Who would have thought that fish embryos could be so hypnotic? Under the microscope, they tumble and turn like marbles, executing the occasional piscine wriggle at camera. These dainty roe are zebrafish, whose unusual transparency is a boon for medical research. Scientists intensely breed the fish and tweak their genes in pursuit of knowledge about disease. Artist Kathleen Rogers wants us to think about this manipulation of life, and certainly generates a meditative atmosphere......

Adelaide, Australia could become "the next international education hotspot". No, really, stop laughing - it's true. Our very own University College London certainly seems to think so - they've just signed an agreement to establish a satellite branch in the southern Australian city. The UCL School of Energy and Resources, Australia, will open in 2010 and has a goal to "shape how the critical issues of energy and resources development and utilisation are tackled......

The Royal Institution in Mayfair has kept a low profile these past couple of years while its Albemarle Street HQ has undergone a major revamp. But now it's back. And how. The venerable science venue, perhaps best known for its Christmas lectures, was reopened this afternoon by none other than Her Majesty. Well, one other actually, as hubby was along too. Oh, and throw David Attenborough, Heston Blumenthal and a range of Lordly dignitaries......

Forget the Fourth Plinth, there’s a new art space in town that needs filling. And you don’t have to be an artistic luminary to enter. The Royal Institution has two niches it wants to beautify. The Grade I listed building on Albemarle Street, Mayfair will reopen this summer after a £20 million refurbishment. The lecture hall is already up and running again, but soon we’ll see a bar, restaurant and other features to lure......

Well, it’s over for another year. Time to settle down, relax, and get ready for another batch of shopping in the January sales. On TV, Londonist likes: Carmen (BBC2, 13:45-16:25) This just might be the world’s most famous opera, and even if you’re not an opera fan, you’ll definitely recognise some of the songs. From the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, this production features an international cast, impressive sets and live animals. My......

It’s Christmas Eve already? How did that happen? Surely you’re all done your shopping now, so time to reward yourself with a few nice things to watch on TV. On TV, Londonist likes: Jamie at Home Christmas Special (Channel 4, 17:10-18:15) Say what you will about Jamie Oliver, he puts on an entertaining cooking show. And we’re guessing this Christmas episode will be chock full of amazing dishes that will look incredibly simple and......

Event of the Week Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art, all weekend The Battle of Ideas is, according to their website, 'an annual festival of social, political, scientific, academic and cultural discussion'. In other, more juvenile words, it's a mass debate. And it's probably going to get quite messy. The panel-led discussions, organised by the Institute of Ideas, are designed to cut through the crap and get down to some genuine......

Event of the week Game On, Science Museum Remember that game on the ZX81 in which you had to manoeuvre a letter X through a minefield of dangerous letter O's? And the equally addictive follow-up, in which the Earth (represented by a series of hyphens) needed saving from a belligerent battlegroup of aliens (menacingly realised as a creeping cluster of hashes)? Ah, happy days. Well, apparently, gaming has developed somewhat since then. And we......

Event of the Week: London Design Festival highlights Eh? London Design Festival? In a science column? Well, good design is important in everything, including labs and medical wards. The Royal Institution, in association with the Design Festival, bring the point home at 'Imagine: Healthier by Design' at the RCA tomorrow. A panel of designers and medical practitioners will assemble to debate, for example, how the patient's life can be made less stressful through good......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Francis Crick’s Place in History at the Royal College of Surgeons, Monday Did you know that the co-discoverer of the DNA helix didn’t become a biologist until he was 31? And he didn’t even have a PhD when he received his Nobel Prize? There’s hope......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Wired Waste: Designing away gadget guilt at the Dana Centre, tonight Pretty much everyone reading these words will own a mobile phone, a digital camera and at least one computer. DVD players, televisions, iPODs - all are now ‘essential luxuries’ of modern life. And for......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Dino Jaws at the Natural History Museum Nothing packs in the punters like a few animatronic dinosaurs. Well, nothing except animatronic elephants. So the NHM should see its attendances soar like a pterodactyl with the opening of its new Dino Jaws exhibition. It’s Natural History......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Are you comfortably numb?, Royal Society of Medicine, Friday The nature of consciousness is one of the great unanswereds. For scientists, it’s right up there with tapping cold fusion, curing cancer and understanding exactly why TV units insist on filming their labs with moody purple......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Chernobyl and the Nuclear Debate, Dana Centre, tonight Should we continue to commission and upgrade our nuclear reactors? It’s one of those fiendish dilemmas where both camps have strong arguments and are convinced of their position (and here’s an example). The situation’s a bit like......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com. This week's summary was brought to you with the help of Inky Circus ....thanks Inky! Event of the week Pixar: 20 Years of Animation opens at the Science Museum this Saturday. Prebooking is strongly recommended cause, us inkettes dunno, it’s Pixar and they are easily the coolest geekiest most-badass......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Seeing as M@, the Cogito Ergo Master, is sunning himself on a beach right now, us temps called in from the inkycircus felt the time was right for a slight break from tradition - this week’s Event of the Week is a TV programme. But......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Distilled lives: anatomy museums in Georgian London, at the Royal College of Surgeons (To the tune of These are a few of my favourite things) Jars of whole foetus and bright pickled rectum, brain stems in hazchems and coke-snorter’s septum, tangled white fibrils that tie......

This post appears every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures There’s only one gig in town this week. You can’t go because (a) you’re too old, (b) it’s mostly sold out and (c) you’ll be too stuffed with turkey to move. Never fear, though, as the world-famous Royal Institution Christmas......

Photograph based on actual events These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Making sense of our world at the Royal Institution Most of us are fortunate enough to be blessed with a full complement of senses. And those who are not, or who live with an impairment, are usually able to establish......

Photograph based on actual events. These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Beautiful Minds Mingle at the British Library ‘Cuddle a chemist and see the reaction.’ Remember that? If you’re of a certain vintage, you might recall this somewhat ill-advised campaign by a well-known chemistry society. The aim was to coax youngsters......

Photograph based on actual events. These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Einstein vs. Newton debate at the Royal Society Bit of a hoary old chestnut, this one. With apologies to Darwin, these two heavyweights would easily top a 100-greatest-scientists-of-all-time poll. Channel 4: get commissioning! But which of the pair made the......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Ice Skating at the Natural History Museum Ice skating? Ice skating? By the beard of Copernicus what are we thinking, you might well enquire. Where’s the science in that? Well, we could talk about how the low sliding coefficient of friction facilitates experiments in Newtonian......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Tomorrow’s Tower Blocks: the Dana Centre Here’s a strange thought. Many Londoners can recall a time, only a little more than 40 years ago, when nothing was taller than St Paul’s. Now, there are around 20 structures that outreach the cathedral, with many more on......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us at LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week More Chocology at the Royal Institution Event of the Week, clearly, should be Londonist's First Birthday Party (which, in case this isn't hard-wired into you brain yet, is tomorrow). But the pedants amongst you might notice that there's little scientific about boozing, schmoozing and boogieing.......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com STOP PRESS: The Royal Institution have kindly offered free entry to Londonist readers for tonight's (Thursday 27th) Headline Debate (see below). Just turn up and mention Londonist and they'll waive the £8 entry fee. Event Of The Week A Briefer History of Time: Stephen Hawking Or should that be......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on londonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Beyond the Human Genome Project: Medicine in the 21st Century James Joyce once said of his masterpiece Ulysses "I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant!". He might just as well......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on londonistSciTech@Gmail.com An absolute bumper crop this week (and it’s 100% GM-free). So without further ado… Event Of The Week For the second week running, little green men are the ‘star’ attraction. The Science Museum’s new exhibition ‘The Science of Aliens’ opens from Saturday, and contains four areas. Zone 1 (which......

Ah, the Royal Institution. Not a latter-day Bedlam for the blue of blood, but one of London’s foremost scientific centres of excellence. It was here that a certain Mr Faraday cobbled together the first electric generator and changed the world forever. The venerable organisation has just announced its autumn schedule of public events (another of Faraday’s legacies). If you’ve never been along before, we suggest that you make like a boffin and get down......