The Shape of Shells: She Sells Self-Similar Spiral Seashells on the Seashore

It is impossible not to marvel at the beauty and regularity of seashells. These intricate forms are crafted by a humble architect—the living mollusc—building them layer by layer. Despite their remarkable diversity, the fundamental geometry of most seashells is governed by simple mathematical rules, resulting in elegant three-dimensional self-similar structures. Beyond this basic framework, molluscs […]

Alien Earths: What Makes Us Special?

Sometime in 2026, we will discover our 10000th exoplanet, a world around a distant star. This population of worlds has proved remarkably diverse, but hasn’t produced any world like our own. We ask whether this is a coincidence, or whether it could be that our own world is special – and how we might investigate […]

Music of Light and Colour

“Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.” — Kandinsky How do we ‘see’ music, or ‘hear’ images? From Newton’s colour scales assigning tones to the rainbow, artists and composers have long explored the deep connections between sound and vision. Kandinsky’s Compositions and Improvisations; Klee’s polyphonic […]

From Mars with Love: Postcards from 50 Years of Exploring The Red Planet

During the fifty years since the launch of the Viking spacecraft to Mars, our view of the red planet has changed from hostile desert to a world which was once covered in water, and which may just possibly sustain life. Lavishly illustrated with the latest images from the fleet of spacecraft that have explored our […]

Hunting for neutrinos (with MicroBooNE!)

Prof Kirsty Duffy discussed the recent publication from the MicroBooNE project. You can find their latest paper published in Nature here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158… Thumbnail photo credits: Photo by Reidar Hahn, Fermilab https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/our-people/duffy

How Does Mathematics Last? Heritage and Heritage-making in Mathematics

How is mathematical knowledge recorded and preserved across generations? Contrary to the idea that mathematics itself is somehow ‘permanent’, this talk explored heritage-making in mathematics, that is, the people, institutions, and material objects that can give mathematical ideas longevity. It explored the heritage-making found in two very different types of French nineteenth-century libraries: those of […]

Asteroid Adventures

Asteroids were for years considered ‘celestial vermin’ – objects which got in the way of more interesting fodder for astronomers. Now, they are central to our Solar System’s story, the building blocks from which planets are made, and capable of telling us the history of the last five billion years. This lecture considered two missions […]

The Biggest Cosmic Map

Mapping the stars is, perhaps, the oldest of astronomical pursuits, but it has been perfected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. The exquisitely precise map it provides shows the positions and movements of the nearest two billion stars. Starting with a history of mapping the cosmos, this lecture outlined the new and dynamic history […]

Come With Me Inside a Black Hole

What happens if you fall into a black hole? In this mind-expanding lecture, Carlo Rovelli, world-renowned physicist and bestselling author, took us on a journey inside a black hole—exploring time dilation, the warping of space, and the potential for black holes to transform into white holes. From Einstein’s equations to the cutting edge of quantum […]

Touching the Sun

Despite its familiarity, the Sun is a very different presence from the friendly yellow circle in children’s paintings. Our star is a broiling mass of plasma, with its powerful magnetic fields, twisted by its rotation, capable of producing dramatic events of spectacular beauty and power. Using results from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – the fastest […]