iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The @rigb.org's Huxley portrait is **considerably** heavier than it looks. Fortunately, the rest of the evening belonged to @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social, a menagerie of extinct soft toys, and a fascinating exploration of extinction & de-extinction. 🎥 youtu.be/pISdCeZCYEg #histsci #envhist

youtu.be

The problem with de-extinction | with Sadiah Qureshi

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

0124

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

A magic mirror looks perfectly ordinary until you reflect light from it onto a surface. Its "flat" face actually hides micron-deep curvature from the casting and polishing process. Invisible to eye or touch, but light never lies! 📐💡 Filming with Michael @bristoluni.bsky.social was so much fun 🤩 🪞

180

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Never a better occasion to have a gander at these beautiful plates in the @rigb.org’s collection. Taken by Warren de la Rue in 1860, they sought to settle the mysteries of the “tentacles of light” that only appeared during totalities…. 👉 www.rigb.org/explore-scie... 🧪🔭🌚 #histsci #eclipse

One of De la Rue's 1860 eclipse plates. You can see, to the left of the Moon looking at the photo, the bright "tentacles of light.” At the top, we can see notations on location and exposure time. Credit: Royal Institution Archives

0167

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

British Society for the Philosophy of Science @thebsps.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

We have published an open letter to the University of Exeter Executive Board expressing our concerns about proposed redundancies. Read it here: www.thebsps.org/news/open-le...

thebsps.org

Open Letter to University of Exeter Executive Board regarding proposed redundancies

- BSPS

07543

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

When people tell me they love the Royal Institute

Man leaning back holding a pen in the air saying “Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?”

140

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The Seventh AIP Early-Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences will take place in Toronto, Canada, June 21-25, 2027. Supplementary travel funding provided. The call for submissions is now open and closes November 15. Details here: www.aip.org/history/earl...

11511

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 14/07/2026

ARCHIVIST Q&A TIME 🗃️ 🧪 We've been the home of science for over 200 years. Our collection is a treasure trove of science history...and we want to share the best bits with you! Now is your chance to pick Fran's brain and ask your questions—we'll answer a selection in a video! Pop your Qs below 👇

Fran is a young woman with short blond hair. She's standing in the Ri archive, which is lit by sodium bulbs which give the room a yellow tint. She is smiling and holding a piece of paper with text saying "ask the archivist"

352

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

You know it’s #eshs-hss when, despite your best efforts, it is simply impossible to attend even half of everything you’d like to

static.klipy.com

Confused Woman with Math Formulas

ALT: Confused Woman with Math Formulas

060

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

📣 Are you on a DTP funded by BBSRC, NERC, MRC, AHRC, or EPSRC?? Come intern with us!

11110

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 14/05/2026

What if extinction wasn’t forever? Join historian of science Sadiah Qureshi as she explores de-extinction, rewilding, and how science is reshaping our understanding of loss, survival, and life itself.

rigb.org

Redefining extinction

Author Sadiah Qureshi explores our relationship with extinction, how our understanding of it has changed, an

032

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Super excited to have @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social join us at the Ri! Book your tickets* here👇 *big discounts for members, students etc. #histsci #science #scicomm 🧪 🦋

031

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Happy birthday to David Attenborough! 🎉 One of the few to have ever come out on top against the unholy trinity of live tv, children, and animals… take a look back at his 1973 @rigb.org Xmas Lectures, & check out a never before seen transcript of the missing lecture 4! www.rigb.org/explore-scie...

rigb.org

Sir David Attenborough at the Royal Institution

To celebrate Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday, we have compiled all his greatest contributions to the Royal Institutio

040

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Chemistry World @chemistryworld.com · 29/04/2026

‘By discussing the past, we get to appreciate not only the success of our best current science but also the effort that is required to study nature and its workings’, writes @vanessaseifert.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/how-...

chemistryworld.com

How much history should there be in science education?

Understanding how previous shifts in scientific understanding occurred affects how we view current theories

0106

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol @scicommsuwe.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

📢 We are offering a bursary of £1500 which will part-fund a place on our MSc Science Communication. The bursary is in memory of Professor Frank Burnet who established and was the first Director of the SCU and a key founder of the MSc. Apply for the bursary www.uwe.ac.uk/courses/fund... #scicomm

113

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Lovely little @rigb.org archive find - in the back of James Dewar’s pamphlet for his 1883 Juvenile Lectures on Alchemy & its relation to Modern Science is this wonderful pull-out timeline of physical and chemical philosophers… beginning with “Hermes??” and (of course) finishing with Faraday 🧪

Archive desk, zoomed out, showing archival papers, focusing on a flap at the back of a late 19th century booklet. It is next to an archive box and there are two “weight” snakes securing them to the table. Copyright Royal Institution Archives DE11/3/1

A zoomed in image of the flap “Chronology of Physical & Chemical Philosophers” Copyright Royal Institution Archives DE11/3/1

071

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 17/03/2026

"It looks magic, but it's not, it's good science" 🦋 For 36 years, Bill Coates was the master of science demonstrations behind the Christmas Lectures. (1/2)

191

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Otto Warburg's grant application: "I need 10,000 marks".

Note from Otto Warburg asking for money.

47118

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Derbyshire Record Office @derbyshiredro.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

In the early 19th Century, Eleanor Anne Porden, a published poet with a passionate interest in science, made these short notes about lectures she attended at the Royal Institution. #BritishScienceWeek

Handwritten notes in black ink. They say: Both the new metals unite so greedily with oxygen that they inflame in combination. Potassium is lighter than water and flames as it floats. Sodium is rather heavier and burns at the bottom.
The metals of the earths and alcalies can only be preserved by covering them with naptha, a spirit produced by the distillation of aether, and the lightest of all known fluids.

182

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

King's CHoSTM @kingschostm.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

📣Interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree in the history of STM? Wishing to apply to our Hans Rausing Scholarship? Then this webinar is for you! Pursuing a research degree in the history of STM Thursday 12 March 17.00-18.00 (GMT) Register via Eventbrite ⬇️ #histsci #histtech #histmed #histstm

eventbrite.co.uk

Webinar: Pursuing a research degree in the history of STM

A webinar to orient prospective students on pursuing an MA and PhD in the history of STM, and how to apply to the Hans Rausing Scholarship.

1710

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Floris Winckel @fwinckel.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

The Division for the History of Science and Technology is running another ECR workshop series in the second half of 2026. I really enjoyed taking part in the first series, which covered an impressively broad list of topics, from writing book reviews and grant proposals to...

dhstweb.org

DHST Announces Second Early Career Scholars Workshop Series in 2026 – Division of History of Science and Technology

133

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 19/02/2026

Are you a researcher in the field of history of science, technology and medicine? There's still time to submit your paper for the #NotesAndRecords essay award. Submit your research by 28 February 2026: buff.ly/dedMm93 #HistSci #HistSTM #HistMed

0115

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Tipper was incredible - not only was she a Research Assistant in the DFRL at @rigb.org in the early 1920s, but simultaneously worked at the Royal School of Mines AND assisted GI Taylor at @cambridgephysics.bsky.social

1102

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Congrats to @rigb.org’s chair, SRC!

021

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 28/01/2026

Fantastic news: our historic lecture Theatre is set for a major refurbishment later this year, thanks to support from The Wolfson Foundation! The works will include new seats, restoration of the iconic lecture desk, state-of-the-art audio-visual infrastructure and accessibility enhancements.

A toolbox resting on the lecture desk in the Ri Theatre

3171

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

The last of the red leaves 🍂 📍 Kanazawa Castle Park, Ishikawa, Japan

A single red maple tree at the top of Kanazawa Castle/Kenrokuen Gardens, overlooking the city with mountains in the distance

150

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Nature @nature.com · 08/12/2025

From flaming raisins to robots and rockets, the institution’s Christmas Lectures have educated and entertained for two centuries go.nature.com/3Yeu8v3

go.nature.com

How the Royal Institution made science a seasonal spectacle

From flaming raisins to robots and rockets, the institution’s Christmas Lectures have educated and entertained for two centuries.

0188

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Had the best day at the Nature and Science Museum in Tokyo today. A productive time researching Ayrton as well as getting sidetracked by everything else! 🐋 🦕 🌱 🚀

A giant sculpture of a blue whale outside the museum, surrounded by ginkgo trees in yellow and red tones.

Entrance to the exhibition “quantum century” with black and green text on a white banner.

A curved glass specimen wall containing samples of plants and ferns.

The “360” exhibition centerpiece - a dinosaur skeleton and a space ship exhibited together.

170

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

At Cambridge I worked with @whipplemuseum.bsky.social and @chuarchives.bsky.social to explore why Bacon’s cell ended up in space 🚀 from Grove’s letter we see that the basic principles were the same - tho the composition of the Bacon’s nickel membrane was kept under the official secrets act 🤫

072

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Oxford, you’ve been an absolute treat! Thanks for having me @bodleian.ox.ac.uk - I’ll be back 👀 @stannescollege.bsky.social

Picture of the bridge of sighs in Oxford, early afternoon in autumn. Everything is in hues of gold.

031

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

📢 JOB ALERT 📢 Come work with me! @rigb.org is hiring an Archivist, full time, 2 year, fixed-term contract, hybrid working possible. Please share widely! More details 👇 www.rigb.org/about-us/wor...

rigb.org

Work with us

Help us to create more opportunities for everyone to enjoy and benefit from science.

01416

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I definitely recommend *chequing* out the finer details of this note if you have one! Lots of lovely little science details (even if the xmas lectures year turned out to be wrong…) And rumour has it the men in the front row of the audience are from the Bank of England 🤔

010

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Nice little break from transcribing letters: found these doodles of Faraday @rigb.org and Herschel in a letter from novelist Maria Edgeworth (1802-1869) in 1844 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, writing about Faraday’s Xmas lectures on electricity - pretty solid likenesses to be honest!

3/4 sketch portraits of Herschel (left) and Faraday (right) on a small piece of paper, laid on top of a letter. MS. eng. lett. C. 718, fold. 138-143. Bodleian Libraries. Digital surrogate online.

14019

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Not quite sure how I’ve been here nearly a week already?! @bodleian.ox.ac.uk’s Rad Cam looking lovely in the sun ☀️

The Bodliean’s Radcliffe Camera, a sandstone cylindrical building, behind a wrought iron fence.

072

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 10/09/2025

To celebrate 200 years of Royal Institution Discourses, our friends at @rigb.org have released a newly-digitised version of a 1970 Discourse given by Kathleen Lonsdale FRS on 'Women in Science'. Listen to this fascinating lecture now: #WomenInSTEM www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzlA...

youtube.com

Women in Science - Kathleen Lonsdale's 1970 Discourse at the Royal Institution

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

22212

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

The wonderful @rigb.org Demo Team getting the recognition they deserve ✨ 🧪

030

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 29/08/2025

We are so proud of our amazing Demo Team for being recognised as "global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations" with the 2025 @royalsociety.org Hauksbee Award. 👏 We can't wait to show you what they have in store for the 200th anniversary of the Christmas Lectures!

rigb.org

Royal Institution Demonstration Team announced as winners of the Royal Society Hauksbee Award

The Demonstration Team at the Royal Institution (Ri) has been honoured with the 2025 Hauksbee Award for being ‘global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations’, it was announced by the Royal…

2166

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

This is not only a serious issue for historians and not only a serious issue for academics (although it is that). It's a development that's also deleterious for the GLAM sector, for example, and part of a much larger trend nationally and internationally to restrict and dismantle access to archives.

observer.co.uk

Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to...

Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research

5195105

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

@naomioreskes.bsky.social gave this *excellent* interview at @rigb.org back in May. A great primer on a lot of big problems in science - trust, disinformation, freedom - and why the onus is on scientists 🧪

youtu.be

Misinformation and distrust in science - with Naomi Oreskes

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

23417

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Congrats to the two incoming Freer Fellows! 🥳

030

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

@naomioreskes.bsky.social's brilliant @rigb.org lecture: how military secrecy delayed plate tectonic theory for 3 decades - a narrative that remains ever relevant to science today... ⚒️ 🧪 #histsci #skystorians #science #academicsky #STS #geoscience @miguelohn.bsky.social

youtu.be

Rethinking the origin of plate tectonics - with Naomi Oreskes

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

23212

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Toroid is love, Toroid is life. 🧪

020

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Nothing quite like ordering up a mystery box of “glass slides” from the JJ Thomson collection at @trincolllibcam.bsky.social and finding this 🤩 Slides from Thomson’s 1921 discourse“chemical combination & the structure of the molecule” at @rigb.org in perfect condition 🧪 ⚛️ beats PowerPoint any day…

Top down view of a red glass slide box, with “R.I Lecture 1921” written in ink over the yellowing label on top (containing information about the plate, Imperial “process” plates). The box is slightly worn around the edges.

1142

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Michael D. Barton @darwinsbulldog.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

John Tyndall, Irish physicist, mountaineer & science popularizer, was born #OTD c. 1820. We've published 13 vols. of his letters thus far, 14 this fall & 15-21 in the works: bit.ly/4fluhVd @upittpress.bsky.social @rolandjackson.bsky.social @ri-science.bsky.social @royalsociety.org #HPS #histsci

12711

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

The next Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) conference will be held at the University of Cambridge, U.K, on 15-18 July 2026. #philsci philosophy-science-practice.org

philosophy-science-practice.org

About us

04215

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 25/07/2025

Our autumn programme of science talks is available for booking! 🍂 We'll reopen the newly refurbished Ri building with a spectacular calendar of talks, packed with popular speakers and fascinating topics. www.rigb.org/whats-on?typ...

rigb.org

What's on

Discover science directly from the minds of the world’s leading scientists and thinkers with our talks, discussions and famil

066

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

Royal Institution @rigb.org · 22/07/2025

We know we're not supposed to have favourites, but COME ON youtube.com/shorts/-l9nB...

youtube.com

Mindbending TV titles in the 80s style Utopian Scholastic #television

YouTube video by The Royal Institution

001

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Taylor also gets the award for best Xmas lecture intro song… 🧪 🎵

010

Reposted by Katy Duncan 🍉

hannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

telegraph.co.uk

I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza

Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone

5385345

Katy Duncan 🍉 @katysduncan.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

I had so much fun at The Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition a few weeks ago! The quantum tech room was especially cool. Is the historian-equivalent of touching grass *actually talking* to living scientists? Maybe. Obviously stopped by Faraday’s colloids that @ri-science.bsky.social loaned too… 🧪

Katy is standing by a poster board that explains Faraday’s gold colloids, and talks about how he presented them at a Discourse (lecture) in 1856. They are possibly the oldest active colloids in existence.

Close up of the gold colloids made by Faraday, including a wooden box with a prism on top, and two small bottles. One is a third full of a pale pink colloidal solution, and the one in the background is half full with a deeper transparent pink solution. They remain optically active, but their exact composition is unknown.

0103