Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution

📸 Camera Vision – 6-week Photography Course 🎨
Join @benedict_brain to explore light, composition & creativity. Any camera welcome!
🗓 Wed 7 Jan – 18 Feb, 6:30–8:30pm GMT
🎟️ Book: www.brlsi.org/whatso...

🎄Highlights from the BRLSI Christmas Makers Market. Pop in to browse-we’re open until 6pm. There is mulled wine, festive tunes, and lots of beautiful handmade gifts to be found 🌟🎁🍷

www.instagram.com/reel/DSHyLbi...

#christmasmarket #christmasgifts #handmade #Bathchristmasmarket

Sam Douglas-Bate a former UK civil servant is the managing Director of ForgeFront. ForgeFront work with governments, think tanks, and public and private sector organisations to futureproof themselves against the threats of tomorrow. A recent report Sam wrote for The New Lines Institute, a think-tan Sam Bates

🔥 Fake news isn’t slowing down. Sam Douglas-Bate of #ForgeFront breaks down how misinformation is evolving - and what we can do to stay ahead of it. Watch here: youtu.be/3qtp5CEBlmA...

Book for his BRLSI talk on Tuesday: www.brlsi.org/whatso...

✨🎄 Songs Without Words – Flute & Guitar Duo 🎶

Enjoy a cosy night of folk music & Christmas carols with The Andrews Massey Duo. Timeless stories come alive on flute & guitar - purely instrumental, and enchanting.

📅 Fri 19 Dec 7:30–9:00pm
🔗www.brlsi.org/whatso...

YouTube video by Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution COP30 Demystified -- Stu Reynolds outlines the BRLSI panel discussion 11th December '25

🌍 #COP30!
#BRLSI Sustainability convener Stuart Reynolds shares a preview of tomorrow’s event set to unpack our planet’s path forward.
youtube.com/shorts/Bnh-L...

💬 Got a question? Send it in ahead of time!
👉https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/cop30-demystified-is-the-world-any-further-forward/

✨ Join Trixy Alberga & Simon Guyett for their favourite German #Weihnachtslieder (German carols), and sociable holiday cheer! ✨
Enjoy Glühwein, snacks & Stollen while practicing your German. All songs & readings in German!

www.brlsi.org/whatso...

The Double-Edged Sword: how to win the war on fake news – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Fake news impacts the life of every person, with profound implications for trust in government and real-world impacts, such as the 2024 summer riots across the UK. With over 90% of the UK population having encountered fake news on the web, and most US citizens reporting seeing false or misleading information online at least weekly, the issue is top of the agenda for leaders around the globe. New technologies from home and abroad have the power to transform the debate by both enabling and stopping the spread. In this talk, ForgeFront’s Managing Director and former UK civil servant Sam Douglas-Bate puts this so-called ‘double-edged sword’ under the microscope, looking at what powerful new technologies mean for the spread of misinformation and disinformation. The talk will draw upon a recent report Sam wrote for The New Lines Institute, a think-tank based in Washington DC. He has discussed his research most recently on C-Span and in the podcast Disinformation Wars. Sam Douglas-Bate, Founder, ForgeFront

💥 Can you spot #fakenews? Join Sam Douglas-Bate (ForgeFront) to uncover how misinformation spreads, and what it really means for #politics, #protests, and the #world around you.

📰 The Double-Edged Sword: How to Win the War on Fake News
📅 Tue 16 Dec, 7:30–9:00pm

COP30 demystified: is the world any further forward? – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution We invite you to join in with our COP30 panel discussion, in the style of BBC Radio’s Any Questions.  Please submit your questions for the panel in advance to profstuartreynolds@cantab.net By the date of our discussion the COP30 meeting will have concluded, but the news from Belém will still be fresh. One of the main functions of this event will be to demystify the political process of COP meetings, allowing our panellists (and audience members) to offer their own judgements on the Belém conference's successes and failures. Since Paris in 2015, successive COPs have attempted to codify and promote global scale mechanisms for climate finance including carbon trading, blended finance, damage funds, debt for climate swaps and sovereign climate insurance.  Challenges to radically upscaling climate finance include the persistent funding gap, inequitable distribution, over-reliance on debt, difficulty mobilizing private capital, institutional inefficiencies, underinvestment in nature-based solutions, and weak transparency and tracking systems. There remain serious problems of international and intergenerational justice, ethics and equity. And the USA is not even there. The big question will be: is the world any further forward after the COP30 meeting? Panellists for this session: Jay Connor (undergraduate student in International Development with Economics at the University of Bath, representing “Gen Z”). Dr Alix Dietzel (University of Bristol, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies and Cabot Institute for the Environment) Peter Harper (independent researcher, formerly at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales, one of the original authors of Zero Carbon Britain, also visiting lecturer at University of Bath) Dr Yixian Sun (University of Bath, Department of Social Policy; Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability Sciences, National University of Singapore) Please submit your questions for the panel in advance to profstuartreynolds@cantab.net

🌍 COP30 Demystified: Is the World Any Further Forward?

Questions are welcomed in this discussion unpacking the outcomes of COP30 in Belém. Experts break down climate finance, global agreements, and the challenges still ahead.

🔗 www.brlsi.org/whatso...
#BRLSI #COP30 #ClimateChange #Sustainability

🌱On Saturday BRLSI hosted the UK launch of GGCC -Indian conservation NGO led by #BharatRaman. With help from Dr. Henry Ford, a brilliant idea turned into a practical NGO with clear goals and community impact.
🔗Read more about the day: www.brlsi.org/global...
🔗 Learn more: globalgreenconservat...

🎄 Carols by Candlelight with Bath Celebration Choir ✨
Sat 6 Dec | 7–9pm | BRLSI, 16 Queen Sq
Christmas carols, festive readings & mulled wine 🍷
Hosted by Tim Snowden. Tickets👉 www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#CarolsByCandlelight #BathEvents #Christmas2025 #ChoirConcert

✨ Italy in the Global Renaissance
Prof. Virginia Cox explores Italy’s Renaissance and its global impact, from Florence to Asia and the Americas. Part of our Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery series.
🔗 www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#BRLSI #Renaissance #ItalianRenaissance #VirginiaCox

✨ A.C. Grayling: Making Peace in the Culture Wars
Online tix still available (£6–£12).
Grayling discusses ideas from his new book on rights, interests, and #convivencia.
🔗 www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#CultureWars #PhilosophyTalk #makingpeaceintheculturewars #bath #talk #brlsi #rights

Thomas Harriot: Renaissance astronomer, navigator & mathematician – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Thomas Harriot was not only the first in England to be documented as pointing a telescope at the night sky and draw the Moon (just before Galileo in Venice), but was also a navigator who had sailed to North America to set up the first English colony at Roanoke Island, had learnt the Carolina Algonquian language and had written a book about what he found: A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. When a portion of court intrigue and Harriot’s connections with other key Elizabethan and Jacobean figures is added in, the result is a story which needs to be told. Tony Symes is keen, as an enthusiastic amateur, to talk about this all too often forgotten scientist and reveal the background against which he was operating. Anthony Symes CEng is a committee member of the Herschel Society and chairs the Programme Subcommittee at the BRLSI.  He graduated in Physics at the University of Sussex and worked in IT, mainly on supervisory control systems.

🔭 Thomas Harriot: Renaissance Astronomer, Navigator & Mathematician

Ahead of his talk on 5 Dec 2025, Tony Symes shares why Thomas Harriot deserves far more recognition.
📖 Full Q&A + tickets... www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#ThomasHarriot #RenaissanceScience #HistoryOfScience #AstronomyHistory

Who first observed the Moon through a telescope in England - before Galileo? 🌙🔭

Join Tony Symes on 5 Dec to learn more about this often-forgotten genius- Thomas Harriot.

🎟️www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#ThomasHarriot #RenaissanceJourney #BRLSI

🎄✨ BRLSI Christmas Market is back tomorrow!✨🎄
🗓️ Thu 27 Nov – Sun 14 Dec

💝 BRLSI Members receive 10% off bauble-making sessions!
👉www.brlsi.org/xmas/

#BRLSI #BRLSIChristmasMarket #BathChristmasMarket #BathEvents

Step back 500 years for A Tudor Christmas 🎄👑 Carol singing, mince pies, mulled wine & twelve days of feasts and pageants. Historians Alison Weir & Siobhan Clarke bring Yuletide history to life.

www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#TudorChristmas #BRLSI #HistoryLovers #YuletideHistory

🌍 COP30 Demystified: Is the World Any Further Forward?

Your questions are welcomed in this panel & audience discussion unpacking the outcomes of COP30 in Belém.

🔗 www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#BRLSI #COP30 #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #Sustainability

✒️In 1501#AldusManutius commissioned a new italic typeface. A change that made big waves in Renaissance reading.

Discover more about the printing revolution that transformed Europe with #DrKristianJensen on Mon 1st Dec

www.brlsi.org/whatso...

📸 BRLSI Collection

#BRLSI #Renaissance

🎨✨ How did the #Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper album cover come to life and why isn’t its co-creator better known?

Join a livestream with #popartist #JannHaworth as she shares stories from the 1960s art scene, #PeterBlake, women in art + more!

🎟www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#SgtPepper #Albumart

Learning the Lessons of Britain’s Multicultural History – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

📣 Learning the Lessons of Britain’s Multicultural History

Ahead of his talk on Tues 25 November, historian Dr Kieran Connell reflects on the long arcs of migration, identity and everyday life that have shaped modern Britain.

👉 Read the full Q&A and book tickets here: www.brlsi.org/learning-the...

From diamond profits and land speculation to sugar plantations and enslaved labour. Join historian Dr Colin Fisher as he uncovers how the glamour of Bath’s social scene was funded.

🎟️ www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#Georgian #Bath #BRLSI #Lecture #History

YouTube video by Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution 🎉 Bath Taps into Science 2025 – Hands-On Fun for All Ages! 🚀

🧪✨ Bath Taps into Science is back!

🎥 Chris Budd OBE introduces Bath Taps - Open to all this Saturday!
youtu.be/yTI2hT1mCGk?...

Square bubbles
Pipe-cleaner neurons
Gravity-defying Ping-Pong
Bacterial Bingo
…and more!

📅 Saturday 22nd Nov10am–4pm
📍 BRLSI

👉www.brlsi.org/bathtaps

#STEM #BathEvents

What does it mean to lose the self?
Philosopher Dan Zahavi, #universityofcopenhagen- looks at different senses of self, and asks whether psychedelic experiences can ever lead to a completely selfless state.
www.brlsi.org/whatson/kill...

#philosophy #DanZahavi #consciousness #ego #psychedelics

Delighted Dr Victoria Scowcroft will be Mapping the Universe for visitors to @brlsi.bsky.social on evening of Wednesday 26th Nov.

Following in the footsteps of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the galactic tape measure is ever more precise.

Reserve seats via www.ticketsource.co.uk/bath-astrono...

🔎✨ Exploring Renaissance curiosity at BRLSI!
📷 Sir Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum (1627), BRLSI Collection, inspires our next talk:
📅 Thomas Harriot: Renaissance Astronomer, Navigator & Mathematician
🎙️ Tony Symes, 5 Dec, 7:30pm
www.brlsi.org/whatso...

🎄✨ BRLSI Christmas Market 2025! ✨🎄
📍16–18 Queen Sq, Bath
🗓️ 27 Nov–14 Dec / 🕒 Mon–Wed 10–4 / Thu–Sun 10–6

Discover unique gifts from rotating local makers in BRLSI’s beautiful Georgian building 🎁 Plus, craft your own Christmas bauble with @lovemakerscafe! 💫
👉 brlsi.org/xmas/

With #ZohranMamdani elected as NYC’s first Muslim mayor, what do shifting public moods mean for democracy?

Join Dr David Lewis-Baker for The Politics of Failure & Despair – Tues 18 Nov, 7:30pm.

👉 www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#PoliticsOfFailure #SocialChange

Interested in #books and the history of #printing? Looking for something great to do this week? Explore historical objects –including the oldest letterpress book in #BRLSI collections in an #exhibition curated by #students from #BathSpaUni #MakingYourMark. #Bath #Somerset

🔬 Bath Taps Into Science 2025 🧪
Sat 22 Nov, 10am–4pm @ BRLSI
Free family fun! Try experiments, explore STEM, and discover code-breaking, microscopes, AI, astronomy & more. No booking needed – just turn up!

#FamilyFun #STEM #BathEvents #Bath #science #fun

🧬How can cell shape transform medicine? Professor Chris Bakal explores links between cell shape and cancer spread in The Shape of Things to Come. Thu 13 Nov, 7:30–9pm
www.brlsi.org/whatso...

#CellBiology #CancerResearch #Science #Medicine #BRLSI