'Roger Boscovich, the eighteenth-century polymath'
A public history of science lecture by Professor Ivica Martinovic on 19 January 2012
Audio podcast Video podcast
Roger Boscovich (1711-1787) was a true polymath, making original contributions in science, technology and the humanities. He was born in Dubrovnik but spent much of his working life in Rome, at the Collegium Romanum. This lecture will introduce his life and work, exploring his legacy in many fields including astronomy, geophysics, structural engineering, and archaelology. Professor Ivica Martinovic is based at the Institute of Philosophy in Zagreb, and is curator of the exhibition 'Roger Boscovich and the Royal Society', on display at the Royal Society until 15 February 2012.
Autumn Events 2011
John Aubrey’s ‘Brief Lives’ and the early Royal Society
Friday 30 September
Audio podcast
John Aubrey FRS (1626—97) wrote some of the earliest and certainly some of the liveliest sketches of scientists in the seventeenth century, mainly in his famous Brief Lives (c. 1680—81). He wrote these from an insider’s view: his many friends included Robert Hooke and a number of other Fellows of the Royal Society
Dr Kate Bennett, Christ Church, Oxford
Alchemy and patronage in Tudor England
Friday 7 October
Audio podcast Video podcast
In early modern England, alchemical practitioners employed a range of strategies to win the trust and support of powerful, even royal, patrons: from the preservation of health with potent elixirs, to the resolution of England's bullion shortage through mass production of transmuted gold.
Dr Jenny Rampling, University of Cambridge
Niépce in England
Friday 14 October
Audio podcast Video podcast
In October 2010 the National Media Museum hosted the 'Niépce in England' Conference where they could announce and share with the photographic, conservation and scientific communities the ground breaking findings which had been discovered during the collaborative research partnership between the National Media Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute.
Speaker: Philippa Wright, National Media Museum
Music, architecture and acoustics in Renaissance Venice: Recreating lost soundscapes
Friday 21 October 2011
Audio podcast Video podcast
During the Renaissance in Venice, composers such as Gabrieli and Monteverdi created some of their greatest masterpieces for performance in the great churches on festive occasions. But what would the music have sounded like, given its complexity and the long reverberation times of the large churches?
Professor Malcolm Longair FRS
Mary Somerville and the Empire of Science in the Nineteenth Century
Friday 28 October 2011
Audio podcast Video podcast
Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was a leading mathematician and author of important books on the sciences: it was in connection with a review of one of these that the term "scientist" first appeared in print. This talk examines her career in relation to debates about the role of women in the making of knowledge and her vision of science in furthering the progress of civilisation and empire.
Prof. Jim Secord, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge
Science for all: popular science in the age of radio
Friday 04 November
Audio podcast Video podcast
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. This talk explores their successes and failures as communicators, with comments on how things changed between then and now.
Speaker: Prof. Peter Bowler, Queen's University, Belfast
Jonas Moore and his 'Mapp of the Great Levell'
Friday 11 November
Audio podcast Video podcast
The mathematician and surveyor Jonas Moore was elected FRS in the 1670s, whilst employed as Surveyor General of the Royal Ordnance. Under the Cromwellian regime he had had a different kind of career as a surveyor, working for the company that successfully completed the draining of the Fens, and this talk examines one of the products of that time: his sixteen-sheet ‘Mapp of the Great Levell’.
Dr Frances Willmoth, Jesus College, Cambridge
Radiometers as buttonholes: the extraordinary material legacy of William Crookes
Friday 18 November
Audio podcast Video podcast
William Crookes was a physicist, chemist, entrepreneur and spiritualist. Being a consummate experimenter he designed precision instruments of great delicacy, in particular exquisite glass vacuum tubes. The radiometer, when first exhibited in 1875, took the scientific world by storm, and became his trade mark.
Speaker: Dr Jane Wess, Science Museum, London
Publishing Faraday's Candle
Friday 25 November
Audio podcast Video podcast
Michael Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle is arguably the most popular science book ever published. Based on Faraday’s final series of Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution, it has never been out of print in English since it was first published in 1861.
Speaker: Prof. Frank James, Royal Institution, London
The History of the Web Part I: the First 20 Years
Friday 2 December
Audio podcast Video podcast
Wendy Hall is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Her research interests include the development of web technologies, digital libraries, and human computer interaction. In this talk she will discuss the history of the web, and give an insider’s perspective on its possible future.
Speaker: Professor Dame Wendy Hall FRS, University of Southampton
'Greater Glory: Science and the Race to the Pole 100 Years Later'
Pulitzer Prize winning historian Edward J. Larson is the author of ten books on topics in the history of science or exploration. His latest book, An Empire of Ice, deals with science during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, which culminated 100 years ago in Robert F. Scott and Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole within five weeks of each other. Displaying remarkable planning and execution, Amundsen's party returned safely and quickly. Scott and his men died on their long struggle back. Initially lionized as a tragic hero, Scott is now widely portrayed as a Victorian bungler whose vanity and poor planning doomed his party.
Without excusing Scott's mistakes, this lecture seeks to restore some balance to his image by looking at the role of science in his polar expeditions. Scott may have been trying to do too much on his expeditions, at least as compared to the single minded quest for the pole that propelled Amundsen's expedition, but they nevertheless left a lasting legacy in Antarctic scientific research and discovery.
Listen to the lecture
Science Voices Conference
Follow this link to listen to podcasts from our conference Science Voices: Scientists speak about science and themselves, organised with the Centre for Arts and Humanities Research at the Natural History Museum and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University
Spring Events 2011
Ghosts of Women Past
Friday 18 February
Audio podcast Video podcast
"I do not agree with sex being brought into science at all. The idea of 'woman and science' is completely irrelevant. Either a woman is a good scientist, or she is not." So declared Hertha Ayrton over a hundred years ago – but she was unable to become a Fellow of the Royal Society because she was married. How has the past affected present attitudes towards women in science?
Dr Patricia Fara, Clare College, Cambridge
Doting on Instruments
Friday 25 February
Audio podcast
Through the turbulent 17th century, one interest transcended social, political and national boundaries: the love of instruments. Kings commissioned the finest, gentlemen paid a king's ransom for the latest and every immigrant tradesman 'knew' a scheme for some improvement that would make his potential patron wildly wealthy. This talk will look at the challenges of the instrument maker, for whom the constant need to innovate and impress was a compelling reality, and consider how the 17th century penchant for 'doting on instruments' helped or hindered their advancement.
Rebecca Pohancenik, Queen Mary
Paul Dirac and the religion of mathematical beauty
Friday 4 March
Audio podcast Video podcast
For the great theoretical physicist Paul Dirac, the importance of mathematical beauty was 'like a religion'. Although his first papers on quantum mechanics showed an acute aesthetic awareness, he first set out his principle of mathematical beauty only in 1939, a decade after he did his best work. In this talk, Farmelo will discuss the origins of Dirac's aesthetic sensibility and take a look at the extraordinary personality of the physicist Niels Bohr once called 'the strangest man'.
Graham Farmelo
Free-thinking and language-planning in the 17th century Royal Society
Friday 11 March
Audio podcast
Francis Lodwick was an unusual 17th century Fellow of the Royal Society. At the time the Society consisted mainly of gentleman-philosophers, but he was a London cloth-merchant who never attended university. The Fellows deliberately avoided discussing religion, but Lodwick was a radical free-thinker who composed long, secret, treatises critiquing the Biblical account of creation and arguing in favour of divorce, usury, and the notion that Biblical law applied only to the Jews. What was this man doing at the Royal Society? This talk will discuss Lodwick’s religious theories in the context of his major contributions to 17th century linguistics and the search for a universal language.
Dr William Poole, New College, Oxford
Science and the Church in the Middle Ages
Friday 18 March
Audio podcast Video podcast
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 influence of the Church was generally positive even if it imposed strict limits beyond which philosophers should not tread.
Dr James Hannam
A history of autism: my conversations with the pioneers
Friday 25 March
Audio podcast Video podcast
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 Asperger - to investigate how the concept of the condition has evolved over the past 75 years; and his own remarkable personal voyage of understanding through his autistic son, Johnny.
Adam Feinstein
From butterflies to biochemistry: Frederick Gowland Hopkins and the chemistry of life
Friday 1 April
No podcast available
Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861-1947) was an important figure in the history of science. Not only did he discover vitamins, and solve for ever the riddle of such devastating diseases as scurvy and rickets, but he also founded a new scientific discipline – biochemistry. During the early decades of the twentieth century Hopkins and his colleagues made many groundbreaking discoveries which paved the way for current advances in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutics and many other fields. Hopkins also provided rare opportunities for women. Many subsequently well known women biochemists began their careers in Hopkins’ department. This talk will introduce Hopkins’ life and work, concentrating in particular on his role in encouraging women to pursue careers in biochemistry.
Dr Alison Thomas, Anglia Ruskin University
'Behold a New Thing in the Earth!': Reflections on Science at the Great Exhibition
Friday 8 April
Audio podcast Video podcast
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 Exhibition, we shall examine the complex and fascinating relations between science, technology and religion at the start of the high Victorian period.
Prof. Geoffrey Cantor
John Soane and the learned societies of Somerset House
Friday 15 April, 1pm-2pm
Audio podcast Video podcast
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 and enthusiastic auto-didact, and the world of these learned societies, their libraries and museums, was the one in which he felt most at home. This talk will explore the influences upon Sir John Soane as he transformed his own house at 13 Lincolns Inn Fields into a museum, a process finalised by a private Act of Parliament passed in 1833.
Gillian Darley
Autumn Events 2010
Wednesday 8 September
The Great Experiment: the early evolution of the Royal Society
Audio Podcast Video podcast
Within a few years of its foundation, the Royal Society acquired a crucial institutional role in organising and arbitrating scientific research. Yet what has often been overlooked is the element of evolution - even of trial and error - in the Society's development in its earliest years. This talk will explore the sometimes painful process by which the Society's founders discovered what functions this novel body could most usefully serve.
Professor Michael Hunter, Birkbeck
Friday 17 September
Pictures in the Sky: the Origin and History of the Constellations
Audio Podcast Video podcast
This talk, which includes illustrations from some of the world’s greatest star atlases, will trace the origin of the constellation system back to Greek times and explain who filled in the gaps between the ancient Greek figures, who decided on the official boundaries between constellations, and how the names of certain stars came about.
Mr Ian Ridpath
Friday 24 September
Fleas, lice, and an elephant on the moon
Audio Podcast Video podcast
The early Fellows of the Royal Society were convinced that their research would be of great benefit to mankind – but their contemporaries were not so sure. This talk will discuss some of the jokes, ballads and poems written in response to the activities of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century.
Dr Felicity Henderson, Royal Society Centre for History of Science
Friday 8 October
‘“Mr Baker gave a Paper “: early links between the Royal Society and the [Royal] Society of Arts’
Audio Podcast Video podcast
Henry Baker (1698-1774) microscopist and son-in-law of Daniel Defoe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1740 and adecade later he played a prominent part in the foundation of the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (known since 1908 as the Royal Society of Arts).
Dr David Allen, Royal Society of Arts
Friday 15 October
Henry Smeathman: Explorer and Naturalist
No podcast available
Henry Smeathman is remembered today for his work in two different but connected fields of knowledge - natural history and colonial settlement. His sponsored expedition to Sierra Leone in the 1770s resulted in a ground breaking treatise on tropical termites, and paved the way for his plan of settlement for Sierra Leone - a plan which later came to fruition.
Dr Starr Douglas
Friday 22 October
The 19th century photographic collections of the Royal Society
Audio Podcast Video podcast
An introduction to the early photographic collections of the Royal Society. This talk will explore the extensive collection of photographic portraits of key scientists and look at how it all began.
Ms Jo Hopkins, Royal Society Centre for History of Science
Friday 29 October
Revolutionary Insights – the Dawn of Microscopic Investigation
Podcasts coming soon
The birth of microscopy is here shown to be very different from the traditional view. The work of Hooke, Leeuwenhoek and Robert Brown is re-examined, and their remarkable results are now reconciled with the technical capacity of the instruments they used in their investigations.
Prof. Brian J. Ford
Friday 5 November
Scientists Abroad: Royal Society expeditions in the 20th century
Audio Podcast Video podcast
The Royal Society has a long tradition of sponsoring scientific expeditions to all parts of the world. Although less famous than James Cook’s 18th century voyages, a number of expeditions were mounted in the 20th century to places such as Antarctica, the Solomon Islands, Brazil, and Aldabra Atoll.
Mr George Hemmen
Friday 12 November
The Evolutionary Archive
Audio Podcast Video podcast
Accounts addressing the recent history of British evolutionary science have not yet fully benefited from research using archives held at British Library, including the papers of John Maynard Smith FRS.
Dr Katrina Dean, British Library
Friday 19 November
Presidential politics: how Henry Tizard did not become PRS in 1945
Audio podcast Video podcast
In 1945, the Royal Society needed a new President to succeed Sir Henry Dale. The debate about who it should be turned into a clash between competing visions of the Society should be doing in the postwar world.
Dr Peter Collins, Royal Society Centre for History of Science
Friday 26 November
137: Carl Jung, Wolfgang Pauli and the pursuit of a scientific obsession
Audio podcast only
In 1932 an obsession with the numbers 3, 4 and 137 sparked a strange friendship between the physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the psychoanalyst Carl Jung – a unique meeting of minds. Which is the primal number that seems to hint at the origins of the universe?
Prof. Arthur Miller, University College London
Spring/Summer Events 2010
An Amateur in a Professional Game - Sir Harold Thompson FRS, the FA and English Football
Audio podcast
Friday 11 June 2010
As well as being a distinguished physical chemist and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, Sir Harold Thompson (1908-1983) is an important but neglected figure in the history of English football. Based on the personal papers he left to the Royal Society, this talk will examine Harold Thompson’s life in, and influence on, English football and the FA.
Professor Matthew Taylor and Dr Neil Carter, International Centre for Sport History and Culture, De Montfort University
Podcasts from our conference The Royal Society and Science in the 20th Century, held on 22 and 23 April 2010, are now available. Please use this link to see the list of speakers and listen to their presentations.
Autumn Events 2009
Thursday 1 October
The Leviathan of Parsonstown
Audio podcast
In 1845 William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, built the largest telescope in the world at his home, Birr Castle in Ireland. Lord Rosse fulfilled his ambition to have the world's largest telescope, but did he achieve his other aim, to bring the large reflector out of the sphere of the individual enthusiast and into mainstream of a shared astronomical practice?
Professor Jim Bennett
Friday 9 October
Smashing species: Joseph Hooker and Victorian science
Audio podcast
Joseph Dalton Hooker once described classifying plants as "wild & exciting work, the species go smash smash every day'. In this talk Jim Endersby will show that understanding why Hooker was so keen to "smash" species, and how he did it, helps us understand much about Victorian science, especially why Darwin's ideas about species were both useful and dangerous to his friends and colleagues.
Dr Jim Endersby
Friday 16 October
The Science of Common Things
Audio podcast
Scientific explanations have often relied on common objects, from watches to grains of sand, to provide an understanding of the natural world. The use of familiar things to illustrate scientific theories was particularly prevalent and powerful in the mid-nineteenth century. In this talk we will see how many different household artefacts - from candles to cups of tea, pebbles to primroses, salt to see-saws - were used to instruct new audiences in the science of common things.
Dr Melanie Keene
Friday 23 October
Photographing ancient Mesopotamia: Talbot, Fenton and the British Museum
Audio podcast
Around 1850 A.H. Layard excavated several ancient Mesopotamian sites, the artefacts of which were brought to the British Museum. Here the trustees discussed the use of photography in the field and in the museum. W. H. Fox Talbot, inventor of the Calotype photographic process and a fellow of the Royal Society, became a strong supporter of the application of photography in archaeology. However, the trustees were not immediately convinced. This talk will explore early debates about the use of photography for research purposes.
Mirjam Brusius
Friday 30 October
"Foul of mouth and evil eyed": Francis Galton and the Victorian Criminal
Audio podcast
Francis Galton's scientific career was based on his fascination with statistics. He counted and measured everything from numbers of attractive women in different cities to the frequency people fidgeted in scientific meetings. However his most intensive research was devoted to human physical attributes such as height, chest width, arm strength and colour vision. This talk will concentrate on his work in the context of Victorian ideas about criminality.
Natasha McEnroe
Friday 6 November
Darwin's Bards
Audio podcast
Charles Darwin's ideas transformed the biological sciences, but they also transformed how we think about ourselves and the world around us. 150 years after the publication of 'On the Origin of Species', John Holmes explores how the great poets of the Victorian age from Alfred Tennyson to Thomas Hardy responded to its greatest scientist, and how their poems can still speak to us today.
Dr John Holmes
Friday 13 November
Turning Darwinian Theory into Darwinian Praxis: The Naples Zoological Station and British Zoology (1872-1909)
No podcast available
In 1872, the German Zoologist Anton Dohrn inaugurated in Naples a Zoological Station, which was to become, in the following decades, one of the world centres of experimental biology. Despite its rather early departure from the original design of the founder (providing evidence for the Darwinian theory of evolution), the Naples Zoological Station played a central role in the development and spread of experimental embryology and became a world renowned symbol of scientific collaboration and freedom of research.
Fabio de Sio
Wednesday 18 November
The Nine Lives of William Crookes
No podcast available
Chemist, photographer, editor, public health campaigner, business man, electrician, gold miner, glassworker and occultist: how did Sir William Crookes combine these, and other, "lives" to forge a scientific identity and become President of the Royal Society in 1913?
Professor William Brock
Friday 20 November
John Henslow, Cambridge University and the Education of Charles Darwin
Audio podcast
Charles Darwin came to Cambridge University after a dismal year reading medicine at Edinburgh. At Cambridge he fell deeply under the influence of John Henslow, Professor of Botany, whose own vibrant research programme focussed on experimental studies of the nature of species. Such a close friendship grew between them that Darwin was known as "the man that walks with Henslow", and it was Henslow who recommended Darwin for the Beagle voyage.
Professor John Parker
Friday 27 November
Benjamin Baker (1840-1907) - Forgotten hero of engineering
No podcast available
Benjamin Baker was a bold & creative engineer who built some of the most iconic structures in the world including the Forth Bridge (the world's first steel bridge), the Aswan Dam and the Hudson River Tunnel. In his lifetime he was fêted but now although his structures are well-known throughout the world little is remembered about this brilliant man.
Pippa Goldfinger
Friday 4 December
Reading science through its regions: Cornwall in the nineteenth century
Audio podcast
Is it helpful to consider the history of science in Britain through one of its regions? By considering one such region - the English county of Cornwall - this lecture argues that it is. More generally, it is argued that such a geographically-contextual approach highlights important processes that are otherwise missed in more conventional histories of science.
Dr Simon Naylor
Friday 27 February, 1pm
The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Invented Modern Astronomy
audio podcast video podcast
In the spring of 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, using his homemade telescope in the back garden of his house at 19 New King Street, in Bath. For the world of astronomy, it was an astonishing find - the first new planet ever found. But Herschel himself considered it relatively unimportant compared with his true quest: to understand, with the help of his sister and collaborator Caroline, the very nature and evolution of the universe itself.
Michael Lemonick, author of 'The Georgian Star'
Friday 6 March, 1pm
The Linnean Society Library
audio podcast video podcast
Founded in 1788, the Linnean Society is one of London's oldest learned institutions. Among other collections, the Society's Library preserves the manuscripts, books and correspondence of Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern plant and animal classification. Linnaeus's library gives fascinating insight into his life and work.
Lynda Brooks, Librarian, Linnean Society of London
Friday 13 March, 1pm
Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry Davy, and the Age of Wonder
audio podcast
How do individual lives illuminate an age? This talk will reflect on the relationship between biography and history, using two of Britain's greatest scientists as examples.
Prof. David Knight, Dept. of Philosophy, Durham University
Friday 20 March, 1pm
Rutherford and the Birth of Nuclear Physics
audio podcast video podcast
In 1911, Ernest Rutherford interpreted the earlier experimental results of his students, Geiger and Marsden, as showing that at the centre of the atom there was a small, dense nucleus with a positive electric charge. This insight was to fundamentally change our understanding of the structure of the physical world and led to the birth of nuclear physics.
As we near the centenary of this historic scientific contribution, we will look at how this discovery came about, examine Rutherford's legacy and the important questions that remain in the field of nuclear physics a hundred years on.
Dr David Jenkins, Dept. of Physics, University of York
Friday 27 March, 1pm
The Information Business: John Houghton F.R.S. and Serial Publication around 1700
audio podcast
The intense cultural and commercial activity centred on London at the end of the seventeenth century attracted a variety of entrepreneurs. One of these was John Houghton, apothecary, commodity-broker and Fellow of the Royal Society. His interest in the overlapping spheres of business and ideas led to the publication of his most durable work the Collection for improvement of husbandry and trade (1692-1703). This weekly serial, with its mixed content of advertising and current information, will provide the focus for an investigation into the way public and private interest and the advancement of learning, could intersect in serial print.
Michael Harris
Friday 3 April, 1pm
Lord Rayleigh's Legacy
audio podcast
The private laboratories and equipment used by the Third and Fourth Barons Rayleigh (John William Strutt and his son Robert John Strutt) remain largely as they were when used by these great scientists. This lecture will take the audience on a virtual tour of the laboratories and describe some of the important experiments conducted there.
Prof. E A Davis, Universities of Leicester and Cambridge
Friday 17 April, 1pm
Transatlantic Scientific Communication in an Age of Revolution
audio podcast
This talk will examine how scientific knowledge was communicated between North America and Europe during a period of great social upheaval. Sociable fellowship, rather than technological developments, underpinned transatlantic communication of scientific knowledge. Joseph Banks FRS was a prime example: his world-wide friendships made him a human hub of transatlantic and intra-European scientific communication.
Margaret Meredith, Visiting scholar at Universiteit Maastricht
Friday 24 April, 1pm
The Telescope at 400: a Satirical Journey
audio podcast video podcast
As it begins its fifth century, the telescope holds its own as an icon of scientific endeavour. Its status has not always been uncontested, however, since telescopes and their users have often found themselves on the wrong side of sharp-minded wits. As science suffered turbulent times, so the telescope could come under attack.
Richard Dunn, Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Friday 1 May, 1pm
Marine Archaeology and 'Hunting the Beagle'
audio podcast
Maritime historian Dr Robert Prescott will talk about his mission to locate the final resting place of Darwin's ship, the Beagle.
Dr Robert Prescott, University of St Andrews
Friday 8 May, 1pm
Kent's Cavern and the Archaeology of Human Origins in Britain
audio podcast video podcast
Excavations from the 1820s to 1860s in Kent's Cavern (Torquay, Devon) played a major role in the establishment of deep roots for human antiquity, coinciding with the development and promulgation of Darwin's and Wallace's notion of evolution by means of natural selection. We review the history of investigations at the site in wider context, showing how the cave's archaeology challenged established dogma promulgated by Buckland, Cuvier and others, and came to be one of the most informative sites for Ice Age human behaviour in Britain.
Dr Paul Pettitt, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, and Dr Mark White, Department ofArchaeology, University of Durham
Friday 3 October, 1pm
Astronomers Royal through the Ages
Podcast not available
In 1675, King Charles II caused the Royal Greenwich Observatory to be founded for the purpose of determining longitude at sea by 'the astronomical method'. This talk will look at the work of some of the interesting Astronomers Royal, who for centuries ran the observatory.
Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS
Friday 10 October, 1pm
Sparkling Cider and the Evolution of Methode Champenoise
audio podcast
James Crowden will talk about cider-making in the mid 17th century and the experiments which led to the evolution of the bottle-fermented sparkling process, otherwise known as the methode champenoise. Papers read to the Royal Society in 1662-63 show that the research work paid dividends many years before certain French champagne houses claim that Dom Perignon 'invented' the process.
James Crowden, author of Ciderland
.jpg "Diagram by Newton")
Friday 17 October, 1pm
Sir Isaac Newton, Science, and Unorthodox Theology
audio podcast
Sir Isaac Newton spent much of his life investigating subjects we would not now think of as scientific, including alchemy and his own private theology. This talk will explore the links between the different areas of Newton's research.
Rob Iliffe, University of Sussex
Friday 24 October, 1pm
Sir Hans Sloane and his Library
audio podcast
Sir Hans Sloane started collecting books when he was about 20 years old, and continued until his death at the age of 92. His collections formed the basis of the British Museum and included some 40,000 printed volumes. By looking at what he acquired and how it was used we can learn about the man himself, his career and the intellectual and scientific circles in which he lived.
Alison Walker, The British Library
Friday 31 October, 1pm
The Lisbon Catastrophe
audio podcast
The Lisbon earthquake, which took place on the morning of 1 November 1755, was Europe's greatest natural disaster. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fire, destroying much of Lisbon. This talk will reconstruct the events of the day with the assistance of Royal Society archive material.
Edward Paice, author of Wrath of God: The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
Friday 7 November, 1pm
Taming Nature: John Lubbock and Nineteenth-Century Entomology
audio podcast
This talk examines the career of Charles Darwin's neighbour, John Lubbock FRS, first Baron Avebury (1834-1914) banker, MP, anthropologist, and entomologist. He made significant contributions to the study of insects, and his achievements are said to have included taming a wasp, and teaching a dog to read.
John Clark, University of St Andrews
Friday 14 November, 1pm
"Spider Man": The Virtuosity of Dr Martin Lister, an Early Royal Society Luminary
audio podcast video podcast
Dr Martin Lister (1638-1712), vice-president of the Royal Society and court physician, is best known as England's first arachnologist and conchologist. This talk will also address some of his lesser-known discoveries, including his invention of the histogram and the stratigraphic map.
Anna Marie Roos, Wellcome Unit, Oxford University
Friday 21 November, 1pm
The Singular Life of Edward Heron-Allen FRS
audio podcast
Having trained as a solicitor, Edward Heron-Allen (1861-1943) went on to write a definitive work on violin-making, lecture in America on palmistry, and publish science fiction and translations of Persian poetry. His work on the foraminifera (microscopic marine organisms) of the Sussex coast led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Tim McCann, The Heron-Allen Society
Friday 28 November, 1pm
Palmer's Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica
audio podcast
What can the daily lives of penguins tell us about Earth's changing climate? Science writer Meredith Hooper will talk about her work with American seabird ecologists as they investigated the links between declining numbers of Adelie penguins and the visible warming occuring along the Antarctic Peninsula.
Meredith Hooper, author of The Ferocious Summer
Friday 5 December, 1pm
Water: The Long Road from Aristotelian Element to H2O
Podcast forthcoming
Until as late as the 1780s water was still generally considered one of Aristotle's four elements. A whole century of exciting and challenging scientific debates were required before 'water is H2O' became scientific common sense. The surprising history of this most familiar of substances illustrates the hidden challenges in establishing even the simplest of scientific facts.
Hasok Chang, University College London
Friday 7 March, 1.00pm
The Apothecaries and their garden
audio podcast video podcast
Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. Find out how this unique garden has survived over the centuries, and how it is as relevant in today's environment as it was when it was created as an outdoor classroom for the apprentice apothecaries.
Rosie Atkins FLS, Curator, Chelsea Physic Garden
Friday 14 March, 1.00pm
Innovation's Heroes & Villains
audio podcast video podcast
Mike Green, author of 'The Nearly Men', delves into the dark side of technological advance, looking at the bitter rivalries, tales of treachery and acts of deceit behind the inventions and scientific discoveries which defined the modern age.
Mike Green, author of 'The Nearly Men: A Chronicle Of Scientific Failure'
Friday 28 March, 1.00pm
'Before the British Museum': the Repository of the Royal Society
audio podcast video podcast
A chance to take a guided tour of the Library's current exhibition, featuring fossils, lodestones and stuffed bird specimens from the Society's early museum. There will be short talks on how the collection began, Nehemiah Grew's influential catalogue, and the afterlife of the Repository following its transfer to the British Museum.
Jenni Thomas, Queen Mary, and Rupert Baker, Royal Society Library
Friday 4 April, 1.00pm
Domesticating electricity
audio podcast video podcast
The electrification of Britain at the turn of the 20th century inspired not only fascination and puzzlement but also fear and revulsion. This talk looks at the controversies about the nature and applications of electricity, especially at women's role in taming electric lighting to make it aesthetically suitable for domestic usage.
Dr Graeme Gooday, University of Leeds and author of The Morals of Measurement'
.jpg "Drawing by Smeaton")
Friday 11 April, 1.00pm
Surveying the scene, engineering the machine: the drawings of John Smeaton
audio podcast video podcast
The designs of civil engineer John Smeaton (1724-92), including wind and water mills, steam engines, river navigations, canals and harbours, are among the Society's archival treasures. This talk examines the purpose of the drawings and the development of surveying and engineering draughtsmanship in the 18th century.
Dr Celina Fox, author of 'The Arts of Industry in the Age of Enlightenment' (forthcoming)
Friday 18 April, 1.00pm
'Mortal coil': science, medicine and the prolongation of human life
audio podcast video podcast
A talk exploring the seventeenth-century fascination with life extension, including the speculations of Sir Francis Bacon and the early Fellows of the Royal Society, and tracing its influence on modern science and medicine including cryonics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology.
Dr David Boyd Haycock, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and author of 'Mortal Coil'
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Friday 25 April, 1.00pm
The Brother Gardeners: the Royal Society and Britain's obsession with gardening
audio podcast video podcast
The tale of how a group of passionate plant collectors, botanists and explorers turned Britain into a nation of gardeners. The cast includes Peter Collinson, who brought the American wilderness to British parks; botanists Carl Linnaeus and Daniel Solander; and Sir Joseph Banks, who turned Kew into a storehouse of Empire.
Andrea Wulf, author of 'The Brother Gardeners. Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession'
Friday 2 May, 1.00pm
Ruth Belville: the Greenwich Time Lady
audio podcast
Astronomer John Belville, his wife and their daughter Ruth made a living selling Greenwich time to Londoners, setting a pocket watch by the Royal Observatory's clocks before carrying it around to subscribers. The scheme only ended in 1939 following the arrival of the speaking clock. This talk, by the author of a forthcoming book on the Belvilles, tells the surprising story of London's time carriers.
David Rooney, Curator of Timekeeping at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Friday 9 May, 1.00pm
Christopher Wren and St Paul's Cathedral
audio podcast video podcast
This year sees the 300th anniversary of the topping out of St Paul's. This talk shows how the cathedral is a monument to a mathematician and scientist at the dawn of the Enlightenment, and looks at the changing career of England's foremost architect, already over 30 when he was appointed Royal Surveyor by Charles II.
Professor Lisa Jardine CBE, Advisor on the Royal Society's Collections
Friday 23 May, 1.00pm
Prince Rupert, cavalier and scientist
audio podcast
Inventor, scientist and adventurer, Prince Rupert's signature appears on the first page of the Royal Society's Charter Book, and he shared with the Society his many inventions in military technology. In this talk Charles, Earl Spencer will discuss his recent biography of Prince Rupert, showing him to be far more than merely the dashing cavalier of legend.
Charles Spencer, author of 'Prince Rupert: the Last Cavalier'
Thursday 12 June, 6.00pm
The Needham Question: scientific and technological innovation in China's past, and possible futures
podcast not available
The Needham Question was formulated by Joseph Needham (1900-1995). His researches revealed that pre-modern China was a technically innovative culture that made significant contributions to the construction of the modern world. However, the scientific and industrial revolutions took place in Western Europe, not in China. Needham sought for reasons for this apparent failure to follow up on past achievements.
Today China has pinned its hopes for continuing economic growth on developing home-grown innovation, zizhu chuangxin. Has China's past experience anything to tell us about what its chances of success might be?
Professor Christopher Cullen, Director, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge
Friday 5 October, 1.00pm
Arabic in Britain': the Royal Society, Arab and Islamic astronomy, and the Arabic language
audio podcast (video podcast not available)
By the Society's foundation in 1660, Britain had become the European centre for the study of Arabic, the key to unlocking the influx of knowledge from the Arab and Islamic world. This talk, with a focus on astronomy, examines this interest in Arabic, highlighting the Arabic books and manuscripts in the Society's Library.
Dr Rim Turkmani, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, Imperial College London
Friday 12 October, 1.00pm
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Royal Society : a history interwoven
audio podcast video podcast
Royal Society luminaries such as Sir Joseph Banks PRS and John Lindley FRS were vital in establishing plant science at Kew. All but two of Kew's directors have been Fellows, and Kew's scientific progress has long been supported by the Society. This talk tells the story of this ongoing relationship.
Professor Simon Owens, Head of Strategic Projects at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Friday 19 October, 1.00pm
Prints as process and product in the early Royal Society
audio podcast (video podcast not available)
The early Royal Society was much concerned with engraving and printing - both as a technical discipline and a practical tool for illustration and publication - yet we seem to know little about the artists involved, not least with the most enduring images of the Society's early work, the plates from Hooke's 'Micrographia'.
Dr Jim Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
Friday 26 October, 1.00pm
Useful bodies: anatomical Fellows in the late 18th century
audio podcast video podcast
Private anatomy teaching flourished in London in the second half of the 18th century. Many of its leading proponents were also Fellows of the Royal Society. This talk explores some of their stories, and the role of the Society in providing a public sanction for the noisome business of private dissection.
Simon Chaplin, Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
Friday 2 November, 1.00pm
Robert FitzRoy FRS: sailing into the storm
audio podcast
John Gribbin is the author of more than a hundred books of popular science, including FitzRoy: the remarkable story of Darwin's Captain and the invention of the weather forecast'. In this talk, he discusses FitzRoy's career as captain of HMS Beagle and as a pioneering meteorologist.
Dr John Gribbin, University of Sussex
Friday 9 November, 1.00pm
"Dr Livingstone I Presume": David Livingstone online at www.livingstoneonline.ucl.ac.uk
audio podcast video podcast
David Livingstone FRS, missionary, explorer, doctor and natural historian, was a prolific correspondent. A team of experts is now publishing his letters online, including those in the Royal Society's archives. This illustrated talk from the team describes Livingstone's adventures and this exciting new project.
Professor Chris Lawrence, Professor Anne Hardy, Dr Michael Hawkins, Dr Sharon Messenger and Caroline Overy, The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
Friday 16 November, 1.00 pm
"Lord Cable": telegraphy, empire, and the making of Lord Kelvin PRS
audio podcast video podcast
Sir William Thomson, known to later generations as Lord Kelvin, was the quintessential Victorian physicist. He was also a leading figure in the development of the submarine cable network that linked the far-flung British Empire. This talk examines how closely telegraphy and physics were intertwined in Kelvin's career.
Professor Bruce J Hunt, Department of History, University of Texas
Friday 16 March, 1.00pm
Endurance and discovery: polar expeditions
audio podcast video podcast
The Royal Society and its Fellows have been at the forefront of polar exploration for scientific purposes. This talk is an opportunity to find out more about these extraordinary expeditions and the resourceful pioneers who led them.
Joanna Corden, Royal Society Library
Friday 23 March, 1.00pm
Balloon madness : science versus spectacle in early aeronautics
audio podcast video podcast
When balloons were invented, there was a lively debate about their possible uses. This event introduces the spectrum of meanings that became attached to balloons, and shows how natural philosophers vied with adventurers to explore and understand the regions of air.
Dr Clare Brant, King's College London
Friday 30 March, 1.00pm
'Whose Darwin is the true Darwin?'
audio podcast (video podcast not available)
Battles over Charles Darwin's legacy and the implications of his theory are central to current debates on evolution. Darwin's extensive correspondence shows, as nothing else can, how he arrived at his published views. Here, two Darwin experts talk about their current work on Darwin and evolution.
Dr Paul White, Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge
Friday 13 April, 1.00pm
Rescuing Ramsden from the archives
audio podcast (video podcast not available)
There has never been a full biography of Jesse Ramsden, arguably London's finest 18th century scientific instrument maker. Now, drawing on archives in UK and Europe, including those of the Royal Society, Ramsden's life at his great Piccadilly workshop is brought to light in a new book.
Dr Anita McConnell, University of Cambridge
Friday 20 April, 1.00pm
Bird stuffers and snake charmers: India and the Royal Society
audio podcast video podcast
A chance to take a guided tour of our India exhibition, and to see stunning illustrations of Indian flora and fauna from our book collections. There will be short talks on the background to the exhibition, and on the role of the East India Company in bringing these treasures to Western eyes.
Rupert Baker, Royal Society Library, and Anna Winterbottom, Queen Mary, University of London
Friday 27 April, 1.00pm
An inquisitive age: exploring the byways of 17th century science
audio podcast video podcast
The Royal Society began with a group of men who were interested in natural phenomena and wanted to understand how their world worked - but they were not trained scientists. This talk explores some of the lesser known aspects of their research programme, featuring carts with legs, monstrous births, and showers of fish from the heavens.
Dr Felicity Henderson, King's College London
Friday 27 October, 3.00pm
Scientific communities and portraiture (no podcast available)
A fascinating look at the relationship between art, science and technology in learned societies, this talk focuses on the Royal Society's portrait collection, from the 1660s to the present day.
Professor Ludmilla Jordanova, King's College London
Friday 3 November, 2.00pm
The silver age: early photographs and portraits at the Royal Society (no podcast available)
From William Henry Fox Talbot's first announcement of his photographic process, the Royal Society became a focus for the development and application of the new art. This talk is illustrated by some stunning and unusual treasures from the Society's picture collections.
Keith Moore and Christine Woollett, Royal Society Library
Friday 10 November, 2.00pm
Into the blue: voyages of discovery 1700-1850
audio podcast video podcast
An opportunity to hear the tales behind some of the most adventurous (and, in some cases, disastrous) seafaring journeys, featuring illustrations and atlases from famous names such as Captain Cook, Baron von Humboldt and Commodore Anson.
Rupert Baker, Royal Society Library
Friday 17 November, 2.00pm
Prince of scientists: Sir Henry Dale, pharmacology and the Royal Society
audio podcast
Dale was one of the outstanding medical researchers of the 20th century, and served both as President of the Royal Society and Chair of the Wellcome Trust. This talk focuses on the man, his work and the important changes at the Royal Society during his presidential term.
Dr Tilli Tansey, Wellcome Trust Centre, UCL
Friday 24 November, 2.00pm
Hot topics: science policy and the history of climate change science
audio podcast
The Library's Science Policy collection contains reports from study groups worldwide, demonstrating the Society's historical involvement in policy issues. This talk will use documents from the collection to discuss the beginnings of climate change science. Current policy work on this and other topics is outlined by a member of our Science Policy team.
Martin Carr, Royal Society Library, and Richard Heap, Science Policy Section, Royal Society
Read a transcript of this lecture
Friday 8 December, 2.00pm
Robert Hooke: the archival tragedy of dying intestate
audio podcast
When Robert Hooke died in March 1703 his will was incomplete and unsigned. In spite of the best efforts of friends like Richard Waller his enormous archive was rapidly dispersed, and much of it lost. This event will explore some of the consequences of leaving a legacy of disorganised documents.
Professor Lisa Jardine and Dr Robyn Adams, AHRC Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, QMUL