Katy Duncan 🍉
LightNews LightNews
banner
katysduncan.bsky.social
Katy Duncan 🍉
@katysduncan.bsky.social
230 followers 150 following 66 posts
Postdoc at the Royal Institution. Interested in all things old and science-y. Probably drinking coffee.
Posts Replies Media Videos
katysduncan.bsky.social
Oxford, you’ve been an absolute treat! Thanks for having me @bodleian.ox.ac.uk - I’ll be back 👀 @stannescollege.bsky.social
Picture of the bridge of sighs in Oxford, early afternoon in autumn. Everything is in hues of gold.
November 10, 2025 at 6:41 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Nice little break from transcribing letters: found these doodles of Faraday @rigb.org and Herschel in a letter from novelist Maria Edgeworth (1802-1869) in 1844 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk, writing about Faraday’s Xmas lectures on electricity - pretty solid likenesses to be honest!
3/4 sketch portraits of Herschel (left) and Faraday (right) on a small piece of paper, laid on top of a letter. MS. eng. lett. C. 718, fold. 138-143. Bodleian Libraries. Digital surrogate online.
October 21, 2025 at 9:29 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Not quite sure how I’ve been here nearly a week already?! @bodleian.ox.ac.uk’s Rad Cam looking lovely in the sun ☀️
The Bodliean’s Radcliffe Camera, a sandstone cylindrical building, behind a wrought iron fence.
October 2, 2025 at 2:18 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Hopefully gone for good!🤞🏻
Text extra from cam gov website: The observation wheel. The council has a contract with City View Wheel Company for an observation wheel to be situated on Parker's Piece for up to 16 weeks each summer from 2021 to 2025. The observation wheel is intended to help attract visitors to the city centre and provide a much-needed boost for city centre businesses, following a difficult couple of years which have seen many local businesses suffer during the pandemic. It also offers a leisure opportunity for those visiting the city, using the open space, or wanting to see the city from a new perspective. Measuring 36 metres in height, the observation wheel plus seating area and ticket office, which is operated by the City View Wheel Company., can carry up to 144 people in 24 gondolas at any one time - offering visitors and residents alike panoramic views over the historic city centre.
September 1, 2025 at 8:31 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Well we all know Hasok is angelic, so it definitely tracks….
Picture of Hasok Chang. A reflection of a ceiling light in the window makes him look like he has a halo.
August 27, 2025 at 9:30 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Nothing quite like ordering up a mystery box of “glass slides” from the JJ Thomson collection at @trincolllibcam.bsky.social and finding this 🤩 Slides from Thomson’s 1921 discourse“chemical combination & the structure of the molecule” at @rigb.org in perfect condition 🧪 ⚛️ beats PowerPoint any day…
Top down view of a red glass slide box, with “R.I Lecture 1921” written in ink over the yellowing label on top (containing information about the plate, Imperial “process” plates). The box is slightly worn around the edges.
August 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
I had so much fun at The Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition a few weeks ago! The quantum tech room was especially cool. Is the historian-equivalent of touching grass *actually talking* to living scientists? Maybe. Obviously stopped by Faraday’s colloids that @ri-science.bsky.social loaned too… 🧪
Katy is standing by a poster board that explains Faraday’s gold colloids, and talks about how he presented them at a Discourse (lecture) in 1856. They are possibly the oldest active colloids in existence. Close up of the gold colloids made by Faraday, including a wooden box with a prism on top, and two small bottles. One is a third full of a pale pink colloidal solution, and the one in the background is half full with a deeper transparent pink solution. They remain optically active, but their exact composition is unknown.
July 17, 2025 at 2:01 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Conference highlight: VIP at 8G #BSHS2025 #histci
July 12, 2025 at 7:55 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
The only possible way to round off the @ri-science.bsky.social Geophysics conference was to stick the attendees in Faraday’s lab 🤷🏻‍♀️ Thank you all so much for coming! @miguelohn.bsky.social @alisabokulich.bsky.social
7 people behind the glass wall of Faraday’s original laboratory, surrounded by his apparatus
May 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
When I’m not thinking about Christmas Lectures or Discourses I’m busy looking into Faraday’s *other* 1825 legacy: isolating benzene. @ri-science.bsky.social has (rightly) been obsessed obsessed ever since. Check out the Benzene Century menu & choose your poison - I’ll take Lavoisier’s sacrifice…
Image of the benzene centenary menu with some dubiously named dishes. Image: Ri Archive © A zoomed in portion. A Normandy wine? No! Lavoisier’s sacrifice! Image: Ri Archive ©
April 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Maslow’s hierarchy (AFM version)
A desk drawer in a physics laboratory, where the occupant has used a label maker to label 3 drawers in descending order: “useful” “special cantilevers” “cantilevers”
April 8, 2025 at 5:38 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Spent the day somewhere a little more *brutal* than Albemarle street @chuarchives.bsky.social 👀
did come with slightly more exciting wildlife than the usual London offerings though!
Brutalist concrete column exterior of the Churchill Archives Centre View through the walkway between Churchill college to the archives centre, with sculptures and further college building and trees in the distance A heron looking out over a concrete bridge and pond
February 4, 2025 at 5:46 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Had fun at @stsucl.bsky.social last week speaking about my (slightly) DIY career path, and my current project at @ri-science.bsky.social 👩‍🔬 thanks so much for having me!
The front of UCL - a 19th stone building with a faux greco/roman exterior with columns. The weather is grey and the general mood of the picture is dreary.
January 20, 2025 at 10:19 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
It was hard to keep a secret, but here it is—my TV debut as Stern Scientist #1 in the #XmasLectures 👩‍🔬. Not sure that my physics degree was any use, but my highly scientific conclusion? Worms = tasty, baby = cute 🪱 👶 @ri-science.bsky.social
In the Royal Institution lecture theatre, Chris looks up at the projector feed where two adults, including me, are dressed as scientists with clipboards. Between us sits Chris' baby, Indigo, in a high chair, curiously trying unusual food.
December 30, 2024 at 2:45 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Well done to the whole team for pulling off this rapid-fire demo bonanza - the video will be up on YouTube later today!
December 20, 2024 at 10:07 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
3…..2….1….. 🔥! The amazing finale to @ri-science.bsky.social ‘s Re-imagination of Faraday’s Candle Christmas Lectures 🤩

(🔇mute if you don’t wish to hear children’s screams in slow motion…)
December 20, 2024 at 10:05 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
It’s not all fun and games at @ri-science.bsky.social … ok maybe it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

⚠️ Audio warning 💥 ⚠️
December 6, 2024 at 8:49 PM
katysduncan.bsky.social
Do you have a chandelier that’s based on the molecular structure of rock salt at your office? No, thought not. It’s ok I’ll share mine 😌
#science #histsci
A long vertical modern chandelier stretches down a dark stairwell. Large orbs representing protons and neutrons are at the centre of the chandelier, at varying heights. The chandelier is wrapped in an “electron cloud” of glass beads, reflecting light from the orbs.
December 4, 2024 at 12:02 AM
katysduncan.bsky.social
I know I posted this on The Hellsite, but for anyone who missed it - I’ve recently started as a postdoc at the Royal Institution! More about my project another time, but if you’re planning a trip to London, please come say hello. Our museum and archive are FULL of gems I’d love to show you 🤩
November 11, 2024 at 11:06 AM