The Hubble Telescope has revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. It has, among many other achievements, revealed thousands of galaxies in what seemed to be empty patches of sky and measured precisely how fast the universe is expanding.

In this talk, the first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn D Sullivan, recounts how the team of astronauts, engineers and flight controllers helped launch, rescue and maintain Hubble, the most productive observatory ever built. Her book, 'Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention' is available now.

This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on the 6th of March, 2020.

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Thumbnail image credit: NASA

What makes up a cannabis medicinal product? How do the active ingredients work in our bodies? What conditions can it treat, and how can doctors prescribe it? We’re joined by neurologist and medical cannabis expert Mike Barnes, and ‘End our Pain’ campaigners, Peter Carroll and Hannah Deacon. Hannah fought to obtain cannabis oil to treat her son Alfie’s epileptic seizures, and the campaign succeeded in changing UK law – as of November 2018, NHS doctors can legally prescribe cannabis. So why is it still hard for doctors to do so? Mike, Peter and Hannah discuss these issues with journalist, Susie Mesure.

This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 21 January 2019

Website: www.rigb.org

Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science

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This month a panel of psychologists and sociologists discuss why conspiracy theories arise, how they can affect people’s political beliefs, and how we might better communicate with the people who believe in conspiracies. Conspiracy theories have been around for a long time, but in recent years they appear more frequently in public discourse. From increasing attention to anti-vaccine misinformation, to growing communities of conspiracy theorists, like the ‘flat earth’ community, who held their first large scale UK convention in 2018.

Join Miriam Frankel, science editor at The Conversation, alongside Türkay Salim Nefes, Aleksandra Cichocka and Harry T Dyer.

We held this event at the Ri on 24 October 2018, in partnership with independent news website, The Conversation: https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2018/october/public-the-conversation-conspiracy-theories

Website: www.rigb.org

Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science

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Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution