The world’s greatest scientific building recently celebrated its 225th birthday. In 1799, a group of natural philosophers (the word ‘scientist’ hadn’t been invented) founded the Royal Institution (RI) in Mayfair. The fact that the RI went on to achieve a greater rockfall of discoveries, including nine elements and the principles of electromagnetism, than has been witnessed anywhere else is extraordinary – all the more so when one considers that the organisation wasn’t originally created to do research. It was created to talk about it.
The relationship between the laboratory in the basement and the lecture theatre on the ground floor proved two-way. The discoveries its scientists made downstairs added lustre to their talks upstairs. Yet far more interestingly, the evidence suggests the fact that they had to talk about science may also have sharpened the edge of their research.
There’s a school of thought in psychology that believes the distinction between talking and thinking isn’t so clear
Talking, it is often assumed, is separate from thinking.
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