A fascinating discussion took place at the Royal Institution this week, tackling the challenging subject of consciousness: what is it? Why do we have it? How do we lose it?

The questions can go on and on, and it all made for a lively, and very popular, event. I volunteered to live-tweet the talk, chaired by Guardian reporter Alok Jha, so rather than do a traditional blog post, I thought I’d turn to Storify to provide a taste of what the evening was like.