Atomic clocks and movie science share The Royal Society's week
James McGilligan explores precision timekeeping, while a cinema panel includes The X Files science advisor Anne Simon.
The Royal Society
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Time and clocks explained 🕰️| The Royal Society
GPS navigation, telecommunications and synchronized power grids have something in common: they need exceptionally good clocks. James McGilligan's new Royal Society talk connects that everyday dependence to the physics of atomic timekeeping, then considers where the next generation of clocks could take us.
"Time and clocks explained 🕰️| The Royal Society" drew the largest audience of the channel's three new uploads. The University of Strathclyde senior lecturer takes a historical route into the subject, exploring how clocks have shaped society before getting into what makes an atomic clock tick.
The other releases brought science closer to personal decisions and distant places. "How safe are vaccines? #health #vaccine #science" explains safety testing and continued monitoring after vaccines enter use. "What's down there? 🌊#nature #animals #ocean" asks what lies beneath the ocean's surface and whether understanding it better would help us protect it. That ocean video was made in partnership with BBC Ideas.
But the strongest viewing momentum belongs to an older discussion, "Science in cinema | The Royal Society." Its panel ranges from Interstellar to Armageddon, with Empire's Helen O'Hara chairing biochemist Alex Lathbridge, Science Museum curator Glyn Morgan and Anne Simon, who advised The X Files across its eleven seasons. It's a useful combination for asking not just whether screen science is accurate, but how fiction and research influence each other.
The channel added roughly 115,000 views over seven days, while subscribers remained unchanged. Daily viewing is currently almost twice its usual level. Among nearby science channels, Astrum Extra had a particularly busy viewing week; Fran Blanche was quieter than usual at the daily level. For The Royal Society, the cinema discussion is drawing substantially more daily views than any of its new releases.
Published on Trari
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The videos drawing views on The Royal Society right now
- Channel
- The Royal Society
- Subscribers
- 255,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 114,728
- Videos published this week
- 3
- Video published
- October 5, 2026
- Video views so far
- 2,398
- Views on its first day
- 1,582
The numbers
Here is The Royal Society's week in views and subscribers.
💡 Test your knowledge
Who directed Interstellar, one of the films named in the cinema discussion?
Christopher Nolan directed the 2014 science-fiction film Interstellar.