World of Wonder

The BBC has designated 2010 its year of science and there will be special programmes all year under the banner World of Wonder. From the sublime to the joyfully ridiculous, they will take to the whole country the idea that science is not a subject but a state of mind.

Wonders of the Solar System

Physicist Brian Cox travels to some of the most extreme locations on earth – including the tallest mountain, the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and the world’s driest desert - and uses them to evoke the even greater wonders we are now finding on the other planets of the solar system. The series has begun and is available on the BBC's iplayer.

The Story of Science

Michael Mosley tells the story of the forces that came together to create scientific knowledge; the practical business of making instruments and machines, the revolutions, voyages of discovery and artistic movements, the dogged determination of scientists and experimenters, the power conferred and the obstacles overcome.

In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg has devoted four episodes of Radio 4's In Our Time to the illustrious and sometimes combative history of the Royal Society. Each one describes a century, from radical beginnings through to respectable maturity. Incidentally, the BBC can show you "every available radio programme that touches on the Royal Society":http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/subjects/VGVmL25hbWUvcm95YWwgc29jaWV0eQ/player/episodes.

How Earth Made Us

On BBC2, Iain Stewart looks at the many ways in which wind, water, fire and earth have shaped human history, and finally considers humans themselves as a new force acting on the planet, for good and for ill, and asks what we will do with this power.

Chemistry: A Volatile History

On BBC4, Jim Al Khalili traces the discovery and ordering of the elements from the earliest elemental speculations through a great many tangents, explosions and injuries, the beauty of the periodic table and the very latest alchemies as new elements are created in giant modern crucibles.

Beautiful Minds

Coming up on BBC4, a look at the uniqueness of some of the scientific minds that have shaped modern understanding. Opening the series is astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who describes her discovery of pulsars and explains how they make life in the Universe possible.

So You Want to be a Scientist

Material World, Radio 4's weekly science show, is searching for the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year. They're not looking for inventions, but real exploratory science of a local, personal, amateur-experimental kind and they want to help you take it further.

Local Heroes

Celebrate the scientific heroes and mavericks of your area

Capital Science

A year of exhibitions, talks, conferences, seminars & workshops

Summer events
for all the family

Bring your family to events across London this summer including Halley’s Holiday at the Royal Observatory, the Kids Engineering Academy at the London Transport Museum and Shipshape Science Summer Fun! at HMS Belfast.

Events coming up

Browse through all our events in the calendar or on the map