Monday
The best event of the day is unfortunately already sold out: the Festival of the Spoken Nerd, self described as “a celebration of science, comedy and unashamed geekiness, with live experiments, audience participation and specially selected guest scientists”. However, I mention this anyway as the FOTSN have plenty of shows coming up, so now’s your chance to book.
Tuesday
Three talks to choose from tonight: Biodiversity in a Corporate Landscape at ZSL, astrobiology with Lewis Dartnell at the Grant Museum or an update on the current state of GM foods at the Dana Centre. Book for ZSL and the Dana Centre.
Wednesday
The Wellcome Collection presents a discussion on the impact of Joseph Lister’s battle against hospital acquired infection, the blurb for which rather enigmatically promises a “mystery object”.
Alternatively, the Dana Centre has an evening on biofuels. Book events 7pm: free, but book.
Whichever you pick, space geeks amongst you will definitely want to leave early for the highlight of the night: the Flamsteed Astronomy Society/Royal Observatory Greenwich Lunar Eclipse Picnic! From 9pm, astronomers will gather on Blackheath for a picnic and to watch the lunar eclipse: all welcome, bring your own picnic.
Thursday
Some unusual ones today: the Wellcome Collection kicks the day off at 3pm with Fantastic Faces, a talk on the art (or is it science?) of face reading. Covering the history through to modern research.
Come the evening, the Linnean Society hosts a talk on Thinking art from within biology with Alexis Rago, an artist who feels equally at home within biology. 6pm, no need to book. A little later, the monthly Cafe Scientifique at Clapham Picture House features guest speaker James from the Horniman Museum on “Sexy Beasts: the sex lives of animals”. 7pm, no need to book.
Friday
Two options for your Friday night: the London Zoo Lates featuring 750 species including penguins, a bar and live music or the British Library’s live music event to celebrate the Out of this World exhibition. Offerings will include the theramin led Radio Space Orchestra. Dress: futuristic!
Book in advance for both.
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.