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: 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 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 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......

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 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 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......

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......