Tuesday

The monthly MathsJam is back tonight; 7pm at the Devonshire Arms in Piccadilly. Maths enthusiasts in a pub, with puzzles, games, problems and anything else cool, interesting and mathematical. All welcome: follow @mathsjam on Twitter to be kept up to date.

Wednesday

On a slow night for one-off events, you might want to use your Orange Wednesday vouchers as the run of the film Project Nim in cinemas is coming to an end. The story of Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. I haven’t seen it, so can’t vouch for it, but the scientific story behind it makes for a promising beginning anyway.

Thursday

The last of the Royal Observatory’s Summer Science in the Planetarium series, physicist, author and TV presenter Professor Jim Al-Khalili of the University of Surrey asks whether our current understanding of space and time allows for the possibility of time travel, both into the future and the past. £10.

Friday

The Bright Club plays at the Bloomsbury Theatre tonight, on the theme of Museums. For those of you unfamiliar with The Bright Club, it is a collaboration between UCL, One Green Firework and music promoters Duel in the Deep, producing live shows combining musicians, comedians and academics. Guests on Friday include Kat Nilsson of the Science Museum along with lots of other museum experts. 7:30pm; tickets £5.

Last Friday of the month, the Natural History Museum is open until 10pm; as well as the bar, food and child free access to the special exhibitions, this month’s special event will be on Edible Insects. Free, but buy tickets to special events and exhibitions.

Coming up

Open House Weekend is September 17/18: pre-booking now for some of the more popular venues.

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.