Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–42 because of the Second World War. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including young people, in an informative and entertaining manner. Michael Faraday initiated the Christmas Lecture series in 1825, at a time when organised education for young people was scarce. Faraday presented nineteen series of lectures in all.
History
The Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures were first held in 1825, and have continued on an annual basis since then except during the Second World War. They have been hosted each year at the Royal Institution itself, except in 1929 and between 2005–2006, each time due to refurbishment of the building. They were created by Michael Faraday, who later hosted the lecture season on nineteen occasions. The Nobel laureate Sir William Bragg gave the Christmas lectures on four occasions, and his co-laureate son Sir Lawrence Bragg gave them twice. Other notable lecturers have included Desmond Morris, Eric Laithwaite, Sir George Porter, Sir David Attenborough, Heinz Wolff, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Baroness Susan Greenfield, Dame Nancy Rothwell, Monica Grady, Sue Hartley, Alison Woollard, Danielle George, and Saiful Islam.The props for the lectures are designed and created by the RI's science demonstration technician, a post which Faraday previously held. A popular technician, with the advent of television, serving from 1948 to 1986, was Bill Coates. The technician is informed of the general subject of the lectures during spring, but the specifics aren't settled until September, with the recordings made in mid-December. By 2009, the lectures had expanded to a series of five sessions each year. However, in 2010 the Royal Institution cut back on costs as it had become over £2 million in debt. These cost-cutting measures included the budget allotted to the Christmas Lectures. This resulted in a reduction from five sessions to three.
Television
The Christmas Lectures were first televised in 1936 on the BBC's fledgling Television Service. They were broadcast on BBC Two from 1966 to 1999 and Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004. In 2000 one of the lectures was broadcast live for the first time. Following the end of Channel 4's contract to broadcast the lectures, there were concerns that they might simply be dropped from scheduling as the channel was negotiating with the Royal Institution over potential changes to the format, while the BBC announced that "The BBC will not show the lectures again, because it feels the broadcasting environment has moved on in the last four years." Channel Five subsequently agreed to show the lectures from 2005 to 2008, an announcement which was met with derision from academics. The lectures were broadcast on More4 in 2009. In 2010, the lectures returned to the BBC after a ten-year absence from the broadcaster, and have been shown on BBC Four each year since then.List of Christmas lectures
1825 to 1965
The following is a complete list of the Christmas Lectures from 1825 to 1965:Since 1966
The following is a list of televised Christmas Lectures from 1966 onward :| Year | Lecturer | Title of series | Lecture titles | Network |
| 1966 | Eric Laithwaite | The Engineer in Wonderland | 1. The White Rabbit 2. Only the Grin was Left 3. The Caucus Race 4. Curiouser and Curiouser 5. If only I were the right size to do it 6. It's the Oldest Rule in the Book | BBC Two |
| 1967 | Richard L. Gregory | The Intelligent Eye | 1. Ancient Eyes and Simple Brains 2. Learning to See Things 3. Playing with Illusions 4. How Illusions Play Games with Us 5. Human Eyes in Space 6. The Future-Machines that See? | BBC Two |
| 1968 | Philip Morrison | Gulliver's Laws: The Physics of Large and Small | 1. The World of Captain Gulliver 2. Meat and Drink Sufficient... 3. A Prodigious Leap? 4. Lilliput and Brobdingnag since the Industrial Revolution 5. Dwarf and Giant Numbers 6. Beyond the Map | BBC Two |
| 1969 | George Porter | Time Machines | 1. In the Beginning... 2. Clockwork Harmony 3. The Tick of the Atom 4. Big Time, Little Time 5. Faster, Faster 6. To the Ends of Time | BBC Two |
| 1970 | John Napier | Monkeys Without Tails: A Giraffe's Eye-view of Man | 1. Man has a very short neck and no tail 2. Man comes in several different sizes and shapes 3. Fancy having to climb trees in order to eat 4. Man chooses a sensible place to live at last 5. Why choose to walk on two legs when it is much safer on four? 6. What's the idea of shooting at us? | BBC Two |
| 1971 | Charles Taylor | Sounds of Music: The Science of Tones and Tune | 1. Making and Measuring the Waves 2. From Small Beginnings 3. Growing and Changing 4. Craftsmanship and Technology 5. On the Way to the Ear 6. The End of the Journey | BBC Two |
| 1972 | Geoffrey G. Gouriet | Ripples in the Ether: The Science of Radio Communication | 1. How It All Began 2. Getting Rid of the Wires 3. The Sound of Broadcasting 4. Pictures With and Without Wires 5. But Electrons aren't Coloured! 6. Vision of the Future | BBC Two |
| 1973 | David Attenborough | The Language of Animals | 1. Beware! 2. Be Mine 3. Parents and Children 4. Simple Signs and Complicated Communications 5. Foreign Languages 6. Animal Language, Human Language | BBC Two |
| 1974 | Eric Laithwaite | The Engineer Through the Looking Glass | 1. Looking Glass House 2. Tweedledum and Tweedledee 3. Jam Yesterday, Jam Tomorrow 4. The Jabberwock 5. The Time has come the Walrus said 6. It's my own Invention | BBC Two |
| 1975 | Heinz Wolff | Signals from the Interior | 1. You as an engine 2. Pumps pipes and flows 3. Spikes and waves 4. Probes, sondes and sounds 5. Looking through your skin 6. Signals from the mind | BBC Two |
| 1976 | George Porter | The Natural History of a Sunbeam | 1. First Light 2. Light and Life 3. A Leaf from Nature 4. Candles from the Sun 5. Making Light Work 6. Survival Under the Sun | BBC Two |
| 1977 | Carl Sagan | The Planets | 1. The Earth as a Planet 2. The Outer Solar System and Life 3. The History of Mars 4. Mars before Viking 5. Mars after Viking 6. Planetary Systems Beyond Our Sun | BBC Two |
| 1978 | Erik Christopher Zeeman | Mathematics into Pictures | 1. Linking and Knotting 2. Numbers and Geometry 3. Infinity and Perspective 4. Games and Evolution 5. Waves and Music 6. Catastrophe and Psychology | BBC Two |
| 1979 | Eric M. Rogers | Atoms for Engineering Minds: A Circus of Experiments | 1. Getting to Know Atoms 2. Molecules in Motion 3. Electrified Atoms 4. Atoms that Explode 5. Atoms and Energy 6. Seeing Atoms at Last | BBC Two |
| 1980 | David Chilton Phillips with Max Perutz in Lecture 5 | The Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules | 1. What are chickens made of? 2. Machine tools of life 3. Muscle power 4. Eggs, genes and proteins 5. Haemoglobin: the breathing molecule 6. Molecules at work | BBC Two |
| 1981 | Reginald Victor Jones | From Magna Carta to Microchip | 1. Principles, Standards and Methods 2. The Measurement of Time 3. More and More About Less and Less 4. Onwards to the Stars 5. Measurement and Navigation in War 6. Some Impacts of Measurement on Life: And Can We Take it too Far? | BBC Two |
| 1982 | Colin Blakemore | Common Sense | 1. Making Sense 2. The Sound of Silence 3. The Sixth Sense - and the Rest 4. Show Me the Way to Go Home 5. Vive la différence 6. Enchanted Loom | BBC Two |
| 1983 | Leonard Maunder | Machines in Motion | 1. Driving Forces 2. Gathering Momentum 3. Vibration 4. Under Control 5. Fluids and Flight 6. Living Machines | BBC Two |
| 1984 | Walter Bodmer | The Message of the Genes | 1. We're All Different 2. The Spice of Life 3. Genetic Engineering 4. Bodies and Antibodies 5. Normal Cells and Cancer Cells 6. When Will Pigs Have Wings? | BBC Two |
| 1985 | John David Pye | Communicating | 1. No Man is an Island 2. Animal Talk 3. The Bionic Bat 4. The Pace of Technology 5. The Integrated Body 6. Computers | BBC Two |
| 1986 | Lewis Wolpert | Frankenstein's Quest: Development of Life | 1. First Take an Egg... 2. The Medium and the Message 3. The Right Stuff 4. Genes and Flies 5. Chain of Command 6. Growing Up and Growing Old | BBC Two |
| 1987 | John Meurig Thomas and David Phillips | Crystals and Lasers | 1. Introducing the characters 2. The architecture of crystals 3. Semiconductors, superconductors and catalysts 4. Constructing a laser 5. Applications of lasers 6. Crystals, lasers and the human body | BBC Two |
| 1988 | Gareth Roberts | The Home of the Future | 1. Appliance Science 2. Home, Safe Home 3. Electronics for Pleasure 4. Home, Smart Home 5. Mixers, Meters and Molecules | BBC Two |
| 1989 | Charles Taylor | Exploring Music | 1. What Is Music? 2. The Essence of an Instrument 3. Science, Strings and Symphonies 4. Technology, Trumpets and Tunes 5. Scales, Synthesisers and Samplers | BBC Two |
| 1990 | Malcolm Longair | Origins | 1. The Grand Design 2. The Birth of the Stars 3. The Origin of Quasars 4. The Origin of the Galaxies 5. The Origin of the Universe | BBC Two |
| 1991 | Richard Dawkins | Growing Up in the Universe | 1. Waking Up in the Universe 2. Designed and Designoid Objects 3. Climbing Mount Improbable 4. The Ultraviolet Garden 5. The Genesis of Purpose | BBC Two |
| 1992 | Charles J. M. Stirling | Our World Through the Looking Glass | 1. Man in the Mirror 2. Narwhals, Palindromes and Chesterfield Station 3. The Handed Molecule 4. Symmetry, Sensation and Sex 5. In the Hands of Giants | BBC Two |
| 1993 | Frank Close | The Cosmic Onion | 1. A is for Atoms 2. To the Centre of the Sun 3. Invaders from Outer Space 4. Anti-Matter Matters 5. An Hour to Make the Universe | BBC Two |
| 1994 | Susan Greenfield | Journey to the Centre of the Brain | 1. The Electric Ape 2. Through a Glass Darkly 3. Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble 4. The Seven Ages of the Brain 5. The Mind's I | BBC Two |
| 1995 | James Jackson | Planet Earth, An Explorer's Guide | 1. On the Edge of the World 2. Secrets of the Deep 3. Volcanoes: Melting the Earth 4. The Puzzle of the Continents 5. Waterworld | BBC Two |
| 1996 | Simon Conway Morris | The History in our Bones | 1. Staring into the Abyss 2. The Fossils Come Alive 3. The Great Dyings: Life after Death 4. Innovations And Novelty 5. Feet on the Ground, Head in the Stars: The History of Man | BBC Two |
| 1997 | Ian Stewart | The Magical Maze | 1. Sunflowers and Snowflakes 2. The Pattern of Tiny Feet 3. Outrageous Fortune 4. Chaos and Cauliflowers 5. Fearful Symmetry | BBC Two |
| 1998 | Nancy Rothwell | Staying Alive | 1. Sense and Sensitivity 2. Fats and figures 3. Chilling out 4. Times of our lives 5. Pushing the limits | BBC Two |
| 1999 | Neil F. Johnson | Arrows of Time | 1. Back to the Future 2. Catching the Waves 3. The Quantum Leap 4. Edge of Chaos 5. Shaping the Future | BBC Two |
| 2000 | Kevin Warwick | Rise of the Robots | 1. Anatomy of an Android 2. Things That Think 3. Remote Robots 4. Bionic Bodies 5. I, Robot | Channel 4 |
| 2001 | John Sulston | The Secrets of Life | 1. What is life? 2. How do I grow? 3. What am I? 4. Can we fix it? 5. Future of life? | Channel 4 |
| 2002 | Tony Ryan | Smart Stuff | 1. The Spider that Spun a Suspension Bridge 2. The Trainer That Ran Over The World 3. The Phone that Shrank the Planet 4. The Plaster that Stretches Life 5. The Ice Cream that Will Freeze Granny | Channel 4 |
| 2003 | Monica Grady | Voyage in Space and Time | 1. Blast Off 2. Mission to Mars 3. Planet Patrol 4. Collision Course 5. Anybody Out There? | Channel 4 |
| 2004 | Lloyd Peck | Antarctica | 1. Ice People 2. Ice Life 3. Ice World | Channel 4 |
| 2005 | John Krebs | The Truth About Food | 1. The ape that cooks 2. Yuck or yummy? 3. You are what you eat 4. When food goes wrong 5. Food for the future | Channel Five |
| 2006 | Marcus du Sautoy | The Num8er My5teries | 1. The curious incident of the never-ending numbers 2. The quest to predict the future 3. The story of the elusive shapes 4. The case of the uncrackable code 5. The secret of the winning streak | Channel Five |
| 2007 | Hugh Montgomery | Back from the Brink: The Science of Survival | 1. Peak Performance 2. Completely Stuffed 3. Grilled and Chilled 4. Fight, Flight and Fright 5. Luck, Genes and Stupidity | Channel Five |
| 2008 | Christopher Bishop | Hi-tech Trek | 1. Breaking the Speed Limit 2. Chips with Everything 3. The Ghost in the Machine 4. Untangling the Web 5. Digital Intelligence | Channel Five |
| 2009 | Sue Hartley | The 300-Million-Year War | 1. Plant Wars 2. The Animals Strike Back 3. Talking Trees 4. Dangerous to Delicious 5. Weapons of the Future | More4 |
| 2010 | Mark Miodownik | Size Matters | 1. Why Elephants Can't Dance but Hamsters Can Skydive 2. Why Chocolate Melts and Jet Planes Don't 3. Why Mountains Are So Small | BBC Four |
| 2011 | Bruce Hood | Meet Your Brain | 1. What's in your head? 2. Who's in charge here anyway? 3. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? | BBC Four |
| 2012 | Peter Wothers | The Modern Alchemist | 1. Air: the elixir of life 2. Water: the fountain of youth 3. Earth: the philosopher's stone | BBC Four |
| 2013 | Alison Woollard | Life Fantastic | 1. Where do I come from? 2. Am I a Mutant? 3. Could I live forever? | BBC Four |
| 2014 | Danielle George | Sparks will fly: How to Hack your Home | 1. The light bulb moment 2. Making contact 3. A new revolution | BBC Four |
| 2015 | Kevin Fong | How to survive in space | 1. Lift off! 2. Life in Orbit 3. The next frontier | BBC Four |
| 2016 | Saiful Islam | Supercharged: Fuelling the future | 1. Let there be light! 2. People Power 3. Fully charged | BBC Four |
| 2017 | Sophie Scott | The Language of Life | 1. Say it with Sound 2. Silent Messages 3. The Word | BBC Four |
| 2018 | Alice Roberts Aoife McLysaght | Who am I? | 1. Where Do I Come From? 2. What Makes Me Human? 3. What Makes Me, Me? | BBC Four |
| 2019 | Hannah Fry | Secrets and Lies: The Hidden Power of Maths | 1. How to Get Lucky 2. How to Bend the Rules 3. How Can We All Win? | BBC Four |