Monopoly pub crawl? Boring. Circle Line pub crawl? Banned. It's high time someone developed a few new drinking tours around the capital. We started off with a sojourn around the variable boozers of London's train stations. Our conclusion? Nice, grim, grim, oooo, not so grim, grim, grim, ug. Now, to mark the opening of the Royal Institution's plush new bar and restaurant (more on that later this month), we decided to raise a glass......

Let's play highbrow Blankety Blank. 'Last night, Londonist attended the Royal BLANK Summer Exhibition'. If your answer was 'Academy', then you've gone for the obvious answer. You are Una Stubbs. If your answer was 'Society', then you've just won a Blankety Blank cheque book and pen. Well done, you. Yes, the Royal Society Summer Exhibition is in full swing. This jamboree of science and technology covers 27 stands throughout the marbled halls of the......

Last night, we attended the launch of Darwin 200 at the Natural History Museum. If he was still alive, Charles Darwin would be an actual living legend, due his 200th birthday on 12 February 2009. Clearly he's dead but that's no excuse not to have a national programme of activities around his life and work, especially since it's also nearly 150 years since the theory of evolution was pronounced and "Origin of the Species"......

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......

To many of us, physics is as impenetrable as a nun in Fort Knox. But if stranded in 1950's smalltown America with nothing but a modified De Lorean and an anachronistic body warmer, we'd know exactly how many gigawatts to feed into our flux capacitor. Such is the power of the movies. But, like Steven Hawking and the Predator, physics and film are not always comfortable bedfellows. In the interests of telling a good......

If a few months from now you’re sipping a cocktail at one of London’s trendier cocktail bars and you notice a few squishy gold flecked bubbly pearls floating around in your glass, don’t be alarmed; that’s just Cointreau Caviar. Yes, Londonist has seen (and sipped) the future of booze, and it’s ridiculously over the top, rather tasty and derived from a scientific molecular mixology process. Last night saw Cointreau’s London launch of what it......

"Oh, the flesh-eating beetles are in there," shrugs our guide, pointing to a locked door. This is the Darwin Centre, where a gruesome surprise lurks around every corner. The annexe to the Natural History Museum holds some 22 million biological specimens bottled up in jars - it's like walking into David Attenborough's Facebook account. Much of the collection is freely available to anyone who wants to see it, and is stored over eight floors,......

Scientists at the Natural History Museum who have been analysing big cat skulls excavated from the Tower of London in the 1930s have today confirmed that there were Barbary Lions from North Africa with magnificent dark manes resident at the Tower of London Royal Menagerie as far back as 1280 AD. This makes them the earliest confirmed lion remains in the British Isles after the extinction of the Pleistocene cave lion at the end......

Science, the esteemed global magazine of cutting-edge research, has an unlikely cover star this week. Banksy’s Bethnal Green flower adorns the hallowed page with the following explanation: An example of "art" by self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy, as seen in East London in November 2007. Human behavior that would be characterized as antisocial punishment can also be called art; prosocial institutions, most notably the campaign Keep Britain Tidy, refer to Banksy's work as vandalism. Odd......

Despite Londoners being inveigled mere days ago to report any suspicious activity to the police, people in Marylebone are now being advised to, er, do the opposite. The reason? A Home Office-run project is to simulate a dirty bomb attack on the capital. The trials, part of a study called Dispersion of Air Pollution and Penetration into the Local Environment, or DAPPLE, will involve scientists releasing colourless, odourless gas from canisters on the street.......

A list of London's most popular attractions in the last year have been named. The British Museum took first place with almost 5.5 million visitors thanks to the help of a motionless army. Museum heads attributed the 12% spike in visitors to the First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, the British Museum's most popular attraction since King Tut's goods were on display in 1972. If you want to go toe-to-toe with an army that won't......

Al Fayed and his Royal Ghouls conspiracy - Macca, Mills and the millions - enough already!! Science Museum specialists to strike over pay... Unsurprising since London's streets may as well be paved with gold Junior suffrage in action as Young Mayor of Tower Hamlets elected (are you registered to vote in May?) Eels attempt to put the Royal back in Festival Hall Image courtesy of Shutterbuguy via the Londonist flickr group.......

That's one of the relaxing conversation pieces to be found at a ‘Skeptics in the pub’ meetup. Tonight’s guest speaker is Dr Matthew Smith from Liverpool Hope University, who will talk about fate, the meaning of life and mid-life crises. We caught up with co-organiser Sid Rodriques to find out what skepticism is, and whether we should be skeptical of it. How would you define a 'skeptic'? A skeptic is someone who asks for......

If you could get the Sarcasts (Digg), the Grunts (YouTube) and the Silent (Londonist’s forgotten readers’ forum) into a room together, what would you hear? The Science Museum might have the answer. New installation ‘The Listening Post’ slaps up random content from hundreds of chat rooms simultaneously, bringing you an orgy of words. “It is an awe-inspiring ‘portrait of chat’,” says the press release. Alan Partridge is having wet dreams. The installation debuted in......

Doesn't sunshine make everything seem better? Alright, it's been brass monkeys but nothing lifts the winter blues like bright skies, crisp air and early daffodils. It's half term for most kids this week so your commute might even be more pleasant. In which case, perhaps you'll be more inclined to get out after work and try something different that's light on your wallet and heavy on aceness. After all, we really can't afford good......

We've not done very well on the virtuous January front and seem to have spent all our money and most of our nights out on the lash with a flagrant disregard for propriety and our bank account. We don't mind though because, as usual, there are some excellent free things to do in town this week. Monday: British Asian gangsta folk ska punk is where it's at with the intriguing sounding Barbar Luck at......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

What stops you recycling? Are you lazy? Don't know where to start? Does your rubbish overwhelm you? The Rubbish Game wants to know. Then it wants to turn your rubbish around, with the help of the Binman of Love. It could get filthy. The Rubbish Game takes place on Wednesday 16 January at the Dana Centre at the Science Museum. It sounds a bit like Hungamunga crossed with the Krypton Factor and wrapped in......

Sugary sperm might help us escape the threat of cancer and HIV Women escape fondling: guilty groper bailed on the understanding he steers clear of busy tubes and DLR trains Real life prison break: man escapes secure unit at Bedlam A happy escape in sight for Egham Foot and Mouth farmers, hopefully Escape rubbish news on your commute, Notes from the Underground bi-monthly lit freesheet launched Image of window display at Hamleys Regent Street......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... We recommended memberships to various arty places as Christmas presents earlier this week, but in terms of things you can wrap and place under......

Alexis Lemaire saw to it that 'mathlete' irrevocably entered our vernacular when he broke the record he set for mental calculation at London's Science Museum. He correctly determined the 13th root of a randomly generated two hundred-digit number to the 13th root (now consider that your average calculator can't even determine things to 13 decimal places, never mind trying to calculate anything with a two hundred digit number). As the calculation only took Lemaire......

Scientists from the Zoological Society of London have bagged the first ever wild footage of the long-eared jerboa. The timid, nocturnal creature can be found, with great difficulty, in the deserts of Mongolia and China. It is now, officially, Londonist's second favourite animal, behind the numbat. We defy you to watch this footage without grinning like a tomfool. How cute is that? Not as cute as this. Very little is known about the elusive......

OK, so maybe not kills, although it might, but it is bad for you. Details to follow. A new report shows that shopping in an area with a high volume of traffic has a worse affect on your lungs than walking around a park. For a moment this looks like one of those no shit Sherlock stories; however, the study is specifically related to people with asthma and the effect that diesel engines have......

You may remember that we're not exactly lukewarm about this place. We were even up for finding love here. I guess you could say we're fans. Nothing has changed with a change in exhibition: Sleeping and Dreaming is marvellous and you must go. For a start, it's free. Nought pee. You can just swan through the doors, turn left and there you are. But that's where it gets dark and you immediately start watching......

On weekend nights it’s a long wait for a drink in our local. That and all the news lately about how this tiny island might soon be home to millions more people has got us thinking about Thomas Malthus. Malthus was the chief curmudgeon of the early 19th century, the person responsible for establishing the reputation of economics as the ‘dismal science'. Improvements in agriculture, he predicted, would never keep up with expanding population,......

The fortieth anniversary of the Abortion Act this week meant that the abortion debate has been all over the news, culminating in demonstrations in Westminster this weekend. In a dramatic gesture, pro-lifers projected the statistic of 6.7 million aborted foetuses since 1967 onto the Houses of Parliament last night as part of the Alive and Kicking campaign to "make abortion rare" by reducing the upper time limit and prohibiting abortion "for social convenience". Today,......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

It turns out that being a genius doesn't mean you're a nice person. That's a lesson that the Science Museum reinforced today as they cancelled a talk by scientist Dr James Watson, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for his work in discovering the structure of DNA. Watson was scheudled to give a talk at the museum on Friday, but this was nixed after his controversial remarks in an interview with the Sunday Times.......

Strange goings-on are promised this weekend at Olafur Eliasson's Serpentine Pavilion. Robots! Kissing booths! Out-of-body experiences! It can only mean one thing - the return of the Experiment Marathon. After an interview-heavy 2006 debut, this year's Marathon has doubled in length, running from Saturday to Sunday, and the focus is on balancing audience involvement and active experimentation with talks and lectures. The 'grotto' of the Pavilion (dubbed a crashed flying saucer by the Times)......