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.

The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including young people, in an informative and entertaining manner.

Michael Faraday conceived and initiated the Christmas Lecture series in 1825, at a time when organised education for young people was scarce.

[1] The Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures were first held in 1825,[2] and have continued on an annual basis since then except for four years during the Second World War.

[3] They have been hosted each year at the Royal Institution itself, except in 1929 and between 2005 and 2006, each time due to refurbishment of the building.

[4] 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 (1964), Eric Laithwaite (1966 & 1974), Sir George Porter (1969 & 1976), Sir David Attenborough (1973), Heinz Wolff (1975), Carl Sagan (1977), Richard Dawkins (1991), Baroness Susan Greenfield (1994), Dame Nancy Rothwell (1998), Monica Grady (2003), Sue Hartley (2009), Alison Woollard (2013), Danielle George (2014), and Saiful Islam (2016).

[5][6][7] 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 are not settled until September, with the recordings made in mid-December.

[5] 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, and this resulted in a reduction from five sessions to three.

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.

"[10] Channel Five subsequently agreed to show the lectures from 2005 to 2008, an announcement which was met with derision from academics.

[12] In 1994, Professor Susan Greenfield became the first female scientist to present the Christmas Lectures.

The first non-white science lecturer was Kevin Fong in 2015, and in August 2020 it was announced that Professor Christopher Jackson would jointly present the 2020 lecture series, thus becoming the first black scientist to do so.

[13] In January 2022, the RI launched an appeal to trace copies of those televised lectures which are missing from the BBC's archives, these being the complete series of five lectures each from 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970 and 1971, plus one episode of David Attenborough's 1973 lectures, "The language of animals".

[14] The following is a complete list of the Christmas Lectures from 1825 to 1965: The following is a list of televised Christmas Lectures from 1966 onward as of December 2023[update]: 2.

Lilliput and Brobdingnag since the Industrial Revolution 5.

Fancy having to climb trees in order to eat 4.

Man chooses a sensible place to live at last 5.

Simple Signs and Complicated Communications ( lost from archives ) 5.

The Outer Solar System and Life 3.

Narwhals, Palindromes and Chesterfield Station 3.

The Great Dyings: Life after Death 4.

Feet on the Ground, Head in the Stars: The History of Man 2.

The Ice Cream that Will Freeze Granny 2.

Why Chocolate Melts and Jet Planes Don't 3.

Michael Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture in 1856
A close-up image of a candle showing the wick and the various parts of the flame; Michael Faraday lectured on " The Chemical History of a Candle ".
The Lecture Theatre today