Videos to make you think more deeply about science. Explosive short films, full length talks from the world’s leading scientists and writers, and videos to challenge the way you look at the world.
The Royal Institution is a 200 year old independent charity based in London dedicated to connecting people with the world of science through events, education, and the CHRISTMAS LECTURES.
From The Royal Institution. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. What do we do about it? Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/t2caS7MX7tk Get Christopher’s Book: https://geni.us/fELYS In this talk, Christopher E Mason argues we have a moral…
From The Royal Institution. Carlo Rovelli and Conrad Shawcross explore the idea of the quantum – the enigmatic and fiercely debated fundamental notion that a physical property can be quantised. Get Carlo’s book: https://geni.us/ODP0Fz Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/PUpBgP4zVxk Carlo Rovelli’s new book Helgoland opens with the night the young Werner Heisenberg has an idea that…
From The Royal Institution. Sleep is vital to our wellbeing. The stages of deep and dreamless slow wave sleep and vivid dreaming REM sleep both have important traits. They each have their role to play in cleaning, up, putting away, and integrating new items into our knowledge schema after the wild party that is waking…
From The Royal Institution. Michael Strevens argues that science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument. Get Michael’s book: https://geni.us/knolmach Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/ZOq–OyMQEo Modern science has done amazing things: creating covid vaccines, sending humans to the moon, finding the…
From The Royal Institution. Scientists are uncovering the unexpected connections between crucial neurotransmitters and our thoughts, memories and emotions. Get Ginny’s book: https://geni.us/VDR94gV Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/Ih2SsEfYE1Q Join Ginny Smith as she explores her latest book ‘Overloaded’ and the role that neurotransmitters play in every aspect of our lives. Everything from what we remember, how…
From The Royal Institution. What happened in the first few moments of our Universe’s existence? Today, scientists armed with giant telescopes and powerful particle accelerators, are probing the outer reaches of matter and the cosmos. Guido’s book "Genesis: The Ultimate Origin Story" is available now: https://geni.us/tonelligenesis Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/Gdm5zMqj6fA Guido Tonelli is an Italian…
From The Royal Institution. From DNA profiles to comparisons of bullets, fingerprints, and shoeprints, forensic science findings are widely used in police investigations and courtrooms. Beth’s book "Blood, Powder, and Residue" is available now: https://geni.us/wVRTF5E Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/kc2nLhyr7KM Drawing on eighteen months of rigorous fieldwork in a crime lab of a major metro area,…
From The Royal Institution. In the 2.1 seconds that an impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another. Blips of voltage are sent through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips ‘spikes’. Get Mark’s book: https://geni.us/5O61 Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/YbT4cmLI4tc Join Mark Humphries as he draws on decades of…
From The Royal Institution. Effective data visualisation comes in many shapes and sizes, but how do you move away from a standard bar chart? Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/8DOd8afdeBg Valentina D’Efilippo is a designer, illustrator, and creative director based in London. Valentina enjoys working with public organisations, start-ups, agencies and global brands. After leading the design…
From The Royal Institution. COVID-19 is a reminder that pandemics are one of the greatest existential threats to humanity. And we know the current one won’t be the last. Get Arup and Andrey’s book: https://geni.us/bbzi In this talk, immunology experts Arup K. Chakraborty and Andrey S. Shaw explore how viruses emerge to cause pandemics, how…
From The Royal Institution. How did the universe begin and how will it end? Brian’s book Until the End of Time is available now: https://geni.us/ribriangreene Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/EdJzHG1N9Pg To celebrate the launch of paperback edition of ‘Until the End of Time’, Brian Greene’s riveting exploration into the cosmos and our quest to understand it,…
From The Royal Institution. To celebrate us reaching a mind bending one million subscribers, we asked our friends Mike and Dave if they could cook up something special for us all. We only insisted that there be cake. And science. 00:00 – Introduction 00:30 – Making liquid oxygen 02:58 – Creating sparkles with magnesium powder,…
From The Royal Institution. Technology shapes us and we shape technology. This has often led to surprises, and unintended consequences throughout history as technology and humans have developed side by side and occasionally things have gone awry. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/E0sOTmxKgHM Ainissa’s book "The Alchemy of Us" is available now – https://geni.us/l9AqBp Science writer Ainissa…
From The Royal Institution. What is it about modern life that has such an impact on our mental health? And what is actually going on in our brains when we suffer mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and addiction? Dean’s book Psycho-logical is available now: https://geni.us/39Lvg Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/dHDlzkflwGE Dean Burnett looks at…
From The Royal Institution. Human bodies are remarkably resilient and capable of incredible feats in the most inhospitable of environments. Subscribe to Rohin’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MedlifeCrisis Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/6GuboNm-Y1M Modern medicine has blurred the lines between life and death, and is showing no signs of stopping. Rohin explores how humans are pushing their bodies further…
From The Royal Institution. How do vaccines work? Why are people sceptical despite the evidence? How does disinformation about vaccines spread online? Join Marianna Spring, Zania Stamataki and Abigail Thorn (PhilosophyTube) in a panel discussion hosted by Anjana Ahuja. Zania Stamataki is a senior lecturer and researcher in viral immunology at the University of Birmingham.…
From The Royal Institution. Brian explores everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and introduces the people that fix them. Brian’s book ‘The Alignment Problem’ is available now: https://geni.us/24uce Watch the Q&A here: https://youtu.be/Gfd0HraqyHI Recent years have seen an eruption of concern about machine learning. When the systems we attempt to teach don’t…
From The Royal Institution. Mark Solms discusses his new theory of consciousness that returns emotions to the centre of mental life. Mark’s book "The Hidden Spring" is available now: https://geni.us/CWaA Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/gmOzBePcRg4 Understanding why we feel a subjective sense of self and how it arises in the brain seems like an impossible task.…
From The Royal Institution. Vicky Pope describes what goes into a cutting-edge climate model, how it is used to provide information on how and why the climate is changing and how it might change in the future. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/gEcFsYQQ1WU Prof Vicky Pope is a climate scientist specialising in climate modelling and providing science…
From The Royal Institution. Dan Kaszeta uncovers the development and propagation of nerve agents, the world’s deadliest means of chemical warfare. Dan Kaszeta’s book “Toxic” is available now: https://geni.us/z4N8f From their 1930s invention to the 2018 Novichok attack in Britain, Dan Kaszeta uncovers nerve agents’ gradual spread across the world, despite international arms control efforts.…
From The Royal Institution. All around the world children, and even some adults, ask the question: ‘What is the point of mathematics?’. The field of mathematical modelling not only helps answer this question, it can help quench the human thirst for knowledge. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/veMihd8yzwk Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Dr Nira Chamberlain…
From The Royal Institution. At a time when our lives are more frantic and stressful than ever, switching off has never been more challenging. Claudia Hammond interrogates "The Rest Test" – the largest global study ever done into the vital activity of resting. Claudia’s book "The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the…
From The Royal Institution. Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek investigates the ideas that form our understanding of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity, and complementarity. Frank’s book "Fundamentals" is available now: https://geni.us/TwaX90f Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces of…
From The Royal Institution. What happened after the Big Bang? When did the very first stars burst into life? Why are those stars were so unusual, and what they can teach us about the Universe today? Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/M4falMG3GIA Emma’s book "First Light" is available now: https://geni.us/GpAa0x Emma Chapman is currently based at Imperial…
From The Royal Institution. To celebrate the publication of his new book, Psycho-Logical, Dean Burnett joins the Royal Institution for a live talk about how and why the modern world affects the brain. Dean’s book is available now: https://geni.us/39Lvg Join Dean as he looks at how these affects lead to so many mental health issues,…
From The Royal Institution. We are already seeing the impact of automation on the job market. Presently, machine intelligence is only industry-specific, but ultimately it will greatly exceed the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest. As such ‘super-intelligent’ systems develop, what jobs would humans have? Will there be any value to…
From The Royal Institution. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won’t cost you any extra but we…
From The Royal Institution. Tom Crawford is back to describe the remaining three million dollar maths problems. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/M4falMG3GIA Watch the first four problems: https://youtu.be/f251NkeDVB8 Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe The seven million dollar equations are: the Riemann hypothesis, Navier-Stokes equations, P vs NP, the Poincare conjecture, Yang-Mills mass-gap hypothesis, the Birch…
From The Royal Institution. Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen argues that our ability to identify patterns, particularly if-and-then patterns, allows humans to be the only animals on the planet with the ability to invent things. Simon’s book: ‘The Pattern Seekers’ is available now: https://geni.us/d5gG Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/h0EUEOyq4eQ From the first musical instrument to the digital revolutions,…
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From The Royal Institution. Psychologist Robert Plomin argues that our genes are the single most powerful influence on the type of person we are. Robert’s book "Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are" is available to buy now: https://geni.us/rpjwKn Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/-IqCSj2xZRM Humans have long been wondering how much we are defined by…
From The Royal Institution. Volcanic eruptions form distinctive mushroom clouds when the extremely hot mixture of gas, magma and rocks shoots out of the volcano at high speed. Watch the full third lecture of the series: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1995/planet-earth-an-explorers-guide/volcanoes-melting-the-earth?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_term=description James Jackson gave the 1995 Christmas Lectures "Planet Earth: An Explorer’s Guide" about the inner workings of planet…
From The Royal Institution. Psychologists have discovered that experiencing awe inspiring moments change us as humans. Planets and stars have been providing many such moments through human history, but new technology might be changing our relationship with the night sky. Jo’s book "The Human Cosmos" is out now – https://geni.us/kJCTkA Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/zIF_GrfRxrI From…
From The Royal Institution. Physician John Snow famously figured out the cause of a cholera outbreak using maths and statistics, and thereby helped to disprove the miasma theory of disease – that people get ill from ‘bad air’. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe James Grime is a mathematician with a personal passion for maths…
From The Royal Institution. Volcanic rocks contain small bits of iron oxide that get magnetised in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field as they cool. Comparing rocks of different ages reveals the magnetic history of our planet. Watch the full second lecture of the series: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1995/planet-earth-an-explorers-guide/secrets-of-the-deep?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_term=description James Jackson gave the 1995 Christmas Lectures "Planet…
From The Royal Institution. Is simple chance the source of all the beauty and diversity we see in the world? Sean B. Carroll tells the story of the awesome power of chance. Sean’s book "A Series of Fortunate Events" is available now: https://geni.us/mPPrdQH Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/adrqThhSgYg Why is the world the way it is?…
From The Royal Institution. What is the sun made of? And can the answers we find there help us figure out what’ deep inside our own planet – Earth? Watch the full first lecture of the series: https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1995/planet-earth-an-explorers-guide/on-the-edge-of-the-world?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_term=description James Jackson gave the 1995 Christmas Lectures "Planet Earth: An Explorer’s Guide" about the inner workings of…
From The Royal Institution. Stephen Wolfram discusses his efforts to use what he’s learned from exploring computational systems to build a new fundamental theory of all of physics. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/uuQZ7iQH3Fg Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the author of A New Kind of Science; the originator of…
From The Royal Institution. Serena Corr looks at the science behind batteries, discusses why we are hunting for new ones and investigates what tools we use to pave this pathway to discovery. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/lZjqiR0czLo The hunt is on for the next generation of batteries that will power our electric vehicles and help our…
From The Royal Institution. Are you a fan of mind benders, crosswords or logic puzzles? Mathematician Alex Bellos tests your puzzle skills with some of his favourite conundrums about language. Alex’ book ‘The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book’ is available now: https://geni.us/kOkQg Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/nmDYM9HvA6E To celebrate the launch of his latest title, The Language…
From The Royal Institution. John Tyndall worked on diamagnetism, explained why the sky is blue and discovered the mechanism for the greenhouse effect. He also gave hundreds of public lectures at the Ri, and was an avid mountaineer and poet. And all this before his beloved wife accidentally killed him. Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/CVzTGs-usUE 2020…
From The Royal Institution. Is there a secret formula for getting rich? For making something a viral hit? For deciding how long to stick with your current Netflix series, job, or even relationship? David Sumpter has the answers. David’s book "The Ten Equations: And How You Can Use Them to Improve Your Life" is available…
From The Royal Institution. Howard Gardner’s landmark theory of multiple intelligences called into question the value of the IQ test and the notion that someone’s intelligence is dominated by a single, measurable general ability. Howard’s memoir ‘A Synthesizing Mind’ is available now: https://geni.us/qkhl Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/DbHO3x005H8 Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe — A…
From The Royal Institution. Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian astronaut who currently holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut. This is her story. Buy Samantha’s book: https://geni.us/v7WFBy Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/sFtqFXzZ15s Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe In conversation with Martin Davies, Samantha discusses the two hundred days she spent…
From The Royal Institution. It’s been 10 years since the first particles smashed into each other at the world’s biggest scientific experiment, the Large Hadron Collider. Scientists from each of the four giant experiments – ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb – reflect on what they’ve learned over the past decade and what they hope to…