119 results found for history

Using solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity is an attractive way to reduce carbon emissions, but solar cells are still too expensive to be installed on the scale required. The next generation of solar cells aim to solve this problem using st....

Guido Giglioni is the Cassamarca Lecturer in Neo-Latin Culture and Intellectual History at the Warburg Institute, University of London. By writing a number of natural histories and above all the Sylva Sylvarum, Bacon set an important but difficult pr....

Unsolved problems in mathematics have intrigued us for centuries. It took over 350 years for anyone to provide a proof for Fermat's Last Theorem, considered by many as the most notorious problem in the history of mathematics, and no one has yet offer....

Unsolved problems in mathematics have intrigued us for centuries. It took over 350 years for anyone to provide a proof for FermatÕs Last Theorem, considered by many as the most notorious problem in the history of mathematics, and no one has yet offe....

This lecture discusses the contribution of draftsmen, engravers, artistic fellows and others whose graphic skills were indispensable for the meetings and publications of the early Royal Society (1660-1720). While some of the names of those who produc....

Naval officers in general, and surgeons in particular, played a significant role in the development of maritime science, through their observations and their collections. This richly-illustrated talk explores the visual culture of maritime science, f....

Part 5, Final, Harry Kroto's lecture series: 5 Days of Opening Minds

Part 2 of Harry's '5 Days of Opening Minds' series.

GulliverÕs Travels (1726) contains probably the most famous satire on science in world literature, but the circumstances behind its composition are little known. In this talk, Greg Lynall explains how GulliverÕs ÔVoyage to LaputaÕ was shaped by J....

In the early months of 1971 the Heath government asked Lord Victor Rothschild to Ôthink the unthinkableÕ in his investigation into government policy. His subsequent report on research funding proposed something the Royal Society judged to be wholly....

In London major trunk mains, commissioned by Water Companies who ceased trading over 100 years ago, operate alongside modern assets such the Thames Water Ring Main commissioned in the 1990’s. Hence legacy plays an important part in way the current ....

2011 is the 350th anniversary of the publication of a Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle which is considered to be the most important book ever published about chemistry.  Boyle was a leading intellectual figure of the 17th century and one of the fo....