The Royal Institution Courses

Why Do We Like Being Scared? - With Brendan Walker

Explore the science behind thrill-seeking, from rollercoasters to horror movies. Discover how fear and pleasure intertwine, and learn about innovative methods for measuring and optimizing thrilling experiences.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 20 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Why Do Things Spin? - With Hugh Hunt

Explores why spinning tops, wheels, skaters, satellites, boomerangs, and falling cats behave as they do through angular momentum and gyroscopic effects.

• YouTube
• 48 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Can We Trust Maths? - With Kit Yates

A look at how false positives, misleading statistics, and probability can shape medical decisions, media coverage, justice, and our sense of coincidence.

• YouTube
• 55 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Have the Boomers Pinched Their Children's Futures? - With Lord David Willetts

A look at how Britain’s post-war baby boomers accumulated wealth—and whether housing, pensions, taxes, and benefits shifted costs onto younger generations.

• YouTube
• 47 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Why Have We Not Found Any Aliens? - With Keith Cooper

A look at how SETI searches for extraterrestrial intelligence, from radio signals and technosignatures to the assumptions behind six decades without a discovery.

• YouTube
• 52 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

What Is Life? - With Paul Nurse

An exploration of six principles that define life, from cells and genes to chemical machines, natural selection, and viruses.

• YouTube
• 1 hour
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How to Do Maths Without a Calculator - With Rob Eastaway

Learn to estimate sizes, numbers, probabilities, and everyday quantities using mental maths and back-of-the-envelope calculations.

• YouTube
• 52 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Neuroscience of Magic - With Gustav Kuhn

Explores how visual perception, misdirection, and optical illusions can fool the brain through magic demonstrations and neuroscience experiments.

• YouTube
• 44 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How Plants Recognise Seasons Using Molecular Memory - With Caroline Dean

How plants use molecular memory and epigenetic regulation to sense winter temperatures and control seasonal flowering.

• YouTube
• 48 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How Does Forensic Anthropology Help Solve Crimes? - With Sue M. Black

See how forensic anthropology uses identity, DNA, hands, veins, and freckles to identify people from sparse evidence in criminal investigations.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 2 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Radioactivity of Space - With Frances Staples

Trace six decades of discoveries about radiation belts, cosmic particles, and the hazards they pose to spacecraft and astronauts.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Physics of Black Holes - With Chris Impey

Explore how black holes arise from general relativity, generate gravitational waves, and challenge physics through the information paradox.

• YouTube
• 54 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How Not to Fall for Bad Statistics - With Jennifer Rogers

Learn to question sensational health headlines by distinguishing correlation from causation, relative from absolute risk, and uncertainty in reported statistics.

• YouTube
• 42 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Delightful and Dangerous Liquids - With Mark Miodownik

A plane journey explores why liquids can sustain life, intoxicate us, fuel aircraft, or cause danger.

• YouTube
• 56 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Battery Inside Out

Explore how batteries evolved, work through electrochemistry, and face challenges involving manufacturing, raw materials, sustainability, and lithium demand.

• YouTube
• 48 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video