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....
More details | Watch nowFrom Waste to Wealth Using Green Chemistry
The world faces the fundamental problems of increasing waste and decreasing resources as it tries to cope with the increasing consumption of a growing population. It is clear that these challenges can only be met through a fundamentally different a....
More details | Watch now‘How should a chemist understand brewing?’ Beer and theory around 1800
Eighteenth-century chemists could gain useful income and patronage as advisors to industry – and some of the wealthiest and most influential industrialists were brewers. Making chemical knowledge credible to this audience, however, was not always e....
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....
More details | Watch now‘Witch Weed’ – breaking the spell
Striga (witchweed) is a parasitic weed that seriously constrains the productivity of staples such as maize, sorghum, millet and upland rice on some farms in Uganda. Kilimo Trust supported this initiative to try and control its spread.
More details | Watch now‘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....
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 nowA flash from the early Universe
Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has reached Earth, setting a new record for the most distant astronomical object yet observed. The characteristics of the explosion show that massive stars were already forming only 630 million yea....
More details | Watch nowA Greenhouse-Gas Experiment
A high jump for science
Sport science is a discipline young in its years compared to medicine and astronomy but over recent years the pursuit of excellence in sport has driven it on. As we approach the London 2012 Olympics we look at what developments have been made in this....
More details | Watch nowA 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....
More details | Watch now