Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

1972

1973: The Languages of Animals

Sir David Attenborough on animal communication. Episode 4 is lost.

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978: Mathematics into Pictures

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985: Communicating

1986

1987: Crystals and Lasers

1988

1989

1990

1991: Growing Up in the Universe

1992

1993: The Cosmic Onion

1994

1995: Planet Earth, An Explorer's Guide

1996: The History in our Bones

1997: The Magical Maze

1998: Staying Alive: The Body in Balance

1999: Arrow of Time

2000: Rise of the Robots

2001: The Secrets of Life

2002: Smart Stuff

2003: Voyage in Space and Time

2004: To the Ends of the Earth: Surviving Antarctic Extremes

2005: The Truth About Food

2006: The Num8er My5teries

2007: Back from the Brink, the Science of Survival

2008: Hi-tech Trek

2009: The 300-Million-Year War

2010: Size Matters

2011: Meet Your Brain

2012: The Modern Alchemist

2013: Life Fantastic

2014: Sparks Will Fly - How to Hack your Home

2015: How to Survive in Space

2016: Supercharged - Fuelling the Future

2017: The Language of Life

2018: Who Am I?

Professor Alice Roberts and Professor Aoife McLysaght take viewers on an immersive voyage through our evolutionary past and ask challenging questions about what our future holds.

2019: Secrets & Lies - The Hidden Power of Maths

Dr. Hannah Fry reveals the hidden rules and patterns that govern every aspect of our world.

2020: Planet Earth: A User’s Guide

2021: Going Viral: How Covid Changed Science Forever

England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van-Tam will be joined by a host of top UK scientists to take a deep dive into the science of viruses.

2022: Secrets of Forensic Science

Professor Dame Sue Black reveals the secrets of the real-life scientific detective process she uses to identify both the dead and the living.

2023: The Truth about AI

2024: The Truth About Food

In this year’s Christmas Lectures, Dr Chris van Tulleken delves deep into our guts – to reveal the revolutionary latest science around what happens inside our bodies when we eat. He investigates how food has fundamentally shaped human evolution, uncovers the importance of our microbiome – as the extra ‘organ’ we didn’t know we had – and asks how we can all eat better in future, for the sake of our own health and the health of the planet. Chris will reveal how what we eat can have a massive effect on both our bodies and our brains. He’ll bring the science to life through a series of fact fuelled demos, special guest appearances, festive food hacks, and a healthy dose of self-experimentation. From tastebuds to toilet, we’ll find out what happens in the body when we eat. How we eat with our eyes (green eggs and ham anyone?) and how smell and even sound can affect the taste of our food.

2025: Is There Life Beyond Earth?

Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock takes us on a voyage deep into space, on an astronomical search for extraterrestrial life, celebrating 200 years of the Christmas Lectures.