Large Hadron Collider will restart in 2015 with almost double the collision energy to test just that. But even then, this theory only accounts for 5% of the Universe, and does not include gravity. Can the LHC shed light on the origin of dark matter? Why is gravity so much weaker than the other forces? Dr Pippa Wells will explain how the LHC will explore these mysteries of matter.

Roma Agrawal, civil engineer from the team that built The Shard in London, walks us through her life in engineering, talks about some of the women who inspired her, and discusses the joy of seeing something you designed be built.

Caro C performs Audient, My Dear, composed in honour of Delia Derbyshire, a pioneer of electronic music in England in the 1960s. Derbyshire, a pioneer of electronic music and most famous for her realisation of the iconic Dr Who theme tune, created a whole world of genre-spanning music. Using found sounds and objects like a ruler and ping pong ball, Caro C entertains the Ri audience with an eerie, beautiful performance. Layering real-world sounds, her own voice, and entrancing beats Caro C builds a beautiful composition at Ada Lovelace Day 2014.

Hannah Fry shows how maths can explain real world events. From crimes to relationships, patterns in numbers such as Benford's law on the prevalence of numbers starting with 1', help us predict the future.

Konnie Huq revels in the intersection between art and science, poetry and maths. She discusses the influences on her life and performs a poem/rap about the perils of technology.

Artist Naomi Kashiwagi’s art explores the potential of objects beyond their intended use. She performs Gramaphonica (Lovelace remix) using a variety of materials and a gramophone to create a sonic experience. Naomi Kashiwagi is an award winning artist and performer. The Royal Institution let her loose in their prep room and archives, where she’s developed her own unique take on Ada Lovelace.

Dr Turi King, geneticist and historian, explains the role of DNA analysis in finding Richard III. At the start, no one expected the Greyfriars Project to succeed, but a truly interdisciplinary team beat the odds to find him under a car park in Leicester.

User experience researcher and designer Steph Troeth talks about designing for real people in the real world. Can simple solutions solve problems of humans in the wild? Bendy phones, everyday hidden behaviour, and how Mary Berry can make you do the washing up.

From space to glow-in-the-dark scorpions and having a software-developer mother, Helen Czerski shares her inspiration and passion for science in this Ada Lovelace Day talk.

Join Sally Le Page for a light-hearted romp through the bizarre jungle of animal sex lives. Every species has come up with a weird and unusual solution for the birds and the bees, and every story gives us a glimmer of insight into the wonderful world of behaviour and evolution.

The Universe seems to be governed by rules that we can, with some effort, understand. Andrew Pontzen will introduce the stranger side of the cosmos – dark matter and dark energy – but then argue that these things are not so weird or unexpected after all. The strangest thing is that our rule-laden cosmos should be so predictable.

With a growing global population, an international challenge is to find sustainable sources of energy. Professor Lesley Yellowlees will explain how chemists can contribute effectively to solar energy. She’ll describe the research she and her team have undertaken in Edinburgh to characterise dye sensitised solar cells using techniques such as UV/Vis and EPR spectroelectrochemistry.

How do innovations arise in biology? Darwin’s theory of natural selection doesn’t tell us, except that they come about by ‘trial and error’. Evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner will show how adaptations are not only driven by chance, but rather by a set of fundamental laws that give rise to a world of biological creativity, and to innovations as diverse as animals that fly and plants that harvest energy from sunlight. Finding where innovations in nature come from begins to place the final puzzle piece in the mystery of life’s rich diversity.

The first Christmas Lecture was delivered in December 1825 by the Royal Institution’s Professor of Mechanics, John Millington. Two years later Michael Faraday gave his first of nineteen series of lectures, culminating with his 1860/61 series ‘The Chemical History of a Candle’ which produced perhaps the most popular science book ever published. As the Royal Institution’s flagship lecture series it was an obvious candidate for broadcasting by the BBC’s fledging television service in 1936. In the post-1945 period several lectures were televised, but it was not until the 1966/7 series that they started being broadcast annually. These two talks, illustrated by clips, experiments and perhaps the odd explosion, will consider the development, content and impact of these lectures. Exists out of 2 videos on YouTube.

Are humans unique in their diverse and wide-ranging cultures? How much of the cultural difference we see can be attributed to the local environment? And what impact can the way societies behave have on the world around them? Join a panel of experts to discuss how the environment might drive cultural evolution, what impact culture has on the environment, and whether humans are the only species with distinct cultures.

If you imagine a three dimensional maze from which there is no escape, how can you map it? Is there a way to describe what all possible mazes look like, and how do mathematicians set about investigating them? Caroline Series describes how hyperbolic geometry is playing a crucial role in answering such questions, illustrating her talk with pictures that have inspired some striking examples of digital art.

In 1878, Geordie inventor Joseph Swan demonstrates the first working light bulb. Now in 2014 we can find tiny LEDs in almost everything we own. So can we use a humble light bulb to start our own imaginative, creative process? Danielle will announce the new rules of invention and show you how to use modern tools and technologies to have fun and make a difference to the world around you.

It was Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell who first managed to get the world’s first telephone to transmit speech – and now we carry these amazing devices around in our pockets! We’re now connected to everyone else in the world, so can we use these networks to solve problems? Danielle will innovate to make astonishing connections that Bell could only have dreamed of.

The Royal Institution’s very own Michael Faraday demonstrated the world’s first motor in 1822 – now we are surrounded by devices that spin, swing and saw. But why stop now? If we continue prototyping, testing and perfecting, can we turn a humble motor into something world changing? Danielle will use her imagination and the new rules of invention to move things in ways that Faraday could only have dreamed of.