Royal Institution and Michael Faraday Laboratory

On Monday evening, June 24, the EIL Students along with Profs. Berry and Parsons visited the Royal Institution (Michael Faraday Museum) near Green Park. In addition to visiting Faraday's Laboratory, the students attended a Discourse lecture entitled Cracking Ancient Codes: Understanding Early Writing by Irving Finkel (British Museum) and Andrew Robinson (renowned author and former literary editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement).

 Irving Finkel through his work on cuneiform shared uncovered amazing secrets from over five thousand years ago, including the story behind Noah’s ark. Andrew Robinson then presented the revolutionary life of Jean-François Champollion, the volatile French scholar who decoded Egyptian hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone and thereby doubled the historical timespan of Egypt, with crucial help from the researches of a former professor of physics at the Royal Institution: the polymathic Thomas Young, sometimes known as ‘The Last Man Who Knew Everything’.

This lecture was given in the Royal institution's lecture hall, where Michael Faraday started the Christmas lectures in 1825. The RI today is known for its science education programs, a continuation of the tradition of scientific lectures as enlightened entertainment. The Friday Night Discourses were formal affairs with the audience in evening dress and the speaker by tradition had to start and stop his address as the auditorium clock struck consecutive hours. J. J. Thomson announced the discovery of the electron in his 1897 lecture in this room. The Christmas Lecture program, begun by Michael Faraday and continuing through today, is the oldest continuous science education program for young people.