In 2025 we’re celebrating 200 years of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES and Ri Discourses – both landmark moments in the Ri’s rich history of engaging public audiences with science – as well as the discovery of ...

When ChatGPT-3 crash-landed onto our computers in November 2022, you’d have been forgiven for thinking this massive leap in artificial intelligence had sprung out of nowhere. From one day to the next, ...

The Royal Institution was founded to 'introduce new technologies and teach science to the general public through lectures and demonstrations'. We've been connecting people to science for over 200 ...

During school holidays we run a range of exciting hands-on workshops, bringing to life all areas of science – including mathematics, computing and engineering. All workshops take place in our building ...

The first surviving Faraday apparatus, dating from 1822, demonstrates his work in magnetic rotation. Faraday used this mercury bath to transform electrical energy into mechanical energy, creating the ...

Could Hycean worlds hold alien life? Join us to explore new exoplanets, JWST discoveries, and the future of finding life beyond Earth. Are we alone in the universe? This is one of the oldest and most ...

From the first electrical transformer to the tube that told us why the sky is blue, view the actual objects scientists of the Royal Institution built in some of the world's most famous experiments.

Humphry Davy was a chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He was director of the Ri from 1801–1825. Born in Penzance, Sir Humphry Davy attended Truro ...

These liquids are some of the first examples of metallic gold colloids, made by Michael Faraday over 150 years ago. These liquids are the first examples of metallic gold colloids. They were made, ...

In 1859, discovered the Greenhouse Effect using this tube amongst a collection of apparatus by measuring the absorptive powers of gases in the atmosphere. This tube is part of a collection of ...

This vessel consists of glass flasks fitted one inside the other and sealed at the neck with a partial vacuum between them. The central flask is therefore insulated, keeping the contents cold and ...

The 2024 CHRISTMAS LECTURES are on BBC Four and iPlayer 29, 30 and 31 December at 9pm, and on our YouTube channel for those outside the UK. In this year’s Christmas Lectures, Dr Chris van Tulleken ...