/ Events

Lates: Making fun of science

01 July 2025 18:30 - 21:15 The Royal Society Free
Register here
Steve Cross Credit Ian Bowkett

This event is part of the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition 2025.

Join us for 30-minute interludes of silliness, as scientists from across the UK make you laugh about their work. Our scientists have all been trained to turn their research into jokes, and have performed in front of real comedy audiences across the UK to peals of laughter and the occasional groan when their puns become too dad-like.

Every show throughout the night will present two different hilarious scientists for your entertainment and delight. These shows are intended for adults and the language used may reflect that.

Your host is Dr Steve Cross, who founded Bright Club, the world's first event to turn real academic researchers into comedians, in 2009 and has since helped thousands of scientists all over the world to uncover the silly side of their work, and share it with diverse audiences in clubs, theatres, community centres and pubs. His work has won him the Joshua Phillips Award for Innovation in Public Engagement, Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association and a New Radicals award from Nesta. He was Head of Public Engagement at UCL until 2015, building the university into a unique leader in finding new ways to bring its expertise to wider society. You can see Steve every month at Science Showoff.

Attending the event

This event will be held in the Dining Room on Tuesday 1 July 2025, with 30-minute sessions starting at 6.30pm, 7.15pm, 8pm and 8.45pm.

  • Free to attend, no ticket required
  • The room has limited capacity, so we recommend that visitors arrive at least 10–15 minutes before the scheduled time slots. We operate on a first-come, first-served basis
  • Suitable for over 18s
  • Live subtitles will be available
  • This event will take place in person at the Royal Society
  • 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
  • Last entry at 9.30pm

For all enquiries, please email exhibition@royalsociety.org.