Professor Alan Bassindale Friday11th April2025 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, Bath, and on Zoom The image is the flea from Micrographia by Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS, 1635-1703, was the first professional scientist and he played a key role in developing contemporary experimental science. He was an outstanding scientist, engineer, astronomer (laying foundations for William […]
The Davy lecture (The Royal Society of Chemistry) Professor Mike G. Edmunds Friday 2nd May 2025 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, Bath, and on Zoom The infrared image of the Eagle Nebula was obtained using JWST. Stars are born inside the dense, blue-gray “pillars of creation” – vast clouds of dense interstellar gas and dust. […]
The William Herschel Lecture Dr Robert Fosbury Friday 14th March 2025 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, Bath, and on Zoom Life on planet Earth has evolved for billions of years in the presence of light from the Sun. Over recent decades, radical changes have taken place in the lighting of the built environment which have, […]
Penllergare Equatorial Observatory Stuart Rice, General Manager, The Penllergare Trust Tuesday 11th February 2025 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, Bath, and on Zoom The image is a view of the observatory © Stuart Rice John Dillwyn Llewelyn presented his daughter, Thereza, with an Observatory on her 16th birthday, helping spark a family interest in astronomy […]
Crystallising white dwarfs, spinning minor planets, and our Galaxy’s dark matter halo Professor Michael Perryman The image shows the integration of the M1 primary mirror on the torus of the Gaia spacecraft © EADS Astrium SAS, France Science populariser Ethan Siegel has described the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission as “One of the most remarkable […]
From the Discovery of Uranus to the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland Professor Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium The image is a sketch of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1845. William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus in 1781– the first new planet found by humanity since […]
The Caroline Herschel Prize Lecture 2024 7.00 pm Wednesday 20th November 2024 at the 10E 0.17 Lecture Theatre, University of Bath and online via Teams Dr Heloise StevanceUniversity of Oxford Dr Stevance is in her second postdoc at the University of Oxford afterseveral years at the University of Auckland. Her range of astrophysicsexpertise is impressive. […]
Professor Mike Cruise The image is an artist’s impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars.Credit: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL In 1916 Albert Einstein predicted that his new theory of gravitation, now called General Relativity, included wave modes which could propagate in vacuum a little like electromagnetism. These modes- the “gravitational” waves- were predicted by Einstein […]
Hugh Allen 2024 is the bicentenary of the birth of Sir William Huggins, the Victorian pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy. The talk is a celebration of William’s life and work, and also of the contribution of his wife and scientific collaborator Margaret Huggins. By using extracts from William and Margaret’s scientific papers and correspondence, and illustrated […]
Join us for a packed day of talks exploring the life and work of Victorian polymath, Sir John Herschel. Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), son of the astronomer William Herschel and nephew to Caroline Herschel, was the most influential natural philosopher of the Victorian period. His long career encompassed astronomy, mathematics, physics, geology, chemistry, as well […]