Talks and shows

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail

Join Festival of the Spoken Nerd and friends for an evening of science, songs, stand-up maths and more!

Ri digital

Join Festival of the Spoken Nerd and friends for an evening of science, songs, stand-up maths and more!

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail is, in short, an event where 80% of the words in the title start with a vowel. Of the 16 unique letters in the title, 31.25% of them are used more than once. If you are enjoying this level of detail, it's likely that you will enjoy the show.

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail is, in short, an event hosted by some or all of Festival of the Spoken Nerd: Matt Parker, Steve Mould and Helen Arney. Each of them have 10 letters in their names. Each show will be 10,800 seconds long.

An Evening of Unnecessary Detail is, in short, an event where n scientists, enthusiasts, miscellaneous experts* and/or comedians talk about whatever they want. By attending this event, you revoke the right to complain that there is too much detail.

*actual experts in miscellany

This event is suitable for adults and older teens.

Guest Line up includes:

Sammie Buzzard is a glaciologist, mathematician and climate scientist.

Taking Lloyd Peck's 2004 lectures about Antarctica as a starting point, Sammie will update us all on how much more we know 20 years later (and bust a few common myths about penguin wee)

Michael Cutts is the Content Producer at the Ri working across Demo and Heritage teams, helping to bring stories, demos and the Ri’s rich history to audiences everywhere.

To celebrate the Ri’s history, Michael will be blending together the Chris van Tulleken’s recent Christmas Lectures, Sir James Dewar’s research, and finally Nikola Tesla’s lecture given here in 1892, where he demonstrated the Tesla coil for the first time. Expect some sparks and a glowing sensation.

Aoife Hunt is a mathematician who uses maths to model crowd flow and make stadiums and events safer.

Aoife will reflect on Hannah Fry’s 2019 lectures "secrets and lies", taking us on a journey through the patterns created by moving crowds and her own research into the maths of crowd movement.

Seb Lee-Delisle is a BAFTA award winning artist, coder and speaker who specialises in large scale laser installations and is currently developing Liberation, a laser software for the entertainment industry.

Seb is no stranger to the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture stage, having creating a laser ocean and performed live coding in two recent lecture series. For this show he throws back to John David Pye's 1985 lectures on communication and computers with a demonstration of the incredible features of the Casio VL-1 keyboard released in 1981 - a whole band in your pocket!

Emily Howling is an accelerator physicist and songwriter currently pursuing a doctorate at CERN and Oxford University.

Together with with pianist Abhisri Chaudhuri, Emily will sing her specially written song about Faraday’s lectures on the chemical history of the candle from 1848, plus a song about her own experiences as a woman in physics, and what happens when animals meet particle accelerators.

Robin Hayward is a forest ecologist and science communicator whose job is somehow just 'Trees'.

15 years ago, Sue Hartley lectured at the RI about the 300-million-year war between plants and animals, but perhaps now it's time to make peace with our botanical counterparts. Using the power of science, professional tree-hugger Robin will determine which tree is the best to hug and which ones we might want to be friends with from a greater distance.

Rachel Williams is neuroscientist, comedian, and science communicator based at University College London’s Ear Institute.

Rachel will take a closer look at the 1980 Christmas lectures on "The Chicken, The Egg and the Molecules", hosted by David Chilton Phillips with Max Perutz, and delve into her current work researching the genetic causes of hearing loss in birds and mammals.

Matt Parker, Steve Mould and Helen Arney will be hosting this show. Please note that the scheduled line-up is subject to change without notice.  

Event type

This is a theatre and livestream event for an adult audience, where the speakers and audience in our Theatre are joined by our audience online. 

By booking to attend events at the Royal Institution, you confirm that you have read and accept the Ri's event terms and conditions. You also agree to abide by our code of conduct, and help to create a great experience for yourself and your fellow participants. Please note that Eventbrite adds a small booking fee to the amount paid for each ticket option.

For any queries regarding this event please get in touch by phone 020 7409 2992 or email events@ri.ac.uk.

Timing

Doors to the theatre will open at 6.45pm and the talk will begin at 7.00pm.

Timing for the livestream

The livestream will go live at 6.55pm and the introduction will begin at 7.00pm. If you register but miss the livestream, the video will be available to you via the same link for two weeks after the event date.

Accessibility

The event will take place on the first floor and there is step-free access from the street via lift.

The closest underground station is Green Park, which is step-free.

There is space at floor level in the theatre for wheelchair users.

Seating is usually unreserved for our events. If you and your group require seating reservations, please do let us know by emailing us at events@ri.ac.uk, and we’ll be more than happy to help.

Carers can receive a free ticket to an event by emailing events@ri.ac.uk.

Our theatre is equipped with an Audio Induction Loop. 

Event terms and conditions

Are you a patron of the Ri?

As a patron you are offered a number of complimentary tickets, please get in touch with your patron manager to discuss this.