A couple of unmissable events coming up in January at The Royal Society - Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed and Einstein’s legacy as a scientist and icon.

Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed is to be delivered by Jared Diamond. His Guns, Germs, and Steel is a wonderful book, a true history of mankind.

I must have read dozens of books by Sir Martin Rees, who is delivering Einstein’s legacy as a scientist and icon. His most recent, Our Final Hour is rather a scary read. It's a rational, well informed book about the end of the world.

I'll be at both sessions. If the world hasn't ended by then, of course.