London events for people with curious minds.
Monday 1 October
SCI-ART: Explore the wonders and bafflements of particle physics...as interpreted by artists. The Jiggling Atoms exhibition, associated with Queen Mary University of London, brings together 25 works of art in different mediums, at the Rag Factory, Heneage Street, Spitalfields. A series of events supports the exhibition all week, but see Saturday and Sunday especially. FREE, 10am-10pm, until 7 September, @jigglingatoms
FILM: The superb In The Shadow Of The Moon, a documentary about the moon landings, screens at Greenwich Picturehouse tonight, followed by a discussion with Royal Observatory astronomers. £11.10, 6.30pm
Tuesday 2 October
MATHS: Professor Ben Green speaks at the Royal Society, about looking for patterns in the prime numbers. FREE, 6.30pm
CULTURE: Well-known science writer Matt Ridley is at Wellcome Collection to discuss the evolution of culture. FREE, 6.30pm
SCIENCE SHOWOFF: Extrovert science researchers take to the stage at the Wilmington Arms for this month's Science Showoff, a quickfire, pub-based science show. £5 (suggested donation), 7pm
Wednesday 3 October
BACTERIA: A new work of performance art at Wellcome Collection, known as the Hypersymbiont Enhancement Salon, looks at the possibility of enhancing humans through dicking about with our bacterial flora. You can drop in any time this afternoon (2-5pm), or Thur (6-9pm), or Fri (2-5pm). FREE
ARCHITECTURE: Learn about the engineering challenges that were overcome during the construction of the Shard, with a talk at the Institution of Engineering and Technology near Temple. FREE, 6pm
TRANSPORT: The Crossrail visitor centre near Tottenham Court Road is running a series of lectures about the project every Wednesday this month. Tonight's talk discusses the archaeological challenges. An exhibition of recent finds will also be open. FREE, 6.30pm
SALON: This month's Salon event, the 30th in the series, has a triple bill of wonders. Andrea Wulf reveals how science went global in the 18th Century; Caspar Henderson introduces ‘The Book of Barely Imagined Beings’, a bibliomenagerie of the weirdest animals on the planet; and Simon Garfield takes an interactive look at maps. The Salon takes place at Adam Street Members Club, 9 Adam Street. £12, 7.30pm, @SalonLondon
Thursday 4 October
ANCIENT MEDICINE: Catherine Walker talks at Wellcome Library about the dodgy medical beliefs of the Ancient Greeks. FREE, 3pm
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: A 'Synthetic Biology Smackdown' at the Royal Institution sees a panel of scientists showing off different synthetic organisms — bacteria and other small species that humans have tinkered with. £10, 7pm
VIDEOGAME KARAOKE: Lionel Ritchie’s Hello is re-imagined as a song about Master Chief from Halo? The London Games Festival has a night of karaoke with the words changed to be about video games. A rare reason to venture into the Temple Walkabout. FREE, 7pm
Friday 5 October
HISTORY OF SCIENCE: A lunchtime talk at the Royal Society looks at the work of Gregor Mendel on inheritance, and the scientific battles to establish or refute his findings. FREE, 1pm
MEDICINE AND THE WOOLF: Learn while you lunch at UCL today, where an intriguingly mis-matched pair of public mini-lectures look at the connection between Alzheimer's and vision, followed by insights into Virginia Woolf's war diaries. FREE, 1.10pm
VIDEO GAMES: Fancy yourself as a games coder? Take part in the ExPlay Games Jam at the Science Museum. Teams or individuals have 24 hours to create a playable game from scratch. FREE, 5pm
Saturday 6 October
PARTICLE PHYSICS IS FUN: Head back to the Rag Factory in Spitalfields for a two day series of free talks and workshops from the Jiggling Atoms group (see Monday). Take part in Feynman diagram printmaking, hear John Butterworth talk Higgs Bosons, then catch Robin Ince do his wonderful geek comedy thing. FREE, 10am-10pm
Sunday 7 October
ELECTRONIC MUSIC: A day of talks and demonstrations at the Southbank Centre devoted to the Radiophonic Workshop, now back in business after briefly closing down. £14.25, 10am
PARTICLE PHYSICS IS STILL FUN: More from the Jiggling Atoms crew, with a science life drawing class, and talks by Adrian Holme, Malte Oppermann and Ben Still. FREE, 10am-10pm
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments, or tip us off about future events on [email protected]. Note that Week in Geek is now filed each week under the Talks tab on our menu bar.
