Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including young people, in an informative and entertaining manner. Michael Faraday initiated the first Christmas Lecture series in 1825. This came at a time when organised education for young people was scarce. Faraday presented a total of nineteen series in all.
History
The Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures were first held in 1825,[1] and have continued on an annual basis since then with the exception of during the Second World War.[2] They are hosted each year at the Royal Institution itself, with the exception of during 1929 and between 2005-2006, each time due to refurbishment of the building.[3] They were created by Michael Faraday, and he went on to host the lecture season on nineteen occasions. Other notable lecturers have included Richard Dawkins, Heinz Wolff, Sir David Attenborough and Carl Sagan. The hosts of the lectures have been predominantly male, with only four female lecturers hosting the events since their inception.[4] The naming of Kevin Warwick as the lecturer in 2000 led to protests from academics, including Dr Inman Harvey of Sussex University who described Warwick as a "buffoon" and a "joke".[5]
The props for the lectures are designed and created by the Ri's science demonstration technician, a post which Faraday previously held. 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.[4] 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.[6]
Television
The lectures have been televised since 1966.[1] They were broadcast on BBC Two from 1966–1999, Channel 4 from 2000–2004. 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 Institute 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."[7]Channel Five subsequently agreed to show the lectures from 2005–2008, an announcement which was met with derision from academics.[8] The lectures were broadcast on More4 in 2009. From 2010 onwards, the lectures have been broadcast on BBC Four.[9]
List of Christmas Lectures
The following is a complete list of the Christmas Lectures as of December 2012[update]:
| Year | Lecturer(s) | Title of series |
|---|---|---|
| 1825 | John Millington | Natural Philosophy |
| 1826 | J. Wallis | Astronomy |
| 1827 | Michael Faraday | Chemistry |
| 1828 | J. Wood | Architecture |
| 1829 | Michael Faraday | Electricity |
| 1830 | Thomas Webster | Geology |
| 1831 | James Rennie | Zoology |
| 1832 | Michael Faraday | Chemistry |
| 1833 | John Lindley | Botany |
| 1834 | William Thomas Brande | Chemistry |
| 1835 | Michael Faraday | Electricity |
| 1836 | William Thomas Brande | Chemistry of the Gases |
| 1837 | Michael Faraday | Chemistry |
| 1838 | J. Wallis | Astronomy |
| 1839 | William Thomas Brande | The Chemistry of the Atmosphere and the Ocean |
| 1840 | John Frederic Daniell | The First Principles of Franklinic Electricity |
| 1841 | Michael Faraday | The Rudiments of Chemistry |
| 1842 | William Thomas Brande | The Chemistry of the Non-Metallic Elements |
| 1843 | Michael Faraday | First Principles of Electricity |
| 1844 | William Thomas Brande | The Chemistry of the Gases |
| 1845 | Michael Faraday | The Rudiments of Chemistry |
| 1846 | J. Wallis | The Rudiments of Astronomy |
| 1847 | William Thomas Brande | The Elements of Organic Chemistry |
| 1848 | Michael Faraday | The Chemical History of a Candle |
| 1849 | Robert Walker | The Properties of Matter and the Laws of Motion |
| 1850 | William Thomas Brande | The Chemistry of Coal |
| 1851 | Michael Faraday | Attractive Forces |
| 1852 | Michael Faraday | Chemistry |
| 1853 | Michael Faraday | Voltaic Electricity |
| 1854 | Michael Faraday | The Chemistry of Combustion |
| 1855 | Michael Faraday | The Distinctive Properties of the Common Metals |
| 1856 | Michael Faraday | Attractive Forces |
| 1857 | Michael Faraday | Static Electricity |
| 1858 | Michael Faraday | The Metallic Properties |
| 1859 | Michael Faraday | The Various Forces of Matter and their Relations to Each Other |
| 1860 | Michael Faraday | The Chemical History of a Candle |
| 1861 | John Tyndall | Light |
| 1862 | Edward Frankland | Air and Water |
| 1863 | John Tyndall | Electricity at Rest and Electricity in Motion |
| 1864 | Edward Frankland | The Chemistry of a Coal |
| 1865 | John Tyndall | Sound |
| 1866 | Edward Frankland | The Chemistry of Gases |
| 1867 | John Tyndall | Heat and Cold |
| 1868 | William Odling | The Chemical Changes of Carbon |
| 1869 | John Tyndall | Light |
| 1870 | William Odling | Burning and Unburning |
| 1871 | John Tyndall | Ice, Water, Vapour and Air |
| 1872 | William Odling | Air and Gas |
| 1873 | John Tyndall | The Motion and Sensation of Sound |
| 1874 | John Hall Gladstone | The Voltaic Battery |
| 1875 | John Tyndall | Experimental Electricity |
| 1876 | John Hall Gladstone | The Chemistry of Fire |
| 1877 | John Tyndall | Heat, Visible and Invisible |
| 1878 | James Dewar | A Soap Bubble |
| 1879 | John Tyndall | Water and Air |
| 1880 | James Dewar | Atoms |
| 1881 | Robert Stawell Ball | The Sun, the Moon and the Planets |
| 1882 | John Tyndall | Light and the Eye |
| 1883 | James Dewar | Alchemy in Relation to Modern Science |
| 1884 | John Tyndall | The Sources of Electricity |
| 1885 | James Dewar | The Story of a Meteorite |
| 1886 | James Dewar | The Chemistry of Light and Photography |
| 1887 | Robert Stawell Ball | Astronomy |
| 1888 | James Dewar | Clouds and Cloudland |
| 1889 | Arthur Rücker | Electricity |
| 1890 | James Dewar | Frost and Fire |
| 1891 | John Gray McKendrick | Life in Motion; or the Animal Machine |
| 1892 | Robert Stawell Ball | Astronomy |
| 1893 | James Dewar | Air: Gaseous and Liquid |
| 1894 | John Ambrose Fleming | The Work of an Electric Current |
| 1895 | John Gray McKendrick | Sound, Hearing and Speech |
| 1896 | Sylvanus Phillips Thompson | Light, Visible and Invisible |
| 1897 | Oliver Lodge | The Principles of the Electric Telegraph |
| 1898 | Robert Stawell Ball | Astronomy |
| 1899 | Charles Vernon Boys | Fluids in Motion and at Rest |
| 1900 | Robert Stawell Ball | Great Chapters from the Book of Nature |
| 1901 | John Ambrose Fleming | Waves and Ripples in Water, Air and Aether |
| 1902 | Henry Selby Hele-Shaw | Locomotion : On the Earth, Through the Water, in the Air |
| 1903 | Edwin Ray Lankester | Extinct Animals |
| 1904 | Henry Cunynghame | Ancient and Modern Methods of Measuring Time |
| 1905 | Herbert Hall Turner | Astronomy |
| 1906 | William Duddell | Signalling to a Distance |
| 1907 | David Gill | Astronomy, Old and New |
| 1908 | W. Stirling | The Wheel of Life |
| 1909 | William Duddell | Modern Electricity |
| 1910 | Sylvanus Phillips Thompson | Sound: Musical and Non-Musical |
| 1911 | Peter Chalmers Mitchell | The Childhood of Animals |
| 1912 | James Dewar | Christmas Lecture Epilogues |
| 1913 | Herbert Hall Turner | A Voyage in Space |
| 1914 | Charles Vernon Boys | Science in the Home |
| 1915 | Herbert Hall Turner | Wireless Messages from the Stars |
| 1916 | A. Keith | The Human Machine Which All Must Work |
| 1917 | John Ambrose Fleming | Our Useful Servants : Magnetism and Electricity |
| 1918 | D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson | The Fish of the Sea |
| 1919 | William Henry Bragg | The World of Sound |
| 1920 | John Arthur Thomson | The Haunts of Life |
| 1921 | John Ambrose Fleming | Electric Waves and Wireless Telephony |
| 1922 | Herbert Hall Turner | Six Steps Up the Ladder to the Stars |
| 1923 | William Henry Bragg | Concerning the Nature of Things |
| 1924 | F. Balfour Browne | Concerning the Habits of Insects |
| 1925 | William Henry Bragg | Old Trades and New Knowledge |
| 1926 | Archibald Vivian Hill | Nerves and Muscles: How We Feel and Move |
| 1927 | Edward Andrade | Engines |
| 1928 | A. Wood | Sound Waves and their Uses |
| 1929 | Stephen Glanville | How Things Were Done in Ancient Egypt |
| 1930 | A.M. Tyndall | The Electric Spark |
| 1931 | William Lawrence Bragg | The Universe of Light |
| 1932 | Alexander Oliver Rankine | The Round of the Waters |
| 1933 | James Hopwood Jeans | Through Space and Time |
| 1934 | William Lawrence Bragg | Electricity |
| 1935 | C.E.K. Mees | Photography |
| 1936 | G.I. Taylor | Ships |
| 1937 | Julian Huxley | Rare Animals and the Disappearance of Wild Life |
| 1938 | James Kendall | Young Chemists and Great Discoveries |
| 1939–1942 | No lectures due to the Second World War | |
| 1943 | Edward Andrade | Vibrations and Waves |
| 1944 | Harold Spencer Jones | Astronomy in our Daily Life |
| 1945 | Robert Watson-Watt | Wireless |
| 1946 | H. Hartridge | Colours and How We See Them |
| 1947 | Eric K. Rideal | Chemical Reactions: How They Work |
| 1948 | Frederic Bartlett | The Mind at Work and Play |
| 1949 | Percy Dunsheath | The Electric Current |
| 1950 | Edward Andrade | Waves and Vibrations |
| 1951 | James Gray | How Animals Move |
| 1952 | F. Sherwood Taylor | How Science Has Grown |
| 1953 | J.A. Ratcliffe | The Uses of Radio Waves |
| 1954 | Frank Whittle | The Story of Petroleum |
| 1955 | Harry W. Melville | Big Molecules |
| 1956 | H. Baines | Photography |
| 1957 | J. Huxley and J. Fisher | Birds |
| 1958 | J.A. Ratcliffe, J.M. Stagg, R.L.F. Boyd, Graham Sutton, G.E.R. Deacon, G. de Q. Robin |
The International Geophysical Year |
| 1959 | Thomas Allibone | The Release and Use of Atomic Energy |
| 1960 | V.E. Cosslett | Seeing the Very Small |
| 1961 | William Lawrence Bragg | Electricity |
| 1962 | R.E.D. Bishop | Vibration |
| 1963 | Ronald King | Energy |
| 1964 | Desmond Morris | Animal Behaviour |
| 1965 | Bernard Lovell, Francis Smith, Martin Ryle, Antony Hewish |
Exploration of the Universe |
| 1966 | Eric Laithwaite | The Engineer in Wonderland |
| 1967 | Richard L. Gregory | The Intelligent Eye |
| 1968 | Philip Morrison | Gulliver's Laws: The Physics of Large and Small |
| 1969 | George Porter | Time Machines |
| 1970 | John Napier | Monkeys Without Tails: A Giraffe's Eye-view of Man |
| 1971 | Charles Taylor | Sounds of Music: the Science of Tones and Tune |
| 1972 | G.G. Gouriet | Ripples in the Ether: The Science of Radio Communication |
| 1973 | David Attenborough | The Language of Animals |
| 1974 | Eric Laithwaite | The Engineer Through the Looking Glass |
| 1975 | Heinz Wolff | Signals from the Interior |
| 1976 | George Porter | The Natural History of a Sunbeam |
| 1977 | Carl Sagan | The Planets |
| 1978 | Erik Christopher Zeeman | Mathematics into Pictures |
| 1979 | E.M. Rogers | Atoms for Engineering Minds: A Circus of Experiments |
| 1980 | David Chilton Phillips with Max Perutz in Lecture 5 |
The Chicken, the Egg and the Molecules |
| 1981 | Reginald Victor Jones | From Magna Carta to Microchip |
| 1982 | Colin Blakemore | Common Sense |
| 1983 | Leonard Maunder | Machines in Motion |
| 1984 | Walter Bodmer | The Message of the Genes |
| 1985 | John David Pye | Communicating |
| 1986 | Lewis Wolpert | Frankenstein's Quest: Development of Life |
| 1987 | John Meurig Thomas and David Phillips | Crystals and Lasers |
| 1988 | Gareth Roberts | The Home of the Future |
| 1989 | Charles Taylor | Exploring Music |
| 1990 | Malcolm Longair | Origins |
| 1991 | Richard Dawkins | Growing Up in the Universe |
| 1992 | Charles J.M. Stirling | Our World Through the Looking Glass |
| 1993 | Frank Close | The Cosmic Onion |
| 1994 | Susan Greenfield | Journey to the Centre of the Brain |
| 1995 | James Jackson | Planet Earth, An Explorer's Guide |
| 1996 | Simon Conway Morris | The History in our Bones |
| 1997 | Ian Stewart | The Magical Maze |
| 1998 | Nancy Rothwell | Staying Alive |
| 1999 | Neil F. Johnson | Arrows of Time |
| 2000 | Kevin Warwick | Rise of the Robots |
| 2001 | John Sulston | The Secrets of Life |
| 2002 | Tony Ryan | Smart Stuff |
| 2003 | Monica Grady | Voyage in Space and Time |
| 2004 | Lloyd Peck | To the End of the Earth: Surviving Antarctic Extremes |
| 2005 | John Krebs | The Truth About Food |
| 2006 | Marcus du Sautoy | The Num8er My5teries |
| 2007 | Hugh Montgomery | Back from the Brink: The Science of Survival |
| 2008 | Christopher Bishop | Hi-tech Trek |
| 2009 | Sue Hartley | The 300-Million-Year War |
| 2010 | Mark Miodownik | Size Matters |
| 2011 | Bruce Hood | Meet Your Brain |
| 2012 | Peter Wothers | The Modern Alchemist |
Citations
- ^ a b Cole, Rupert (14 December 2012). "Science and Christmas: a forgotten Victorian romance". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ "History of the Christmas Lectures". The Royal Institution. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ Highfield, Roger (16 July 2007). "Through the keyhole of the Royal Institution". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ a b Baxter, Elizabeth (18 December 2009). "The secrets behind the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ Lusher, Adam (17 September 2000). "Royal Institution derided for 'joke' lecturer". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ Sample, Ian (12 August 2010). "Cash-strapped Royal Institution scales back Christmas lectures". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ Adam, David (26 March 2004). "Christmas lectures threat". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ Fazackerley, Anna (4 February 2005). "Academics scorn TV lecture move". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ "Science lectures back on BBC". The Scotsman. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
References
- "Ri Christmas Lectures" (PDF). The Royal Instition. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
External links
- The Royal Institution
- The Ri Channel, Watch past Christmas Lectures online
- Royal Institution Christmas Lectures at BBC Programmes
- Royal Institution Christmas Lectures at the Internet Movie Database
