BSHS Dingle Prize Lecture - Elegant Solutions

Elegant Solutions - the BSHS Dingle Prize Lecture

Royal Institution, London

Thursday 10 July 2008, 7.00pm-8.30pm

Lecturer: Dr Philip Ball

Scientists frequently talk about 'beauty' in their work, but rarely stop to
think quite what they mean by it. What makes an experiment beautiful? Is it the
clarity of the design? The elegance of the apparatus? The nature of the
knowledge gained? There have been several recent attempts to identify
'beautiful' experiments in science, especially in physics. But Philip Ball
argues that, not only is chemistry often neglected in these surveys, but it has
its own special kinds of beauty, linked to the fact that it is a branch of
science strongly tied to the art of making things: new molecules and materials,
new smells and colours. He offers suggestions for ten particularly beautiful
experiments in chemistry, taken from his recent book Elegant solutions: Ten
Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005).

This talk marks the book's receipt of the 2007 Dingle Prize for communicating
the history of science and technology from the British Society for the History
of Science.

Tickets cost £8, £6 concessions and £4 for RI Members.