Francis 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 nowIt’s magnetic resonance – but not as you know it
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is routinely used in hospitals to image internal structure and blood flow within the human body. Research has shown that it is possible to harness these techniques to study non-biological systems, with many applicatio....
More details | Watch nowThe medieval science of light: uncovering meaning with an interdisciplinary methodology
Can science today learn from thirteenth century literature? In the Durham Ordered Universe project, an interdisciplinary team (physicists, medievalists, Latin scholars and historians of science) has engaged with the great medieval English thinker Rob....
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 nowThe asymmetric Universe
Modern scientific theory describes a perfectly symmetrical Universe. A Universe in which matter is destroyed within an instant of its appearance and where nothing we now know could ever have happened. Human life itself seems to be lopsided, as the sp....
More details | Watch nowSir Henry Bessemer FRS: a life and a legacy
This lecture aims to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Sir Henry Bessemer by reviewing his scientific and economic achievements in the context of his era, and also in terms of their ongoing impact on the world of today. As well as highlightin....
More details | Watch nowSisters in science: Hertha Ayrton, women and the Royal Society c.1900
Although women were not admitted as Fellows until 1945, by the beginning of the twentieth century there were a number of female scientists working at the margins of the Royal Society and its masculine scientific elite. This talk will introduce some o....
More details | Watch nowThe teenage brain
Until recently, little was known about how the human brain develops. In the past 15 years, new technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have enabled us to gain insights into how the human brain changes across the lifespan. Research has d....
More details | Watch nowIncendiary science: fireworks at the Royal Society
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, fireworks offered some intriguing possibilities for scientific research among the experimental philosophers of the Royal Society. What was the nature of fire? How did combustion work? Why did gunpowder exp....
More details | Watch nowPhysicians, chemists and experimentalists: the Royal Society and the rise of scientific medicine, c. 1600-1850
The period 1600-1850 saw fundamental changes in how we understand natural processes. Chemistry and medicine especially moved away from classical ideas of 'balance' and 'vital properties' - such as fire and water - to understanding nature as an integr....
More details | Watch nowEverest, the first ascent: the untold story of the man who made it possible
The conquest of Everest by a British team in 1953 has always been celebrated as a triumph of heroic leadership, team work and courageous climbing, but the vital role that scientific innovation played in the success of the expedition has never been wi....
More details | Watch now‘Sacrifice of a genius’: Henry Moseley’s role as a Signals Officer in WWI
Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915) was one of the foremost English physicists of the early twentieth century. Probably best remembered for his immense contributions to chemistry and atomic physics in the years immediately prior to the outbreak o....
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