Royal Society Lates: what's on your mind?
For this event, we open up our historic building for a special evening exploring our brains and cutting-edge neuroscience research.
Get hands-on with a variety of drop-in activities and hear about current research from specialists in our series of lightning lectures. Join our library team to delve into the archives of the Royal Society and find out how our understanding of the brain has evolved.
Explore the programme below or access the programme here (PDF).
Alternative perspectives - how to embrace neurodiversity
Join us for a captivating panel discussion and Q&A to explore neurodiversity. Find out more about the ways we experience the world around us, and how we can make our world more inclusive for everyone with our panel of experts.
Neuroscientist Professor Eva Loth, Professor of Psychology Julia Simner, and founder of 2eMpowerUK Professor Sara Rankin will talk about current research and their personal experiences in this panel discussion chaired by Dr Steve Cross. Find out more.
Lightning talks
6.40pm: 'Tackling brain injuries in sport' with Dr Mazdak Ghajari
7.10pm: 'Between prudence and paranoia: the brain basis of social strategy gone right, and wrong' with Dr Joe Barnby
8.20pm: 'How do we recognise unfamiliar faces?' with Dr Kristen Baker
8.50pm: 'Dementia: hope for the future' with Dr Emma Yhnell
OCD and the brain
How are mental illnesses related to the brain? Join Professor Tobias Hauser and his team to learn more about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), brain functioning, and the research approaches they use to decipher the brain using mobile games.
Talking Lines
An interdisciplinary team of artists, social scientists, neuropsychologists, and people living with or affected by rare dementias have been working together to develop a line-drawing methodology to better understand experiences of rare dementia diagnosis and support. Join the team to find out more and to express yourself through line-drawing.
The multisensory world of synaesthesia
Do sounds have colours to you? Or do words have tastes? Exciting news: you might have synaesthesia! But did you know that all of us make connections across the senses, whether or not we’re synaesthetes? Come and find out more about your own cross-sensory connections through two fun games: Name that Dog and Emotion Sculptures.
NeuroSoup
Join art-science practitioner Dr Jennifer Crouch who will demonstrate how to make jelly prints and combine images of different neurotransmitters to create interesting images for you to take home. During the workshop select neurotransmitters to superpose on one another making a ‘neurosoup’ image and discuss how they interact and combine, resulting in different behaviours. You may need to wait for your print to dry before taking it with you.
Feeling molecules
Neurotransmitters are part of everyday life and are responsible for different types of behaviour although some of them overlap in their roles. Neurodivergence is a wonderful, complex and sometimes difficult aspect of human diversity. In some types of neurodivergence neurotransmitters are produced and sensed by the body in higher or lower concentrations, which alters what people can do.
Join Dr Jennifer Crouch in this doodling activity by finding different neurotransmitters illustrated on the roll of paper. Draw, doodle, write your feelings and illustrate the affects and effects of different neurotransmitters.
Senscapes
Explore this immersive experience that brings science and art together to communicate altered conscious states. Senscapes is a music and arts project that uses brain imaging data from participants in research studies and converts them into ambient music soundscapes.
Library tours
Join the Royal Society's resident Librarian to explore our archives and learn more about our understanding of the brain throughout history.
Food for thought
Join our professional chefs on a culinary journey inspired by the senses.
Attending the event
- Free to attend and registration is not required
- Doors will open at 6.30pm. Last entry will be at 9.15pm
- Timed talks and activities require a free ticket which can be collection from the information desk. Tickets for all sessions will be available from 6.30pm
- In person only
- Suitable for 18+
- A sensory map is available in the programme online and at the event and a quiet room is available on-site
- All lectures will have live captions
- Travel and accessibility information - contact us directly to arrange any specific accessibility requirements
- Food and drink will be available for purchase at our onsite café
For all enquiries, please email public.engagement@royalsociety.org.