Ben Miller at The Royal Institution

When I was a kid, about 8 or 9 I'd say, my mum took me to the Christmas lectures at The Royal Institution. For anyone who doesn't know about the Christmas lectures at the RI, they are basically fun packed science events for kids that are televised every Christmas. The theme changes every year but there are always experiments, audience participation etc. I hadn't been back to the RI until last night when I had the pleasure of sitting in that same lecture hall to see the hilarious and hugely talented, Ben Miller, talk about science and his new book, It's Not Rocket Science.

Interviewed by Roger Highfield, author, journalist and Science Museum executive, Ben talked through his love of science from interested parents, a fantastic teacher in primary school before going on to tell tales of his time at Cambridge and his subsequent PhD.

In the book, Miller goes through all his favourite bits of science without the hard boring stuff to create a truly fun science book for adults who may still have a black hole in their lives where the Horrible Science series by Tony de Saulles used to be.

More than being stupidly bright, rather satisfyingly Miller managed to get the mass of the Higgs Boson right in the book, despite it being sent to print before any confirmation surfaced in the media!

For anyone who has enjoyed Ben Miller's comedy sketches or performances on Primeval or Death in Paradise, you will know both how funny he is and how genuine. The evening was a real pleasure, made even more so by the hilarious experiment he did by mixing hydrogen peroxide with potassium iodide, as seen above. It brought back the fun memories of science at school... i've tried to forget moles, momentum and sedimentary rock...

James Dewar lecturing in 1904

 If you're interested in science and haven't already been, do go along to the RI. Lectures for the general public have been going on there for centuries and the original 19th century wallpaper still covers the walls. 14 scientists attached to the RI have won Nobel prizes and some of the most fundamental findings were announced and/or demonstrated there, such as the discovery of 10 important elements, including Sodium. You can visit the RI at 21 Albemarle Street in London.