Sparking debate where science, policy and the public meet

The Royal Institution will strive to help people understand how science works, says its new director.

Across our lives science is presenting us with new choices. Advances in reproductive medicine are confronting young people with moral choices unimagined by their parents. Our workplaces are being transformed by new technology, our jobs re-bundled into new sets of tasks or replaced completely by artificial intelligence and robotics, pitting economic arguments against social needs and throwing the meaning of work into question. Biomedical research is offering the possibility of extreme longevity.

Indeed, it is at the intersection of science and society, where scientific advances have the potential to transform daily life, that the greatest challenges lie.