Monday
The big name of the week is Iain M Banks, speaking at the British Library tonight on the topic of Utopias and Other Worlds. 6:30pm; tickets £7.50.
Tuesday
The second Science in the Pub meet-up is tonight, featuring the results of the wine experiment and a brand new experiment before an open mic format. All scientists, geeks and friends welcome. 7:30pm at the Ritzy Cafe in Brixton. Follow #pubsci on Twitter for updates.
Wednesday
An interesting one from the Royal Society in the afternoon: a Town Hall meeting on Open Science. Held in the Royal Festival Hall, this will be a public meeting on all aspects of open science to feed into the Royal Society’s upcoming policy report. Panelists include Sir Paul Nurse, PRS, Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature and my old boss, Timo Hannay, now MD of Digital Science. Free, but tickets required in advance.
In the evening, David Lodge, author of a new book on H.G. Wells, discusses the life and times of Wells with Stephen Baxter and Adam Roberts at the British Library, while the RI hosts a lecture entitled Nurturing ideas that matter about whether technological progress is slowing and how to develop new ideas.
Thursday
An evening on Pleasure at the Dana Centre, looking at what’s going on inside the brain when we become addicted to nicotine, but not to LSD. Free, but book.
Friday
The first day of a two day conference at the RI: the Mathematics Masterclass Organisers Conference. To celebrate 30 years of the Ri mathematics masterclasses programme, the conference is open to all interested in mathematics education.
Already over-represented this week, but I can’t miss the BL’s evening event: Stephen Baxter and Audrey Niffenegger on The Art and Science of Time Travel. 6:30pm: tickets £7.50.
Saturday/Sunday
One for developers: Hack4Knowledge day. Organised by Mendeley, a two-day hackday with an academic and educational spin.
This weekend is also Open Garden Squares Weekend. Specially recommended: the roof garden at the Brunel Museum.
You can follow the Nature Network London Google calendar of events in London at https://blogs.nature.com/london/2011/05/17/scientific-events-calendar. Updated daily.