A new partnership with the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network will see the filming of the 2025 CHRISTMAS LECTURES livestreamed to local community libraries throughout the UK for the first time ...

When ChatGPT-3 crash-landed onto our computers in November 2022, you’d have been forgiven for thinking this massive leap in artificial intelligence had sprung out of nowhere. From one day to the next, ...

Since its founding in 1799, the Royal Institution has been committed to connecting scientists and the public. Even before the term "scientist" was coined, we played a vital role in bringing scientific ...

You know the story. Two strangers locked eyes across a crowded room, and there it is: butterflies in the stomach, sparks in the air—they know they’ve found “the one”. Love at first sight is a popular ...

Sci-fi is not all just fun and games. Megan Stephens reflects on the influence the genre has had on real-life research and technology. We’re all familiar with the trappings of science fiction, many of ...

Humphry Davy was a chemist and the first Director of the Laboratory here at the Royal Institution, taking up the post in 1801. He was central to establishing the Ri as both a popular venue for ...

Human chimeras are individuals that contain two different types of DNA. Chimeras are named after the mythical creature made up of different animals including a lion and a goat. People can get a second ...

Volunteer historian Laurence Scales explores how war surgeons operated 25 years before antibiotics were widely available, starting from a 1915 Discourse here at the Ri. Antibiotics would not be ...

Read about how JJ Thomson announced his discovery of the electron at the Royal Institution in this blog by our Head of Heritage and Collections. JJ Thomson, while familiar to scientists, is not ...

Magic squares have fascinated mathematicians for centuries. Today, they continue to do so as part of our Ri Masterclasses for young students around the UK, as they explore the wonders of mathematics, ...

Alison Woollard is an Associate Professor in the Biochemistry Department at Oxford University where she leads a research team working on the developmental genetics of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis ...

On 18 May 1859, the Irish physicist John Tyndall wrote in his journal ‘the subject is completely in my hands’. This is no cryptic note. Just nine days earlier he had set up his complex and clever new ...