Science Museum Lates: The next big thing

Join our experts at the Science Museum Lates in their bid to discover the next big thing.

Explore the latest research over a drink with some of the UK’s leading scientists.

Find out if robots can evolve, what Nerf guns have to do with neurons and discover the link between Pink Floyd and fibre optic broadband.

You will be able to build your own Lego organism, dance your way through bacterial mutation and even hold a diamond the size of your hand!

Find out more

Whodungit?
Why study dung?  What do we know about the toilet habits of extinct animals? Join Fiona Gill as she answers these and other scatological questions and challenges you to work out “whodungit?”.

Marching desert dunes: avalanche, bury and disappear!
What lies beneath a desert sand dune? Whatever is hidden is not covered for long, as dunes race across the surface. Join Nathalie Vriend on a journey to discover the history of large lumps of sand!

Can ants help us avoid information overload?
Discover how tiny ants boost their collective brain-power, and learn how to make decisions the ant-smart way.

What does biology have to do with robots?
You’ve heard of swarming bees, but what about swarming robots? Join Jon Timmis to find out how biology can help inspire robotic design.

Booze on the brain
Come and grab a drink in the NeuroCocktail Bar and find out what alcohol and other drugs do to our brains, and why some people are more susceptible to their effects than others.

In one ear and out the other
Join us in a game of Broken Telephone and learn how language is shaped by the human brain. Experience thousands of years of cultural evolution in just a few minutes.

Resistance is futile
Roll up! Roll up! Try your hand at our antibiotic resistance coconut shy to find out why resistance is on the rise. Or try our Dance Dance Evolution game to see how evolution occurs by mutation in real time!

Meerkat groups from the primordial soup
How did complex life evolve? Join Ashleigh Griffin from Oxford to build your own Lego organisms, watch multicellularity evolve in real time and discover the benefits of playing nice.

Levitating trains and saving the planet
Watch as Suchitra Sebastian demonstrates a levitating train! Find out what this has to do with alternative energy solutions, and explore the magic of superconducting materials.

Particles everywhere!
Join Gavin Hesketh from UCL as he brings the subatomic world of the Large Hadron Collider to life, using some much simpler technology, revealing the exotic particles that are all around us.

Light, colours, camera, Action!
What do sweet wrappers, Pink Floyd and fibre optic broadband have in common? It’s light!
Join Robert Pal from Durham University in a quest to understand light in all its glory.

Your changing brain: from neurons to Nerf guns
Can an old dog learn new tricks? In the neuro-learning zone discover how rapidly your brain can learn new relationships, how your eyes work together and how the brain changes with age.

Asymmetry in art, nature and stem cells
Have you ever considered the similarities between art and science? Did you know that irregularity shapes our lives? Join Dr Shukry Habib as he uses stunning imagery to explore the beauty of being different.

The stimulated brain
Can a tiny electric current change the way you learn? Join Charlie Stagg and her team to see brain stimulation in action and discover how this tool might begin to help people recover after a stroke. 

Keep cool and carry on
Feeling cool? Follow Xavier Moya into the infrared world and discover how advanced materials could provide an environmentally friendly solution to our cooling needs.

Diamonds are for sensing
Can diamonds find use beyond natural gemstones? Join the team from Warwick to get your hands on some man-made diamond and discover its amazing applications.

Lab notes
Hear a natural selection of statistically significant comedy songs from geek songstress Helen Arney, science troubadour Jonny Berliner and actual cosmologist Andrew Pontzen.

Creepy crawly cancer cells
What is the difference between a ‘good' and a ‘bad' cancer cell? Come see our movies and have a go at generating a cancer cell in our bean machine.

Life in extremes 
Microbes thrive under conditions humans cannot. Join Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo and her team to discover how microbes support life at the poles and how they interact with masses of melting ice.

What does an atom look like?
Challenge what you think you know about the invisible atoms that exist all around us. Experience the dynamic, molecular nano-world and carry out simple experiments with the amazing Nano Simbox.

About Science Museum Lates

The Science Museum’s Lates is a free night for adults that takes place on the last Wednesday of the month.

Lates have a different theme each month, spanning issues as far apart as sex, alcohol and climate change – this month the Royal Society is taking over the programme and showcasing some of the best research from the UK’s leading scientists; join them in their journey to discover the next big thing.

For more information please visit the Science Museum website.

Attending this event

• Free
• Adults only

Enquiries: please contact the public engagement team.