How do we keep things from deteriorating?
Norman Billingham talks to Jonathan Hare about the science and ethics of preservation and conservation.
More details | Watch nowHow I am inspired by science
Tackling the great challenges of the 21st century
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society and Lord Stern, President of the British Academy, discussed the new opportunities – and need – for collaboration between the traditional academic disciplines to respond to the big issues of our time,....
More details | Watch nowThe importance of science: an outsider’s perspective
Award-winning author Bill Bryson speaks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about his personal experiences and perspectives on science, from childhood and his school years, through to writing the highly successful 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' and e....
More details | Watch nowFrancis Crick: anti-vitalist activist
In the course of his scientific career, Francis Crick changed research fields several times. In almost 30 years at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, he worked on protein crystallography, molecular genetics, developmental cell biol....
More details | Watch now(Re)Inventing science publishing: the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
Philosophical TransactionsÊis the worldÕs first and oldest scientific journal. Still published by the Royal Society, it is about to mark its 350th anniversary, and was instrumental in establishing many forms and facets of modern scholarly publishin....
More details | Watch nowIs Science Magic?
How does the reality of science reflect its portrayal in films, TV and other popular media?
More details | Watch nowNobel Prize Inspiration Initiative
A series of videos of Nobel Laureates speaking on everything from their childhoods and careers advice to communicating research
More details | Watch nowMy sister Rosalind Franklin
Jenifer Glynn discusses her bookÊMy Sister Rosalind Franklin. With the help of family letters and memories, the book puts Rosalind Franklin's DNA work in the context of her other achievements, and Rosalind herself in the context of her family.
More details | Watch nowOur Light Materials
In the 21st century, even the toughest of metals are now being replaced by synthetic carbon-based materials that are so strong, light, and resistant to high temperatures that they can be used in the construction of high-performance aircraft. How....
More details | Watch nowBringing Science to the Olympics
Dr David Hassall, Director of Inhaled Sciences at Glaxo Smith Klein, gives a talk on how the provision of services presents a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for GSK to use its science expertise and make a material contribution to London 2012.
More details | Watch nowThink, Study and Take Action
YSFH Educational Research Association (ERA) is established by students who would like to make better our studying and research about "Studying toward our own interests." At present we are trying to realize this in YSFH. In this presentation we tal....
More details | Watch nowScience for all: popular science in the age of radio
How do you get ordinary people to take an interest in science? This was already becoming a problem for the scientific community in the early twntieth century. But rather than letting outsiders do the job, the scientists took an active role. They ....
More details | Watch nowAbout Time
'If you knew Time as well as I do,’ the Mad Hatter says to Alice, ‘you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.’ In this event, three writers well-acquainted with time discuss how it (or he) both controls and captivates us. Dame Gillian ....
More details | Watch nowNeuroscience of emotion
Panel discussion involving Professor David Freedberg, Dr Daniela Schiller, Ian McEwan and chaired by Professor Ray Dolan FRS, as 2011. Does emotion serve a particular function? How important is emotion in artistic expression? How do we study emotio....
More details | Watch nowThe Notorious Sir John Hill: Georgian Celebrity Science and Attacks on the Royal Society
No man in Georgian England ever attacked the Royal Society more savagely than Sir John Hill (1714-1775), and no one in his era was more notorious for public scandal. This talk sketches Hill's multi-faceted life and assesses his attacks on the Royal S....
More details | Watch nowThe Ursula Project
Wobbly bridges, inkjets and microbubbles
A panel of 3 academics answer questions from school-children about their lives and research
More details | Watch nowShakespeare the metallurgist, Eliot the spectroscopist: the cultural journey of the chemical elements
From the moment of their discovery, each of the chemical elements has embarked on a journey into our culture. Over millennia and decades, they have gained meaning through encounter and manipulation. Those long known, such as gold, silver, iron and su....
More details | Watch nowThe nature of collective intelligence
Digital data stem from our own personal and social cognitive processes and thus express them in one way or another. But we still don?t have any scientific tools to make sense of the data flows produced by online creative conversations at the scale of....
More details | Watch nowSeeing Further – The Story of Science and the Royal Society
The Story of Science and the Royal Society - a panel discussion chaired by Melvyn Bragg. The panel is made up of Bill Bryson, Maggie Gee, Richard Holmes and Ian Stewart FRS.
More details | Watch nowRestoring Science to its Rightful Place
They were the words that scientists everywhere wanted to hear and President Obama couldn't have been clearer, promising to 'restore science to its rightful place'.
More details | Watch nowWashing dirty lab coats on the page and the stage
The drive to publish first, even the order of the authors and the choice of the journal; the collegiality and the brutal competition; grantsmanship; the still existing glass ceiling for women; Schadenfreude, even Nobel lust - these are the soul and b....
More details | Watch nowIslam and science: beyond the troubled relationship
The basic sources of Islam - the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad - place a great deal of importance on science. So, theoretically, the relationship between Islam and science is both close and very deep. It was this relationship that....
More details | Watch nowContinuing the voyages of the Endeavour
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin's address applies certain lessons learned from one of the Royal Society's greatest explorers to the endeavours NASA is carrying out today in exploring the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets of our solar system and o....
More details | Watch nowPresident Obama’s speech to the National Academy of Sciences, April 28 2009
President Obama commits the USA to a research and development sector of above 3% of GNP. This will double much of the current spending for many agencies.
More details | Watch nowJoseph Rotblat 2
Joseph Rotblat 1
Risk – How good are we at assessing it?
A presentation assessing and explaining risk without causing unjustified panic and a discussion on the role of science in risk assessment, prevention and communication.
More details | Watch nowEyes in the Skies
We are being watched. A bewildering array of sensors are remotely observing everything on earth, from crops in Africa to the car parked outside your house. Will these aerial observations help us to save the Earth, or is science beginning to see too f....
More details | Watch nowMachines with Minds
Real moving, interacting robots is one promising direction in artificial intelligence. But what about the original hope of matching human performance, and what has A.I. told us about the human brain? When science of artificial intelligence was launch....
More details | Watch nowScience is Knowledge and Knowledge is Power
In a lively and entertaining interview, former UK Minister for Science Tony Benn discusses the interaction between scientists and politicians in an interview with Sir Harry Kroto. Benn, having spent a life-time as a leading politician closely associa....
More details | Watch nowScience, A Round Peg In A Square World
This lecture was presented at the Royal Society for the 2002 Faraday Award for public appreciation of science. It covers many topics from a walk through chemistry, the nature of truth and debate, the importance of education at a young age, and the va....
More details | Watch nowWhat Is Nano?
Discovery and Creativity
Discovery of atoms and molecules in interstellar space using spectroscopy and how it expands our ideas of our Earth's make-up. Discovery of carbon-60 and creative ideas for the future.
More details | Watch nowEstimation – Educated Guesswork?
How can we make sensible estimates of very large numbers? It is often very important to know the size of an unknown number, at least to within a factor of ten.
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