This week saw the third and final round of the Kant and Laws Royal Institution Lectures – part of our goal to engage the public with experts in the field discussing topics at the intersection of cutting edge science and philosophy. On Monday Hasok Chang, from the department of HPS at Cambridge, explored the implications of case studies from the history of science in which scientists were convinced they were manipulating entities we now know not to exist. On Tuesday Victoria Martin, based at the University of Edinburgh and regularly conducting experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, talked about that astonishing facility, the Higgs boson, and why it’s worth investing in such an expensive experimental set up. Finally, on Wednesday, Jane Calvert and Alistair Elfick (both from the University of Edinburgh, but with Jane based in Science, Technology and Information Studies and Alistair in the school of engineering) gave a talk on the field of synthetic biology, and the possibilities, both scientific and artistic, that it opens up. It was another fascinating and absorbing set of talks, and we hope to make them available on the website soon.