London events for people with curious minds.
Monday 28 November
MED-TECH: Christofer Toumazou visits the Royal Society to discuss bio-inspired technologies for countering medical problems, from cochlear implants to an artificial pancreas. FREE, 6.30pm
BOOKS: The Science Fiction Book Club meets tonight to discuss Frankenstein (location given upon registering). Interested in attending a future event and want to get reading? Here's the future line-up: 12 Dec, City by Clifford D Simak; 9/23 Jan, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood; 30 Jan, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs; 13/27 Feb, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick. £2, 7pm
ART HISTORY: Taxidermy was a significant art form during Victorian times, bringing together the fruits of exploration, the rise of natural sciences, and the colonial mindset. Join the Art History In The Pub gang in the Monarch (Camden Town) to learn more about this out-of-favour craft. FREE, 7.30pm
COOL PR: Millbank Tower is bathed in a '4-D' light show this evening to promote some phone or other. Sounds impressive though. FREE, 9pm
Tuesday 29 November
ASTRONOMY: The sun has its highs and lows just like the rest of us. Hear about these solar tantrums in a UCL lunch hour lecture. FREE, 1.15pm
SKULLS: The Grant Museum hosts an evening of skullduggery, probing the evolution of the head bones and showing onlookers how to identify a skull. FREE, 6.30pm
WIKILEAKS: Hear the story of the influential whistleblowing site at an LSE lecture. FREE, 6.30pm
CLEVER PEOPLE: Does society need brainiacs in the mould of Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre? And who would their modern intellectual equivalents be? Join the Big Ideas debate upstairs at the Wheatsheaf to discuss. FREE, 8pm
Thursday 1 December
ROBOTS: The Science Museum's four-day mechanical festival Robotville begins today. 20 different 'bots are on show, from robopets to domestic droids. None of them have evil applications. Not yet. We're also told there'll be an eight-foot Optimus Prime made out of 'futuristic LEGO'. FREE, 10am-6pm (runs till end of Sunday)
VIRUSES: If robots aren't killing us, it's viruses. But a talk at UCL this lunchtime looks at ways to use viruses as weapons against disease. FREE, 1.15pm
TASTE: Explore the neuroscience and philosophy of taste at LSE tonight. FREE, 6.3opm
EVIL ROBOTS: Will our metal-legged friends take over the world? Unless Hollywood has lied to us, most definitely yes. Hear more about the impending cyberconquest at the Dana Centre were a panel of carbon-based lifeforms discuss the robopocalypse. FREE, 7pm
Friday 2 December
WEB: Wendy Hall, who was there right at the start, discusses the first 20 years of the World Wide Web (as we used to call it). That's at the Royal Society. FREE, 1pm
SCIENCE/RELIGION: The often and currently fraught relationship between science and religion is explored in a two-day event at Wellcome Collection. Joins authors, scientists, musicians and philosophers for the Holy Quarks seminar. £30/£25, 7pm-9pm (Fri), 10.30am-5pm (Sat)
Saturday 3 December
FILM: The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich hosts a special weekend of Arctic films, including footage of early expeditions, movies shot by inuit and insights into the BBC's current Frozen Planet documentary series. FREE (for ticket holders to the High Arctic exhibition), 12-5pm
GEEKERTAINMENT: A veritable who's-who of top science communicators and entertainers gathers at the Royal Institution tonight to celebrate 180 years of the Christmas Lectures. Robin Ince is there, of course, joined by the likes of Simon Singh, Bruce Hood (who will deliver this year's Lectures), Adam Rutherford, Helen Arney, Matt Parker and Helen Keen. £30, 7pm
Sunday 4 December
BAD SCIENCE: Martin Robbins is at Conway Hall to give an overview of dangerous pseudo-medical practices beyond the Western world, from homeopaths in Haiti to AIDS denialism in South Africa. £3, 11am
What did we miss? Let us know below, or tip us off about future events by emailing [email protected].
