
Following function in real time
Kavli Medal Lecture by Professor Clare Grey FRS. The development of light, long-lasting rechargeable batteries has been an integral part of the portable electronics revolution. This revolution has transformed the way in which we communicate and t....
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About 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 ....
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Is biodiversity going the way of the Dodo?
Panel discussion with Professor Jonathan Baillie, Dr William Cheung, Professor Adrian Lister and chaired by Dr Susan Lieberman, as part of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2011. Right now one-fifth of the world’s vertebrates are classi....
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Neuroscience 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....
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Molecular chaperones: how cells stop proteins from misbehaving
Proteins are the action molecules of all cells, and to function properly, protein chains must fold and assemble correctly. But each chain of every protein runs the risk that it will combine with one or more identical chains to form nonfunctional aggr....
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John Soane and the learned societies of Somerset House
The architect John Soane became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1795, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1796 and, finally, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821. All three were then housed in Somerset House. Soane was an avid collector a....
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The Information. A History, A Theory, A Flood.
James Gleick shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality - the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world. The story of information begins in a time profoundly unlike our own, when every thought and utterance vanished ....
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‘Behold a New Thing in the Earth!’: Reflections on Science at the Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of 1851 has routinely been portrayed as a celebration of science, technology, and manufacturing. However, for many contemporaries – including Prince Albert – it was a deeply religious event. In analysing responses to the Exhi....
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Eyes on the stars – Space as inspiration
Piers Sellers in conversation with Rona Munro and John Zarnecki. Little Eagles, written by playwright Rona Munro, tells the extraordinary story of Sergei Korolyov, chief designer and unsung hero of the Soviet space programme. Under the leadership o....
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A history of autism: my conversations with the pioneers
In this talk, Adam Feinstein will describe two fascinating journeys of discovery: his travels around the world for his new book, speaking to the key pioneers in the history of autism - including close colleagues and relatives of Leo Kanner and Hans A....
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Carbon storage: caught between a rock and climate change
Bakerian Prize Lecture by Professor Herbert Huppert FRS Institute of Theoretical Geophysics at the University of Cambridge. Since the formation of the Earth, the global mean surface temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane content of the at....
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Science and the Church in the Middle Ages
It is commonly assumed that what little scientific advance there might have been in the Middle Ages was held back by the power of the Church. But, in fact, there was important progress in science and technology during the medieval period. And the....
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